I have recently had a lot of curricular and pedagogical conversations in regard to cultural relevance, Critical Race Theory, and inclusion within the curriculum. How do you cultivate rich discussions around identity and lived experience, where students are able to understand each other? How do you develop culturally competent graduates? This is always a key question. In the experiences I have had, it always comes down to distinguishing the difference between two important words - perspective and opinion. An article from History Skills sums up the difference relatively well. I will use it as a reference in this blog post. Below are some highlights from the article.

 

• Opinion is the ideas expressed by a person

• Perspective is the point of view from which they view a situation

 

An opinion is most clearly expressed by a particular choice of words when describing thoughts. Language choices usually include positive and negative adjectives, which allows you to determine their personal attitudes or values regarding the topic they’re discussing and, in some cases, any potential bias they may hold.

 

Perspective is the 'point of view' from which the creator of a source describes historical events. Every person sees and understands events differently depending on their age, gender, social position, beliefs and values. Even modern historians have their own perspectives which can influence how they interpret the past.

 

Though these two terms are completely different, it’s impossible to separate them. Humanizing one’s opinion leads you to understand their perspective. Too often when we argue opinions, we invalidate another’s perspective to prove our argument. When we attack perspective, we are in fact attacking one’s humanity.

 

If I disagree with someone’s opinion, my follow up questions should revolve around understanding the perspective behind the opinion. What is that person’s lived experience, race, gender, political leaning, geography, etc? My umbrella question should be how did this person’s experience place them on the other side of my opinion? Seek to understand, rather than to invalidate. 

 

If I feel that St. Louis is the “best” city in the Midwest, and you feel it is Chicago, my initial response shouldn’t be to tear Chicago down to validate my opinion. I should be asking why you think Chicago is good, gather your feelings (i.e. learn your perspective), and then use that to validate or invalidate my opinion. “Though I fully understand your argument, my opinion still rests with St. Louis being better than Chicago. I can see why you’d love Chicago, but my preference lies with St. Louis.” In that statement, I acknowledged (humanized) one's perspective while still disagreeing.

 

Oftentimes our opinions are flawed and extremely biased, and listening to an alternate perspective helps lead us out of our own ignorance. We truly never know how accurate our opinions are, until we test them through learning multiple perspectives. The process should be to form an opinion, seek to understand alternate perspectives to that opinion, revisit the validity of your opinion. 

When we think about our Profile of a Graduate, understanding perspectives to create well-informed opinions rests at the foundation. When we talk of a Culturally Responsive and Inclusive educational experience for our students, it’s creating an environment where our students have a learning experience that presents multiple perspectives across content areas, classroom culture, and building culture.

“The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” - Glenn Gould

 

“Inclusion is a mindset. It is a way of thinking. It is not a program that we run or a classroom in our school or a favor we do for someone. Inclusion is who we are. It’s who we must strive to be.”

Lisa Friedman 

 

I really like these two quotes, because I think it sums up the vision for our quest humanizing all students, creating a sense of belonging for all students, and maintaining an inclusive learning environment for all students. In regard to our equity work, internal Professional Learning has been the focal point for the year. Below, you will find a breakdown of what equity learning looks like from a district, building, and years in the district standpoint.

 

Our professional learning structures are being built to not be a “check-the-box” learning experience, but a progression that each educator will begin upon entering the district. Our equity Professional Learning is the first step in a major systemic push as we strive toward cultural competency.

 

Year 1 - Year 3 Teachers

Teachers who are in their first year in the district, on up to their third year, are attending a 4-part series on humanization, individualized instruction, sense of belonging, and inclusion. These sessions are led by myself and other equity practitioners within the district.

• Year 1 - Clayton Equity 101 - Taking Ownership of Equity
• Year 2 - Strategies - Putting Equity Into Focus
• Year 3 - Humanizing and Individualizing Experiences - Putting Equity to Use

 

Year 4 and Year 5 Teachers - Initial Career Review Educators

Educators in Years 4 and 5 will commit to a problem of practice within their sphere of influence to increase student achievement and/or sense of belonging. This will be done collaboratively with Central Office Administrators.

• Selected questions from The Equity & Social Justice Education 50: Critical Questions for Improving Opportunities and Outcomes (Baruti Kafele) will be used as a guide.
• 3 formal meetings and a mini-observation would be conducted by a chosen Central Office Administrator.
• Educators will collaborate with their chosen administrator, PLC, and peers on their learning and implementation.

 

Tenured Educators - Career Review and Goal Implementation 2 Educators

Every other year, tenured educators are on-cycle for Professional Learning. They will take part in a combination of assured and choice learning experiences. 

• Assured Learning Experiences - By the end of this year, all staff in Goal Implementation 2 and Career Review will need to participate in the following learning experiences. New levels to these experiences will be added as time passes, to continue the learning journey.
• Courageous Conversations Part 1 or Part 2 - Led by our staff of Color
• Professional Learning - LGBTQIA+ Literacy - Led by Safe Connections
• Choice Experiences - Additionally, each educator will choose one from the below listed experiences. Following their experience, educators will formulate a reflection and submit an artifact of their evolved practices (based on their choice).
• Edweb.com Webinar - Choose a webinar from the vast list of options that best meets your individual learning needs in the area of equity.
• The Equity & Social Justice Education 50 - Read the book by Baruti K. Kafele.
• Belonging Through A Culture of Dignity - Read the book by John Krownapple and Floyd Cobb.
• We Got This! - Read the book by Cornelius Minor.
• Equity Challenge Website Exploration - Explore different aspects of the District Equity Challenge website than the ones you explored last year. 
• Choose Your Own Adventure - Choose another resource that you are interested in studying or learning more about (get this approved).

 

School District of Clayton Administrators and Board of Education - Partnering with Midwest Collaborative for Cultural Proficiency in Schools

• Board of Education Professional Learning - Culturally Proficient Leadership
• Year-long asynchronous learning and engagement
• Yearly Equity Retreat

• District Leadership Committee - Culturally Proficient Coaching
  • Monthly in-person learning
  • Required for all district administrators moving forward

 

 

Equity and Excellence Master’s Certificate Program

The School District of Clayton has created a partnership with McDaniel College (Maryland) for our educators to earn an Equity and Excellence in Education Master’s Certificate. We currently have 9 teachers enrolled in this program, and we are looking at starting another cohort in the Fall.

 

District Professional Learning Days

Our District Professional Learning Days are centered around the three goals of our Strategic Plan, which have a heavy equity focus. The three goals are the following - 

• We will ensure all learners, regardless of their identity, feel safe and valued.
• We will commit to the educational growth of our learners through an equitable, personalized and individualized learning experience.
• We will be dedicated to the personal growth of our learners in their social, emotional and physical well-being.

The awesome gift and curse about this blog is finding what to talk about. We have so many positives happening right now, and great systems being built. We also have a lot of things that still need equitable attention. When I wrote last year, I often focused on mindset and thought process in regard to “thinking toward equity.” I read and heard two things this week that forced me to challenge and improve my thought process in regard to individuals with disabilities. 

 

Disability History and Awareness Month takes place during October to increase awareness, respect, and acceptance for people with disabilities, and to bring a greater sense of pride to people with disabilities. The Parent Advisory Council of Children with Educational Diversity (PAC.ED) hosted a screening and discussion on the film Intelligent Lives. Films like Intelligent Lives are important because they put us in a position to humanize those with disabilities. Intelligent Lives is powerful because it forces us out of the mindset of using a broad brushstroke to label those with disabilities, and it takes us through the experiences of those in the movie.

 

The first thing I heard this week that pushed my thought process was simple but powerful - different NOT deficient. Too often when we think of those with disabilities, we think and highlight the deficiencies rather than seeing gifts and talents.  When we have a “deficient” mindset, it alters the way in which we treat individuals, and has a dehumanizing effect.  When we think “different”, we are more likely to engage and seek to humanize. We realize there are unanswered questions, so we seek those answers. Seeking the answers to those questions shows a desire to get to know the individual, thus leading us to humanization. 

 

The other thing I came across was an article Disability Pride. Disability pride focuses on the social model of disability. The disability community views the social model as more positive than the medical model, which is often used to subdue and/or place the individual in a less-empowered role.  Reading this confirmed my thinking and thoughts on different NOT deficient.  Focusing on the social model of disability is extremely important.  It forces us to humanize the individual over humanizing the diagnosis.  

 

In my Equity Update to the Board of Education this month, I presented on some awesome work being done in the CHS Theater Department. Their recent production was “The Miracle Worker”. The play centers around the life of Helen Keller who was deaf, blind and mute and how her life was transformed by her teacher, Annie Sullivan. As a part of this blog, CLICK HERE to read a write up and video on why the production was chosen. CHS Junior Holly Connor played the role of Helen Kelelr. Holly happens to be blind, and served as the inspiration for choosing the play. 

 

Goal number two in our strategic plan states the following - We will commit to the educational growth of our learners through an equitable, personalized and individualized learning experience. Here are a few of the indicators that fall under that goal - 

 

• Curricula are designed to promote personalized learning that provides students opportunities to have a voice and choices in their learning.

• Approaches for individualization, built on student needs, are implemented to maximize abilities of students.

• Our students see historically accurate representations where students’ cultures are celebrated and reflected in curricula and materials.

 

 

The work done in this production is goal number two personified. Again, check out the write up and video that goes into detail on the tremendous work being done.

One thing we learned as educators from the pandemic is the importance of our students' humanity and their social-emotional well-being. Equity talks went from discussion of standards, assessments, and skills, to remembering learners are emotional, human beings who need love and a sense of belonging to thrive. At its core, education is people coming together to learn with and from one another. Physical proximity can help build relationships, but having it stripped away has pushed us to create more intentional spaces for students to connect with each other and their teachers. 

 

As educators in the School District of Clayton, our focus has been on relationship-based pedagogy. "In a relationship-based pedagogy, teachers must be reflexive about our place in a given context and receptive to the lived realities of our students. Relationship-based ideologies and practices help build healthy rapport and interactions with our learners." ("Rediscovering Relationship-Based Learning" Christina Torres)

 

On September 3rd, our entire district took part in Professional Learning centered around Goal #2 of our Strategic Plan - We will commit to the educational growth of our learners through an equitable, personalized, and individualized learning experience. After a joint Empowered Learning session, educators were able to choose from a variety of mini-workshops that matched their content area. All of the items were based on relationship-based learning and pedagogy. Below are some of the workshop titles - 

 

• Movement Matters - Incorporating Walk & Talks into Your Classroom Routine

• Empowering Learners through Reflection Conferences

• Student Voice and Choice and Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Art 

• Using Math Games to Empower Elementary Learners

• Knowing Our Students Well: Begin by Listening

• Creating Nonfiction Text Sets to Support Choice and Engagement

• Problem-Finding & Problem-Solving: Humanizing Ourselves by Humanizing Others

 

The awesome thing about this day of learning is that it was led by educators from within the School District of Clayton. It was truly a day of collaboration, innovation, and growth. The titles listed above were but a fraction of all of the options to choose from. 

 

Teaching through relationships, when done well, recognizes the human stories of the learners themselves, as well as that of the teacher. It is an approach that embraces our complex identities, biographies, and the stories we bring that serve to humanize the subjects we teach. When students are able to make this connection between their lived experience and their learning, via teaching through relationships, they begin to see themselves as co-learners along with their teachers. Such a feeling is empowering. 

 

In a post last year, I wrote that reaching equity is similar to reaching Nirvana. While saying we’ve reached Nirvana is super premature, we are definitely on our journey towards it, on our Noble Eightfold Path. In regard to our learners, as long as we keep the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration, Nirvana will be within reach.

We often “talk” about equity work a lot. For example, where the inequities lie, strategies for dealing with inequities, and what happens when we ignore them. Our Professional Development offers strategies, rich discussion, and self-reflection, but what does the work actually look like in real time? Below is an email I received last week from a teacher who is doing awesome work with our kiddos. The email is a prime example of what we mean by humanizing a student, understanding their perspective, and tailoring our approach based on their humanity and perspective. It is equity work, personified. 

 

One of my students is a frustrated learner who would typically be stereotyped as extremely active, "life of the party", "class clown". For example, at Meet the Teacher Night, [the learner] opened their desk, dumped out their book bag of supplies, closed the lid, and walked off with hardly a wave or comment. Thanks to Cameron's leadership, I changed my mindset from "active kids are tough on me" to a more humanizing "my system is tough on active kids". Thanks to Nisha's leadership, I overcame my feelings of aversion and moved to connect. Thanks to my building principal's leadership, I connected to [the learner] and their mother through a virtual home visit and learned about [the learner’s] fears of failure, which literally keeps them from sleeping. Thanks to Milena's leadership, I gave [the learner] a clicker counter, to empower [the learner] to learn to control their disruptive outbursts (the learner went from 14 the first day to 4 the second day to none sense). Thanks to my counselor's leadership, [the learner] already can differentiate when they’re in an "Upstairs Brain" executive control state or a "Downstairs Brain" limbic state - they’re using this vocabulary before any of their peers. As a result of your dedication, their mother expressed relief and hope for [the learner’s] success during the school year.

 

I am very thankful to serve in a district where the leadership is affecting real, equitable change so that all children feel included and reach their potential excellence rather than focusing on being number one in test scores and, subsequently, widening the achievement gap.

 

Thank you School Leaders and Board Members for the new Strategic Plan and your sacrifice to see it come to fruition.

 

Let’s break down the email from the awesome educator. When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. That is the mindset that the educator had in the email. We are not in the business of “fixing” learners. That notion implies that as educators we’ve done everything perfectly, and as learners they’ve done everything wrong. The educator worked to “fix” the environment for the learner, rather than “try to fix” the learner.

 

Once the educator developed the proper mindset of humanization to view the situation, they were able to overcome the angst with confronting an issue head on. Humanizing and building perspective is empowering for not only the learner, but for the teacher as well. It gave the teacher the ability to muster up the courage to confront the situation.

 

At that point, the educators worked as a village to serve the child. They did what they do best. Differentiated learning tools and strategies were used, open communication with students and parents, and understanding of the social and emotional state of the learner. The rest was history at that point. Crisis averted, inequity averted, humanization accomplished.

 

The situation is a personification of the goals within our strategic plan. This is equity at its finest. This is what we are about.

Recently I was reading an article about marathon running. I’m unsure how I came across an article on marathon running as I’ll never run one, but it was very interesting and reminded me of our work in providing educational equity for all our students. With equity being such a hot topic, and push by a lot of districts, this summary fit perfectly - 

Marathon running around the world is at an all-time high, with seemingly everyone signing up for, or thinking about signing up for, this iconic distance wherever you turn. This means more people than ever are looking to find out about what a marathon is really like to run.

 

This is important because we want to make sure that equity in our district isn’t just a trend. I have the confidence that it is not. Our strategic plan adopted last year (through 2023) is predominantly focused around equity and the well-being of all our students. Professional development within the district revolves around our strategic plan in ensuring a personalized, individualized, and differentiated learning experience for each student. In June, our Board of Education passed Policy ACIB: Educational Equity, forever cementing equity as a staple within our district. Educational equity isn’t a trend in the School District of Clayton, it is here to stay.

 

In the article, there was also mention of “no preparation is ever enough.” This portion stated - 

Training is about more than the running. It’s about finding the right mix of food, water, gear, running form, and even with a plan in place and guide to follow, you still need to figure it all out for yourself and test it in practice… One last word on preparation is to make sure you do it in all kinds of weather, not just when the weather is great… Better to have some practice in bad weather, after all, that’s part of the whole marathon “experience” as well. 

 

As we continue to ensure educational equity for every student, we are doing more than just reading books (in the terms of a marathoner, running). We center our work on humanization and expanding our moral communities. That is done through engaging our students, parents, and stakeholders on how we can better meet their needs. We are committed to doing that, even in “bad weather” (meaning hearing what might be hard). Our educators are putting themselves in vulnerable positions to hear of past harm done to students. We know that putting ourselves in vulnerable positions to learn, and being transparent about our performances will lead to the School District of Clayton being an even better place, where all students can grow as learners in head and heart.

 

When starting a new, popular initiative, there’s always a weird, semi-optimistic feeling. A marathoner put it as “the start of the race is weird/exciting/awkward.”

… It’s common when at home before the race to question everything you were so sure about… Most people arrive at the marathon far too early… With the nerves dancing inside of you, the thought of hanging around anywhere else just doesn’t seem right… With an hour to go, it all starts getting serious… Gradually the sea of runners you’ll be packed in with will roll out and it will feel somewhat anti-climatic as you cross the start line (where’s your starter’s pistol?). That feeling of being slightly underwhelmed will quickly be forgotten as it all sinks in: you’re here, running the marathon. You’ve made it.

 

Everything we are doing is to prepare ourselves for the race towards ensuring educational equity for every student. Once we’ve created the policies, elevated the department, created and gone through the professional development, it’s game time. At that point, we will have everything we need to run the best race possible.

 

At this point in time, we are still in our marathon prepping stage. We are pinpointing inequities in our systems, and making the needed systemic changes - 

• The District’s Strategic Plan
• Policy ACIB: Educational Equity
• Changing the requirements for Gatekeeping opportunities (i.e. Gifted placement and Honors Placement to be equitable - numbers are up in both of these categories for students of Color)
• Professional Development Structure
• Hiring and Retention (both at all-time highs for teachers of Color)
• Pulling new data and creating new data-keeping systems to dive deep into our practices
• Implementing Anti-bias Anti-racist standards into our Social Studies Curriculum
• … the list goes on...  

 

As these changes are rolled out and a part of our systems, then it is implementation time (time to start the race).  Stay tuned this school year as we begin to run many marathons, as it will have its stages, the same way our preparation has.

 

 

What to expect at your first marathon  

What does it feel like to run a marathon

Welcome back from a long deserved summer. We have a lot to be proud of, but still tons of work to do. To end the school year, we passed Policy ACIB: Educational Equity. I’m super excited for us putting our equity mission into policy, such a powerful statement. Now the real work begins. Equity is now more than a mission, it is an expectation. 

 

The foundation of our work being successful was stated eloquently in our ABAR Presuppositions:

 

We recognize those experiencing inequities as the experts of their own experiences and needs. We must listen to and validate the stories and ideas of those experiencing said inequities and take proactive steps to dismantle the inequities and systemic policies that have caused harm.

 

We must listen to and validate the stories. That’s the key. We’ve listened for years, but have we listened the right way? We have focus groups, professional development, student testimonies, and other forms of truth telling, but were we truly listening? Here are four ways we’ve listened in the past that need to change.

 

Autobiographical Listening Rooted in the social need to connect.	Solution Listening Rooted in the need to help others	Inquisitive Listening Rooted in satisfying our own curiosity.	Judgment and Criticism Listening Rooted in our need to be right and determine our place within a hierarchy.
Voice in your head: Compares your experiences to those of the speaker. This creates inattentiveness to the speaker’s story.	Voice in your head: Generates solutions, and filters speaker’s information to support your solution. Rehearses solution for when the speakers stops talking.	Voice in your head: Unconcerned with the speaker's main focus. Focuses on details relevant to the listener.	Voice in your head: Discredits what was said. Assigns power and superiority.
Potential Dignity Violation: Dominates… Shifts the focus of the conversation by elevating the listener above the speaker.	Potential Dignity Violation: Presumes incompetence… Enables dependency and communicates low expectations.	Potential Dignity Violation: Degrades differences and uniqueness… Elevates the listener’s interest at the expense of the speaker’s interest.	Potential Dignity Violation: Blames and shames… Erodes self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and relational trust.
Examples: “I did that, too. Here’s what happened…” A colleague shares details of a frustrating relationship, and your mind focuses on one of your own frustrating relationships.	Examples: “Here’s what you need to do…” Gives unsolicited advice for what someone should do.	Examples: A friend shares a story of mistreatment at work, and you ask, “How do you like your benefits package?” Interrupting a story with tangential questions.	Examples: “If she just would have…” “Oh, how ludicrous!” “Let me tell you what’s wrong with what you just said…”

 

 

Figure 7.1 Unproductive Patterns of Listening - Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity (171-172)

 

As we continue to take a humanistic approach toward our equity work, listening properly will be the deciding factor on the direction we are able to take the work. If our listening is rooted in any of the unproductive patterns listed, we will continue to perpetuate inequitable practices. We will start by empowering our student’s voices, and giving them the platform to speak. We will then follow that with actually listening. We must listen to empathize, listen to heal, and listen to prevent harm. 

Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self (Dean Jackson).

“Diversity that somehow constitutes itself as a harmonious ensemble of benign cultural spheres is a conservative and liberal model of multiculturalism that, in my mind, deserves to be jettisoned because, when we try to make culture an undisturbed space of harmony and agreement where social relations exist within cultural forms of uninterrupted accords, we subscribe to a form of social amnesia in which we forget that all knowledge is formed in histories that are played out in the field of social antagonisms.” - bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

 

Multicultural education is a set of educational strategies developed to acknowledge and respond to ALL demographics of students. It provides students with knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups; it assumes that the future society is pluralistic.

 

I have recently been reading Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks (she purposefully doesn’t capitalize her pen name).  The quote used to start this blog really hit home for me.  bell hooks was on to something when she said “we try to make culture an undisturbed space of harmony and agreement where social relations exist within cultural forms of uninterrupted accords.”  In acknowledging ALL perspectives and demographics, and how their histories correlate with one another, how can we expect for it to be an “undisturbed space of harmony?”  I like to think of a truly diverse and multicultural classroom as organized chaos.  Just imagine tons of viewpoints, perspectives, demographics, and cultures clashing, learning, and comparing from one another.  The teacher serves as the facilitator and leader of this chaotic environment.  Using multiple sources and culturally integrated curriculum as the seeds of the clashing, learning, and comparisons.  If we truly want to culturally integrate our schools pedagogically and curricularly, we need to embrace the organized chaos, and prepare our teachers to lead the chaos.  Harmony and chaos do not mix.  

 

“We subscribe to a form of social amnesia in which we forget that all knowledge is formed in histories that are played out in the field of social antagonisms.”  bell hooks dropped some jewels with this quote.  Social antagonism is essentially an antagonistic or exploitative social relation. It is characterized by the moment of objectification, where the dominant appropriates some of the product of the subordinate's labor, i.e. they act towards one another through the medium of that object.

 

History and literature is built on the foundations of social antagonism.  Every war studied, every law created, every triumph by a character in a book, has its foundations in social antagonism.  How can we truly teach our subjects without embracing social antagonism at the foundations? If we truly want to embrace the essence of a multicultural education, teachers have to be okay with leading the chaos and getting out of their comfort zones, which means diving headfirst into the social antagonisms.  Administrators must be support systems for the teachers as they grapple with the chaos leadership.  Students have to be okay with feeling uncomfortable, but it is our job as educators to build relationships with them, so that we can work with them through their discomfort.  We have to make sure ALL students feel equally protected, so that they can feel uncomfortable.  This is where we often drop the ball.  The protection of our students is vital.  We are more likely to share and be open, when we know we are protected.  Parents have to be okay with their children being a part of the chaos, and need to act as support systems as well.  This means they must put themselves in the same space as their students, and grow collectively as a family.  Achieving a multicultural education is a collaborative effort between ALL stakeholders.  When we are able to do this, this is what bell hooks means when she refers to “education as the practice of freedom.”

 

The pushback to multicultural education usually lies with the disagreement of embracing the social antagonisms for what they are.  It’s usually combatted through political mudslinging, or other forms of debates (i.e. critical race theory).  We must truly embrace multicultural education at each of its levels.  Until we are able to do that, we are all bark with no bite.

Critical Race Theory vs. Teaching Hard History 

Per dictionary.com, the definition of a theory is the following:

• a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena.
• a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation

 

To put it plainly, a theory is an explanation or conclusion derived from a set of facts or outcomes.  In society, there are certain truths.  A theory serves as a well-researched explanation as to why those truths exist.  For example, let’s say that I am a police officer and my numbers for traffic stops are analyzed at the end of each year.  Let’s say that 75% of my traffic stops are Black and Latinx drivers, creating a disproportionate number of stops as compared to White drivers.  Based on the numbers, one may theorize that my practices are racist when it comes to pulling over Black and Latinx drivers.  If I deny that theory, and give the explanation that I had probable cause for each traffic stop, and it just happened to work out that way, then how can we definitively say that I in fact am racist toward Black and Latinx drivers?  A case could certainly be built to say that my practices are indeed racist, but unless it can be proven that was the intention, it is a theory until proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  This is an example of a critical race theory.  If there was an admission of intentionality, a directive given by a superior, or policy that states to pull over more Black and Latinx drivers than White drivers, then it would switch from a theory to a truth.  

 

“Teaching Hard History” is the teaching of things that happened, the intentions of what happened, and the after effects.  For example, Jim Crow laws were created to segregate people of Color and ensure a lesser standard of life specifically for Black people.  Southern states passed laws that restricted African American's access to schools, restaurants, hospitals and public places. Signs that said "Whites Only" or "Colored" were posted at entrances and exits, water fountains, waiting rooms, and restrooms.  We know, for a fact, why the laws were created and the effects they had.  This is what separates it from being a theory.  The intentions were clear, beyond doubt.  

 

As a Black man, my experiences with Jim Crow laws would have differed from the experience of someone White.  This doesn’t change the truth of the matter, but it gives how different people grappled with the reality, or truth.  Two separate perspectives, but one truth. 

 

The question we have to ask ourselves are the following - 

• Do we want our children to understand theories, and analyze them critically, in regard to race?
• Are we okay with learning “Hard History”, no matter the cause or the blame?
• Is it okay to see issues and history from a multitude of perspectives, to get a more well-rounded picture?
• If the answer to any of the above questions is “no”, then why?

 

These questions and debates are ones that are currently happening.  If these questions are ones that you may be in limbo with, I encourage you to find the deep truths in your feelings and responses.

I’ve been reading the book of an educator that I have the utmost respect for, Dr. Howard Fields.  The title of his book is “How to Achieve Educational Equity.” I recommend this book to all educational institutions pursuing a culture change inspired by equity.

 

On page 36, he poses what seems to be a simple, but complex question, that all members of the school community - staff, teachers, administrators, parents, Board of Education - must ask themselves.  How am I being complicit in educational inequities?  Most educators don’t have an answer to this question right off the bat.  It takes a lot of self-reflection, objectiveness, and awareness to be able to answer that question.  We are asking ourselves that question before building the skills of being able to self-reflect on our practices.  So how do we create avenues to self-reflect?  On page 41, Dr. Fields says, “If you are benefitting from the system or have not had any major issues, you may not be able to identify inequities.”

 

When speaking/consulting with various stakeholders in the district, I always start by asking probing questions that scaffold them into self-reflection.  Oftentimes, the answer they are usually seeking, is not the answer they receive.  They will point out inequities and question the system.  I usually answer with a response which questions their thought process and practices.

 

My response usually includes some form of our definition of equity literacy - having the knowledge and skills to disrupt and dismantle inequities within our own spheres of influence for the betterment of our students, staff and greater community.  That then usually leads to asking something along the lines of what have you done to understand the inequities being created within your sphere of influence.  We then begin talking about asking the children and engaging the parents on their experiences in my classroom, and in our system.  This is where we learn the importance of self-reflecting on our classroom practices.  

 

I usually end most learning sessions with strategies and questions to ask our students and parents to better understand their experience.  Our district professional development on April 30th revolves around forcing us as a district to self-reflect, by engaging in the viewing and activities around filmed conversations, with various underrepresented groups within our district population.  Self-reflection is key.  We have to fall in love with the process of self-reflecting before we can engage in actual equity work. Otherwise, we are fighting an enemy that we can’t recognize or identify.

 

The work of self-reflecting is important, and serves as one of our Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Presuppositions - We recognize that eliminating inequities begins with each of us.  Our goals for our April 30th professional development are the following:

• To learn from the experiences shared by our colleagues, students and parents.
• To actively participate in dialogue (to build understanding) and discussion (to make decisions).
• To learn about/from others’ experiences to change our own practices.
• To commit to change within our own sphere of influence.

 

In other words, the goal is for us to engage in listening and validating the stories and ideas of those experiencing said inequities, or to self-reflect through the testimonies of the given groups and through discussion.  Once we are able to self-reflect, we can then fully engage in the work to achieve educational equity for all.