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Video - Voices from the field: Equity mindsets in the classroom

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Video - Voices from the field: Equity mindsets in the classroom

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MIT Teaching Systems Lab. (2021, January 25). Voices from the field: Equity mindsets in the classroom [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/r6hK4iNmI5U

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Voices from the Field: Equity Mindsets in the Classroom

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The other important diversity and social justice benefit of the case method is that it challenges us to question our own mental models by examining classroom situations through a variety of lenses (Gallucci, 2006). It challenges us to practice asking the questions we might never have thought to ask; to reconsider old ways of thinking in light of new understandings (p.7)

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The other important diversity and social justice benefit of the case method is that it challenges us to question our own mental models by examining classroom situations through a variety of lenses (Gallucci, 2006). It challenges us to practice asking the questions we might never have thought to ask; to reconsider old ways of thinking in light of new understandings (p.7)

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By using the book, Case Studies on Diversity & Social Justice Education, we will have the opportunity to analyze real-life scenarios based on actual events in addition we can practice applying theoretical ideas like educational equity to on-the-ground professional practice (p.5) Case studies will allow us to practice stepping through a process of considering in a more focused manner how we might respond

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By using the book, Case Studies on Diversity & Social Justice Education, we will have the opportunity to analyze real-life scenarios based on actual events in addition we can practice applying theoretical ideas like educational equity to on-the-ground professional practice (p.5) Case studies will allow us to practice stepping through a process of considering in a more focused manner how we might respond

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“The point of examining cases like those in this book is not to be constrained by boxes—this is correct, so this must be incorrect—but rather to muddle through the gray areas by considering all that makes them gray. The case method allows us to do this in a way that few other pedagogical methods allow. This is how it helps us grow our equity literacy (p. 6).”

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“The point of examining cases like those in this book is not to be constrained by boxes—this is correct, so this must be incorrect—but rather to muddle through the gray areas by considering all that makes them gray. The case method allows us to do this in a way that few other pedagogical methods allow. This is how it helps us grow our equity literacy (p. 6).”

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“The other important diversity and social justice benefit of the case method is that it challenges us to question our own mental models by examining classroom situations through a variety of lenses (Gallucci, 2006). It challenges us to practice asking the questions we might never have thought to ask; to reconsider old ways of thinking in light of new understandings. How do we see the situation at Dovetown differently when we let go of old notions that conflate anti-bullying efforts with equity and justice efforts or old ways of looking at things that mark inaction as apolitical and action as political? How might we think differently about ourselves as equitable and just educators when we learn better how to see past our presumptions and consider a broader picture? These are the sorts of questions that cannot be answered by theory alone or by memorizing “five practical strategies for teaching all immigrant students.” They require deeper, more critical, reflection: the kind encouraged by the case method (p. 6).”

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“The other important diversity and social justice benefit of the case method is that it challenges us to question our own mental models by examining classroom situations through a variety of lenses (Gallucci, 2006). It challenges us to practice asking the questions we might never have thought to ask; to reconsider old ways of thinking in light of new understandings. How do we see the situation at Dovetown differently when we let go of old notions that conflate anti-bullying efforts with equity and justice efforts or old ways of looking at things that mark inaction as apolitical and action as political? How might we think differently about ourselves as equitable and just educators when we learn better how to see past our presumptions and consider a broader picture? These are the sorts of questions that cannot be answered by theory alone or by memorizing “five practical strategies for teaching all immigrant students.” They require deeper, more critical, reflection: the kind encouraged by the case method (p. 6).”

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“We have constructed the cases purposefully to challenge ourselves and our readers to consider our teaching in light of what Nieto and Bode (2011) call the sociopolitical context of schooling. Taking account of this sociopolitical context requires us to recognize the relationship between the inequities plaguing our schools and larger societal inequities, even when we don’t see those larger conditions as within our sphere of influence (p. 7).”

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“We have constructed the cases purposefully to challenge ourselves and our readers to consider our teaching in light of what Nieto and Bode (2011) call the sociopolitical context of schooling. Taking account of this sociopolitical context requires us to recognize the relationship between the inequities plaguing our schools and larger societal inequities, even when we don’t see those larger conditions as within our sphere of influence (p. 7).”

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“In the most basic terms equity literacy refers to the knowledge and skills we need as educators to be a threat to the existence of bias and inequity in our spheres of influence (Gorski, 2016, 2017). It refers to the knowledge and skills that prepare us, not to fix the cultures or mindsets of this or that group of students, not merely to appreciate diversity, but to root bias and inequity out of our classrooms, schools, and communities (p. 10).”

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“In the most basic terms equity literacy refers to the knowledge and skills we need as educators to be a threat to the existence of bias and inequity in our spheres of influence (Gorski, 2016, 2017). It refers to the knowledge and skills that prepare us, not to fix the cultures or mindsets of this or that group of students, not merely to appreciate diversity, but to root bias and inequity out of our classrooms, schools, and communities (p. 10).”

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“When we develop our equity literacy, we naturally filter every decision through an equity lens. We begin to recognize subtle biases and inequities we previously didn’t see. And we don’t just recognize them. We understand them and our roles as educators as parts of a bigger equity and justice context. It’s not about doing a bunch of new things, necessarily, like adding new strategies to our existing mental filebook of strategies. Instead it’s about developing the ability to do everything we do with equity in mind (p. 10).”

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“When we develop our equity literacy, we naturally filter every decision through an equity lens. We begin to recognize subtle biases and inequities we previously didn’t see. And we don’t just recognize them. We understand them and our roles as educators as parts of a bigger equity and justice context. It’s not about doing a bunch of new things, necessarily, like adding new strategies to our existing mental filebook of strategies. Instead it’s about developing the ability to do everything we do with equity in mind (p. 10).”

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Lee Tate is an Assistant Professor in the Early Childhood department. He is also the Program Coordinator for the Teach for America partnership.  He joined the Teacher Prep team here at National Louis University in 2018, yet, he has been in the field of Early Childhood Education since 1994.  His experience as an educator includes teacher of prekindergarten through primary grades, Education Coordinator, Disabilities Coordinator, Curriculum Specialist, Director of Education, cooperating teacher, new teacher mentor, Adjunct Professor, and Educational Consultant.  In addition, he has written and presented many professional development trainings for teachers of children birth to age 8.

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Keisha Rembert, UGC, Assistant Professor, Teacher Preparation 

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Keisha Rembert, UGC, Assistant Professor, Teacher Preparation 

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I am the daughter of Jim Crow migrants from the deep south. It has been their bravery and commitment to show up as their authentic selves in every space they occupied that fuels my equity & justice plight. I was born to challenge a white supremacist system that disenfranchised my parents and seeks to do the same to my children.

I am, also, a lifelong learner and educator. Prior to entering teacher education, I spent more than 15 years teaching middle school English and U.S. History in the Chicagoland area. While teaching middle grades, I was named the 2019 Illinois History Teacher of the Year as well as the 2019 National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) Outstanding Middle-Level English Educator.

My passion for equity and social justice coalesce in my membership and work with several local and national organizations devoted to seeing equitable outcomes for people of the global majority.

I am, also, a freedom dreamer whose commitment to advocacy and equity is reflected in my published works, myriad nationally recognized presentations, consultant work, as a Teach Plus Policy Alum, a Master Teacher for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and my work with the Illinois State Board of Education to develop the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards.

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Dr. Sandra Gonzalez-Adamski is an Assistant Professor in the Elementary Teacher Preparation Program. Before becoming a full-time assistant professor, she was an adjunct instructor in the Bilingual/ESL certification department of NLU. Her research area includes Latino/a academic achievement and Latino Critical Race Theory. In addition, Dr. Gonzalez-Adamski is active in the Centro de Excelecia which contributes to the university’s institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Before joining NLU, she spent 22 years in public education, first as a bilingual teacher and later as a school administrator. Dr. Gonzalez-Adamski lives in Bartlett and is the mother of three wonderful sons. She and her husband love to walk the many trails in DuPage County.

She was born in Chicago and raised in the south suburbs. She is a member of the Illinois Principals Association, the National Association for Bilingual Educators, the Illinois Association of Multilingual Multicultural Educators, and the National Diversity Council. She also sits on the board of directors of the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois.

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Hello, my name is Wendy Mendez, and I am a Guatemalan-American, bilingual, bicultural, and bi-literate educator. I am an Assistant Professor and Secondary Education Preparation Coordinator in the Undergraduate College at National Louis University. I teach various teacher preparation courses and serve as a field coach for teacher candidates.

For the last eighteen years, I have been fortunate to have held several roles in education. Some of my roles include Interim Principal, Assistant Principal, Instructional Coach, and English and Reading Teacher. My teaching career began in an alternative Charter school in Chicago, and for ten years, I worked with some of the most dedicated colleagues, students, and families. The experiences during this time helped me grow personally and professionally. Over these formative years, I gained an insight into the systemic inequities that made it difficult for some students to obtain a high school diploma and pursue a college degree. I knew that the more I learned about the students and their families, the better prepared I became to support their needs and celebrate their victories. During this time, I also began to make connections to my own experiences as a first-generation student and teacher of color. For the first time, I also felt proud of my ability to navigate two cultures and speak two languages.

In my role at NLU, my goals include continuous professional collaboration and development to continue to support and create spaces for students of color where they feel seen and valued.

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Video - Equity-based teaming & collaboration strategies 

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Video - Equity-based teaming & collaboration strategies 

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Teaching Channel. (n.d.). Equity-based teaming & collaboration strategies [Video]. https://nl.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://learn.teachingchannel.com/video/equity-based-teaming-collaboration-strategies/?1667486321

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Video - What is equity and why do our children deserve it?

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Video - What is equity and why do our children deserve it?

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TEDx Talks. (2020, February 7). What is equity and why do our children deserve it? | Rodney Robinson | TEDxCharlottesville [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/1lg3MytDC-Y

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What is Equity and Why Do Our Children Deserve it? | Rodney Robinson | TEDxCharlottesville

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Video - Building critical consciousness for educational equity 

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Video - Building critical consciousness for educational equity 

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TEDxTalks (2020, February 12). Building critical consciousness for educational equity | Nicole West-Burns, Ph.D. | TEDxOshawaED [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/evndCfQ92s4

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Building Critical Consciousness for Educational Equity | Nicole West-Burns, Ph.D. | TEDxOshawaED

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"The trouble is, we might not always understand how we help to create some of the barriers to learning, despite our philosophical commitments to equity and justice" (8). 

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"The trouble is, we might not always understand how we help to create some of the barriers to learning, despite our philosophical commitments to equity and justice" (8). 

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In schools committed to racial equity, educators who resist anti-racist measures should feel uneasy, isolated on the outskirts of their schools' institutional cultures. I mean this literally. The educators least invested in racial equity should wonder whether they belong.

Sadly, research shows the inverse tends to be true in many schools, even when leaders claim equity commitments. Often, the educators most adamant about racial equity are cast to the margins of institutional culture. They are the ones feeling isolated, wondering whether they belong (Kohli, 2018; Picower, 2011). Colleagues call them troublemakers for naming what others refuse to name. Some are shushed or encouraged to adopt a color-blind perspective by equity-skittish leaders. They are accused of being too "political" simply for pointing out conditions that harm families of color. Educators of color who raise these concerns tend to face even greater hostility, as Kohli (2018) documented through the narratives of racial-justice-oriented teachers of color. They often are labelled "militant" or "angry" for telling the racial equity truth.

This is a failure of equity leadership.

A Racial Equity Reckoning

If the most emphatic racial equity advocates feel silenced and less central to institutional culture than their equity-resistant colleagues, what we have from an equity point of view is a sick institution.

Any meaningful accounting of racial inequities in schools must reckon with this reality. Is our commitment real? Why do emphatic equity advocates often face harsher repercussions for their advocacy than equity heel-draggers face for their inaction? Why is taking a strong, impassioned stand on racism interpreted as deviant while refusing to take a stand on racism is interpreted as in a developmental process (Mayorga & Picower, 2018)?

Are we driven by authentic desires for racial equity? Or are we content with rearranging inequities, hiding them behind multicultural arts fairs and diversity clubs (Au, 2017)?

The disturbing reality is, in my 20 years of experience working with schools and districts on matters of equity and justice, I've found that most initiatives and strategies that pass for "racial equity" efforts in schools pose less of a threat to racism than to the possibility of racial justice. Following Olsson's (1997) accounting of the detours white people follow to protect their privilege and avoid the messy work of racial justice, I call these initiatives and strategies equity detours.

The detours vary in scope and nefariousness but share a function: They create an illusion of progress toward equity while cementing, or even exacerbating, inequity. They can be more devastating than explicit racism because they do racism's work while consuming resources ostensibly earmarked for racial equity. They are the anti-anti-racism.

For example, people who study equity initiatives in schools have tracked educational leaders' tendencies, in the name of equity, either to implement deficit-oriented strategies, such as "grit" initiatives that obscure inequity (Kohn, 2014) or, worse, to build equity efforts around debunked approaches that create more inequity, like the "mindset of poverty." Some educational leaders inexplicably continue to embrace the "mindset of poverty" even though it reinforces racialized stereotypes (Redeaux, 2011)-and despite the fact that research clarified that there is no such thing as a mindset of poverty 50 years ago (Valentine, 1968).

What all these types of initiatives and frameworks have in common is that they mask racial inequity. They relieve us of the responsibility to name and eliminate the ways racism operates in our schools (Ladson-Billings, 2017). Rather than being paths to equity, they are detours around it.

Four Racial Equity Detours

Described below are four racial equity detours commonly embraced in schools, 1 followed by equity principles that can help educators avoid these detours and build a more transformational racial equity approach.

1. Pacing-for-Privilege Detour

This detour underlies the other detours. It speaks to the situation described earlier, wherein an equity approach coddles the hesitancies of people with the least racial equity investment while punishing people with the most investment.

In too many schools, the pace of equity progress prioritizes the comfort and interests of people who have the least interest in that progress. Professional development in these schools appears designed to accommodate the feelings and fears of white educators in "difficult" conversations about race rather than to advance equity for students of color (Swanson & Welton, 2018). A common "equity" PD framework in these contexts is cultural competence -an approach that provides a way to talk about "cultural differences" without having to name or confront racism (Gorski, 2016a; Pon, 2009). Cultural competence is important. But by itself it's no threat to racism.

The hard truth is, racial equity cannot be achieved with an obsessive commitment to "meeting people where they are" when "where they are" is fraught with racial bias and privilege. Students, families, and educators experiencing racism cannot afford to wait for us to saunter toward a more serious racial equity vision. They cannot afford to wait, in particular, for all white educators to ease into racial equity commitments at a pace of our choosing while they suffer the consequences of our casualness.

In schools committed to equity, the time is now. We must prioritize equity over the comfort of equity-reluctant educators. We move on racial justice first by honestly identifying and addressing all the ways racism operates in our schools, and then we bridge the equity hesitaters to our equity vision. We refuse to equivocate on racial justice. We find the will to implement, and hold one another accountable to, policy and practice changes today, rather than waiting for an elusive consensus.

When I make this argument to education leaders, they often emphasize the importance of staff buy-in. I appreciate consensus-based leadership-but not always when it comes to equity. The school-to-prison pipeline is flowing (Annamma, Morrison, & Jackson, 2014). Students who are disproportionately targeted with assignment to special education, harsh applications of discipline policy, unengaging pedagogy, and the sorts of "school reform" initiatives that redistribute access up the privilege continuum don't need consensus. They need justice.

Start where we need to be: Equity is neither optional nor negotiable. This is who we are as a school; these are the values to which we will be held accountable. Our best resources in these efforts are equity-minded educators-the ones accustomed to the shushing. When we make them the center of our schools' and districts' institutional identities, we are primed for equity progress.

2. Poverty of Culture Detour

Culture is one important equity consideration. However, although racial identities may inform cultural identities, racial inequities aren't predominantly cultural misunderstandings. Racism is a tangled structural mess of power, oppression, and unjust distributions of access and opportunity. This mess cannot be resolved with greater cultural awareness alone.

I call this the poverty of culture detour in honor of Gloria Ladson-Billings (2006). In "It's Not the Culture of Poverty, It's the Poverty of Culture," she describes the hazards of adopting diversity frameworks built around vague notions of "culture." "[T]he problem of culture in teaching is not merely one of exclusion," she explains. "It is also one of overdetermination.... [C]ulture is randomly and regularly used to explain everything ... from school failure to problems with behavior management and discipline" (p. 104).

The result is that we too often attribute educational disparities to students' cultures. We cannot allow racism-infused misperceptions of their cultures to justify our failure to create racially just schools. Often, we interpret racial disparities in which students are suspended or expelled, for example, not as the result of racial bias, as research shows it primarily to be (Rudd, 2014), but as a cultural defect in communities of color. So we might attempt to solve these disparities by adjusting the behaviors, mindsets, or emotions of students of color rather than by adjusting educators' racial presumptions or schools' inequitable practices.

We cannot fix a problem we refuse to name. If our equity initiatives feature the word culture more than the word racism, we're probably off track. If we adopt an approach that obscures racism behind vague nomenclature like cultural competence or the diverse kids, we might be off track.

3. Deficit Ideology Detour

If we spend any of our equity efforts attempting to "fix" students of color-fortifying their grittiness, modifying their mindsets, adjusting their emotions-we need a reaccounting, not only of our equity understandings, but also of our equity intentions. These strategies locate the source of educational outcome disparities within communities of color while often ignoring the role of racism-the clearest sign of deficit ideology (Gorski, 2016b).

We should be instinctively suspicious of popular educational approaches that often detour us around equity with a deficit approach. For example, presuming we can resolve racial inequities by simply teaching students of color to have grit is like presuming we can resolve climate change by teaching coastal communities to swim faster. It shifts the onus of responsibility away from schools and onto the very youth who are cheated out of equitable opportunity-and who, due to this cheating, often already tend to be quite resilient. It can obscure structural conditions with which marginalized communities contend. What good is grit against curricular erasure or inequitable school policy?

As somebody who attended school having experienced the childhood trauma of sexual abuse and often found myself being punished for the implications of that abuse, I find the growing interest in mindfulness and trauma-informed practices compelling. But too often, these practices are adopted as though they are racial equity initiatives. In some cases, we offer students of color coping mechanisms rather than correcting in-school conditions-like inequitable policy or racially tinged tracking practices-that exacerbate racism's traumas. Our best strategy for minimizing the impact of racism is to eliminate racism. Trauma-informed practices as implemented in most schools don't do that.

Before we follow the deficit ideology detour, we should ask ourselves some questions. In whose image is school policy and institutional culture crafted? Which students have the most access to higher-order pedagogies, relevant curricula, and a full range of course options? Which students face grinding inequities in and out of school? What do trauma-informed practices look like for students whose primary source of trauma is the racism they experience at school?

Equity initiatives should focus on eliminating conditions that marginalize students-never on fixing students of color. If we cannot describe how our efforts are eliminating those conditions, it's time for an equity overhaul.

4. Celebrating Diversity Detour

Recently, while visiting a colleague's classroom to facilitate a conversation about race and poverty, I asked a group of African American and Latinx 10th grade students about their school's upcoming Diverse Friends Day. For one lunch period, they would be forcibly integrated, coerced into celebrating diversity by sitting with classmates racially or ethnically different from themselves-classmates with whom some of them normally wouldn't socialize.

"They mean well, but this activity is racist," Pam shared. 2

"I don't know about racist," Tariq responded, "but I don't want to do it."

José added, "A lot of the white students don't like us. I don't want to be forced to hang out with them."

I asked Pam to elaborate on her observation that Diverse Friends Day is racist. "There's a lot of racism in this school," she insisted. She wondered how disturbing her lunch-the only time she could relax in a predominantly white school-was going to change that. "I think Diverse Friends Day is for white people," she concluded.

Is she wrong? I don't think so, especially in the absence of more serious racial equity efforts, which these students agreed were missing from their school. In my experience, many "celebrating diversity" initiatives are crafted to help white students learn about diversity-not racism, but diversity -in ways that will be most comfortable for them.

In some cases, students of color are used essentially as props for the gentle diversity education of white students through activities like Diverse Friends Day. This allows white people to opt out of considering racial justice while deriving social and cultural benefits from diversity awareness. It creates the illusion of diversity appreciation while entrenching inequity.

Requiring students of color to participate in these diversity spectacles while failing to attend adequately to inequity can be exploitive. Pam, Tariq, and José didn't need to share lunch with white students to learn about difference, much less how racism operated around them. They developed these insights as a matter of survival. White educators were asking them to celebrate a diversity in which their experiences were invisible. This is one way white privilege persists even in the context of diversity efforts.

Five Principles of Equity Literacy

At this point, I presume readers are thinking, "So what should equity efforts look like?" I'm cautious about addressing this sort of question. It may signify a common impulse in education to grasp for simple strategies to address challenges that are more about ideology and will than strategy. I encourage us to think, instead, about principles that can guide our equity actions.

Here are five equity literacy principles (Gorski & Swalwell, 2015) that can help us avoid equity detours and maximize the impact of our equity efforts.

1. Direct Confrontation Principle

The path to racial equity requires direct confrontations with racial inequity-with racism. We start, again, by asking, "How is racism operating here?"

Gather the racial equity advocates in your school, district, and community and map the ways-big and small, implicit and explicit-that racial inequities persist. Examine policy, curricula, and discipline practices. If you struggle to identify how racism is operating, invest time to learn how to do it. When I work with educational leaders committed to acquiring an equity lens, I find simple prompts like these can provide opportunities for meaningful practice:

What is one practice in your school that focuses on fixing students of color rather than fixing the conditions that marginalize them? How can you reshape that practice for racial equity?

What policy might have harsher consequences for students of color if applied by educators who harbor racial bias even if they aren't intending to be racist? What do you need to change about that policy, or about the racial ideologies in your school or district, to make it equitable?

2. Redistribution Principle

Equity involves redistributing access and opportunity at the most basic institutional level. This includes material access to things like learning materials, technology, healthy food, and even healthcare. It also includes nonmaterial access to higher-order pedagogies, relatable curricula, and equity-conscious teachers.

The idea here is to intimately examine how institutional policies and practices provide some students more access and opportunity than others. It may mean re-examining how school practices are crafted in relation to students' lived experiences and whether institutional policy and culture are responsive to the interests of the most marginalized students.

For example, as we examine behavior policies, we might ask ourselves whether we're cognizant of the depth of racial bias associated with how educators tend to interpret behavior and dole out behavior referrals.

Policy handbooks are another good place to start. Study your school's policies line by line. Might any perpetuate racial inequity-like a dress code policy banning items associated with specific racial groups or assessment practices that could mask racial bias? Work with the equity advocates in your school and community to revise those policies and practices right now. Then attend to dynamics of institutional culture that resulted in the existence of biased policies to begin with.

3. Prioritization Principle

The only way to redistribute access and opportunity is to prioritize the interests of students of color. Every policy and practice decision should be filtered through this lens: How will this policy impact families of color? How will it improve conditions for students of color? Remember that, in inequitable contexts, equality-attending equally to everybody's interests-reproduces inequity. For example, we know that students of color are disproportionately tracked out of "upper-track" classes (Leonardo & Grubb, 2018) and that on average, students in "lower-track" classes have less access to engaging pedagogy and more exposure to control-oriented teaching practices. And because we also know these disparities are driven significantly by racial bias in referral and assessment processes (Faulkner et al., 2014), a racial equity commitment should lead us to abandon traditional tracking methods. We can prioritize the interests of students of color by trading what we perceive as the equality and efficiency of those methods- efficiency for whom? we might ask-for a process that eliminates the influence of racism.

4. Equity Ideology Principle

Equity is a lens and an ideological commitment. No strategy can help us cultivate equitable schools if we're unwilling to understand how racism operates. Professional development opportunities related to equity should emphasize the ideological work required to more deeply understand the dynamics of racism in society and schools. Then we can draw on those deeper understandings to build our practical approach for eliminating racism.

5. #FixInjusticeNotKids Principle

Effective equity efforts focus not on fixing students of color, but on eliminating racist conditions. If we find ourselves, in the name of equity, adopting initiatives meant to improve educational outcomes by adjusting mindsets or cultures in students of color, it's time to reconsider our efforts.

Do We Have the Will?

Implementing a transformative racial equity commitment is difficult, especially if we face significant resistance. Of course, it's not more difficult than navigating racism, which many students, families, and educators of color endure. I cling to hope that most of us want racial equity. The question for those of us who find the detours alluring is whether we have the will to align our actions with our philosophies. My hope is that, by considering the detours and principles discussed here, we can find ways to strengthen our equity efforts and create schools that deliver on the basic ideals of equity and justice.

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In schools committed to racial equity, educators who resist anti-racist measures should feel uneasy, isolated on the outskirts of their schools' institutional cultures. I mean this literally. The educators least invested in racial equity should wonder whether they belong. Sadly, research shows the i

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" ... we must develop and hone the knowledge and skills that help us to make sense of real-life messiness. Otherwise we risk allowing ourselves to be swayed by popular mythology and how we've been socialized to buy into the that mythology when we respond to bias and inquiry" (4). 

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" ... we must develop and hone the knowledge and skills that help us to make sense of real-life messiness. Otherwise we risk allowing ourselves to be swayed by popular mythology and how we've been socialized to buy into the that mythology when we respond to bias and inquiry" (4). 

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"We might not have the power in our role as educators to eliminate racism and xenophobia from society; we probably don't have the power to change the fact that students will come to school with biases they learned from their parents or from the media. We do, however, have the power to understand how our students' lives outside of school--the repressions they and their families face, the inequities with which they contend--inform the way they experience us and school" (5). 

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"We might not have the power in our role as educators to eliminate racism and xenophobia from society; we probably don't have the power to change the fact that students will come to school with biases they learned from their parents or from the media. We do, however, have the power to understand how our students' lives outside of school--the repressions they and their families face, the inequities with which they contend--inform the way they experience us and school" (5). 

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Dr. Sealey-Ruiz has other writings useful for our context including her Archaeology of Self Framework.

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Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz: Truth, Love, & Racial Literacy

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Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz discusses the power of racial literacy development, and why truth, love, and an Archaeology of Self™ are required when educating Black and Brown students.

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Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces

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Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces

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Great text even beyond digital spaces

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Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces

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Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces [Price-Dennis, Detra, Sealey-Ruiz, Yolanda, Rogers, Rebecca, Mahiri, Jabari] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital S…

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Blanca Gamez-Djokic is Assistant Professor of Teaching, Learning and Equity at NCE and researcher of the intersections of race, gender and affect; teaching and learning interactions, and collaborative education reforms, such as research-practice partnerships. Specifically, her work examines how the affective and gendered dimensions of race are mediated in educational contexts and organizations. She teaches courses in several NCE programs including Higher Education Leadership and Teaching and Learning.

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Toward What Justice? Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education

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Toward What Justice? Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education

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This volume edited by Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang contemplates and complicates how "social justice" is defined and operationalized in education; authors engage a variety of frameworks, including settler-colonialism and anti-blackness, to examine social justice in education.

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Toward What Justice?: Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education

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Toward What Justice?: Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education [Tuck, Eve, Yang, K. Wayne] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Toward What Justice?: Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education

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(1) The case studies this week all more or less dealt with teachers' difficulty navigating responsiveness to students' diverse religious beliefs and practices in school contexts where they are a minority. It also seemed that the teachers in the case study were ashamed or uncertain of how/who to reach out for help. Elsewhere, Christine Sleeter has discussed working with white pre-service teachers who, through their studies are well versed in the language of equity and inclusivity, but do not seem to absorb it "at a gut level".  As educators involved in the work of DEI with one another and with our students, how can we leverage our own experiences, and other resources, so that our students absorb the work "at a gut level" (Sleeter, 1995, p.433)? What does this mean, and what would it look like?

(2) The case studies this week echo recent events (and past events, see this article about a Professor from Wheaton College who was fired for wearing a hijab in solidarity with Muslim people) at Hamline University where an Art History adjunct professor had her contract rescinded after depicting images of the Prophet Muhammad while discussing Islamic Art. The University's reaction to rescind the instructor's contract while largely overlooking the broader context of Muslim students' complaints about Islamophobia on campus and in the community illuminates several issues in higher education today: questions around academic freedom, the precarity of untenured and adjunct work, and institutional power dynamics that trouble instructor-student relationships and classroom atmospheres. This occurs even as good faith efforts around racial justice task forces continue on many campuses, including ours. Why does this happen? And, what does it take to address this as members of the institution?

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NLU Library has the ebook with an unlimited user license. Here is a link to the ebook: https://nl.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1729169&site=ehost-live&scope=site

You can also link directly to chapters in the EBSCOhost eBook database. Please let me know if you have any questions.

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The cases in Chapter 3 compel us to think about how we would approach a number of dilemmas having to do with religious holidays, the use of technology in communication, leading inclusive PTA meetings, recognizing students' diverse learning modalities, and more. Additionally, last week we discussed the necessity of "freedom dreaming" in the face of normalized inequities in and outside of the workplace (i.e., racial micro-aggressions, racial profiling). In what ways - if at all - do you see continuities or tensions between envisioning practical school-based or context-specific approaches to educational dilemmas like those outlined in Chapter 3, and the political project of freedom dreaming?

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Many of the case studies address the importance of recognizing complex, intersecting identities along various registers. How have your own experiences moving through the world and as an educator/practitioner influenced your appreciation of intersectionality? How has it influenced your own work and practice?

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The book and case studies explicitly ask us to use an equity literacy framework in thinking about diversity and social justice in education. Based on our engagement with the text so far, what is your understanding of how the authors are defining diversity and social justice, and how does this inform or complicate your own understandings of diversity and social justice in education?

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There were a few instances in the case studies when disagreements were called to a vote. This was an attempt at fairness but also disenfranchisement. How are our typical measures of equity even skewed toward dominant ideology and power and privilege and weaponized?

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One of the cases referenced a principals empathy, and yet she did nothing. I have really been reconceptualizing the role of empathy in equity. How is empathy a flawed approach to the work of equity and social justice? How is itself a means of othering and having the other explain or rely on the dominant group?

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Are all of these interventions mere band-aids to try to deal with inequitable school funding, systemic racism, and a broken tax system that moves money to the upper 1%?

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experience of being an international student

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https://wakelet.com/wake/RqsZLv3pmgIVa0QIH0zn4

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November 16, 2022

Sandra began our meeting by broadly discussing the case studies and those that resonated the most with her. She discussed how the case studies represented issues she had dealt with in her own experiences as a teacher and principal.  Sandra discussed being disturbed by the idea of “grit” and that it tends to put the onus of responsibility on young people or individual family members to change and adjust to structural and system issues: “I’ve been listening to this for the last 20 years and I know it goes deeper than that”.

Wendy presented next and discussed that reading the case studies was personally triggering for her. She explained that being part of a space where she and the rest of us share stories that are “personal and private and trigger not-so-pleasant memories” is a privilege. After relating her own experiences with fundraising initiatives in secondary school, she discussed, how curriculum can be designed to both support minoritized students and teacher candidate, but also prepare dominant teacher candidates to engage with diverse student populations whose experiences are different than theirs. Wendy asked: “What does it take for students [I interpreted this to mean teacher candidates, but I could be wrong] to get it?” and, “I don’t know what it’s like to have that experience, but how can I support you?”  The question about what does it take to “get it” I think speaks to an important difference between being fluent in the literature and language of inclusivity, but still coming up against a barrier of understanding something in your “gut” – which is the word that Christine Sleeter uses.

Lee then continued the conversation and posed another important question; “How do we help future teachers to understand that there’s more than meets the eye?” He discussed the importance of visiting students in their home to understand and appreciate the lived contexts that students circulate in outside of school. He shared a story of a student who would often fall asleep in class. Once Lee visited the student in his home [I actually forget if Lee shared that he visited the student at home, or if the student told him this], he understood that the student was not sleeping because his home had large rats, and so the student would stay awake to fend them off.  This made me think of the literature around appreciating students’ funds of knowledge and cultural community wealth, which, to my understanding also suggests the importance of visiting and appreciating students’ home communities to learn and understand; how can this be facilitated in a way that does not toe the line between appreciating students’ home communities and voyeurism?

Keshia followed and offered both a personal and macro perspective on the case studies. Keshia explained struggling with the overwhelming presence of empathy in the case studies. She explained that in her experience, when people have empathized with herself and her family they have put them in a box. The onus was put on Keshia and her individual family members to enable the empathy; similarly, in case study 1, the principal empathized with the poor students that could not sell chocolates, but did nothing. There seems to be a fixation on empathy when it comes inclusivity and equity in education, Keshia explained, but what is empathy? How do we get people to empathize? Similarly, practices in schools that are seemingly inclusive and democratic, such as “taking it to a vote” (from the case studies) still enable the dominance of dominant groups: “even when we think we are enacting structures that are equitable, quite frankly, we’re not”. Another term that is popular in DEI initiatives and language in education is support. Keshia compelled us to ask: “What does support look like? How do we define support? What might supporting Samantha’s parents (from the case studies) look like? She emphasized the importance of looking at an issue from multiple perspectives.

Sadia followed by offering an immigrant perspective on the case studies. Sadia’s early interactions with schooling and class issues and poverty were shaped by her frequent moving before coming to the US. For two years, Sadia was a special education teacher at two different schools on the south side of Chicago. While teaching, she was struck by the immediate needs of her students, who lacked boots and coats for the winter, meals, etc. She mobilized a turkey drive at her school, and explained that she shares this and other stories with her students at NCE to convey the idea “we do have some control over things”. She explained that while it is important for teachers to understand themselves and their own experiences, what has shaken her in the US is poverty in schools and how students talk about it.  Sadia explained: “sometimes we get so caught up in the race discussions that the lens of poverty is overlooked. If you don’t take into account what poverty does to children, their parents, their communities, even when we talk about voting – are you actually engaging in voting policies that will help families get some kind of relief from poverty?”  Sadia also explained how race, ethnicity and class intersect to shape her own sense of positionality: “being an immigrant, I don’t want to be perceived as ‘I can’t do this for my child when everyone is doing’”.   Finally, she discussed the importance of courses like a past course she taught at NCE around disability and poverty that involve students in action-based projects that are tied to alleviating social inequity.

I, Blanca, attempted to wrap up the discussion by posing a question that attempted to speak to the specificities of the case studies, their relevance to our practice and lives, and some enduring dilemmas in education – it was a version of the question #1 of the 3 questions posted to the padlet: 1.) The cases in Chapter 3 compel us to think about how we would approach a number of dilemmas having to do with religious holidays, the use of technology in communication, leading inclusive PTA meetings, recognizing students' diverse learning modalities, and more. Additionally, last week we discussed the necessity of "freedom dreaming" in the face of normalized inequities in and outside of the workplace (i.e., racial micro-aggressions, racial profiling). In what ways - if at all - do you see continuities or tensions between envisioning practical school-based or context-specific approaches to educational dilemmas like those outlined in Chapter 3, and the political project of freedom dreaming?

I was interested in hearing how everyone thought about the tension of working within the mechanisms of schools and schooling to redress structural and systemic issues, while also engaging in a sort of radical dreaming, which is how I understand freedom dreaming.

We then opened up the floor for conversation. Below are some of the responses from participants & conversations that ensued (not entirely verbatim):

Participant 1: - It’s empowering to know that you can empathize without having had the same experience as students - its empowering to not sit in the seat of the expert and allowing families to come to the table and allowing those experiences to inform our instruction and the conversations that we've had and how we provide; even the word support is hard to use because that implies ‘helper’ - giving families the expert seat …

P2:

The word support is a term that we hear related to these topics and there is a genuine desire for folks to figure out what support really is and what is meaningful because what could be intended as support may not be meaningful or effective. In moving from to empathy to action and doing something, I’m curious about the phenomenon of how we identify support that is truly support for people and not just a window dressing or distraction

- WENDY ADDRESSES QUESTION: when I think about supports, I would start with what support is not. Going back to the example with the chocolate boxes - if we know that that’s problematic, let’s get rid of that system. We know that systems aren’t working, and we know what the outcome will be, and some of us are worried about saying ‘this isn’t working, so let’s just get rid of it”. Support does not mean paying for my boxes - it means getting rid of them or sending only one box. Savior complex comes in when "I have the money, I can help out".

KEISHA: Support starts foundationally with listening, active listening, we could read these case studies and say they did listen, they listened to what parents had to say about the chocolate and they overrode it. Listening to children in the classroom, I am a better teacher today for having listened […] checking in with students - humanizing step that we often disregard because it’s the simple thing. Support starts with engagement of listening and the conversation - because had the PTA really listened and engaged in subsequent conversations, they would not have taken it to a vote. Valenzuela talks about caring for and caring about - thinking about how we're caring for communities, for students, instead of just caring about their academics, that then unearths the support that’s needed for students and families.

Participant 3:

How do we get our teachers to know that there are social services that can get families kinds of things that they need

SADIA

When we you see something very overt like hunger, obviously that needs an immediate solution. Teachers that have closets full of crackers and lunchroom staff that accommodate students' needs. So on some level, we have to look at schooling from the perspective of poverty in terms of education, literacy, family access, community access - we're stuck on just raising money without any accountability of where money is being used. The conversations teachers CAN have is can we bring more into it?

P4

[…] listening in the moment increases trust - in Trenton, NJ teachers had to make school visit, was part of requirement; principal really trained and helped with idea of listening - going into the homes was valuable to learn about the families; idea of learning how to listen, power to applause, building trust is more important than ever; children and students know when you’re not listening; training all of us as educators is so important in that idea of really listening.

Participant 1

- has seen examples of every single case study; if we ask our teach candidates on any given day can you give us example of system of oppression that happens in school, they might have hard time, but when you see these case studies right out in front, hopefully light bulb goes on - all case studies point to the need for the dominant culture to shift - we gotta shift some gears - notion of everything is a competition has irked me for 40 years; the kid that sells the most chocolate bars, what schools do best is sort and select. Collaboration is much more powerful tool to get kids engaged – that’s all kids - not just kids of color or with disabilities, but when we actually create a community of learners where everybody's contribution is valued and recognized

P6

- Bringing everything together - thought of importance of listening, and importance of going in to communities; stop being outsiders ; if you want to know what’s happening and what’s working, go into the communities and see for yourself; a lot of effective strategies have already been in place out of urgency and survival - food pantries, assisting with electricity - we had to mobilize

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1. How can incorporating discussions of ethnicity and culture in classrooms help create a more inclusive learning environment for students?

2. What strategies can teachers use to ensure that all students feel comfortable participating in such discussions?

3. What potential challenges and benefits exist when discussing difficult topics such as ethnicity and culture in the classroom?

4. How might examining different cultural perspectives expand students' understanding of history or provide a different perspective on current events?

5. How can teachers ensure that they are not reinforcing stereotypes, but rather providing an open and honest dialogue?

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We offer a transformative professional engagement opportunity for our faculty and adjuncts to come together and delve deeply around the topics of equity, diversity and social justice. Using Gorski’s and Pothini’s Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education (NLU Log-in Required) as a guide. Please use the Padlet of resources to capture view our dialog on critical cultural and social awareness in the context of CRTL standard and the equity framework. These sessions will use the case studies in the book as a starting point, but the real value of these sessions comes from the diverse perspectives of those leading and joining the perspectives. We can read these case studies, but to truly learn from them, we need to hear the perspectives of those impacted by inequities. Please bring your perspective and come ready to hear the perspectives of others in this this listening and learning space.

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We offer a transformative professional engagement opportunity for our faculty and adjuncts to come together and delve deeply around the topics of equity, diversity and social justice. Using Gorski’s and Pothini’s Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education (NLU Log-in Required) as a guide. Please use the Padlet of resources to capture view our dialog on critical cultural and social awareness in the context of CRTL standard and the equity framework. These sessions will use the case studies in the book as a starting point, but the real value of these sessions comes from the diverse perspectives of those leading and joining the perspectives. We can read these case studies, but to truly learn from them, we need to hear the perspectives of those impacted by inequities. Please bring your perspective and come ready to hear the perspectives of others in this this listening and learning space.

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https://socialjusticebooks.org/womens-history-month-book-every-day/

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1. What is the historical context of race relations in America, and how have they impacted modern-day society?
2. How do socioeconomic factors intersect with race, and what are the consequences of this intersection?
3. What is the impact of systemic racism on marginalized communities, and how can we strive for equality and justice?
4. How does the media perpetuate harmful stereotypes about certain racial groups, and what can individuals do to combat these narratives?
5. In what ways can allies show support for racial justice movements, and how can people continue to educate themselves and others on issues of race?
6. What are some specific resources, such as books or documentaries, that you would recommend for someone looking to educate themselves on issues related to race and racism?
7. Have you personally taken any steps to challenge your own biases and assumptions about race and ethnicity?

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-          There was a sense that there is something superficial about the case studies and that they did not dive into the impact of encounters like those described in the case studies on students – what they “carry” with them afterwards.

-          What was lacking in the case studies is an exploration of opportunity for dialogue.

-          Re: two cases of Prof. Hawkins at Wheaton College & professor at Hamline University, what was so offensive about the professor wearing a scarf to the rest of the college campus? That is academic freedom. What is missing (in both the case studies and in these examples) is an exploration of the opportunity for dialogue. In the case of Wheaton College, the institution felt a need to “take a stand,” jumping over dialogue.  Similarly, in Hamline University instance, there was a missed opportunity to discuss the instructor’s perspective, to understand student experiences.

-          Focusing on student experiences in the case studies – the students walk away with a lot of shame, embarrassment and anger; those feelings stay with them for a long time, and the case studies do not really delve into that.

-          Re: the “winter party”, usually admin invites parents, but we need to also think about who makes it into the room. The few parents that make it are making decisions for an entire school; showing up is already a privilege, as is having the language to push ideas forward, take a vote, etc.

-          Re: case study on islamophobia, the danger in allowing students to speak “honestly” is making space for inappropriate comments. The teacher struggled to stop the student since she made a rule for audience to listen; once a student is making hurtful and hateful comments, that rule should not matter anymore.

-          While some found the case studies superficial, other folks in attendance found that they resonated; i.e., recognizing that while you may not identify/celebrate with “religious” Christmas, for instance, you may identify with/celebrate secular Christmas.

o   What’s the give and take between being very neutral about an issue (such as religion in schools) versus actually having inclusivity? Forced neutrality vs. inclusivity?

o   What does it mean to take into account someone else’s feelings? Could we say that something is important and means good things to one person, but perhaps not to someone else? (i.e., Hindu symbol of swastika)

-          It is important to distinguish between Islamophobia and insensitivity.

-          Who gave someone the right to take my symbol of peace and make it into a symbol of hate? Hijab is also portrayed as a symbol of hate and puts pressure on kids and adults to worry about “What am I representing? Am I a target?” Every time there is an event related to terrorism, the face of Islam becomes women, and Muslim women become targets, and are put in a position of having to justify why we wear it or not.

-          How do you tell people that you want to be recognized, and how often can you tell them that? Do you want ot be included, part of “the family”? If I’m fasting and someone is having a lunch party, I don’t really want to be told, “you can enjoy how it smells!” “You can make a doggy bag and eat it at sunset”.

-          This weekend is lunar near year, and in the Korean community parents are wondering why schools call it “Chinese New Year” when other Asian countries celebrate this in different ways. Different communities will about the holiday differently and celebrate it differently, but this is glossed over in school and discussed in a very superficial way. Parents struggle to talk about this to teachers, and teachers struggle to about it with administrators to change this.

-          Safety of Asian-American community is also on the line right now.

-          What are those systematic and real adjustments and changes that we can make? A small example: shifting winter performance from the 1-2 weeks before December to end of January; these are the kinds of actions that feel like it’s a little more thoughtfully done, there’s an impact on parents and children.

-          Controversial perspective: learning Christmas songs, etc. was a way of learning American culture while growing up for one participant. But as their kids go through American school system, Christmas holiday became “Winter” holiday, and it felt like something was lost.

-          There is plenty of room in the year to have lots of real discussion; Muslims in general have not been fighting to not have a Christmas celebration in schools. There is a sense that the resistance to inclusion is the idea that something else has to therefore be excluded, or that by excluding one thing (i.e. Christmas) that this necessarily spells out inclusion (i.e., accommodations for Muslim students fasting during SATs, for instance).

-          There is a sense that teacher prep students are resistant to / struggling to understand what culturally responsive teaching & curriculum look like (i.e., a resistance to engaging non-Halloween texts in October, texts about Thanksgiving in November, etc.)

-          There is also a sense that students see English language learning as a “Spanish/Mexican” issue, and do not see the need for this if they are working in predominantly white contexts.

o   What does it take to change students’ minds? Can I really change their minds? Can I really teach them anything if they do not want to learn it?

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Affirming Diversity by Sonia Nieto & Patty Bode

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Affirming Diversity by Sonia Nieto & Patty Bode

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This is an excellent book

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The discussion and workshop on race provided the attendees with strategies and resources to facilitate meaningful conversations about race and racism with their students. This included understanding the impact of implicit and explicit bias present in the school culture and curriculum. We discussed using inclusive language, and understanding historical and current events that address anti blackness and inequality for historically oppressed racialized students. Teaching scenarios in the case studies chapter fell short of creating a safe and an expansive learning environment for marginalized students and did not promote respect, empathy, and cultural competence nor did school systems do anything to provide redress for issues of race before they arise. Fearing discomfort, upholding the status quo and being ill-equipped with these skills and understanding, teachers further added to the disenchantment and discomfort of their students.