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Protocol of individual anti-racism work (particularly focused on anti-Black racism)

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Do 1, Watch/Listen 2, Read/Explore 3: A Protocol For Individual Anti-Racism Work

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by Nicol R. Howard, PhD - University of Redlands and Betina Hsieh, PhD - University of LaVerne Senseless acts of violence and racism against Black people have permeated our society for over 400 years, since the arrival of enslaved Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619. In the seven week…

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Blog by 5th grade teacher with examples of how students can become social critics & decision makers (specific posts below)

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Teaching Tolerance Award recipient describes how he engages in social justice teaching with elementary school students.

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The Power Book -- written for elementary age students -- looking at various types of power, who has power and how they also can enact their power

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The Power Book -- written for elementary age students -- looking at various types of power, who has power and how they also can enact their power

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With this inspiring and brightly illustrated guide to power, learn about the different types of power, what it means to have power, and what you can do with your own power to create positive change in the world, no matter who or how old you are.

What makes you the boss of me? What makes a king a king, or a queen a queen? Why can some people vote for their leaders, but other people can't? Does having lots of money make you powerful? Why are there fewer female scientists, leaders, and artists than men in history books?

These are things that kids wonder about. The Power Book answers these and other questions in a relatable way for young people, including thought-provoking discussions on challenging topics, like war, bullying, racism, sexism, and homophobia. You will gain an understanding of your place in your family, your school, and the world, and will discover ways in which you can use your own power to shape the future.

As you explore the many aspects of power, thinking points pose questions that spark self-reflection and quotes and stories from some of the greatest change-makers-such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, and Stephen Hawking-provide historical context and inspiration. Find more opportunities for learning at the back with a glossary of terms and suggestions for further reading.

Gain a greater understanding of how power works, then learn how to harness it for good with The Power Book.

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The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it, and Why?

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The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it, and Why? [Saunders, Claire, Amson-Bradshaw, Georgia, Salami, Minna, Scarlet, Mik, Songhurst, Hazel, Joelle Avelino, Gay, Roxane] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it, and Why?

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¡Colorín colorado! Diverse Books: Booklists & Related Resources

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¡Colorín colorado! Diverse Books: Booklists & Related Resources

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It's important for children and teens to have access to books that reflect their experiences, as well as the experiences of their classmates. This site includes booklists & author interviews about books representing diverse cultures and backgrounds, along with guidelines for selecting appropriate titles for libraries and classrooms.

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It's important for children and teens to have access to books that reflect their experiences, as well as the experiences of their classmates. Take a look at our booklists and author interviews to learn more about books representing diverse cultures and backgrounds, along with guidelines for selecting appropriate titles for libraries and classrooms.

Cover Image: Book Fiesta by Pat Mora. Illustration by Rafael López.

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Diverse Books: Booklists and Related Resources

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It's important for children and teens to have access to books that reflect their experiences, as well as the experiences of their classmates. Take a look at our booklists and author interviews to learn more about books representing diverse cultures and backgrounds, along with guidelines for selecting appropriate titles for libraries and classrooms. Cover Image: Book Fiesta by Pat Mora.

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CEEDAR Center Report on Culturally Responsive Teaching

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CEEDAR Center Report on Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Culturally responsive instructional scaffolding occurs when teachers control for task difficulty and promote a deeper level of understanding using students' contributions and their cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

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Extensive Padlet of resources that explores various resources to understand the complexity of Asian American experiences, particularly in light of current Anti-Asian hate

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Planting the Seeds of Equity: Ethnic Studies & Social Justice in the K-2 classroom

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Planting the Seeds of Equity: Ethnic Studies & Social Justice in the K-2 classroom

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Bringing together an inspirational group of educators, this book provides key insights into what it means to implement social justice ideals with young children. Each chapter highlights a teacher’s experience with a specific aspect of social justice and ethnic studies, including related research, projects and lesson plans, and implications for teacher education. The text engages readers in critical dialogue, drawing from works within ethnic studies to think deeply about ideals such as humanization, representation, and transformation. Finding ways to integrate acceptance of difference and social justice content into the primary grades is a complex and challenging endeavor. These teacher stories are ones of courage and commitment, inspiring the possibility of radical change.

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Planting the Seeds of Equity 9780807763582 | Teachers College Press

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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This resources provides a background, resources on how to talk to young people about BLM@ School principles, and teaching materials.

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Drawing from students' home cultures through family interviews alongside relevant in class literature:

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

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Drawing from students' home cultures through family interviews alongside relevant in class literature:

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

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Focusing on cultivating relationships with the families of English learners leads to trust, parent empowerment, and collaboration to improve the whole school.

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"I don't feel like we're doing nearly enough to engage our Spanish-speaking families," a principal told me not long ago. "I want to get your thoughts about how I can start doing better."

As director of family partnerships for the Boulder Valley School District, I was glad to get involved. A month later, this principal and I co-led the first Latino Parent Night at Crossville Elementary School (a pseudonym). The gathering consisted of 12 Latino/Latina parents, one white principal, and three staff members. The start was a bit rocky. When I invited parents to share their names and the names of their children, I could feel their reticence. In the rush to get started, I'd failed to tell them about my background as a bilingual teacher and principal and other information that might have made them feel more open to me as a complete stranger in their school.

As I gave a brief overview of what we'd do that night, I caught facial expressions I interpreted as, "Who's this white guy coming into our school from 'the district'? What's he about to ask us to do?" Despite this, I stuck with my original plan. Past experiences have shown me the alchemy that occurs when we make room for family members to open their hearts through fostering positive, fun interactions and welcoming their authentic voices.

We did a team-building activity called "Gotcha," which sparked considerable laughter. The principal shared about himself professionally and as a person, conveying why he cared about deepening the school's connections with all Latino families. For the rest of the evening, the parents, in small groups, explored three questions:

What is the actual experience of your child and your family in this school?

What is going well and what could improve, especially in terms of school communication?

What information and conversation topics would draw you to come to other Latino Parent Nights? What day and time is best for you?

The parents generated at least 10 concrete suggestions for what the school could do next, including texting them an abbreviated, Spanish-translation version of the school newsletter and offering workshops on how to help their children with math homework. After they shared out from their conversations, one mother said, "We want to do this again. There's more we'd like to talk about."

"How about we come back together in a couple months?" the principal responded.

"We'd like to have another meeting like this next month. Could we do that?"

When the principal agreed, I could feel parents stepping into their collective power.

The Primacy of Relationships

This experience, which occurred in my second year as director of family partnerships, confirmed for me that a relationship-based approach to working with families changes the felt experience for the families and expands a school's capacity to collaborate with them in creating change. This is true in secondary as well as elementary schools.

Our school district has been recognized as one of the best in the state but maintains one of the largest achievement gaps between emerging bilingual students and native English-speaking students. My core responsibility in our district is to strengthen the connection between our schools and families who are often marginalized. I've tried to develop an approach that prioritizes underrepresented families, includes a social justice lens, and is overtly relationship-centered.

This emphasis on relationships and on creating spaces for meaningful, reciprocal interactions is essential to partnering with the families of English language learners. Centering relationships leads to a greater sense of collaboration and trust between families and educators and helps marginalized families feel safe enough to genuinely engage and make their voices heard. Research has shown that a focus on ongoing dialogue and fostering mutual understanding are central to engaging Latino families (Delgado-Gaitan, 2004).

But historically, schools haven't promoted two-way relationships in which the families of English learners are elevated as equal partners (Ishimaru, 2018). I knew we needed to work with English learners' families in ways that showed we authentically cared about them and that would develop relational power instead of exercising power over them (Warren et al., 2009). As Steven Covey (2008) has expressed, "Change happens at the speed of trust. Trust moves at the speed of relationship."

Four Pillars

"I've [had a child] at this school for 12 years, and I've never felt as connected as I do tonight," a father shared with me at the end of our Parent Night for Spanish-speaking families. "Tomorrow I will say hello to a teacher that I wouldn't have said hi to today."

What happened in 90 minutes to create this shift for this father and dozens of other parents? The root of the answer lies in four pillars (based on Susan Auerbach's 2011 research) that undergird our work with families:

Intercultural understanding is the foundation holding up these four pillars. Authentic care requires an understanding of each other's social, cultural, and political context, including power dynamics. The relationships formed at events like the parent night at Crossville and the ongoing communication about parents' interests and needs incorporated the first two pillars. Shared decision making also began to happen.

To honor these four pillars, and to move from the family "involvement" model that has dominated schools' family outreach toward more authentic partnerships, our district made critical shifts. We began focusing on how participating parents feel more than on what they are doing at gatherings, so process would take priority over content. Asking families what they need (instead of guessing) and incorporating time in gatherings to listen to families and spark their interactions with each other, rather than talking to them, was another significant change. We also tried to value all the ways that families can support their children's learning at home, rather than focusing on attendance at events as the main measure of involvement.

Supporting social and emotional well-being is also a key part of our approach. When I became director of family partnerships, I wasn't well-informed on best practices for family partnerships, but I brought expertise around social and emotional learning. Infusing our work with SEL principles and practices has sparked transformative experiences for our families and educators.

Ongoing Action: "Family and Educators Together"

Events like the parent night helped schools in the Boulder district, both secondary and elementary, build relationships and trust. We then asked ourselves how we could ensure that families' connection to schools moved beyond these meaningful but isolated evenings. What might a relationship-centered approach look like in terms of ongoing action? Answering that question led us to develop our Family and Educators Together (FET) groups.

Currently, we have FET teams at 10 of our 50-plus schools. The teams bring together teachers, underrepresented or traditionally marginalized family members, and school leaders monthly to strengthen the school's efforts to forge school-family partnerships in ways that create meaningful change for stakeholders. Teams engage in candid dialogue that ultimately leads to action. Participating families are overwhelmingly Latino, but on some teams there are parents from other underrepresented cultures. Occasionally white parents are there as allies.

Here are some encouraging developments happening at Boulder schools as a result of nurturing stronger parent voice and trust through FET:

A mother mentioned her passion for making art out of recycled materials at a team meeting, and shortly after, put up an altar in the school for Dia de Los Muertos. A few months later, she began teaching an after-school art class for students and families. A year later, she was asked to co-lead the FET team.

A father presented at a FET team meeting about his journey from obesity to becoming a marathon runner.

A mother conveyed that transportation is a major obstacle stopping families in one neighborhood from attending parent conferences. The principal offered to arrange for a bus to transport families to and from conferences.

Three schools experimented with holding a World Café for families of language learners. In this structured conversational process, individuals switch tables periodically and get introduced to the previous discussion at their new table by a "table host." I've observed family members eat and laugh as they move from one table to the next, focused around questions like, "What can our school do to strengthen relationships with you?"

After three mothers learned about an important upcoming school event, they took it upon themselves to divvy up the school bus routes and go door-to-door, letting families know about the event and why they should attend.

The impact of these various projects on how participating family members feel is tangible. One father told me at the end of the first year of attending FET meetings, "When we come into school, a lot of us Spanish-speakers feel timid when we see the principal. We try to hide. Even though she doesn't speak our language, I now feel comfortable when I see her. I feel like this is my school too."

A mother at another school shared:

It was very difficult for me as a mother to feel trust with the teachers. FET has broken down the barrier between mothers and educators.... [We] Hispanics are often on the margins, not because the teachers are mean to us, but because our fears keep us there. As a result of the FET team, many parents have had the chance to bring forth their voices and look for opportunities that before they feared to ask about or pursue.

Practices to Empower Families

In planning FET meetings and events, we structure the agendas in ways that prioritize building trust, strengthening relationships, and fostering high levels of participation. For instance, we:

Provide time before events start for families and educators to eat and connect with each other informally.

Always begin meetings with time for connective activities that lead to laughter and team building, whether it's a quick activity or a dinamica. In a dinamica, teachers and family members share on a topic related to their own lives (such as "How were your own parents involved in your education?") with a partner or small group and then reflect as a whole group on how this informs their thinking about family partnerships.

Incorporate talk structures connected to equity and social-emotional learning, such as dyads and community circles, in which participants share about topics that bring out their humanity (for instance, ("What is something that is bringing you a lot of joy right now?") Dyads are an SEL practice because they foster authentic speaking and deep listening.

Monitor the ratio of time that leaders and participants speak to ensure that family members have frequent opportunities to bring their voice to the conversation. We use dynamic structures from organizations like and Passageworks Institute , such as pair-share-square or huddles that energize participants through meaningful dialogue.

Give priority to families' native language in our meetings and ensure that interpreters are available.

We also create meaningful closure for each gathering, often through a closing circle. Each participant shares a word that captures how they feel in that moment or shares their greatest intention before we reconvene.

Positive Communication Systems: "A Ton of Joy"

Two other projects have strengthened the district's school-family partnerships: home visits and positive communications. Home visits have been written about extensively by others-and, since I've found positive communication to be a practice that builds learning-strengthening alliances with families (while taking little time or planning), I'll describe this communication-based strategy in detail.

When I was a school leader, I often had limited bandwidth to think creatively about how to move beyond traditional strategies for engaging families. But one partnership practice that I implemented delivered an astronomical return on investment in reaching families: positive phone calls to students' families. So when I moved to my current role, I brought this system of encouraging positive calls home with me.

Positive calls benefit everyone. The student feels uplifted, their classmates are inspired by seeing them recognized, family members are happily surprised by the call, and teachers feel gratification as the student returns to class with deeper motivation. All without anyone involved spending more than five minutes of their day.

Research shows that, in one analysis, "frequent, personalized phone calls home immediately increased parents' engagement in school, as measured by homework completion, in-class behavior, and in-class participation" (Kraft & Dougherty, 2013). Yet a recent poll showed that 59 percent of public school parents reported never having received a phone call home from their children's school during the previous year (Kraft, 2017).

To bring this practice of positive communication to multiple schools in our district, we made it an expectation that elementary principals would commit to one high-leverage family partnerships strategy, with positive calls home an option I heavily promoted. Positive communication systems were a main component of any opportunity I had to present to principals. I shared with them the impact, the research, brief stories from my own experience in their shoes, and emphasized the outcomes-to-effort ratio. One principal told me a month after such a presentation:

We are in our third week of making the positive calls home. We created a simple form for staff to complete, and then the community liaison helps me gather the students. I make the call to the parent with the student or students present. Wow, what a great thing to do for students and parents. It also adds a ton of joy to the job and is a great way to continue to build positive relationships.

Some principals also began writing positive postcards, others integrated a call system, and another contingent started writing real-time positive emails to families while observing in classrooms.

I told one parent-a mother of four sons-about this new initiative. Her response confirmed its power for me:

My boys have literally had more than 100 teachers since they started in this school system. I've received one positive call in eight years. I still remember that teacher's name. Her two calls in the fall and spring were so meaningful to us. My son told me, "I love that teacher. I could imagine going to med school because of her."

Other Ways to Empower Parents

Our district is taking other steps to form trusting, cooperative relationships between our educators and families, bringing the four pillars to life:

Quarterly, we bring together our Family Partnership Network, made up of two representatives from each school, to deepen their capacity for doing this work at their schools and partnering with principals in weaving a relationship-centered approach into their school culture.

We've launched a Latino Parent Advisory Council so this community has a forum for providing input and engaging in meaningful conversation with each other-and with the superintendent and other district leaders.

We host parent nights for underrepresented family groups at individual schools to get their insights on relevant questions, and equity summits to seek input from underrepresented families and community members on how we can improve our practices.

At superintendent forums, the families of English language learners can candidly share their positive and challenging experiences, ask questions, and make recommendations to the district about how schools could improve their or their child's experience.

At family retreats, bilingual parents from different schools come together to learn from teachers and community leaders about topics that they have chosen. And in partnership with community allies, we offer adult learning experiences in which our Latino parents can learn from community leaders how to unlock their power, navigate our school system, and advocate for their children.

We provide educators and families with questions translated into multiple languages, so family members can ask questions at parent conferences.

Trust Is Key

I can't overemphasize how crucial trust building is to this process. As I've learned from leading both thriving and struggling schools, you cannot successfully do the deeper work until you've built a strong community in which each person feels safe, engaged, and valued. The schools that accelerate their trust-building efforts are-not coincidentally-the same schools that make tremendous progress around their goals (Tschannen-Moran, 2014).

I recently crossed paths with the mother of one of my favorite students from my teaching years. Marta had completed dozens of focus groups with under-represented families around their experiences in all sectors of society, and their insights had inspired her to pursue a local political office. Looking back on her conversations with parents, Marta told me that, going into the project, "Our hypothesis was that language would be the greatest barrier. In the end, we learned that trust was actually the largest barrier."

While Boulder Valley School District has a long road ahead before we can call ourselves a truly equitable school district, I know that the path to greater trust and genuine family-school partnerships runs through a relationship-centered approach.

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"I don't feel like we're doing nearly enough to engage our Spanish-speaking families," a principal told me not long ago. "I want to get your thoughts about how I can start doing better." As director of family partnerships for the Boulder Valley School District, I was glad to get involved.

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Toolkit for "Teaching at the Intersections" of student identity

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Toolkit for "Teaching at the Intersections" of student identity

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Ideas and curriculum that are grade level specific (K-2, 3-5, 6-8)

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Introduction

Adopting an intersectional approach means understanding that everyone has multiple identities-some visible and some invisible. But to truly understand intersectionality is to include identity and oppression in the conversation.

This toolkit for "Teaching at the Intersections" illustrates specific elements of the Teaching Tolerance Anti-bias Framework (ABF) and Perspectives for a Diverse America-standards, essential questions and central texts-that can be used to build student understanding of identity and oppression.

Essential Questions

1. How does intersectionality relate to identity and justice?

2. How can intersectionality be applied within the framework of anti-bias education to teach about multiple identities and oppression?

Procedure

The ABF is a set of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes divided into four domains-identity, diversity, justice and action. The standards provide a common language and organizational structure for K-12 anti-bias education. Two anchor standards stand out in the ABF as particularly useful in thinking about intersectionality:

Identity 3 (ID.3): "Students will recognize that peoples' multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals."

Justice 14 (JU.14): "Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics."

Perspectives for a Diverse America, Teaching Tolerance's free, literacy-based, anti-bias curriculum, integrates the ABF with two other key components-the Central Text Anthology and Integrated Learning Plan.

Below are examples of how Perspectives can help teach about multiple identities (ID.3) and power and privilege (JU.14 ) to students in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Each example incorporates a grade-level outcome, an essential question and text titles. Log in to Perspectives to explore further and build your own learning plan with tasks and strategies! (Free registration required.)

GRADES K-2

ID.K-2.3: I know that all my group identities are part of me-but that I am always ALL me.

Essential Question: What groups do I belong to?

Literature: My Name Was Hussein (excerpt) by Hristo Kyuchukov (religion, race and ethnicity)

Informational: "Storm" by Tamera Bryant (gender)
"Julia Moves to the United States" by Sean McCollum (immigration)

JU.K-2.14: I know that life is easier for some people and harder for others and the reasons for that are not always fair.

Essential Question: How do I know when people are being treated unfairly?

Literature:

"The Emerald Lizard: A Guatemalan Tale of Helping Others" by Pleasant L. DeSpain (class)

Informational:

"The Day I Swam Into a New World" by Margaret Auguste (race and ethnicity)
"Jerrie Mock" by Tamera Bryant (gender)

GRADES 3-5

ID.3-5.3: I know that all my group identities are part of who I am, but none of them fully describes me and this is true for other people too.

Essential Question: How does being a member of multiple groups change me?

Literature:
My Name Was Hussein (excerpt) by Hristo Kyuchukov (religion, race and ethnicity)
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (excerpt) by Jack Gantos (ability)

Informational:
"Julia Moves to the United States" by Sean McCollum (immigration)

JU.3-5.14: I know that life is easier for some people and harder for others based on who they are and where they were born.

Essential Question: How is my life easier or more difficult based on who I am and where I was born?

GRADES 6-8

ID.6-8.3: I know that overlapping identities combine to make me who I am and that none of my group identities on their own fully defines me or any other person.

Essential Question: How do different parts of our identities combine to make us who we are?

Literature:
"Why Chicken Means so Much to Me" from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (class, race and ethnicity)
"We Live by What We See at Night" by Martin Espada (place, immigration)

JU.6-8.14: I know that all people (including myself) have certain advantages and disadvantages in society based on who they are and where they were born.

Essential Question: How do differences in power and privilege influence the relationships we have with each other?

Literature:
The Misfits (excerpt) by James Howe (gender, LGBT)
Esperanza Rising (excerpt) by Pam Muñoz Ryan(immigration)

Informational:
Always Running (excerpt) by Luis J. Rodriguez (immigration, race and ethnicity)
"Fear" from Living Up the Street: Narrative Recollections by Gary Soto (class)

GRADES 9-12

ID.9-12.3: I know that all my group identities and the intersection of those identities create unique aspects of who I am and that this is true for other people too.

Essential Question: How do our intersecting identities shape our perspectives and the way we experience the world?

Literature:
Saffron Dreams (excerpt) by Shaila Abdullah (religion, race and ethnicity)
"A Room of One's Own" (excerpt) by Virginia Woolf (gender)

Informational:
"My Life in the Shadows" by Reyna Wences (immigration)
"Gawking, Gaping and Staring" by Eli Clare (ability, gender, LGBT)

JU.9-12.14: I am aware of the advantages and disadvantages I have in society because of my membership in different identity groups, and I know how this has affected my life.

Essential Question: How do power and privilege impact the relationships people have with each other as well as with institutions?

Informational:
"Deaf Culture" by Paula Kluth (ability)
"I Have a Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (race and ethnicty)

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Toolkit for "Teaching at the Intersections"

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Adopting an intersectional approach means understanding that everyone has multiple identities-some visible and some invisible. But to truly understand intersectionality is to include identity and oppression in the conversation. This toolkit for "Teaching at the Intersections" illustrates specific elements of the Teaching Tolerance Anti-bias Framework (ABF) and Perspectives for a Diverse America -standards, essential questions and central texts-that can be used to build student understanding of identity and oppression.

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In this lesson, students will investigate “defenders of justice” who fought against racism and changed American attitudes.

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In this lesson, students will investigate “defenders of justice” who fought against racism and changed American attitudes. Their work made possible, years later, something that many doubted would ever happen: the election of an African American as President of the United States.

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Learning for Justice Teaching Strategies

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Learning for Justice Teaching Strategies

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Skip to main content

Build literacy and social emotional skills while exploring meaningful texts. Unlike conventional or scripted lesson plans, these strategies allow you to select and combine vocabulary, reading, and speaking and listening activities, customizing a pathway that supports your instructional goals. Each strategy is Common Core-aligned and includes a special note about English language learners and connections to anti-bias education.

"Many of my colleagues believe our fourth-graders are too young to hold discussions around issues of race, place, class and gender equity. Asking open-ended, higher-order, standards-based questions around these topics is much easier thanks to your work!"

Grades K-2

Foster a love of reading in early-grades students with strategies that build familiarity and confidence with texts. Each Common Core-aligned strategy includes explicit connections to anti-bias education and adaptations for English language learners.

Grades 3-12

Meet the demands of the Common Core State Standards with strategies that foster vocabulary, close reading, and speaking and listening skills. Each strategy includes explicit connections to anti-bias education and adaptations for English language learners.

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Build literacy and social emotional skills while exploring meaningful texts. Unlike conventional or scripted lesson plans, these strategies allow you to select and combine vocabulary, reading, and speaking and listening activities, customizing a pathway that supports your instructional goals. Each strategy is Common Core-aligned and includes a special note about English language learners and connections to anti-bias education.

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Building Community Through Restorative Circles

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Building Community Through Restorative Circles

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Edutopia article on using restorative circles to foster dialogue and community in classrooms

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

Our students come to school with many issues on their minds and in their hearts. As educators, we can help them process their thoughts and feelings so they can better handle their situations and be more present in class.

Restorative circles are a useful practice to do just that. While frequently used to replace punitive forms of discipline, restorative circles are equally important in proactively building the relationships and skills students need to support one another and collectively address the challenges they face.

Restorative circles are most effective when they're an integral part of school culture. After all, you can't "restore" a community that you haven't built or sustained.

7 Steps for Facilitating Meaningful Circles

1. Cocreate a safe, supportive space: Circles work best if teachers invest time up front to build relationships, skills, and practices to draw on throughout the school year-especially if the going gets tough.

Early in the process, teachers and students together explore values-like empathy, patience, kindness, courage, and open-mindedness-that need to be respected for people to be willing to share openly and honestly in circle. They also determine best ways of working together (circle practices). These include honoring the talking piece, which goes around the circle as an invitation to share while everyone else listens (participants may pass if they don't wish to talk). People are encouraged to speak and listen from the heart. And what is shared in circle, stays in circle, though educators should let students know at the outset that we are mandated by law to report when a student threatens to harm themselves or others, or when students divulge abuse.

2. Be prepared: Make sure that you, the facilitator, are well rested, calm, and focused.

To hold the circle space effectively, it's important to be fully present and able to sit with other people's stories and feelings as well as your own. Center yourself. If you're exploring sensitive issues that may require follow up, consider alerting support staff.

3. Plan ahead: Decide together on a topic or theme that sustains students' interest.

Find a relevant opening ceremony to open the circle space, such as a poem, quote, or piece of music. A mindfulness activity can also be used to bring students into the space after a particularly stressful class or noisy hallway experience.

Look for information to ground the conversation, and develop questions and prompts to invite student perspectives into the circle.

Keep in mind that the bigger the circle, the more time you'll need for the talking piece to go around. Think about how things might unfold and be ready to adapt to what comes up.

Make sure to leave time for a closing ceremony, giving students a chance to transition into spaces that may be less conducive to being vulnerable. A closing ceremony can be a commitment to safeguarding the stories shared in circle, or a breathing exercise in which we provide students with prompts and time to put themselves back together again.

4. Invite student experiences into the space: Encourage students to connect with the circle content by sharing stories from their own lives.

Include storytelling rounds by asking students to talk about "a person in your life who..." or "a time when...." Share authentically of yourself. This gives others permission to do the same. Model good listening as the talking piece goes around the circle. Be fully present as others speak. Remind everyone that listening is the key ingredient in circles. True listening can create the kind of welcoming space that encourages even the quietest voices to speak.

5. Acknowledge, paraphrase, summarize, and practice empathy: Listen closely to what students share so that you can build on their experiences.

When the talking piece comes back to you, touch on what you felt, noticed, or heard. If you sense that there's more than surfaced in the first round, send the talking piece around a second or third time, asking students for their connections, reflections, or additions.

If challenging or painful issues come up, model agreed-upon circle practices for students to follow. Listening mindfully and being present with other people's ordeals and hardships can create supportive, healing experiences that strengthen community connections and build empathy.

If needed, let students know you're available to check in with them later in the day or week. You might also have them consider speaking with other supportive adults or students to find solace if they're troubled.

6. Explore what it means to be an effective ally: Beyond creating a supportive listening environment, ask what else, if anything, students need from you and from each other.

Explore how to be better allies in circle so that students know they don't need to face their challenges alone. Invite them to talk about a person in their lives who is a good friend or ally, or a person they'd like to be a better friend or ally. Discuss the qualities these people have (or lack) and how they make us feel. Invite students to talk about a time they've been a good friend or ally themselves, and what gets in the way of being our best selves with one another.

7. Zoom out to promote understanding on the systems level: Explore whether there are larger systemic forces that underlie the challenges students have touched on (such as racism, sexism, or lack of access to resources). Introduce information, stories, and voices that might shed light on how these systems operate. Look for examples of people who took action to interrupt these and other oppressive systems.

Invite students to connect to this information by sharing their thoughts, feelings, and related experiences.

Studying larger, systemic forces in society can help students better understand their situation, and can be a useful starting point for students to become more active themselves. Action and activism can inspire hope, connection, and healing.

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Building Community With Restorative Circles

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

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Racism By Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Racism By Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Includes book chapter promoting asset-based views of Black families in special education.

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Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education is a thought-provoking and timely book that provides a landscape for understanding and challenging educational (in)opportunities for Black students who are identified for special education. This book provides a historical and contemporary analysis through the eyes of Black children and their families on how they navigate and push against inequitable schooling, ways they are reframing discourse about race, dis/ ability, and gender in schools, how educators, administrators, and school counselors contribute to disproportionality in special education, and ways that parents are collectively organizing to dismantle injustices and the carceral state, or criminalization, of special education.

Each chapter provides a ground level view of what Black students with dis/abilities experience in the classroom, and examines how the intersection of race, dis/abilty, and gender subject Black students to dehumanizing experiences in school. This book includes qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring the material realities of Black students who are isolated, whether in separate or general education classrooms. Drawing from Critical Race Theory, DisCrit, Critical Race Feminism, and other race-centered frameworks this book challenges dominant norms of schools that reinforce inequality and racial segregation in special education.

At the end of each chapter the authors present practitioner-based notes and resources for readers to expand their knowledge of how Black students, their family, and guardians advocate for themselves and their own children. This book will leave educational advocates for Black children with a clearer understanding of the obstacles and successes that they encounter when striving for a just and equitable education. Furthermore, the book challenges readers to be active agents of change in their own schools and communities.

Your review has been submitted successfully.

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Racism by Another Name by Dorothy E. Hines, Mildred Boveda | Waterstones

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Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education is a thought-provoking and timely book that provides a landscape for understanding and challenging educational (in)opportunities for Black students who are identified for special education.

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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Foundational piece by Peggy McIntosh the examines white privilege

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5th grade lesson examining bias and representation using picture books

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The article examines social studies research, theory, and practice. The authors provide an example of historical counter-narrative in an urban K-12 classroom.

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They're not too young to talk about race!

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They're not too young to talk about race!

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Infographic that explains why and how to talk to young people about race and racism.

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Intentionally drawing on students' Spanish language knowledge

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Intentionally drawing on students' Spanish language knowledge

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The term 'people of color' erases black people.

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The term 'people of color' erases black people.

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The op-ed critiques the use of "people of color" and it's role in the erasure of Black people.

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Op-Ed: The term ‘people of color’ erases black people. Let’s retire it

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As a black woman, I seek out inclusive spaces because I lack them in my everyday life.

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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This resources provides a background, resources on how to talk to young people about BLM@ School principles, and teaching materials.

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CSULB Liberal Studies created virtual action research projects to raise awareness on urban school issues.

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Create word problems for students based on real world data sets that address equity and/or social justice issues in a community using ratios & proportions math content.

Possible extension: Supporting students in considering why discrepancies exist among particular groups in the data

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Have students the first week of class create name tents and in at least one corner put something that reflects a piece of their cultural identity and in another something that they are proud of about a community they belong to.

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Considers how to promote more student-led learning in elementary classrooms to promote engagement and learning

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For Mary Ellis, the advantages of allowing students to direct their own learning became apparent when, as a student teacher, she visited a 4th grade class to observe an “innovative” teacher. When she walked into the room, she saw students who seemed to be playing with matchbox cars. Ellis says, “I r

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Culturally Responsive Teaching That Supports a Culture of Achievement for African American Students

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This lesson helps students develop an understanding of the importance of diversity in a community.

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Vocabulary

difference [ dif-er-uhns, dif-ruhns ] ( noun) something that is not the same about two or more people or things; something that makes two or more people or things unlike each other

diversity [ dih-vur-si-tee ] ( noun) the quality of being made up of many different kinds of people, creatures or things; having a lot of variety

community [ kuh-myoo-ni-tee ] ( noun) a group of people who share something, like an interest, goal, or living or working space; a group of people who cooperate and learn to work together

Procedure

1. What do you think of when you hear the words difference and diversity? On chart paper, make word websof ways people or things might feel or seem different from each other. (It might be helpful to provide some examples.)

2. Challenge yourself to think about ways you have felt different in school in the past. Turn and talk to your neighbor about one way you feel different, special or unique in your classroom community. Maybe you speak a language that no one else in your class speaks; maybe your family enjoys an unusual kind of food; or maybe you have a unique pet. If you have trouble thinking of something, ask your partner to help you.

3. Listen while the book, It's Okay to Be Different, by Todd Parr, is read out loud. ( Read aloud It's Okay to Be Different. After every few pages, stop and talk about what the book is teaching.) Is the book silly, serious or a little of each? Can you make any personal connections to the text?

4. As a class, discuss why it is important to have lots of different kinds of people in a class community. (Introduce the word community if it is unfamiliar to the students.) What would be the disadvantages if everyone in the class were the same? Why do you think difference is important? Make a chart showing how various differences can contribute to a class.

5. On a jigsaw puzzle piece, write your name and use words and illustrations to represent the difference you talked about.

6. Work as a whole class to assemble the jigsaw puzzle. Use what you know about working as a community to put the puzzle together!

7. Admire your finished product: It represents the diversity of your classroom community! Your teacher will tape the pieces together and hang the puzzle in your classroom so you can remember the strengths of your class community's diversity.

An alternative to steps 5 - 6:

1. On construction paper, create your own page for a class book similar to It's Okay to be Different. (You may want to have a sample page ready or create one together as a whole class.) Follow the same format Todd Parr uses in his book. Challenge yourself to write a page about a way you really do sometimes feel different. If you have trouble getting started, use the web you created at the beginning of class for ideas.

2. Illustrate your page using oil pastels or crayons.

3. Bind the pages together and listen while your teacher reads it aloud. Now you have a book to celebrate the many differences in your classroom community. Keep the book in your classroom library.

Applying What You've Learned

Think about what you've learned about difference and diversity. Discuss these questions with a classmate or answer them in a journal.

Do you think difference and diversity are important in a community? Explain why or why not.

What will you think about or do next time you feel different? What advice would you give to another student who was feeling this way?

What do the words difference, diversity and community mean to you? How has your understanding of these words changed after these lessons?

Extension Activity

1. Team up with a classmate to find 10 new vocabulary words from your class jigsaw puzzle. With your partner, make a "difference and diversity" book. Write one new word on each page and draw a picture to help you remember what the word means. Share your book with another set of partners and add it to your classroom library.

2. Differences are important in every community, not just in classrooms. At home, talk with your family about what you learned from Todd Parr's book. Discuss ways members of your family might sometimes feel different from each other, and talk about how this diversity can help make your family stronger. When you come to school the next day, write in your journal about what you learned from discussing these themes at home. Share your journal entry with a classmate or with the whole group.

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difference [ dif-er-uhns, dif-ruhns ] ( noun) something that is not the same about two or more people or things; something that makes two or more people or things unlike each other diversity [ dih-vur-si-tee ] ( noun) the quality of being made up of many different kinds of people, creatures or things; having a lot of variety community [ kuh-myoo-ni-tee ] ( noun) a group of people who share something, like an interest, goal, or living or working space; a group of people who cooperate and learn to work together 1.

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Restorative practices are a non-punitive approach to discipline that is based on relationships.

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Inside California Education Episode 204: Restorative Justice

Oakland schools adopt Restorative Justice to level the playing field.

TV Series: Inside California Education
Published Date: 03/28/2018
Season: 2
Episode: 204

Watch the full episode

Inside California Education Full Episode 204 The Great Debate - Restorative Justice - DAY IN THE LIFE: School Secretary - Bilingual Teacher Shortage 26:46

Resource Links:

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Restorative Justice - OAKLAND, CA 07:14 - InsideCalEd- Video Gallery

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Inside California Education Episode 204: Restorative Justice Oakland schools adopt Restorative Justice to level the playing field.

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5th grade lesson examining biases related to professional contexts and families

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This is an extremely timely poem by Sonia Sanchez!

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This Is Not a Small Voice by Sonia Sanchez | Poetry Foundation

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Exploring Heritage Months and current event

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Exploring Heritage Months and current event

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Students explore heritage months in relation to current events

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Multilingual educator resources & free professional learning opportunities 

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Multilingual educator resources & free professional learning opportunities 

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Visit this website to support teachers advance learning for English learners, biliteracy &
dual language learners. https://mcap.gocabe.org/

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The article examines social studies research, theory, and practice. The authors provide an example of historical counter-narrative in an urban K-12 classroom.

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why media matters

Key facets of identity - like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability - play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.
Learn More

praise for critical media project

"

The Critical Media Project gave me an opportunity to really be able to think. The project helped me remember my past and analyze myself. By being able to think I was able to rediscover what it was that I was fighting for, what it was that motivated me. What I found most valuable about this project was that I was able to present in class and let out all the things, my life story, the hardships, and my motivation, that I had bottled up inside.

Luis Hernandez Batres
Student, Canoga Park High School

More Testimonials
Keep Critical Media Project Going!

Demand for Critical Media Project services outpaces current resources. With new funding CMP could expand our outreach, grow our resources and content, develop training modules for teachers, and assess our impact and value. Please consider donating today! And thank you!

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Key facets of identity -- like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability -- play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.

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Designing Culturally Responsive Units Centered around a Picture Book

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Designing Culturally Responsive Units Centered around a Picture Book

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A new elementary school teacher discusses how they co-constructed class rules and consequences.

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Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez was raised in a small farming community in southern California in the 1950s. Teachers at his local elementary school anglicized the Mexican American students’ names. Chunky remembers a new classmate who proved to be the exception to the rule.

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Ramon "Chunky" Sanchez was raised in a small farming community in southern California in the 1950s. As was common practice at that time, teachers at his local elementary school anglicized the Mexican American students' names. Here, Chunky remembers a new classmate who proved to be the exception to the rule.

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Ramòn "Chunky" Sanchez tells the story of how the new kid at school became a hero when his name stumped their teachers.

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Teaching strategy with lesson planning ideas.

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Use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.

Advisory

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.

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This 40+ questionnaire is based on Maslow's Basic Needs. These are great "check-in" questions.

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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Black Lives Matter at School Starter Kit

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This resources provides a background, resources on how to talk to young people about BLM@ School principles, and teaching materials.

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Use purposeful interactive digital textbooks to engage Student Teachers in rethinking the 'core curriculum'.

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The version of the browser you are using is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a supported browser. Dismiss

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Communication Recovery (the "Ouch-Oops protocol"): This is a good way to invite people to respond to offensive language, and to educate others who may not yet know a term or phrase is problematic and positions some people in negative ways. Learn more at the link.

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Communication Recovery (the "Ouch-Oops protocol"): This is a good way to invite people to respond to offensive language, and to educate others who may not yet know a term or phrase is problematic and positions some people in negative ways. Learn more at the link.

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Ouch! is when someone steps on your toes. Oops! is when you step on someone else's.

When you accidentally squash someone's toes (I hope it's never intentional), the natural thing to do is to get off their toes and apologize - immediately. It may sound like this, "Oops, I'm sorry." Then, make sure you haven't hurt them, and - very important - don't tread on them again. I'm also hoping you haven't stomped so hard you've caused a lasting injury. If so, I'm sure you would stick around and do what's necessary until you know everything is OK.

Well, it's the same thing when you FIGURATIVELY step on someone's toes. Have you ever said something that is unintentionally offensive - an "oops" you wish you could take back? Perhaps you stereotyped or demeaned someone. When this happens, you have a choice - you can ignore your mistake and hope nobody notices (hmmm, how well does that work?) OR you can take action to recover from your communication misstep.
COMMUNICATION RECOVERY
"Communication Recovery" involves acknowledging your mistake, sincerely apologizing, and then changing your behavior. Communication Recovery is an under-utilized skill. When we realize we've said something stereotypical or biased about an individual or group, many of us clam up. We are embarrassed, afraid of making things worse. We don't know what to do. The good news is Communication Recovery is possible; it's not that difficult, and it has a big payoff. Communication Recovery allows us to defuse tension, rebuild trust and rapport, and move forward.

Here's how to do it. It takes just a few steps and less than 30 seconds.

Sometimes there is ONE MORE STEP - ASK.

If someone gives you feedback - "Ouch!" - and you aren't sure why, then : "What do you mean?" If you sincerely ask for learning, people will educate you. Then their feedback with an open heart and an open mind.

You can use the Communication Recovery steps in any order or use just one or two of the steps. Choose what's best for you in the situation.

Here are two examples of when no one speaks up, but YOU know you've said the wrong thing.
SINCERITY MATTERS
In summary, Communication Recovery involves acknowledging your "oops", apologizing, and fixing it. There are simple steps you can use: Accept, Acknowledge, Apologize, and . Sometimes you will want to solicit more information, so .

Communication Recovery doesn't work if it's insincere. People can smell that. If you are unable to SINCERELY apologize, then consider accepting the feedback respectfully by saying something like, "I didn't realize that. Thank you for telling me."

A final note - Partial apologies or apologies that shift the blame to the listener don't work either: "If anyone was offended by what I said, then I'm sorry you feel that way."

It's better to take responsibility for your behavior and its impact on others, and simply say, "I'm sorry I was offensive. Please forgive me."

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The Ouch! Files | Vol. 5, No. 1 | Ouch! and Oops!

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Ouch! is when someone steps on your toes. Oops! is when you step on someone else's. When you accidentally squash someone's toes (I hope it's never intentional), the natural thing to do is to get off their toes and apologize - immediately. It may sound like this, "Oops, I'm sorry."

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At the end of the class, I divide the students up into about 4-5 groups. I give them real-life scenarios that happened to me in the classroom. They have to respond to those situations using their brain/heart/CRP lens.

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The prerequisite to decolonizing the classroom? A personal commitment to political change.

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Change Makers: Native American Lesson Plans

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Change Makers: Native American Lesson Plans

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Amplifier x Illuminative - Native Changemakers Lesson Plan.pdf

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Have students bring an artifact that represents their personal history to share with the group. Discuss how it is representative of their personal backgrounds and cultures to share how their lives and experiences relate to those of the children they are working with.

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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools.
A trial role play asks students to determine who is responsible for the death of millions of Taínos on the island of Hispaniola in the late 15th century.

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Teaching Activities (Free)

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow with contributions from members of the Taíno Community. Rethinking Schools. 13 pages.
A trial role play asks students to determine who is responsible for the death of millions of Taínos on the island of Hispaniola in the late 15th century.

Themes: Imperialism, Native American

By Bill Bigelow with contributions from members of the Taíno Community
This role play begins from the premise that a genocide was committed in the years after 1492, on the islands inhabited by the Taíno. Many Indigenous scholars estimate somewhere around 5 million Taíno inhabited the Greater Antilles pre contact.

Who - and/or what - was responsible for this genocide? This is the question students confront in this activity.

The intent of the lesson is to prompt students to examine the roots of colonial violence. When I first taught a version of this trial role play, it came at the conclusion of a longer unit about the meaning of the European arrival in the western hemisphere, one which included reading Taíno scholar José Barreiro's "The Taíno: 'Men of the Good,'" in Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years , which explicitly critiques the notion of the Taíno as "primitive." As Barreiro writes, "The Taíno strove to feed all the people, and maintained a spirituality that respected most of their main animal and food sources, as well as the natural forces like climate, season, and weather. The Taíno lived respectfully in a bountiful place so their nature was bountiful." Barreiro notes that "There was little or no quarreling observed among the Taíno by the Spaniards."

Students and I also read excerpts from Columbus's journal when he encountered the Taíno Nation, the Lukayan on the island of Guanahaní (probably San Salvador/Watlings Island), included in Rethinking Columbus , which hints at the violence to come: "They do not bear arms or know them, for I showed them swords and they took them by the blade and cut themselves through ignorance" - a quote that students find chilling. On the third day of Columbus's first encounter with the Taíno, October 14, 1492, Columbus bragged that "with 50 men they would be all kept in subjugation and forced to do whatever may be wished . . ."

The more students learn about the Taíno, Spain, Columbus's voyages, and details of Columbus's strategies to steal wealth and land from the people of the Caribbean - and Taíno resistance - the more effective this trial activity will be. But a caveat: The trial is not an introductory activity. A critical look at colonialism begins with the people being encountered prior to colonization, not with the state of siege that they experienced.

This lesson was originally written in 1991. Many things changed over my 30-year teaching career, but one thing stayed sadly consistent: Year after year, my high school U.S. history students had never heard of the Taíno people. Early in my classes, I asked students if they could name the person some people say "discovered America." There was never any shortage of students calling out "Columbus!" Then I asked, "OK. Who did he supposedly 'discover'? Who was here first?" Sometimes a few students would say, "Indians." But I'd say, "No. I mean what was the specific name of the people he found?" In all my years of teaching, I never had a single student say: "The Taíno" - much less be able to name any individual Taíno. I told my students their name, and that there were possibly millions on the islands of the Caribbean. "What does it say," I asked, "that we all know the name of the fellow from Europe, a white man, but none of us can name who the original peoples of the Caribbean are?"

" The Taíno vs. Columbus, et al. " was - and is - part of a broader effort to bring Taíno peoples into the curriculum. Although this lesson is not designed to introduce students to Taíno culture, the enormity of what happened to the Taíno is at the heart of the lesson. Columbus's actions against the Taíno meet the United Nations' definition of genocide ("acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group") - as well as internationally recognized crimes against humanity, war crimes, and environmental crimes. But there has been an almost complete curricular erasure of the Taíno peoples. Thus, it is up to us as educators to address these gaps, and consult and collaborate with those harmed to address misleading colonial narratives in our classes.

The updated version of this activity centers the Taíno people as the people harmed and includes indictments for four colonial offenders: Columbus, Columbus's Men, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and the System of Empire.

A pedagogical note: Recently, there has been much discussion - and controversy - about role plays. It's a term that embraces strategies the Zinn Education Project supports, and others we oppose. Some school activities - "role plays" - demand that students "recreate traumatic experiences," in the words of Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ohio State University professor. No Zinn Education Project activity engages in this kind of teaching. In this and other ZEP role plays, we do not ask students to perform. Although Columbus enslaved Taíno people, and ordered his men to spread "terror," as documented by the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas, students do not act any of this out in this role play. Instead, the role play asks students to attempt to represent different individuals' and social groups' points of view, to wrestle with who or what was responsible for the crimes against the Taínos. The "drama" in this activity is sparked by the intellectual and ethical questions students discuss, not by reenacting historical events. [Read How to - and How Not to - Teach Role Plays.]
Download the lesson to read in full. Read suggestions for adapting to upper elementary classroom
Taínos

The trial role play is excerpted from Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, which includes more context for the events dealt with in the lesson, including "The Taínos: 'Men of the Good,'" by José Barriero; a critical reading activity of Columbus's diary on his first contact with Indigenous people; a timeline of Spain, Columbus, and Taínos with teaching ideas; and an adaptation from the writings of Bartolomé de las Casas on the first Spanish priest to denounce the Spanish brutality in Hispaniola.

We also recommend Indigenous Cuba: Hidden in Plain Sight by José Barreiro in the National Museum of the American Indian and Whose History Matters? Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never Heard of the Taíno People by Bill Bigelow in the Zinn Education Project "If We Knew Our History" series.

Authors

Bill Bigelow is curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine and co-director of the Zinn Education Project. Read more.

Members of the Taíno Community. This version of the lesson was revised in collaboration with Tanya Rodriguez (National Institute for Racial Equity) and the Grandmothers Council Bohio Atabei - Verona Iriarte and Naniki Reyes Ocasio. Additional feedback was provided by the United Confederation of Taíno People.

Scenes from the Classroom

Students engaged in the People vs. Columbus trial. (Teacher: Julian Hipkins, 11th grade at CCPCS in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Rick Reinhard, 2012)

Stories from the Classroom

"Guilty or Innocent? Hardy Middle School Students Put Columbus on Trial"
By Cierra Kaler-Jones
If you had to put Christopher Columbus on trial for murder, would he be considered guilty? Students in Caneisha Mills' 8th-grade U.S. History class at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C. grappled with this question when they were assigned the task of deciding who would be considered guilty for the deaths of millions of Taínos on the island of Hispaniola in the 1490s . . .

Continue reading this play-by-play account of The People vs. Columbus, et al. at DC Area Educators for Social Justice.

The People vs. Columbus trial has been my most successful and popular lesson in the two years I taught it. Not only do students get to learn the extent of the atrocities committed by Spanish colonizers, but they get to engage in higher order thinking (one of my grad school buzzwords I think about a lot!) on the factors that cause historical atrocities to occur.

I LOVE how "the system of empire" is one of the options for students to blame or defend. This has generated some of the most challenging discussions I've seen in my class so far, as students say, "The king and queen would not have sent Columbus if they hadn't been acting within the system!" and retort, "But the system is made up of individuals, and each have their own choices!" This thinking about structure vs. agency is a level of thinking in social studies that was not made explicit to me until college, and I am thrilled that this assignment has given my students an opportunity to delve into core disciplinary questions.

They get excited about it, too ― I've had students leap up in the trial, hollering their positions to each other in attempts to convince a jury of their peers. At the end of the trial this year, as the jury came back with the verdict, one of my students reflected, "I think that Columbus is like Trump, and the Tainos are like the Mexican people..." This prompted a discussion about how colonial-type oppression works in our current society, leading one student to observe, "You know, I think WE live within a system." I asked them if they thought that they had any agency within the system, and they had a really thoughtful conversation about it.

Your resources truly fill a well left dry - not by forgetfulness, but by the same racist systems that perpetuate the injustices my students face on a daily basis in schools.

Social Studies Teacher, Baltimore, Maryland

The Zinn Education Project made untold history come to life for students working on the People vs. Columbus tribunal. Students were immersed in building background knowledge by reading the indictments, working together, and using teacher-created graphic organizers to build a defense and a strong prosecution.

The lesson captivated the attention of my students in the online environment, fostered collaboration and highlighted rigorous writing, reading, and speaking & listening standards as we work our way through a delicate piece of history that not many know and everyone should appreciate.

Students remarked at the end of the first day in trial how fun and engaging the work was and how much they were learning by working together, interacting with the teacher and rereading the indictments to write argument pieces to present to class. Seeing the students produce quality work aligned to standards and related to our curriculum content is a magical feeling for a teacher and I for one am humbled it happened in my classroom.

I am grateful I had robust materials to use, a guide for instruction, and the opportunity to create. I am eager to continue to use more Zinn Education Project resources with my students in the future.

Middle School Language Arts/English Teacher, Baltimore, Maryland

This school year has been riddled with uncertainty and confusion. For my students, it has also been distant. Socially distant, limited engagement, cameras off, muted, seldom chat. The People vs Columbus, et al. lesson stands out as an outlier for participation. Even over Zoom, students became active participants, engaged, and passionate about their opinions. While working in groups there was very real collaboration that led to detailed and nuanced arguments. The activity pushed students into discomfort about facing the actual history of trying and horrendous acts.

The trial really allowed students to dig into the nature of responsibility and actions. It showed students the difference between individual actions and the responsibility attributed to the systemic nature of power and privilege. The structure of the trial, one splitting the class into different perspectives, allows students to push beyond their own assumptions and point of view, to see the issues of the past, and apply them to a contemporary dilemma.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Oak Park, Illinois

In U.S. history with my 11th-grade students, we began the year by corroborating Columbus's story and used texts from A Young People's History, traditional textbooks, videos, and other primary sources. They were shocked and surprised at his actions but also surprised that they hadn't learned this information before.

A perfect culmination to this set of lessons was The People vs. Columbus, et al. The students used their various resources to craft an argument and counter-arguments, and we had a debate about who was responsible for the genocide. They passionately took on their roles and characters, using textual evidence and thinking critically. It has been one of their favorite lessons since the school started and I know they want to participate in more debates!

This lesson perfectly combined speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, all so that students could have a better understanding of the past.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Lemoore, California

The science teacher told me that students were arguing during lunch about The People vs. Columbus et al. trial and who was to blame. This was the first time all school year he has heard students really talking about what they were learning outside of class time. To hear ninth graders thinking critically about how much of a person's action reflects individual choice vs. what society compels them to do and then applying that to major events in world history is amazing. Thank you, Zinn Education Project.

High School History Teacher, Washington, District of Columbia

I have used the lesson on colonization and the genocide of the Taínos for many years with my 7th graders. I give them primary and secondary sources to read first so that they can analyze perspective and bias. Then I put them in roles as defense lawyers for each of the teams, witnesses, court reporters, a jury, and a judge. The lawyers read the indictments from the Zinn Education Project and use the sources to help them come up with arguments to defend their sides. The jury summarizes the indictments to be read during the trial. The lawyers come up with opening and closing statements and witness questions. The witnesses prepare responses to the questions they will be asked, the judge prepares a script to be read during the trial.

The mock trial format of the lesson helps students to think critically about the history of the genocide and to craft arguments using evidence to enhance their position. Students become really passionate about the trial and many express their desire to be a lawyer at the end of it. Ultimately, students are divided about who they think is to blame for the genocide, which sets up a really nice conversation with students that there is no "right or wrong" and that many people, as well as the system of the empire, are to blame.

This has fostered really high-level discussions in my class and has allowed students to use their voice effectively while developing persuasive arguments. I love how organized the Zinn Education Project is and how they foster engagement in students. It is something I will continue to use for years.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Fredonia, Wisconsin

The People vs. Columbus trial was a perfect start of the year assignment for my 8th graders, and they were absolutely excited to put Columbus on trial and develop questions and statements to roleplay the characters that they were assigned. I will definitely be using this lesson again in the future.

Additionally, it was a great way to get the other teachers on campus involved in my classroom since the students asked and got other teachers and administrators to come in and help judge the trial with me. They were excited to show other staff members the work they were doing to counteract the systems of oppression that were set up at the start of colonization. As Brown and Black students, they were excited to really look into the history of oppression that exists in our nation and argue about what or who made the underlying factors in developing the systems of oppression in the United States. The trial also helped develop conversations about why the systems still exist.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Glendale, California

When I first came across this website, one of the first activities I read was People vs. Columbus, et al. and I immediately began preparations to use it in my world history classes. After providing background information from A People's History and various primary sources, we set the trial up.

My students' reactions after the trial concludes can easily be described as unsettled. Never before had they heard of the crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of the "new world." Never before did they realize the impact Europeans had on the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere.

I have a writing assignment attached to this activity. In two paragraphs, I ask that they tell me who they think is to blame for the crimes. I also ask if they think we should still celebrate Columbus Day.

Afterward, we take a look at our textbook. We look at the one paragraph devoted to Columbus in which it describes his ability to persuade Queen Isabella in 1492. That's it. That's all it says. Thanks to the Zinn Education Project, my students have a better understanding of the impact left by him and other Europeans. Now, they know more than just the year he sailed and the color of the ocean.

High Social Studies Teacher, Reidsville, Georgia

I always begin my U.S. history course with the People vs. Columbus, et al Trial. It is amazing how engaged students become to not only learn the truth but also be able to defend themselves using the evidence provided. Students love creativity and this case allows students to come to their own conclusions.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Hayward, California

I used the The People vs. Columbus, et al. lesson plan when I was a student teacher during the school year of 2020-2021. The lesson was very engaging and it encourages students to think about the causes and effects of European arrival to America.

Students were able to generate their authentic ideas regarding the slaughter of the Taíno Community. The lesson allows students to think about history from different perspectives and the activity encourages students to develop critical thinking skills. Since students have to participate in a trial, they were also able to develop public speaking skills.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, New York, New York

More Classroom Stories

As a teacher, the Zinn Education Project website is invaluable because it provides activities that directly relate to A People's History. Last week we did The People vs. Columbus, et al. which places all the parties involved in the arrival of Columbus on trial for the murder of the Tainos. The activity was so interactive that teachers from other classrooms had to ask us to quiet down. Students were able to better understand the motives and consequences behind the arrival.

Even though A People's History can be a bit difficult for some students, the activities on the Zinn Education Project website makes the content accessible regardless of their reading level.

HIgh School Administrator, Washington, District of Columbia

Every year when I discuss the European Age of Exploration with my students, I spend time using the materials included in Bill Bigelow's excellent The People vs. Columbus, et al. lesson. However, instead of making it a trial that students participate in directly, I have it set up as a murder mystery: who is responsible for the deaths of all of these people? Though the format that I use is different than what Mr. Bigelow recommends, students still find the lesson engaging - the idea that they not only get to be critical of historical decision-makers, but also get to have agency over which one is the worst gets them involved with the topic.

Within this murder mystery, students act as a detective, gathering evidence from Mr. Bigelow's summaries and from other sources I have gathered. In the end, they need to write up a police report and prepare information to present to a grand jury. Students share their findings and then they debate who they believe is most guilty of the deaths of the Taíno people.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Silver Spring, Maryland

My students were completely engaged in The People vs. Columbus trial we held about the massacre of the Taíno people. They loved it! They were so outraged that Columbus Day is a federal holiday that I suggested we send letters to the editors of local newspapers and our city council. They were so excited. Most of the students chose to send letters. When a student's letter was published the next day advocating for our city to celebrate Indigenous People's Day, the students who had not yet sent letters immediately began to write their own.

It was a powerful lesson in civics, especially since my students are disenfranchised and feel like they don't have power to effect change politically.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Eugene, Oregon

When I do the Christopher Columbus lesson, the students are blown away. They are usually so surprised at the truth behind Columbus. They also love the role-playing. This year, when I was doing the lesson, my assistant principal walked in just as one of the students who usually sits quietly during social studies was standing up and asking a fiery round of questions to the defendants on the stand. I was so impressed with it. The lesson also gets students who I usually don't get a lot of participation out of to debate with the students who I do. I love it!

Middle Social Studies Teacher, Chicago, Illinois

The People vs. Columbus trial was so effective. I taught it in a Native American Studies course and the students spent a lot of time exploring primary source documents from Columbus and Las Casas.

It was powerful to watch them transform into excellent and passionate litigators, but basing their arguments upon historical evidence. Also, the power of role plays to induce empathy and compassion for various points of view was evident.

My students are all Native American and they are all too familiar with the concepts of genocide and exploitation. However, many of them did not know about the Taíno and were curious to learn more. At the conclusion we watched the film Even the Rain to enhance their understanding of the texts, and also to learn more about the Cochabamba water war to piece together an interdisciplinary unit about water that they were engaged in.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Christopher Columbus trial is a phenomenal lesson to use with students. First, it forces them to think about the construct of our globalized world in a new and critical manner. Americans are bred upon the unchallenged idea of superiority and equality, and it is troubling for them to have to see that the true pillars of trade, colonization, exploration, and expansion are instead rooted in forced inferiority and exploitation. This lesson further challenges students to give up the stereotypes and nostalgia surrounding Native Americans (in this case on Hispaniola) and see them as people who had functioning societies and belief systems. The most powerful aspect of the lesson, however, is the way it forces students to research, utilize primary resources, think in a debate-like manner, and justify their positions with evidence.

One of my students returned to visit me last month to inform me that because of partaking in this lesson last year, he joined an online group advocating the end of Columbus Day. I was impressed to have a 10th grade student not only take a firm stand on something, but actually take action to incite change. Another of my students said that this "was the best lesson I ever learned because it helped me believe that there is 'real' history I can learn from."

High School Language Arts/English Teacher, Hollywood, Florida

The People vs. Columbus lesson was transformative in my classroom. Students were initially motivated by the competitive aspect of the lesson in trying to "win" during the trial. During the preparation of this lesson, students were able to really practice historical contextualization by looking through various points of view.

Additionally, I supplemented this lesson with primary sources from Voices of a People's History. Working with the primary sources provoked deep discussion about why certain points of view are omitted or de-emphasized in American History. We compared Las Casas to Columbus and discussed the development of racism and ethnocentrism.

On the day of the trial, students were completely engaged in the process of argumentation, viewing history (in many cases for the first time) as more than just fact, but a series of arguments presented through various frameworks. By the end of the trial, it was clear that blame was very difficult to lay on just one group. It encouraged them to think more critically about a complex web of contingencies that all led to the genocide of the Taínos. They were engaged through the entire unit, practiced presentation skills, research, historical argumentation, and more.

High Social Studies Teacher, Durham, North Carolina

I teach U.S. history to juniors. Our first unit is on the first peoples of North America. Our second unit begins exploring the impact European colonization had the the indigenous people of the Americas. At the end of this second unit, we use The People vs. Columbus, et al in order to critically examine the forces that created and maintained imperialism. I supplement by focusing more time on the Taínos, their rebellions, and their leaders.

Besides being incredibly informative and an excellent way to teach claim and evidence, this Zinn Education Project lesson is also really fun for students. Every year, my students say it is one of their favorite things from the school year, especially for those who enjoy getting into character and "embellishing." For example, I had lawyers attempt to bribe jury members or the judge, dramatic reenactment of specific conversations or crimes, and more. At the same time, students understand and respect the gravity of the history lesson and the genocide of the Taínos.

-Priscilla Lizasuain-Vazquez

High Social Studies Teacher, Chicago, Illinois

I am the secondary guide (middle school teacher) in Davis, West Virginia, at the Mountain Laurel Learning Cooperative, a Montessori learning center for students age 3-14. I developed this middle school program last year, so this is our inaugural year and a big success so far. Our curriculum is centered around social justice, environmental stewardship, and mindfulness.

I rely heavily on the Zinn Education Project for the social justice component of our program. One of the best experiences I had with my students this year was on Columbus Day when we followed the mock trail lesson, People vs. Columbus, et al. The students really got into this activity. The upper elementary students (grades 4-6) joined us to be the jurors and audience. Fervent speeches were made and thoughtful and powerful discussion ensued. My students noted this activity as one of their highlights this fall. Thank you so much for the resource.

Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Davis, West Virginia

The People vs. Columbus, et al. was a unique way to bring the often hidden story of the Taíno peoples to my class. Many students had never been exposed to the unjustified treatment of the Taíno. The activity immersed students in the past and allowed them to hear a new perspective of the "founding" of the Americas. Thank you Zinn Education Project.

Middle Social Studies Teacher, St. Louis, Missouri

Every year I use the Columbus trial lesson from the Zinn Education Project. It's by far my most popular activity all year. It's amazing to see all the critical thinking that's set on fire. It prompts so many arguments, discussions, and discoveries in their outside research. When seniors who've had my class come in and see the desks rearranged for the trial, they always exclaim, "Oh, they're doing the Columbus trial? I remember that! I miss that!" It helps them see the power of greed and how that mindset has affected subsequent historical events. Thank you so much for helping promote so much important learning in my classroom.

High Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Oregon

Our students were incredibly engaged in the reading and learning and had meaningful group discussions that focused on choices made by Columbus and other explorers and their impact on the world.

Overall, having access to the Zinn reading and activities has encouraged my students to be excited about reading and history, show self-motivated engagement, and look at both the positives and negatives in history without the rose-colored tint that other resources often provide for students.

Middle School Humanities Teacher, Los Angeles, California

Maryland does not celebrate Columbus Day, so students are in school. To show the impact of Columbus's voyage on Indigenous people, this exercise provided an eye-opener for students as well as instructors. It was done with four GED classes that were at various learning levels. Students were randomly selected from each class to participate in the trial and one class served as observers and writers of the exercise. Students were able to show clear critical thinking skills that we rarely use with our other learning materials. The students and instructors truly enjoyed the exercise and it was reported in our newsletter.

Teacher Educator, Maryland

I have used the Columbus trial lesson from the Zinn Education Project website, and it went fantastically well. I teach high school Spanish, and this lesson completely changed their outlook on: (1) Who Columbus actually was; and (2) What we as Americans value as a society. I saw their critical thinking skills broaden before my eyes, and the lesson was so easy to maneuver for me!

Plus, the Spanish version of "Los cargos" made it that much easier to differentiate the lessons. Now that they understand the beginning of Europeans in the New World, we'll continue through the study of Latin American history throughout the next two years. I felt it important that they understand where much of the ill will started in this history, and between Columbus and Pizarro, I now believe that they have a good grasp of that. Thanks for your help in making this AWESOME unit!

High School Language Teacher, Florahome, Florida

In a blog post about this lesson in action, Adrian Hoppel at the Talking Stick Learning Center describes how his students found all parties except the Taíno guilty - and apologized to the Taíno for being charged and being brought to a trial for their own genocide.

Each of the defendant groups did an amazing job defending themselves, pulling all of the obvious rationalizations you'd expect, but also surprising me with some very creative defenses. For example, when attempting to defend The System of Empire, the defendant stated that "while my system, unfortunately, allows for abuse and atrocities, it does not require them; you still have to choose, on your own, to commit them." I thought that was surprisingly astute.

By working hard to defend each of these groups, the hope was that each group would be examined for its complicity in this crime, and I feel this was most definitely accomplished.

Beyond the Classroom

Student Film Critiques Textbook Accounts and Hero Worshipping

D.C. high school teacher Julian Hipkins III used The People vs. Columbus, et al. lesson with his 11th grade U.S. history class at Capital City Public Charter School and introduced them to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Four of his students (Jared, Ana Marie, Jonah, and Mayra) were inspired to make a film called Columbus-The Real Story. Using feature film clips and interviews with school staff, the film critiques and analyzes textbook accounts of Columbus. Columbus-The Real Story was selected as a D.C. citywide entry for the 2011 National History Day competition.

Columbus - The Hidden History from Nonchalant Filmmakers on Vimeo.

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The People vs. Columbus, et al. - Zinn Education Project

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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow with contributions from members of the Taíno Community. Rethinking Schools. 13 pages. A trial role play asks students to determine who is responsible for the death of millions of Taínos on the island of Hispaniola in the late 15th century.

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Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English | TED

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How do we educators speak up when we hear problematic language? Here is a four-step approach.

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How do we educators speak up when we hear problematic language? Here is a four-step approach.

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1. Interrupt

Educators from all grade levels and all parts of the country emphasize this point: You must speak up against every bigoted and prejudiced remark, every time it happens.

Letting one go, then speaking up against the next one, sends an inconsistent message: that sometimes bigotry is OK; other times it isn't. Letting the first instance go without comment also sends the message to anyone within earshot that it's OK to say bigoted things.

So interrupt it. Every time. In the moment. Without exception. "Stop what you're doing-whatever you're doing-and address it," says Soñia Galaviz, a fifth grade teacher in Nampa, Idaho.

So if Galaviz is teaching a math lesson and she hears a student make a prejudiced remark, what does she do? "I say to myself, 'Hold on, let's stop.' The parallelogram lesson can wait. And I go back to all the work we did the first two months of school, discussing classroom culture and sharing our own cultural stories. I address it in the moment. I never let it pass. Anytime you let it pass, it's an opportunity missed."

Usually, such moments have stopped happening by mid-year or earlier, based on that early work, Galaviz says. But once, many years ago, well into the second half of the school year, a student casually used the n-word in class. "I went 'Errrrrrh. Hold on a second.' I tempered my own response, so I wasn't angry or out of control. And I asked why in the world he would say such a thing."

In the end, Galaviz worked lunch hours and after school with the student, having him write what turned out to be a 15-page paper on the origin and history of the n-word. It was a lesson the student didn't forget. When he was in high school, he came back and thanked Galaviz for teaching him the negative power and ugly history of that word. These moments are rare, Galaviz says. But early, firm intervention sends the message that bigotry will not be tolerated.

Nancy Brakke, a music educator in Tacoma, Washington, admires and encourages these "instant" responses. "No anger, no recriminations, no lecture-just a calm, straightforward 'stop,'" she says.

Connecticut teacher Christine Sipes describes just such a moment: "I was a new teacher on lunch duty, and a veteran teacher came up to me and said, 'Have you heard the one about the Italian and the...?' I immediately said, 'I don't like ethnic jokes.'"

This may not stop every so-called joke; the person still may tell such "jokes" to others. But it begins to marginalize the behavior. The more often it is interrupted, the more likely it will be curtailed.

2. Question

As mentioned in the opening chapter, asking simple, exploratory questions in response to bigoted remarks can be a powerful tool: "Why do you say that?" "What do you mean?" "Tell me more."

Galaviz, the fifth grade teacher, also served as an adjunct faculty member at Boise State University. One of her students, preparing to begin student teaching, said to Galaviz, "You can tell kids whose families don't have an education."

Galaviz, who has multiple degrees and solid educational credentials, grew up in a lower-middle class family, the daughter of parents who had to drop out of school to begin working. She didn't immediately challenge her student's comment. Instead, she said, "Tell me more. Tell me what you mean by that."

She says that approach accomplished two things. One, it led the speaker to encounter his own faulty thinking or bits of ignorance, as she teased out the reasons behind his comment. Two, it helped her better understand his thinking and gave her more time to frame and tailor her response.

Galaviz says this doesn't work if you pepper the speaker with aggressive questions, such as "What exactly do you mean by that?" Aggressive questioning can be counterproductive, closing off communication rather than opening it. The gentle-but-clear "tell me more" approach extends the conversation instead of shutting it down.

Tone matters in these moments. Your goal is to understand the roots of the speaker's prejudices, then help add context and information to dispel them. Don't think for a moment that we all don't have some sort of prejudices. "I call them the 'uglies,' and we have to acknowledge the uglies within ourselves if we're ever going to make lasting change," Galaviz says.

Amber Makaiau is an ethnic studies teacher at Kailua High School in Oahu, Hawaii. She recalls a moment when she faced the "uglies" in front of her students.

"We are there to learn as much as the students are."

Makaiau periodically checks in with students about classroom culture-what's working, what's not working, any issues to discuss. During one of these check-ins, a student asked Makaiau why she pushed the Filipino students to talk more during classroom discussions but did not similarly push the white students.

"I said, 'Hmmmm,' and it surprised me. They had a good point," Makaiau says. "They got to see me work through this surprising realization right in front of them, and I was able to change my behavior accordingly. Teachers need to be open to that. We are there to learn as much as the students are."

3. Educate

Hate isn't behind all hateful speech. Sometimes ignorance is at work, or lack of exposure to diverse populations. Other times, people simply don't know the negative power behind certain words or phrases. So a good first step in a moment of bigotry-particularly if it's the first time you've encountered it with someone-is to explain why the term or phrase is offensive.

So if someone says, "That's so lame" or calls someone a "bitch," not knowing the discriminatory or sexist power behind these words, you can offer background and context to encourage the person to choose a different expression.

Barbara Hemann, an Iowa teacher who has multiple sclerosis, shares this example:
My most obvious symptom is my foot dragging as I walk, creating a limp. A student once said to me, 'What's with the gimp?' I don't think the student meant to be disparaging in any way, so I sat down and told him that although I was not hurt by his comment, that many people who have a disability would be, and that he should always be respectful and use respectful language if he was going to ask someone about a disability. I told him that I welcomed questions, and I would always take time to answer those questions. I think the student left with a lifetime skill.
So unless you are dealing with a longstanding pattern of behavior, give the speaker the benefit of the doubt and allow that person to make a change. "Be kind," Hemann says. "Nearly everyone is fighting a great battle."

It is not your "job" to educate everyone else about bigotry. People do need to take responsibility for their own ignorance. Self-education- the realization that one lacks knowledge on a subject and will seek it out on one's own-is vital.

That said, you are in a school, and education happens in schools. So it's a natural fit to wrap education around moments of bigotry or stereotyping.

Consider this moment, shared by Vanessa D'Egidio, a second grade teacher in New York City: A group of second grade girls was overheard on the playground, laughing and making negative comments about classmates' clothing. They found fault with clothing that wasn't name brand and laughed at others whose clothes were faded and frayed.

"Another teacher pulled the group aside to discuss what she overheard, explaining to the students that what they were doing was teasing, bullying and very hurtful toward their peers, regardless of whether it was to their faces or behind their backs," D'Egidio says.

Afterward, the second grade teaching team collectively decided to follow up with a community meeting of all second graders.

"During the meeting, we did not single out the students who had done the teasing, but we brought up the issue of teasing someone about their clothing or something else about them through gossiping," D'Egidio says.

Teachers role-played different scenarios, showing how gossip can be hurtful. Then they asked students for examples of more considerate behavior.

"The teachers reminded students that words can hurt, whether they are used in private, overheard or said directly to someone," D'Egidio says. "We also highlighted the importance of being an ally, the importance of speaking up against teasing, and the importance of everyone working together in a community to create a safe, caring space for all."

4. Echo

Individual responses are insufficient to lead to systemic changes. It's powerful to be the first voice that interrupts bigotry. It's also powerful on another level to be the second, third or fourth voice to join in the interruption. In group settings, if someone has said something derogatory, and not one but four people speak up, the echoing power of those voices can have a multiplying effect. As the echoing voice, you can reiterate the anti-bigotry message or you can thank the first person for speaking up-or both!

Consider this, from a high school teacher working with ninth graders:
I overheard a side conversation where a student said, 'That's so gay.' I was shocked. I thought that phrase was rarely used. (Maybe I just wasn't aware.) Immediately, another girl in the group said that was a wrong thing to say. The first girl giggled and said she was just being funny. The second girl said it's not funny because it hurts people. I was impressed, so I jumped into the conversation. I told her, 'Thank you. I have a lot of respect for you speaking up like that, and I totally agree with you.'

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Educators from all grade levels and all parts of the country emphasize this point: You must speak up against every bigoted and prejudiced remark, every time it happens.

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Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school. While the "formal" curriculum consists of the courses, lessons, and learning activities students participate in, as well as the knowledge and skills educators intentionally teach to students, the hidden curriculum consists of the unspoken or implicit academic, social, and cultural messages that are communicated to students while they are in school.

The hidden-curriculum concept is based on the recognition that students absorb lessons in school that may or may not be part of the formal course of study-for example, how they should interact with peers, teachers, and other adults; how they should perceive different races, groups, or classes of people; or what ideas and behaviors are considered acceptable or unacceptable. The hidden curriculum is described as "hidden" because it is usually unacknowledged or unexamined by students, educators, and the wider community. And because the values and lessons reinforced by the hidden curriculum are often the accepted status quo, it may be assumed that these "hidden" practices and messages don't need to change-even if they are contributing to undesirable behaviors and results, whether it's bullying, conflicts, or low graduation and college-enrollment rates, for example.

It should be noted that a hidden curriculum can reinforce the lessons of the formal curriculum, or it can contradict the formal curriculum, revealing hypocrisies or inconsistencies between a school's stated mission, values, and convictions and what students actually experience and learn while they are in school. For example, a school may publicly claim in its mission or vision statement that it's committed to ensuring that all students succeed academically, but a review of its performance data may reveal significant racial or socioeconomic discrepancies when it comes to test scores, graduation rates, and other measures of success. And because what is not taught in school can sometimes be as influential or formative as what is taught, the hidden curriculum also extends to subject areas, values, and messages that are omitted from the formal curriculum and ignored, overlooked, or disparaged by educators.

While the hidden curriculum in any given school encompasses an enormous variety of potential intellectual, social, cultural, and environmental factors-far too many to extensively catalog here-the following examples will help to illustrate the concept and how it might play out in schools:

Cultural expectations: The academic, social, and behavioral expectations established by schools and educators communicate messages to students. For example, one teacher may give tough assignments and expect all students to do well on those assignments, while another teacher may give comparatively easy assignments and habitually award all students passing grades even when their work quality is low. In the high-expectations class, students may learn much more and experience a greater sense of accomplishment, whereas students in the low-expectations class may do just enough work to get by and be comparatively uninterested in the lessons they are being taught. Similarly, schools may unconsciously hold students from different cultural backgrounds-for example, minorities, recently arrived immigrant students, or students with disabilities-to lower academic expectations, which may have unintended or negative effects on their academic achievement, educational aspirations, or feelings of self-worth.

Cultural values: The values promoted by schools, educators, and peer groups, such as cliques, may also convey hidden messages. For example, some schools may expect and reward conformity while punishing nonconformity, whereas other schools might celebrate and even encourage nonconformity. In one school, students may learn that behaviors such as following the rules, acting in expected ways, and not questioning adults are rewarded, while in other schools students learn that personal expression, taking initiative, or questioning authority are valued and rewarded behaviors. Similarly, if biased or prejudicial behaviors and statements are tolerated in a school, students may embrace the values that are accepted or modeled-either explicitly or implicitly-by adults and other students.

Cultural perspectives: How schools recognize, integrate, or honor diversity and multicultural perspectives may convey both intentional and unintended messages. For example, some schools may expect recently arrived immigrant students and their families to "assimilate" into American culture-for example, by requiring the students to speak English in school at all times or by not providing translated informational materials or other specialized assistance. Other schools, however, may actively integrate or celebrate the multicultural diversity of the student body by inviting students and parents to share stories about their home country, for example, or by posting and publishing informational materials in multiple languages. In one school, non-American cultures may be entirely ignored, while in another they may be actively celebrated, with students and their families experiencing feelings of either isolation or inclusion as a result.

Curricular topics: The subjects that teachers choose for courses and lessons may convey different ideological, cultural, or ethical messages. For example, the history of the United States may be taught in a wide variety of ways using different historical examples, themes, and perspectives. A teacher may choose to present the history of the world or the United States from the perspective of the European settlers and explorers, or she may choose to present it from the perspective of displaced Native Americans or colonized African and Asian peoples. In the first case, teaching American history from a strictly Eurocentric perspective would likely minimize or ignore the history and suffering of Native Americans (a common educational practice in past decades). Curricular topics may also often intersect with, or be influenced by, political, ideological, and moral differences that are broadly contentious in American society-e.g., teaching evolution in science courses, multiculturalism in social studies, or sex education in health courses.

Teaching strategies: The way that schools and teachers choose to educate students can convey both intentional and unintended messages. For example, if students earn good grades or extra credit for turning in homework on time, listening attentively, participating during class, raising their hands, and generally doing things they are told to do, the students may learn that compliance is important and that certain behaviors will be academically rewarded and allowed to compensate for learning deficiencies. On the other hand, instructional strategies such as project-based learning or community-based learning , to name just two of many possible options, may communicate specific messages-for example, that skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, and attributes such as persistence, resourcefulness, and self-motivation, are valued and important (in the case of project-based learning) or that being informed about and involved in local issues are valued and important (in the case of community-based learning).

School structures: The way that a school or academic program is organized and operated can convey messages to students. For example, if non-English-speaking students are largely separated from their peers for most of the school day, or students with physical or learning disabilities are enrolled in specialized programs that are relegated to windowless classrooms in the basement, these organizational decisions may have unintended effects on the students' sense of cultural belonging, self-worth, or academic potential. In addition, the structure of a school program can also mirror or reinforce cultural biases or prejudices. For example, students of color and students from lower-income households are often disproportionately represented in lower-level courses, and special-education programs may inadvertently reinforce some of the social stigmas that children and adults with disabilities experience outside of school.

Institutional rules: The formal rules in a school may communicate a wide variety of intentional and unintentional messages to students. For example, some schools require students to wear school uniforms, some ban certain types of attire (short skirts, clothing with images and language considered to be inappropriate), and others have very liberal or permissive clothing policies. While the intent of formal school rules and policies is to tell students how they are expected to behave, the degree to which they are enforced or unenforced, or the ways in which they are enforced, may communicate messages the undermine or contradict their stated intent. In this case, stricter dress-code policies may communicate that students will be judged on appearances both inside and outside of school, while looser policies might communicate that they will be judged on other qualities.

Reform

Generally speaking, the concept of a hidden curriculum in schools has become more widely recognized, discussed, and addressed by school leaders and educators in recent decades. Ideas such as " white privilege ," , , and multicultural education -to name just a few-have arguably led to greater tolerance, understanding, and even celebration of racial,cultural. physical, and cognitive differences in public schools. In addition, school communities , educators, and students are more likely than in past decades to actively and openly reflect on or question their own assumptions, biases, and tendencies, either individually or as a part of a formal school policy, program, or instructional activity. For example, topics such a bullying and diversity are now regularly discussed in public schools, and academic lessons, assignments, readings, and materials are now more likely to include multicultural perspectives, topics, and examples. Political and social pressures, including factors such as the increased scrutiny that has resulted from online media and social networking, may also contribute to greater awareness of unintended lessons and messages in schools. For example, harmful, hurtful, or unhealthy student behaviors are now regularly surfaced on social-networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, which often leads to greater awareness of student behaviors or social trends.

That said, a "hidden curriculum" is, by nature, obscured or unacknowledged, which means that many of its lessons and messages are difficult to perceive or measure for any number of reasons. For example, long-standing policies may become so deeply embedded in a school culture that people simply forget to question them, or a school faculty that prides itself on celebrating multicultural diversity may find it emotionally difficult to acknowledge and openly discuss behaviors that might contradict that self-perceived identity. For this reason, every school will always have some form of hidden curriculum.

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Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school. While the “formal” curriculum consists of the courses, lessons, and learning activities students participate in, as well as the knowledge and skills educators…

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CSULB students who become teachers learn the languages of the parents, to some degree.What I suggest is that CSULB offers 1-3 unit class teaching our TED students some key phrases in 8-12 languages.

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CSULB students who become teachers learn the languages of the parents, to some degree.What I suggest is that CSULB offers 1-3 unit class teaching our TED students some key phrases in 8-12 languages.

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Students collect employment outcome data in two different communities. Compare findings to national data to identify inequity and use equity minded frameworks to propose solutions 

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Students collect employment outcome data in two different communities. Compare findings to national data to identify inequity and use equity minded frameworks to propose solutions 

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Students use an asset based assessment tool (based on Yosso's model) to identify cultural wealth to used in developing IEPs

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Students use an asset based assessment tool (based on Yosso's model) to identify cultural wealth to used in developing IEPs

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The two walking hand-in-hand.

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Gwen Bass, PhD, and Michael Lawrence-Riddell

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and UDL | Faculty Focus

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Creating educational experiences for our students that integrate Universal Design for Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching is essential to learning.

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HaymarketBooks.org

Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools

The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America.

Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises.

Scholar and author Bettina Love's concept of abolitionist teaching is about adopting the radical stance of the movement that ultimately overthrew slavery, but persisted and insisted on freedom long before that victory.
What would freedom look like in our schools? How can abolitionist educators make the most of this moment to fight for humane, liberatory, anti-racist schooling for black youth and for all youth?
Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at University of Georgia. She is the author of We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.

Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She also serves as the director of the GSU Urban Literacy Clinic. Dr. Muhammad's scholarship has appeared in leading educational journals and books. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award and the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year. She is the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She writes and speaks nationally about social justice and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy as well as creating emotionally intelligent and safe classrooms within the context of equity and liberation. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin's Press, 2021).

Brian Jones is the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He writes about black education history and politics.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is one of the world's leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools

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The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America. Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises.

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Invite students to critically analyze, and produce, media texts that purport to represent people's identities.

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why media matters

Key facets of identity - like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability - play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.
Learn More

praise for critical media project

"

The Critical Media Project gave me an opportunity to really be able to think. The project helped me remember my past and analyze myself. By being able to think I was able to rediscover what it was that I was fighting for, what it was that motivated me. What I found most valuable about this project was that I was able to present in class and let out all the things, my life story, the hardships, and my motivation, that I had bottled up inside.

Luis Hernandez Batres
Student, Canoga Park High School

More Testimonials
Keep Critical Media Project Going!

Demand for Critical Media Project services outpaces current resources. With new funding CMP could expand our outreach, grow our resources and content, develop training modules for teachers, and assess our impact and value. Please consider donating today! And thank you!

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Key facets of identity -- like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability -- play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.

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If you read more than one or two articles on disability issues, or talk to just about any disability rights activist, you will run across the word "ableism." The word does a lot of work for disability culture. It carries the weight of the worst of what plagues disabled people the most, but can be so hard to express.

But for that reason, "ableism" can also seem like an overworked term. It often adds as much confusion and dissension to disability discourse as it does clarity and purpose. While it gives voice and substance to very real beliefs and experiences, the word "ableism" can also feel like a rhetorical weapon meant to discredit people at a stroke for an offensiveness that many people simply don't see or agree exists.

But as any disabled person will tell you, ableism, or something like it absolutely exists. Having a word to talk about it is essential to understanding it and fighting it.

What, exactly is "ableism," or what is it supposed to be? We may as well start with "textbook" definitions of "ableism" ...

Wikipedia: "Ableism (/ˈeɪbəlɪzəm/; also known as ablism, disablism (Brit. English), anapirophobia, anapirism, and disability discrimination) is discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to have disabilities. Ableism characterizes persons as defined by their disabilities and as inferior to the non-disabled. On this basis, people are assigned or denied certain perceived abilities, skills, or character orientations."

Urban Dictionary: "Ableism is the discrimination or prejudice against people who have disabilities. Ableism can take the form of ideas and assumptions, stereotypes, attitudes and practices, physical barriers in the environment, or larger scale oppression. It is oftentimes unintentional and most people are completely unaware of the impact of their words or actions."

These definitions are fine as far as they go. But it's always useful to try coming up with our own definitions, based on real-life experiences of disability. For example, ableism is:
Any statement or behavior directed at a disabled person that denigrates or assumes a lesser status for the person because of their disability.
Or ...
Social habits, practices, regulations, laws, and institutions that operate under the assumption that disabled people are inherently less capable overall, less valuable in society, and / or should have less personal autonomy than is ordinarily granted to people of the same age.
These two definitions point towards an important dual nature for ableism. In one sense it is about individual behavior, but it is also about social structures and institutions. It's important to explore the essential components both.
Personal ableism:
1. Feeling instinctively uncomfortable around disabled people, or anyone who seems "strange" in ways that might be connected to a disability of some kind. This manifests in hundreds of ways, and can include:

* Being nervous, clumsy, and awkward around people in wheelchairs.

* Being viscerally disgusted by people whose bodies appear to be very different or "deformed."

* Avoiding talking to disabled people in order to avoid some kind of feared embarrassment.

2. Holding stereotypical views about disabled people in general, or about certain sub-groups of disabled people. For example:

* Assuming that disabled people's personalities fit into just a few main categories, like sad and pitiful, cheerful and innocent, or bitter and complaining.

* Associating specific stereotypes with particular conditions. For example, that people with Down Syndrome are happy, friendly, and naive, mentally ill people are unpredictable and dangerous, or autistic people are cold, tactless, and unknowable.

* Placing different disabilities in a hierarchy of "severity" or relative value. A prime example of this is the widely held belief, even among disabled people, that physical disability isn't so bad because at least there's "nothing wrong with your mind."

3. Resenting disabled people for advantages or privileges you think they have as a group. This is one of the main flip sides of condescension and sentimentality towards disabled people. It's driven by a combination of petty everyday resentments and false, dark, and quasi-political convictions, such as:

* Disabled people get good parking spaces, discounts, and all kinds of other little unearned favors.

* Unlike other "minorities," everyone likes and supports disabled people. They aren't oppressed, they are coddled.

* Disabled people don't have to work and get government benefits for life.

It's interesting to note that there seem to be two main schools of ableist belief. One is that disabled people are unfortunate but innocent victims of circumstance who should be loved, cared for, and shielded from harm. The other is that disabled people are naturally inferior, disagreeable, and at the same time beneficiaries of unfair and unjustified generosity and social protection. Neither belief is true, and both beliefs are limiting and poison relationships between disabled and non-disabled people, and sometimes between disabled people themselves.

At the same time, we can't lay all of this on individual beliefs and behaviors. Those beliefs are heavily influenced by longstanding social practices and institutions. And those practices and institutions take much longer to change than individual attitudes. Long after people's beliefs about disability improve, laws, regulations, and institutions keep ableism alive and do enormous harm to disabled people.
Systemic ableism:
Any time we talk about "systemic" forces, we run the risk of wandering off into so much abstraction that we lose connection with everyday reality. But institutional ableism really isn't that mysterious. The components of it are easy to see, once we know what we are looking for.

1. Laws and regulations that restrict the freedom and equality of people with disabilities.

* Before laws like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, it was perfectly legal to simply exclude disabled people from government services and employment, going to public schools, and even enter businesses and buy goods and services. And long after those laws removed legal barriers, discriminatory practices continue live on.

* There are current guardianship laws that are meant to protect people with certain disabilities, but which can easily be misused or overused to restrict freedom and autonomy far more than may be strictly necessary. For example, disabled adults placed under guardianship are often deprived of the right to vote without any real justification, sometimes without their knowledge or even their guardians realizing it.

* Bits and pieces of otherwise helpful programs often survive multiple efforts at reform, and still impose pointless restrictions and counterproductive inequalities on disabled people. A classic example is Social Security Disability and SSI rules that penalize disabled people for working or getting married.

2. Social policy that seeks to "care for" disabled people through intensive supervision, protection, and isolation from everyday society.

* Large institutions, smaller group homes, assisted living, and nursing homes are far less dominant than they used to be, but they are still too often the default option offered to disabled people, or imposed on them, when they need everyday help. And they are all still based on a model of segregation and control, where unrelated disabled people live together under one roof they do not own, not by mutual choice, and closely supervised by non-disabled people.

* Not that many decades ago, physically separating disabled people from society, including from their families, was not seen as a sad side effect, but as an agreed upon social goal to protect disabled people society, and protect society from disabled people.

* Despite significant expansion of individually-based community supports like home care, many of the structures of institutionalization keep going by force of habit, bureaucratic inertia, and the persistence of outdated ideas about the safety of institutions vs. independent living - and of course because "caring for" disabled people, if done in particular ways, can still be very profitable.

3. Policies and practices that seek to reduce or eliminate disability from society, not just as a benefit to any individual disabled person, but as a perceived benefit to society as a whole.

* Dozens of organizations still strive for identification, treatments, and cures for disability, not just to make disabled people's lives better, but to achieve some kind of betterment of society.

* Sometimes the hoped-for benefit is essentially practical, like saving money on help and support of disabled people. But often it is still a more abstract improvement people seek - a general sense that disability is a blight on society, so fewer disabled people would be good for society.

* Much of this traces back to the popularity of eugenics, the idea that humanity as a whole, or a nation specifically, can and should be improved or "purified" by controlling who is allowed to reproduce, and, in extreme cases, who is allowed to live. "Eugenics" is a loaded word because of its connection with Nazi Germany. But we shouldn't forget how universally accepted it was less than 100 years ago, including here in the United States.

Some even argue that entire economic systems, like capitalism, other prejudices, like racism, and conventional values like paternalism and conformity both generate and depend on deep-seeded and often unconscious ableism. Far from being a new or niche social phenomenon, ableism may be a key component of oppression and injustice themselves.

So what does all of this suggest about how we should understand ableism? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Regardless of the situation where you hear the term, don't take it as a personal insult or condemnation. Ableism is much more important as a set of social structures than a set of personal behaviors or attitudes. Also, the very fact that ableism is so pervasive in society means that it's hardly surprising that many if not most of us probably harbor ableist beliefs and act in ableist ways now and then.

2. Don't argue with a disabled person over the technical semantics or validity of the word "ableism." "New" words and concepts seem to make some people especially upset and suspicious. But coining and using a term like "ableism" is simply a way for us to talk about a real set of experiences and feelings most disabled people face at some time or another. It's liberating to be able to give them a name, a way to talk about them.

3. Remember that disabled people can be ableist too, to each other, and to themselves. Very few of us grow up within a disability culture. Whether from childhood, accident or illness in adulthood, or aging, we learn about disability mostly from non-disabled parents, and / or non-disabled doctors, therapists, and teachers. So most disabled people's first exposure to ideas about disability are heavily ableist. Though we may not always realize it, a great many of us who are disabled accept the idea that we are inferior, at least in regard to our disabilities. It takes most of us a lot of time to meet other disabled people, come to realize the experiences we all share, and identify the external barriers we all face.

Ableism is bad. It hurts people. But it shouldn't shock us. We should be able to identify it and work against it with urgency, but without undue shame or anguish. The word "ableism" itself may sound artificial to some, but what it represents is as old as human civilization, and as immediate as every awkward encounter disabled people face every day.

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Words Matter, And It's Time To Explore The Meaning Of "Ableism."

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If you read more than one or two articles on disability issues, or talk to just about any disability rights activist, you will run across the word "ableism." The word does a lot of work for disability culture. It carries the weight of the worst of what plagues disabled people the most, but can be so hard to express.

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Resources for Support Trans and GNC Youth

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Resources for Support Trans and GNC Youth

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Trans and GNC Voices

Students

Educators

More Voices

Pronouns

At the foundation of trans inclusion in school is an understanding of gender. GLSEN's gender terminology guide and visual can help educators and students learn and lead discussions that can foster understanding of diverse genders.

Part of this understanding is recognizing the importance of gender pronouns. Learn more by exploring GLSEN's pronoun resource, and offer pronoun buttons to make your school more trans-inclusive. You can also download and print pronoun stickers ( he, she, they, blank) on Avery 5390 labels.

According to GLSEN research, compared to other students in the LGBTQ community, transgender and gender nonconforming students face more hostile school climates. To learn more, see GLSEN's full research report and webinar on trans student experiences, and our report on trans students and school facilities, co-authored with Movement Advancement Project.

Transgender Awareness Week from November 11 to 19, Transgender Day of Remembrance/Resilience on November 20, and Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 are important moments for trans inclusion, to create safe and inclusive schools for trans students. But making school trans-inclusive is a year-round effort.

Below is a wealth of resources that center trans and gender non-conforming students and educators. These resources share personal experiences and can help students and educators learn about gender diversity, pronoun visibility, trans students' rights, and inclusive curriculum and GSA practices.

Looking for more? This educator webinar and GSA guide go deeper into how to support trans and non-binary students.

Trans Rights

Trans-inclusive school policies are critical to creating school environments that are safe and supportive for trans students. These tools can help you in advocating for these policies:

To learn more about trans students' rights, see GLSEN and ACLU's Know Your Rights guide. If you face harassment or discrimination at school, make sure to #ClaimYourRights and report complaints to the U.S. Department of Education.

Classroom and GSA Activities

Trans students, like all students, thrive when they see themselves reflected at school. This means teaching lessons and activities that include and represent trans identities both in the curriculum and in meetings of LGBTQ student clubs.

Try out these activities:

Educators, want the latest resources sent to your inbox? Sign up for GLSEN's Educator Network!

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At the foundation of trans inclusion in school is an understanding of gender. GLSEN's gender terminology guide and visual can help educators and students learn and lead discussions that can foster understanding of diverse genders. Part of this understanding is recognizing the importance of gender pronouns.

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The Literary Canon Is Mostly White. Here’s an Alternative Latin American Reading List

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These books are all great and important, but they hardly include our history.

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During the first week of the class, teacher candidates share who they are and which adjectives best describe them.

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During the first week of the class, teacher candidates share who they are and which adjectives best describe them.

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Countering Deficit Myths of Students with Dis/ability

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Countering Deficit Myths of Students with Dis/ability

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As stated in the essay Service-Learning and Prejudice Reduction, service-learning can be used to dispel stereotypes when pre-service activities help students think about their own attitudes and assumptions. In this activity, students explore their cultural filters while learning to recognize and respect the different perspectives and backgrounds of others. Doing so will help students more deeply connect to the service-learning experience.

Materials:

Students will use a blank piece of paper to create their FRAME -- the things that make up who you are, the unique qualities, similarities and differences you have with other people. Students will use the Valuing Differences handout as a guide.

The teacher will guide students in a discussion about how their FRAMEs affect how they see the world and other people. Individual experiences cause each person to view the world in a different light. These experiences, or our FRAME, lead us to make assumptions about others and the world around us. Sometimes these assumptions lead us to make judgments or stereotypes, or have feelings of uneasiness and mistrust toward others.

Examining their FRAME can help students talk about their assumptions, fears and biases, before engaging in a service-learning project. Students can use the following list of reminders to engage in their projects from a multicultural perspective:

F -- Figure out the facts: Not just what is apparent to you, but all the facts. Seek more information, ask questions and listen.

R -- Reflect on reality: Is it my reality or their reality? Am I looking at this through my FRAME or trying to see it through their FRAME?

A -- Acknowledge and challenge assumptions: Think about your expectations and whether they are appropriate. Are you making assumptions based on your FRAME?

M -- Maintain an open mind: Just because someone else's FRAME differs from yours doesn't make them wrong. What can you learn from them? What can they learn from you? What do you have in common?

E -- Expand your experiences: Explore, expose yourself, and encounter differences; expand your comfort zone; increase your cultural competence.
Adapted with permission from the University of Minnesota's service-learning guide (PDF).

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This activity encourages students to reflect on their individual cultures and histories, their backgrounds, the things they grew up with (some that may have been in their control and others that they had no choice about), and their values. In the end, students will begin to enlarge their perspective and recognize diversity of belief and background.

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Listen to an Extended Version of this Post in a Podcast:
Samira Fejz ic was used to people saying her name wrong, especially in school. "Through the years, as roll would be called, I would wait for that awkward pause-this is how I knew I was next. I accepted this ritual."

Fejzic (FAY-zich), whose family left Bosnia in the early nineties and moved to the U.S. in 1999, experienced this ritual for ten years, and she understood that people in her new town weren't used to names like hers, despite the fact that the area's Bosnian population had grown massive in recent years.

"It never hurt me until high school graduation," she recalls. "This was a big day for me. My grandparents from Bosnia came just to watch me get my diploma and of course, my name was butchered."

If you're in a position to say lots of student names-in your classroom, over the P.A. system, or especially at awards ceremonies and graduations-no one will be surprised if you mess up a couple of them. But this year, maybe you can do better. If you make the commitment now to get them all right, if you resolve this time to honor your students with clear, beautiful pronunciation of their full, given names, that, my friend, will be the loveliest surprise of all.

Three Kinds of Name-Sayin'

I grew up with a hard-to-pronounce name. Actually, it wasn't that hard; it just looked different from what people were used to: Yurkosky. (Kind of rhymes with "Her pots ski," minus the "t" in pots.) Year after year, i t threw everyone off. And the way they approached the name put them into one of three camps: fumble-bumblers, arrogant manglers, and calibrators.

The fumble-bumblers I didn't mind so much. They'd mispronounce the name, slowing down and making their voice all wobbly, not trusting themselves. They'd grimace, laugh, ask me how to say it, then try again. But then they sort of gave up. Over the next few attempts, they'd settle into something that was a kind of approximation, and that would be that. What made me not mind these people was that they put the mispronunciation on themselves- their demeanor suggested the fault was with them, not me or my name.

The arrogant manglers were another story. They assumed their pronunciation was correct and just plowed ahead, never bothering to check. In many cases, an arrogant mangler will persist with their own pronunciation even after they've been corrected. Adan (uh-DON) Deeb, whose family hails from Israel with Palestinian roots, experienced this as a middle school student in the U.S. "Every time I was called up to the office, EVERY SINGLE TIME, they would mispronounce my name, no matter how many times I corrected them. It made me angry. To me that shows that they just don't care enough to get my name right."

This group has a couple of sub-categories: One is the nicknamers-people who come across a name like Rajendrani and announce, "We'll just call you Amy." The other is the worst kind, the people who start with the first syllable, then wave the rest of the name away like so much cigarette smoke, adding "Whatever your name is," or just "whatever." I don't have a creative name for this group. Let's just call them assholes.

Finally, there was a small group I think of as the calibrators, people who recognized that my name required a little more effort. They asked me to pronounce it, tried to replicate it, then fine-tuned it a few more times against my own pronunciation. Some of them would even check back later to make sure they still had it.

My cousin Laura, who has the same last name I grew up with, remembers a professor who was a true calibrator. "It did take him a bit of time to learn to pronounce my name, but he was always apologetic when he said it wrong, and always insisted on the importance of getting such things right. He was easily the most inspirational and challenging teacher I've had...he just insisted that every student feel important."

If you're already a calibrator, keep up the good work. If you're not-if you've let yourself off the hook with some idea like "I'm terrible with names"-know that it's not too late to turn things around, and it does matter. Though it may seem inconsequential to you, the way you handle names has deeper implications than you might realize.

Kind of a Big Deal

People's reaction to this issue varies depending on their personality. If your student has a strong desire to please, wants desperately to fit in, or is generally conflict-avoidant, they may never tell you you're saying their name wrong. For those students, it might matter a lot, but they'd never say so. And other kids are just more laid-back in general. But for many students, the way you say their name conveys a more significant message.

Name mispronunciation - especially the kind committed by the arrogant manglers-actually falls into a larger category of behaviors called microaggressions, defined by researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color" (Sue et al., 2007).

In other words, Although most of your students may not know the word mutilating someone's name is a tiny act of bigotry. Whether you intend to or not, what you're communicating is this: Your name is different. Foreign. Weird. It's not worth my time to get it right. microaggression, they're probably familiar with that vague feeling of marginalization, the message that everyone else is "normal," and they are not.

In her piece What's in a Name? Kind of a Lot, writer Tracy Clayton (under the name Brokey McPoverty) rails against Ryan Seacrest's move to shorten the name of actress Quvenzhané Wallis to "Little Q." She points out that Seacrest and other media figures treat the names of some actors-who happen to be white-differently: "The problem is that white Hollywood...doesn't deem her as important as, say, Renee Zellweger, or Zach Galifianakis, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, all of whom have names that are difficult to pronounce- but they manage. The message sent is this: You, young, black, female child, are not worth the time and energy it will take me to learn to spell and pronounce your name."

This, by the way, is how you say Quvenzhané:

This issue goes beyond names rooted in cultures unfamiliar to the speaker. Whatever it is your student prefers to be called, it's worth the effort to get it right. I'm sure I've not only mispronounced my own students' names, but I've probably also called them something that was not their preference-realizing in April that the kid I've been calling Stephan all year actually prefers to be called Jude.

And before you get all defensive about the bigotry thing, let's be clear: Discovering that something you do might be construed as bigotry doesn't mean anyone is calling you a bigot. It's just an opportunity to grow. An opportunity to understand that doing something a little differently shows others that you respect them. At some point in your life, someone probably taught you to hold the door open for the person coming in behind you. Before then, maybe you didn't know. Opportunity to grow. It's that simple.

How to Get it Right

The best way to get students' names right is to just ask them. Pull the kid aside and say, You know what? I think I've been messing up your name all year, and I'm sorry. Now that graduation is coming, I want to say it perfectly. Can you teach me?

By humbling yourself in this way, you let them see that you're human. You're modeling what it looks like to be a lifelong learner, a flexible, confident person who is not afraid to admit a mistake. Regardless of the outcome, a genuine effort on your part will mean so much, and when the big day comes, they might even root for you to get it right.

If you have hundreds of names to learn, get systematic: Starting now, carry around a clipboard with all the names you'll need to say - even those you think you already know, and start checking in with kids in the cafeteria, in the halls, in the stands at a basketball game. And for God's sake, write down what they tell you. When the big day comes, the page of names you read from should look something like this:

Do whatever it takes, using whatever kind of symbols or notes you need to get the right syllables out in the right order. (The apple is there to remind the speaker to say that "a" like they would in the word apple.)

If you've run out of time to ask students themselves, or if doing that is too uncomfortable for you, you can get some help online. On Pronounce Names, you can find a huge collection of names and their pronunciations.

Whatever you do, do something. For some students, you may be the first person who ever bothered. If the only time you say their name is in the classroom, your correct pronunciation will help the whole class learn it, too. Eventually that will ripple through the school, making that student feel known in a place where before they felt unknown.

And if you have the honor of announcing them on the day they receive their award, their diploma, the day that marks some big achievement, you have a unique opportunity to make it even more special, but you only have two seconds: Make it count. It's a gift they'll remember for a long time. ♥
Reference:
Sue, D.W., Capodilupo, C.M., Torino, G.C., Bucceri, J.M., Holder, A.M.B., Nadal, K.L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62 (4), 271-286.

There's more where this came from.
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How We Pronounce Student Names, and Why it Matters

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Listen to an Extended Version of this Post in a Podcast: Samira Fejz ic was used to people saying her name wrong, especially in school. "Through the years, as roll would be called, I would wait for that awkward pause-this is how I knew I was next. I accepted this ritual."

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Attitude Latitudes

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3
(Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior)

What You Need: Three worksheets: Introvert or Extrovert, Optimist or Pessimist, X-Y graph
What to Do: Ask students what it means to have an attitude. Though they'll likely think it's a matter of having a good or a bad attitude, define attitude as one's "readiness to act or react in a certain way."

Have students describe how they act or react in different situations. Does their attitude change from situation to situation? Hand out the Introvert or Extrovert and Optimist or Pessimist worksheets for students to find out how they rank. Then, have them figure out their "attitude latitudes" on the third worksheet (an X-Y graph). Students will graph their introversion/extroversion score on the horizontal axis and their optimism/pessimism score on the vertical axis to land in one of four quadrants. You might use fictional characters from a book or movie to symbolize each quadrant. (I've used characters from Shrek. You're a "Donkey," for instance, if you're an extroverted optimist.) This will give students some insight into how they relate to other people and how they might harness their energies in the most socially beneficial way.

Brain Freezers

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3
(Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior)

What You Need: Worksheet and answer key
What to Do: How often do your students think about their own thinking? Distribute the Brain Freezers worksheet. Have students work individually or in small groups to answer all of the riddles as quickly as possible. (You might set a time limit, such as 10 or 15 minutes.) When students are done, ask them which riddles were difficult and which were easy. (They will likely say that riddles in the first column were easier.) Invite students to share their answers. As they do so, write the most common responses on the board. After reviewing the answers and explanations using the supplied answer key, ask students if they have changed their minds about which riddles were easy. Elicit that the riddles in the first column seemed easy, but actually should have made them stop and think. Their wrong answers were the result of "fast thinking." Conversely, the riddles in the second column seemed to require a lot of thought, when the solutions were actually simple; "slow thinking" likely bogged them down.

Use this activity as an opportunity to talk about times that "fast thinking" or "slow thinking" got them in trouble: "Fast thinking" can cause you to jump to conclusions, while "slow thinking" can make you dwell too much on problems.

Setting Boundaries

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 2
(Understands various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership, and different ways that groups function)

What You Need: Boundaries worksheet
What to Do: To most students, boundaries are the lines drawn between states or nations. Explain that boundaries also pertain to relationships-rules that tell us what we can and can't do. Talk about the boundaries that apply in families, school, and society. Next, hand out the Boundaries worksheet and talk about the types of rules-rigid (hard-and-fast), clear (firm but appropriate), and fuzzy (inconsistent or nonexistent). Have students work in small groups to evaluate the boundaries listed on the worksheet to determine the type of boundary described in each. Review the answers as a class and discuss what life would be like without boundaries. Are they frustrating but important to have? Work with students to create a list of classroom boundaries, organized by physical (respect one another's space), behavioral (listen respectfully), and academic (turn in work on time).

What Sets You Off?

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 4
(Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions)

What You Need: What Sets You Off? worksheet
What to Do: Managing emotional responses is difficult for many adolescents, who are still developing neurologically-the emotional centers of the brain develop more rapidly than the executive centers.

Hand out the What Sets You Off? worksheet. Have students recall a time when they got really angry and then write down "just the facts" about the incident. Students should detail three different experiences on the worksheet. Then, challenge them to look for patterns as to what sets them off. Have they gotten angry at least twice over the same situation or with the same person? This can reveal that certain people or behaviors (e.g., teasing) act as triggers for them. Likewise, it will help identify "danger zones" for confrontations (the locker room, for instance). When you debrief students' experiences, focus on the suggestion "Don't react! Respond." Discuss the difference (reaction is knee-jerk, while response is something you do after careful thought) and how a response might have de-escalated an encounter.

Resolving Conflicts

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 4
(Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions)

What You Need: Two worksheets: What's Their Attitude? Part I and Part II

What to Do: Introduce students to four communication styles: assertive (standing up for yourself and respecting others), passive (doing anything to avoid conflict), aggressive (standing up for yourself and not caring who gets hurt), and passive-aggressive (secretly angry). Give examples of these styles using characters from a book you've recently read in class.

Hand out the first worksheet, What's Their Attitude? Part I, to learn how these different styles play out in
conflicts. Then, create a fictional disagreement, inviting student volunteers to role-play it. Dissect the conflict by identifying who was involved, what each person wanted, how the individuals communicated what they wanted, and if it was resolved, including who "won." Talk about the different communication styles each actor exhibited.

To wrap up, have students complete the questions at the bottom of the worksheet and on the second worksheet ( What's Their Attitude? Part II) to anticipate how they might best act during a conflict. Refer back to these win-win solutions the next time a disagreement occurs in class.

Adapted from Social & Emotional Learning: Essential Lessons for Student Success.
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Grades 6-8: Social-Emotional Skills | Scholastic

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Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3 (Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior) What You Need: Three worksheets: Introvert or Extrovert, Optimist or Pessimist, X-Y graph What to Do: Ask students what it means to have an attitude.

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A few years ago, I had the great fortune to meet Bronx native Dena Simmons on a fellowship trip and hear about her life's work and experience. She's an educator, a TED speaker, and currently, the assistant director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence-not to mention a keynote speaker at the EdSurge Fusion conference later this year.

What I didn't realize at the time was just how much of a confluence there would be between her work and the current trendiness of one particular phrase: "social-emotional learning" (SEL)-something which Simmons has been exploring and researching for years.

As has happened with other buzzwords in the education space-from "personalized" to "project-based" learning-when a concept gains traction on Twitter or becomes trendy among edtech company offerings, it runs the risk of being mishandled or cheapened. Simmons is well aware of that reality, and has written and spoken about that risk for organizations from ASCD to large public school districts.

Namely, are we at risk of bastardizing SEL to the point where it becomes less helpful and more harmful for the students we seek to serve? How should educators work with kids to truly develop those soft skills-and escape the inevitability of impostor experiences?

Last week, Simmons and I sat down to discuss just that, and more.

What's the point of teaching children about conflict resolution skills, if we're not talking about the conflicts that exist because of racism or white supremacy?

Dena Simmons

From Social-Emotional Learning to Social-Emotional Equity

For the last five years, Simmons has risen through the ranks at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence-first starting off as associate director of school initiatives, then moving into a director of education role and finally making it to assistant director.

But for Simmons, her growth isn't simply driven only by a desire to climb the career ladder. In fact, her work in equity comes from a very personal place. When asked to recall a key memory that defined her as an educator and a human being, she mentions her twin sister, who has a chronic, debilitating illness.

"It really is hard to watch my sister struggle and suffer, but it has really brought out the activist in me, because I've had to fight for her since I was young," she describes. "I've had to tell doctors to respect what she's saying when she's in pain. It really taught me about how black lives are valued-especially within the chronically sick black folk community."

As a young girl growing up in the Bronx, Simmons was ever-aware of the importance of personal safety and community. Today, she works with her colleagues to ensure that "our young people have safe spaces to learn"-hence the research and efforts around spreading social-emotional learning and helping students figure out how to navigate and manage their emotions, relationships and well-being.

However, according to Simmons, the world of SEL isn't all hearts and stars. On the contrary-we are at risk of delivering a "very flawed narrative" when it comes to SEL. Here's how.

When Social-Emotional Learning Becomes 'White Supremacy With a Hug'

First, Simmons describes the fact that when SEL is taught to students-particularly students of color-without any context, it can become inherently problematic. "What's the point of teaching children about conflict resolution skills," she says, "if we're not talking about the conflicts that exist because of racism or white supremacy? Without that nuance, she says SEL risks turning into "white supremacy with a hug."

To help address this issue, Simmons recently wrote a piece for ASCD entitled " Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social Emotional Learning," in which she argues that teaching SEL needs to happen within a sociopolitical and racial context.

"Educators often teach SEL absent of the larger sociopolitical context, which is fraught with injustice and inequity and affects our students' lives," she wrote, adding that educators oftentimes "feel ill-equipped and uncomfortable in addressing topics like poverty, gun violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of injustice that many students, particularly our most marginalized, experience daily."

Beyond that, the trendiness of SEL is something that also gives Simmons pause-something she recommends practitioners be aware of.

"People's lives are at stake and so we have to approach anything we do with them-SEL, project-based learning, any of the sort of big names or trendy things-we just have to do it responsibly. We just can't do it for the sake of doing it," she states, later adding, "I worry that sometimes because of the trend, we do it for the sake of doing it and not because it could enhance people's lives."

Beyond the Defensiveness: Starting with Educator Self-Analysis

At the heart of this all, however, is a need for educators-those folks ultimately in charge of the SEL instruction-to recognize and confront their own internalized racism and sexism, defensiveness and lack of true SEL understanding as it applies to their own awareness and biases.

Simmons, who gives trainings on equitable social-emotional learning to districts and schools across the United States, oftentimes sees that defensiveness and white fragility (a concept first coined by scholar Robin DiAngelo) firsthand.

"The second flawed piece about SEL is [the idea] that some groups of children need it more than other children. When I do SEL trainings, it's like 'kids with special needs need this more,' or 'our black and brown children need this more,' as if because they're not calm enough..." Simmons says. She explored this in a piece she wrote for the Greater Good Science Center.

But what teachers really need to do, she explains, "is to understand themselves, recognize their power and privilege and identity," and "what that means in the work that they do and the people with whom they often work."

And that, as Simmons adds, takes humility, time and most importantly, effort.

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Dena Simmons: Without Context, Social-Emotional Learning Can Backfire - EdSurge News

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A few years ago, I had the great fortune to meet Bronx native Dena Simmons on a fellowship trip and hear about her life's work and experience. She's an educator, a TED speaker, and currently, the assistant director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence-not to mention a keynote speaker at the EdSurge Fusion conference later this year.

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Culturally Responsive IEPs & Self-Determination

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Culturally Responsive IEPs & Self-Determination

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Helping students determine what they like, need, and communicate those desires with significant others.

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Disability is a common human experience, 20% of Americans have some type of disability. Many disabilities are hidden (such as mental health, intellectual disabilities, autism, chronic illness, traumatic brain injury...). And many people acquire disabilities at some point in their lives through accident, illness or aging. Every organization and group includes people with disabilities.

Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term "Intersectionality" to describe the experience of living with multiple identities (gender, race, culture, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc). We recognize that while there has been more conversation about some intersections (like race and gender) there have been other experiences that are often overlooked, even in conversations about equity (such as the experience of people of color who have disabilities). There is a growing body of research illustrating specific disadvantages experienced by people of color with disabilities. This video features local people of color sharing about their experiences with the disability community.

FISA Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation are partnering to strengthening our work at the intersection of race and disability, and to better address the needs of people of color with disabilities. We're excited to invite you to learn along with us in these upcoming free programs!

Inside-out work: Embedding racial equity in organizational culture

Wednesday, May 26, 2-3:30 ET

In recent years, many organizations have expressed a commitment to racial equity and justice and taken important first steps. Truly integrating this commitment into the fabric of a nonprofit's mission takes leadership, intentionality, and tangible, practical work. The journey requires authenticity, vulnerability, and a willingness to make mistakes, learn and do better. Please join us for this conversation between Michelle McMurray, Vice President of Program and Community Engagement at The Pittsburgh Foundation, and Tricia Gadson, CEO of Macedonia FACE, about what it takes to embed equity into organizational culture. Speakers will share progress that organizations have made in this area and note challenges associated with this work. REGISTER!

Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color and Students with Disabilities

June 8, 2-3:30pm ET

In schools across the United States, Black students and other student of color are being harshly punished, arrested and issued citations at school for behavior that is not very different from white students. Students with disabilities are being excluded from the classroom through suspensions and expulsions and referred to the police for manifestations of their disabilities. And students of color who have disabilities experience compounded harms of racism and ableism in schools.

Students with disabilities are referred to juvenile justice at rates 5 times higher than students without disabilities.

Pennsylvania has the 2nd highest arrest rate in the country for Black students.

45% of Black boys and 26% of Black girls that Pittsburgh Public School Police refer to juvenile justice have disabilities.

Most of the infractions that result in criminal charges are minor and do not threaten school safety: being "disruptive," using "offensive" language, arguments where no one is injured. These patterns of over-policing further the myth that students of color engage in actions that are more dangerous than their white peers, which is unsupported by data. When police become involved in non-criminal disciplinary matters, the consequences for students, particularly students of color and those with disabilities can be profound and long-lasting. REGISTER!

(Recent event) Fostering Cultural Humility in Disability Services

Description: This workshop provided tools and strategies to increase multicultural awareness, knowledge, and the skills necessary to effectively work with and relate to ethnically and culturally diverse clients receiving disability services. Topics covered include intersectionality, disability justice and advocacy, implicit bias, cross-cultural communication, and microaggressions. Cultural Humility was introduced as a process to help build authentic cross-cultural relationships and will provide a culturally relevant strategic approach to reducing disparities. Presented by Dr. Channing Moreland, Director of the Wellness Pavilion at the University of Pittsburgh Community Engagement Center in Homewood.

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Funding Opportunity: Expanding Disability Inclusion and Access in Southwestern Pennsylvania

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Disability is a common human experience, 20% of Americans have some type of disability. Many disabilities are hidden (such as mental health, intellectual disabilities, autism, chronic illness, traumatic brain injury...). And many people acquire disabilities at some point in their lives through accident, illness or aging. Every organization and group includes people with disabilities.

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How we see the world impacts actions, views, opinions. Learn more about our social identities.

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Abstract

The way that we as researchers view and interpret our social worlds is impacted by where, when, and how we are socially located and in what society. The position from which we see the world around us impacts our research interests, how we approach the research and participants, the questions we ask, and how we interpret the data. In this article, we argue that it is not a straightforward or easy task to conceptualize and practice positionality. We have developed a Social Identity Map that researchers can use to explicitly identify and reflect on their social identity to address the difficulty that many novice critical qualitative researchers experience when trying to conceptualize their social identities and positionality. The Social Identity Map is not meant to be used as a rigid tool but rather as a flexible starting point to guide researchers to reflect and be reflexive about their social location. The map involves three tiers: the identification of social identities (Tier 1), how these positions impact our life (Tier 2), and details that may be tied to the particularities of our social identity (Tier 3). With the use of this map as a guide, we aim for researchers to be able to better identify and understand their social locations and how they may pose challenges and aspects of ease within the qualitative research process. Being explicit about our social identities allows us (as researchers) to produce reflexive research and give our readers the tools to recognize how we produced the data. Being reflexive about our social identities, particularly in comparison to the social position of our participants, helps us better understand the power relations imbued in our research, further providing an opportunity to be reflexive about how to address this in a responsible and respectful way.

Introduction

In qualitative health research, the goal is to understand how people interpret and find meaning in their everyday lives and identify social and political forces which shape lived experiences and health. In critical qualitative health research, the goal expands as critical researchers "question the conceptual and theoretical bases of knowledge and method...ask questions that go beyond prevailing assumptions and understandings, and...acknowledge the role of power and social position in health-related phenomena" ( Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research, 2018, p. 1). Critical qualitative health research, and those who align themselves with this epistemological foundation, not only explore health phenomena through qualitative methods but also engage in an exploration of self-critique, which is "a critical posture vis-à-vis qualitative inquiry itself" ( Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research, 2018). Foundational to this is developing self-reflexive analysis of how, why, and in what ways research is conducted and an understanding of the role of power, privilege, and visibility in the research process.

When learning about critical qualitative health research, one of the basic elements of reflexivity that is taught is positionality ( Day, 2012; Gastaldo, 2015; Waterston & Rylko-Bauer, 2007). Some of the many facets that make up our social identities include but are not limited to class, citizenship, ability, age, race, sexual orientation, cis/trans status, and gender ( Collins, 2015; Dhamoon & Hankivsky, 2011). These factors-whether one is young, old, a woman, a man, nonbinary, cisgender, trans, a Canadian, an Emirati, White, Black, lower middle class, wealthy, able, with a disability, heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual, and so on-affect the way that we see and interpret the world around us, and how the world sees and interprets us ( Day, 2012). It is already known that the researcher is one of the main instruments for generating and analyzing data ( Leibing & McLean, 2007; McLean, 2007). Thus, it is important to highlight researchers' motivations for conducting research and how one's background and experiences impact this motivation.

It is known that the way that researchers perceive the social world is largely dependent on their position within it, which further impacts the way that the research is approached, interacted with, and interpreted ( Campbell & Wasco, 2000; Smith, 2005). Understanding our position, particularly in comparison to the social position of our participants, helps us to better understand the power relations imbued in our research and provides an opportunity to be reflexive about how to address this ( Day, 2012). Not only that, being explicit about our positions in our work allows those who read our work to better grasp how we produced the data ( Finlay, 2002). No matter the research tradition, it is beneficial to reflect on positionality and how one's social identity impacts the research ( Einstein, 2012). Therefore, we view positionality as a research tool. Dr. Joan Eakin, in a personal communication, aptly described an important function of positionality-knowing what we are bringing to the research critically helps us see our data in productive, insightful ways and immeasurably furthers our capacity to do creative analysis and theorization.

Despite what is already known about positionality, there is a current gap in the literature for addressing how to help novice critical qualitative researchers practice positionality. This article adds to the current literature on positionality since we not only argue that practicing positionality is a complex task, but we also propose the use of a novel tool we have developed to help researchers begin to map their social identities and be reflexive about their positionality. The Social Identity Map enables researchers to visually see how their positions impact the research process, while having the potential to reduce bias and promote a better understanding of health phenomena through participants' lived experiences. We hope that this map will help researchers take abstract ideas about their positionality and understand them in more tangible ways.

There are many layers of complexity involved in positionality ( Day, 2012), especially since our identities develop and change over time ( Naples, 2003). We argue that continuously developing a better understanding of our positionality and how it may impact our work is no simple or straightforward task. It is complex and can be daunting for novice critical qualitative health researchers to parse out which elements of positionality are most important. The complexity deepens with countless factors that contribute to this and countless approaches (theoretical and methodological traditions) that can be used to enter into research. Although we do not propose the answers to these complexities, we do however trouble the current status quo of practicing positionality. Some layers of complexity that we address in this article include: (1) the fluidity of our ever-changing social identities; (2) the abstract, intangible nature of our social identities; (3) the difficulty of knowing which facets of our social identity are more influential over time and place; and (4) how our social identities impact the research process.

Even when named, the countless facets that contribute to our social identity are always in motion; or, in other words, are fluid ( Day, 2012), "shifting over time and place" ( Naples, 2003, p. 198). For example, age shifts according to when we are in the world. A young individual may have less experience and feel self-conscious due to this position, whereas an older individual may be more experienced but could feel the stigma of aging. It is important to turn the debate inward toward ourselves on the differing perspectives within any one facet of social identity and how it may impact how someone approaches their research. We must reflect on how our own unique perspectives which are made up by, but not limited to, each facet of our social identity, impact how we approach, conduct, and interpret our research. Although scrupulous and at times abstract, the complexity of naming and understanding our social identities which develop over time ( Naples, 2003) is an important part of being reflexive about our positionality.

Part of what can cause confusion in the abstraction of social identity for novice researchers is that often social structures in which identities play out are perceived as relatively fixed ( Burke, 1980), and the aspects that contribute to social identities themselves are sometimes static ( Yilmaz, Unal, Gencer, Aydemir, & Selcuk, 2015). Author DJ reflects on her public school education as a child, being taught that identity is rigid-you are a boy or a girl, you may be attracted to either boys or girls, you were born with XX sex chromosomes so you are a girl, you are born in Canada and therefore you are Canadian. As children in the public school sector of the Greater Toronto Area, we (authors DJ and NM) were not taught explicitly that our identities can and will change (other than our age). Differently, when we learned about positionality in higher education, we began to realize that often there is a fluid nature to our identities and the social spaces we traverse. Therefore, it is no wonder that the instinct of many students learning about positionality is to resist or struggle with the notion of potentially complex, fluid social identities.

It is difficult to know which facets of our social identity are more influential than others during specific times and in specific places. For example, we (authors DJ and NM) notice that currently there is a specific emphasis on the importance of sexual identity, gender identity, and racial or cultural identity. Right now, these facets of social identity may be given more sociopolitical salience than other facets. Further, understanding the effects that each of these facets has on the way that we as researchers approach, interact with, and interpret the research is all the more perplexing. These instances are not linear but rather intertwined with one another. Knowing when and where which facets of our social identities are more influential is key to understanding how they contribute to our positionality and impact our work-and vice versa. It is important for novice critical qualitative researchers to bear in mind that the facets of social identity, which are most salient at the time and place they are being reflected upon, are largely impacted by the social and political climate that the researcher is located in.

We believe that the current practice of conceptualizing and understanding positionality has to date only been conceptual because positionality is intangible-we cannot see our social identities like we can see our computers in front of us. However, we argue that the current practice of positionality, although suitable for critical qualitative research experts, lacks a tangibility that could help novice critical qualitative researchers begin to work through their social identities and better understand their positionality and its relation to their research.

Mapping Our Social Identity

Author DJ first drafted the Social Identity Map to conduct a doctoral-level facilitation for a qualitative health research class taught by Dr. Denise Gastaldo at the University of Toronto. DJ was struggling to clearly understand and express how the facets of her social identity impacted her on multiple levels. DJ's experience learning about institutional ethnography inspired her to draft a personalized map of social identity. DJ was influenced by the way that creating a map of social relations helps researchers understand the social organization and coordination within an institution ( Campbell & Gregor, 2002; DeVault & McCoy, 2006). Thus, she developed a map of social identity to begin to understand and visualize her positionality in more explicit ways.

The aim of the facilitation was to reflect on the interconnections between facets of our social identity. It covered how social identity informs the way we view and interact with our environment, how identity cannot be isolated from research practice ( Day, 2012), and how researchers are often outsiders to participants, without firsthand understanding of the unique social experiences or potential oppression they may face ( Collins, 1998; Watts, 2006).

This facilitation was then converted into a workshop and presented at the Critical Pedagogies Symposium at York University in October 2018 by DJ and NM. It was adapted to suit a broader range of critical qualitative health researchers from a critical pedagogical lens. The workshop focused on identifying participants' social identities and how they may pose challenges and aspects of ease within the critical qualitative research process. We (authors DJ and NM) aimed to help workshop members to practice being explicit about their positionality in their work as well as identify age old and new challenges facing researchers today. Our critical pedagogical approach included collective discussion of these challenges and brainstorming approaches to navigate them. Reflections from the facilitation and workshop will be examined in the Discussion section of this article to expand on the complexity of practicing positionality.

How to Use the Map

Mapping our social identity is by no means the end to understanding our positionality but instead is a starting point and a tool to help researchers be explicitly reflexive about their positionality. Because this map is a starting point, we encourage the learner (the individual using the map to reflect on their social identity) to begin their mapping by identifying their class, citizenship, ability, age, race, sexual orientation, cis/trans status, and gender (see Figure 1). Those using this map are encouraged to add to it by creating additional groupings (Tier 1; see Figure 1) that they identify as important contributors to their unique social identity as well as removing any they feel do not apply. Some may benefit from adding more Tier 1 groupings to the map including immigration status, religion, relationship status, employment status, political affiliation, or commitment to social change. We encourage learners using this map to not take it as concrete but instead make it their own to develop over time and place. The important part is reflecting on our social identities, being able to look at our Social Identity Map and ask ourselves: How do these facets of my identity (in combination with other facets) impact the way I approach, interact with, and interpret my research? How do these facets impact the way I understand and interact with my participants?

There are three tiers on the map of social identity (see Figure 1). The first tier asks learners to identify the broader facets of social identity such as class, citizenship, ability, age, race, sexual orientation, cis/trans status, and gender. This tier may be challenging, especially for novice critical qualitative researchers reflecting on their social identity for what could be the first time. It may be difficult to identify and put into words how we identify ourselves as well as to make aware which category/categories we feel best describe our being in the world. When we (authors DJ and NM) were working through our own social identity maps, we experienced some tensions, which will be elaborated on in the Discussion section of this article.

The second tier asks learners to go beyond these groupings by identifying how these positions impact their lives. Recognizing how our social identities impact our lives is a first step in developing our recognition of, and reflection on, how our social identities impact our research. This may include positions that one may hold within each facet of social identity, values intrinsically attached to these identities, or even interpretations of events or interactions because of the learner's social position. For example, as women, we (authors DJ and NM) highlighted on our maps that we experience oppression because of this identification (see Figures 2 and 3). This is because when we think about being women, we often think about the historical fight for equal rights including social relationships that are gender equal ( Ramazanoğlu & Holland, 2011) and the current need for equity ( Olesen, 2005). Although this is a simplistic explanation of why we have placed the word "oppression" in the second tier of our social identity maps, it highlights for us a large and meaningful part of what it means to be a woman. We see the world through the eyes of individuals who are, and have been treated by those around us, like women.

The third tier asks learners to reflect further and go into even more detail to identify emotions that may be tied to the details of their social identity. This may include details that the individual senses or feels because of their social identity or position. For example, we (authors DJ and NM) reflect that we approach the world in a more cautious way because of the oppression that we experience as women (see Figures 2 and 3). When completing our social identity maps, we discussed that growing up, we were both warned not to be alone, mostly at nighttime, to avoid being raped. Because of this, when walking home or to the bus station from campus after dark, we often find ourselves walking very briskly with one of our keys lodged between our fingers, since we have been trained to be careful as women; that it is our responsibility to avoid assault when walking alone at night. This significantly informs how we approach the world-as cautious women. Identifying how we approach the world as cautious women not only allows us to reflect on how we are perceived and how others interact with us, but more importantly, how this facet impacts how we position ourselves, approach and interact with our research, and interpret our data.

The third tier also goes a step further, allowing us to critically think about how being a woman impacts how we interact with study participants. For example, if we are conducting research with a vulnerable group of women, our own personal experiences of being a woman may be advantageous in understanding the lived experiences of our participants. Perhaps after using the map to self-reflect, we may realize that we are more aware and conscience of the challenges and difficulties our participants may endure in their daily lives because we have, or have had, similar experiences. On the other hand, perhaps we may come to be aware that although we share experiences as women, participants who have other vulnerable aspects of their social identity which we do not share may create a feeling of separation and warrant gentle and respectful prompts to understand their experiences.

The tiers may be interpreted in varying ways according to the unique individual working with the social identity map. For NM, the third tier allowed for a more in-depth understanding of identities, especially in terms of realizing which parts of her identity are most prevalent in the process of self-understanding (see Figure 3). For example, NM noted in the Tier 1 category for race that she is South Asian/Indian. In the second tier, she noted that this was the first part of her identity that came to mind when asked about who she is. The third tier allowed NM to delve deeper and question the importance of race in her life. The self-realization that occurred on the third tier revealed to her that she is Indian before she is anything else. NM realized that her past encounters and experiences have made this part of her identity extremely prominent, as it takes precedence over other categories on her map.

For NM, race was one facet that seemed to have more influence or weight on the way that she positioned herself in her research due to the particular time and place she was reflecting on her social identity. Grappling with the conceptualization of race was fueled by the sociopolitical climate of being an Indian woman in Canada along with the lived experience of this social identity. Because NM's research focuses on women who are also of Indian background in Canada, this mapping activity, as well as the realization of the importance of race in her life, allowed her to reflect on how her participants may understand, identify, and experience this facet of their identity as well. This allowed for further reflection from NM on how her participants' understanding of race shapes their experiences as minority, immigrant women in Canada.

NM feels that this reflection is advantageous in better understanding the lived experiences of women in her study. The mapping activity for NM fostered self-reflection, which has the power to reduce particular biases and assumptions toward her participants ( Galdas, 2017). Having lived through the immigrant process and dealing with challenges that minority women encounter herself enabled an understanding and deep discussion with participants about this particular history. Perhaps a researcher without the lived experience of immigration, on the other hand, may have approached the topic and participants in the study differently and may have had different assumptions about what it means to be an immigrant woman.

For researchers who have spent some time reflecting on their social identities, another way of completing the third tier of the map is to consider how the particular facets of social identity may impact what topics are of interest to them for exploration, how they approach their research, how they interact with participants, how they interpret data, and how they disseminate knowledge. For example, NM is now aware that the way she interacts, speaks, and behaves around her participants is heavily guided by their common racial identity. We expand on the benefits of the Social Identity Map for researchers specifically below.

The Social Identity Map is meant to be a fluid and flexible starting point. Although the Social Identity Map has boxes to fill in for visual clarity, we encourage the learner using this map to think outside of these boxes and to not feel limited by them. Some may feel they would like to stick to the map as it is, while others may feel they would like to add new boxes to Tier 1 or 2, new lines of thought to Tier 3, a new tier altogether, or even show interconnectedness among the tiers. The map is meant to become each researcher's unique tool. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to be creative with it, to reflect on it, and be reflexive about their own social identity. Deviating from the confines of the map according to each individual is encouraged. After mapping their social identity, it is important for learners to ask themselves: How do these facets of my social identity (also in combination with other facets) impact the way I approach my data, interact with participants, and interpret and disseminate my research?

How to Use the Map in a Research Context

It is important for researchers to use the Social Identity Map to reflect on their positionality and apply these reflections directly to the research context. Approach to the research, data collection, and interpretation are each distinct parts of the research process, but these aspects become connected and intertwined when it comes to thinking about how the researcher's positionality impacts their work. For example, the way a question is asked, based on the researcher's social location, previous experiences, and history, may bear on how participants are interacted with, which may impact what data are generated.

To better describe how this map can be practically used during the research process, we will discuss its use during design and preparation, data collection and analysis, and findings and interpretation. We discuss this process with some linearity for the purpose of clarity for the novice researcher, but we acknowledge that in everyday research practice, reflecting on positionality in action may not be as linear or clean cut.

Even though it is recommended that reflection and reflexivity begin when the research is envisaged ( Finlay, 2002), we add that researchers must reflect on instances that occurred even before the research is envisaged, so that they can better understand and be aware of their own motivations and intentions. For example, DJ conceptualized her research on how women with female genital cutting interact with reproductive health care in Toronto in the first year of her PhD program. DJ completed the Social Identity Map through the lens of her research project to reflect on and be explicit about her motivations and approach to the research. DJ reflected that her problematic experiences helping her mother traverse Toronto's health care from 2011 to 2016 motivated her to study and work toward improving women's health-care experiences in Toronto. This consideration came from mapping her class and gender and reflecting on experiences pertaining to these aspects of her social identity. The Social Identity Map thus enables researchers to go beyond the literature and into their real-life experiences to better understand how their social identity impacts their research design and preparation.

In qualitative research, often researchers can only anticipate where their study may go, rather than prescribing a plan, like in most forms of quantitative research ( Sandelowski & Barroso, 2003). The iterative nature of qualitative work makes it extremely important to continue to use and develop tools like the Social Identity Map to reflect on positionality and its impact on research design and preparation. The use of the Social Identity Map is especially salient since the outcome of qualitative research is considered to be created by researchers, participants, and their relationship ( Finlay, 2002). Reflecting on positionality using the Social Identity Map includes a reflection on how facets of one's social identity may (or may not) influence research interests, which questions are asked, and which methodologies are chosen.

Drawing on NM's doctoral research on the lived experience of chronic pain among immigrant Indian women in Canada, study design and methods were chosen based on the literature in this area and also through a process of self-reflection on behalf of the researcher using the Social Identity Map. Initially, a body mapping exercise was chosen for the study, however, after reflecting on both her and her participants' social identity, NM decided against this method. NM, being a woman of Indian background herself and being raised with reservation and shyness around her own physical body, realized that this activity would not be comfortable for middle-aged immigrant women from India due to cultural norms, beliefs, and religious values. Instead, NM chose a photovoice method to better suit the overlapping culture of herself and participants, which captured lived experience without drawing explicit attention to participants' physical bodies. The Social Identity Map's tier of race/religion/cultural background facilitated this deep thinking in order to arrive at the best data collection method for this particular group of women.

The use of the Social Identity Map can be relational at all research stages since it can be used to reflect both on one's own and participants' positionality. It can be used to anticipate dynamics between the researcher and participant with the goal of using it to explicitly reflect on how to be most sensitive and respectful to the participants being interviewed. Being aware of positionality through the use of the Social Identity Map can bring latent power dynamics to the forefront, which provides the opportunity to begin to acknowledge and mitigate these.

During data collection, the Social Identity Map can be used to reflect on how the differing and/or overlapping aspects of each party's respective positionality impacts the research interaction. For example, having aspects of one's social identity that overlap with participants' may be beneficial, especially during interviews. A study conducted with age- and gender-matched researchers and participants found that these commonalities made both groups feel more comfortable, leading to a more concrete discussion during interviews ( Manderson, Bennett, & Andajani-Sutjahjo, 2006). The same study matched women interviewing women, men interviewing men, and women interviewing men. It was found that women interviewing women was characterized with interactional feedback and extended responses, men interviewing men was characterized with minimization of pain/emotions and an emphasis on agency, and women interviewing men was characterized with men avoiding the discussion of emotion and women encouraging men to open up ( Manderson et al., 2006).

When reflecting on relative social identity using gender as an example, we see that there is complexity. The conclusion is not as simple as saying it is better for women to interview women and men to interview men. There are both advantages and disadvantages depending on the embodiment of gender stereotypes, societal expectations surrounding gender, and the topic of research itself. The Social Identity Map is beneficial here as it creates an explicit and intentional space for researchers to reflect on the positionality of themselves and participants. The map also enables researchers to think about the overlapping and/or different social identities of both themselves and participants, which potentially create power dynamics in the relationship. It is important to acknowledge that although previous research has discussed different combinations of men and women interviewing each other, there is not explicit work on interviewers or interviewees being gender nonconforming individuals. This is another area that can be reflected on using the Social Identity Map which does not limit gender identity to only female and male.

It has also been described that race, sexuality, and religion of women interviewing women adds further complexity to the interview interaction ( Warren, 2011). Although both interviewer and interviewee may be women, each has their own unique social identities which may present differences that are important to consider when reflecting on how the positionality of the researcher and participant shape the generation of data and results. For example, if both interviewer and participant are women, but one is a White woman and one is a Black woman, power dynamics based on race enter into the interaction and may impact the data generated; differently than if both interviewer and participant were Black women. The openness of the discussion and comfort level of both women may be impacted by this power dynamic. The Social Identify Map, therefore, allows for an explicit awareness of and reflection on these social and power dynamics and enables reflexivity, especially in relation to participants.

It is also important to consider social identity (of both the researcher and participant) when discussing and interpreting findings. A study which investigates race and class bias within qualitative research highlights the need to give adequate reflection to race and class when interviewing women. Without this, conclusions drawn may not accurately reflect the data and thus may bias the production of the research ( Cannon, Higginbotham, & Leung, 1988). The use of the Social Identity Map in research can help researchers to curtail assumptions that they may have when analyzing and interpreting data by being explicit about their social location, how they relate to participants, and how it may have implicated the data.

Drawing on NM's research experiences with minority immigrant women, we see that reflecting on race, culture, and immigration are intrinsically linked to the interpretation of study findings. When filling out the Social Identity Map, NM reflected on race as a dominant identity in her life and reflected on the challenges her and her family endured arriving to a new country as immigrants. This reflexive exercise was valuable to NM's research, since the women in her study shared similar immigration stories and difficulties adjusting to a new country because of their racial and immigrant status. These experiences became the forefront of the discussion when conducting interviews. Although NM's research is grounded in participants' lived experiences, her own history and story shaped the interviews, analysis, and interpretation of findings in regard to larger issues of immigration, acculturation, and settlement. The Social Identity Map allowed NM to be explicit about these issues and bringing them into the discussion helped to ensure that conclusions drawn from the research accurately reflected the data.

Although the aforementioned research is not framed from a positionality lens, it takes advantage of being reflexive about researchers' and participants' overlapping social identities in order to promote a richer qualitative interview and interpretation of data. Being explicit about relational social identities by using the Social Identity Map helps researchers to better understand the social dynamics that lead to their generated data and how they interpret it. The above examples delve into gender and race and how reflecting on these aspects of our social identities helps us to better understand how our data is produced and interpreted. This process of reflection can (and should) be done with other key aspects of social identity relevant to each researcher's particular work using the Social Identity Map. By using the Social Identity Map, researchers can reflect on how any single social location (which is often intertwined/interconnected with other social locations) could present advantages and/or disadvantages in the data collection process.

The use of the Social Identity Map goes beyond only naming one's own social identity. Its purpose is to reflect on one's positionality and how it becomes implicated in action during research as well as to hold researchers accountable to a high standard of social and moral responsibility before, during, and after their research. The use of the Social Identity Map promotes social justice-oriented research by encouraging researchers to deeply reflect on how their positionality impacts the individuals they directly work with, the research they produce, and how that research impacts the studied populations and societal perceptions of them.

Discussion

Our social positions influence how we approach, investigate, and analyze data; it determines the lens through which we see the world. We come apart at the research process. There is nothing wrong with seeing the world in a particular way, but it is important to be reflexive and explicit about how it may impact our work ( Day, 2012). We have argued that this is complex work, especially for novice critical qualitative researchers, and propose the use of the Social Identity Map as an interactive exercise to help researchers be reflexive about positionality by making the concept of social identity more tangible. It is valuable to be explicit about our perspectives and also acknowledge that there are other (equally valid and real) perspectives too.

Because the Social Identity Map evolved out of the need for novice critical qualitative researchers to have more tangible strategies to learn to be clear about their social identity in a classroom and workshop setting, it is important to be explicit about the reflections that have come from these intellectual gatherings. We will first discuss lessons learned from both settings that helped to evolve this map and will then discuss reflections on mapping our own social identities in an attempt to parse out the complexities in the practice of positionality.

Awareness of social organization is important to understand the power that researchers bring to their work when constructing knowledge ( Campbell & Gregor, 2002). In the classroom setting, students expressed that the Social Identity Map allowed them to better reflect on and visualize how the power dynamics they are entangled in may impact their work. For some, this was focused on reflection of the colonial implications of being White and researching indigenous groups, while for others the focus was on reflection of Canadian citizenship and being an outsider to participants' cultural experiences as minorities. Even slight differences in social identity impacts the way we view an issue or relationship from different perspectives-a thought consistent with the concept of standpoint ( Harding, 2004; Olesen, 2005; Smith, 2006). Being explicit about our social identity and intentions by naming and being reflexive about them can begin to mitigate the power imbued in the researcher's position, so that knowledge can lean toward co-construction in a reflective setting ( Blix, 2015). The Social Identity Map enables researchers to begin to think more deeply about these dynamics and complexities.

For some, certain facets of social identity (those that seem fixed from their perspective) may be more difficult to complete on the social identity map. For example, although DJ was taught as a child that certain aspects of identity are more rigid (like gender and sexuality), as a late teenager she observed her peers exploring the fluidity of their sexuality and gender. Being exposed to those around her experiencing the fluidity of their identities allowed DJ to reflect on these specific facets of social identity as less rigid than she was previously taught. Differently, those participating in the workshop who were older reflected that it was difficult for them to fill out Tier 1 of the Social Identity Map since they did not grow up reflecting on certain identities like gender and cis/trans status. While some boxes for them (like gender) were perceived as being more fixed, other boxes (like class or citizenship) were perceived as changing often over time and place. This shows how certain facets of our social identity, in this case age, impact the way we see, interact with, and interpret the world around us.

How we perform these social identities over time and place depends largely on who we are interacting with, especially keeping participants in mind. The element of social identity performance adds another layer of complexity to positionality since it not only delves into how we see the world but also begins to open up the conversation of how those in the world see and interact with us. The performance of both researchers' and participants' social identities has been discussed in the literature as a dialogue implicating power ( Day, 2012). No matter how we believe we are presenting ourselves, our social identities shine through our exterior. Day (2012) aptly points out that we may present ourselves as credible ( Watts, 2006) or inexperienced ( Hoffman, 2007), and our participants may present themselves accordingly, responding to us researchers as their audience ( Murray, 2003). Because our positionality is impacted by our social identities, the way in which we act is impacted by where we stand in relation to the research.

An additional layer of complexity comes into play when thinking about performance of our social identity. This was demonstrated in the workshop setting. While some were concerned that performance of social identity can be viewed as being manipulative and deceitful, others argued that our performance may simply be our social identities in action, different from the work an actor does to put on a play. These perspectives highlight how our differing social identities contribute to the ways in which we each uniquely interpret concepts within our everyday lives. Our positionality, including our history, background, and experiences, influences the way we approach research and understand and interpret concepts-including performance of our social identities. As time, place, and those we interact with (especially our participants) shift, our social identity (and the so-called performance of it) develops, changes, and colors our perspectives that are influenced by the many facets that make up our identities.

Day (2012) parses out performance of our social identity by identifying identity as "one's being" or "what one is" and our performance as "one's doing" or "what one does" (p. 71). She suggests that this division between one's being and one's performing may not be necessary since one's being and one's doing inform one another, as social identity is co-constructed over the research process ( Day, 2012). Differently, Butler (1988) discusses the performance of social identity by focusing on gender as a construct. She draws on Merleau-Ponty's work by explaining that the body and its expressions become entwined with meaning based on the social and historical context it is viewed in. Butler (1988) describes how gender is instituted by performing acts that have been socially constructed to indicate the particular gender of the individual actor ( Butler, 1988). Whether one views their social identity as performed or in action, as one's being/one's doing, or as heavily influenced by a specific construct like gender, the most important element is understanding the complexity that where we stand in what society impacts the way that we present ourselves, interact with participants, and interpret the meaning of our data.

The way we perceive ourselves often differs from how participants perceive us ( Leibing & McLean, 2007). Mapping our social identities can be helpful to parse out this complexity and better understand how we may present ourselves as researchers and how we may be perceived by participants. This is important since displaying cultural competency contributes to how participants perceive our competency as researchers and thus may impact the richness and quality of our data ( Mertens, 2012). This is not only important as researchers but also as analysts. Beginning to develop an understanding of how participants see us, regardless of what we think we are projecting, is a reflexive task ( Day, 2012). The Social Identity Map helps to further develop researchers' reflexivity skills and practice positionality as a source of insight and awareness of the social relations within our work that we may previously have been blind to.

When filling out the map ourselves, we (authors DJ and NM) experienced some tensions. For facets of our social identity in which we experience some form of oppression, there were some tensions when completing the first tier. For example, for the box that asks the learner to identify their race, NM felt it was difficult to decide whether her race would be classified as South Asian or Indian. Although personally she feels more comfortable identifying as Indian, she felt the need to note South Asian as well, because historically, politically, and socially, "South Asian" has been the large category used to group individuals from this part of the world. NM has always had a difficult time with this categorization, as she feels countries within South Asia are so large and diverse that homogenizing these areas into one large group is problematic and even oppressive to some degree. Despite this tension, she chose to note down both terms on her map in order to (1) share her thoughts on this issue more broadly and (2) reconcile some of these tensions within herself (see Figure 3). Therefore, the positionality map not only aids in understanding tensions felt with certain identities but also gives a platform to discuss these tensions and discover ways to begin to move forward.

Differently from the tensions at the first tier, we noticed that for the facets of our social identity in which we experience some form of oppression, there was ease when completing Tiers 2 and 3 of the map. This may be because those with the burden of oppression are often forced to explain themselves and why they make certain choices in social and political contexts. This may influence us to be more aware of our reflections on our social identity and position. Time and time again as women we have had to justify our humor, our ideas (radical or not), and even why we deserve equal pay. These justifications may have encouraged us to think more explicitly about how being a woman (or any other heterogeneous group that experiences oppression) impacts our experience. Having thought extensively about this facet of our social identity may ease the process of mapping this part of ourselves.

For the facets of our social identities in which we experience some form of oppression, it may not be difficult to reflect explicitly on the details that encapsulate them. However, for the facets of our social identity that we experience privilege, it may be more difficult to complete the second and third tier. For example, it was difficult for us (authors DJ and NM) to complete the cis/trans extension of the second and third tier (see Figures 2 and 3). This is a facet of our social location that we had not previously reflected deeply into because we have the privilege of being born with XX sex chromosomes and identifying as women. Our gender, or gender identity, has not been questioned and we feel ease in society because of this piece of our social identity. Due to this experience, we had not previously reflected on what it means to be a cisgender woman and thus struggled to identify how being a cisgender woman impacts the way that we see and interact with the world around us.

The way that each individual works with the Social Identity Map to better understand how their positionality impacts their research will indeed vary. There are three tiers to the map, but how the tiers relate to each other will be different depending on how the learner interprets and completes each of them. For some, the tiers may be more hierarchical, with Tier 1 being a specific overarching facet of social identity and Tiers 2 and 3 being increasingly detailed about the ways in which this overarching facet impacts the way that the learner sees, interacts with, and is treated by the world around them. Underlying this type of hierarchical interpretation may be a history of White colonial patriarchy that the individual has grown up in and been exposed to, or instead may be something completely different. For others, the tiers may not be hierarchical at all but instead delineated to be more interconnected. These interpretations may have additional connecting lines, phrases, or identifiers added to the map. Alternatively, some facets may be more heavily weighted if the learner feels that, on that particular day and in that particular place, it has more bearing on their social identity. Therefore, we encourage the learner to ask themselves when completing the map: How do the tiers of the Social Identity Map relate to each other on your unique map? Are they hierarchical? If so, what underlies the hierarchy? If not, is there another type of organization better suited to you? We encourage the use of various colors, font sizes, and even imagery on the map to begin working through the complexities of each learner/researcher's unique positionality.

Because the Social Identity Map is intended for the novice critical qualitative researcher, in this article, we have focused on deepening reflection on multiple aspects of our social identity one at a time, while thinking about each aspect's connection to other pieces of one's social identity. Going a step further and drawing on intersectionality framework, we know that it is not enough to identify social categories, but it is even more important to analyze the intersections of these social identities that contribute to our own unique experiences ( McCall, 2005). When aspects of our social identity overlap, intertwine, and interconnect, we may experience "interlocking systems of privilege and oppression" ( Bowleg, 2012, p. 1267).

We propose that a next step in the process of positioning oneself is to critically explore how these social identities are related to, informed by, and overlap with one another, which create our unique experiences. An important aspect of this work is understanding that not all social identities on the Social Identity Map (including ones added or taken away by each unique learner according to their own identity) generate equal impacts on the research process. Determining which aspects of social identity are key to each individual's particular research is a vital task when reflecting deeply about how the interconnection of our social identities contributes to our positionality and further impacts our work.

Although it is not the only way to begin this process, researchers may assess which aspects of their social identity are most relevant in their work by asking themselves how their social identity is different and also similar to participants. This is a reasonable starting place since it is the researcher's moral and social responsibility to ensure participants' well-being during the research interaction. Not only that, if there are particular aspects of social identity implicated in the research topic, this may be a good starting point of reflection. For example, if a researcher studies the impact of policy changes on low-income neighborhoods in a predominantly Sri Lankan area, then the researcher may choose to begin reflecting on their own socioeconomic status and nationality to better understand how these facets impact the work.

However, because of the iterative nature of qualitative work, there may be times when a researcher believes that particular aspects of their social identity will generate more impact on their work than others but later learn to their surprise that it was actually a different unexpected aspect that had a greater impact. The importance is not within the accuracy of which aspects of social identity will impact a researcher's work. Instead, the importance is within active reflection on which aspects of social identity greatly impact the work throughout the research process-even if emphasis on certain facets change along the way. If researchers come to realize that unexpected aspects of their social identity impact their work or that different aspects of their social identity are more relevant during one stage (i.e., design and preparation) than another (i.e., data collection), it is indicative of the researcher's reflection on positionality and is encouraged.

We urge those who are more advanced in their reflection (and even those who are novice researchers and up for a challenge) to begin to explicitly map the connections and overlapping areas that color their perspective. For example, to begin this more advanced process, researchers can create color codes to track which aspects of their social identity are more prevalent at certain stages of research. Researchers may choose to divide each box in half to reflect in one half on their own social identity and in the other half how their social identity relates to that of participants. Researchers may choose to add boxes to Tier 1 (and further reflection in Tiers 2 and 3) to indicate the interaction between two or more aspects of their social identity. For example, there may be more nuanced or different reflections on a researcher's experience of their gender than the interaction of their gender and race. These are only some suggestions on where to begin to explicitly map more complex dynamics and interaction of aspects of one's social identity and are not meant to be prescriptive. These suggestions are instead meant to strike motivation for the researcher to choose what best suits their own identity, the identity of their participants, and their research process.

As noted above, positionality is not a task that takes place at the beginning of a researcher's study or career, but rather develops throughout the research process, allowing awareness of how assumptions that are inherent in our positionality manifest during the research process. Researchers' identities are also informed by and through their work, and so social locations and relations, as well as the values placed on them, grow and evolve over time. It is therefore important to continuously be aware of this growth and critically understand how our identities are connected to one another in the process. This will benefit both the quality and rigor of our work, as well as our journeys as critical qualitative researchers. The Social Identity Map we propose is an important step in this direction.

Conclusion

The importance of mapping our social identities is paramount in critical qualitative research. Positioning ourselves makes explicit both the apparent and hidden identities we embody, while allowing us to understand how these impact our research. This process also allows researchers to better understand the lived experiences of their participants as they acknowledge how their own experiences have shaped their understanding of the research topic. Explicitly identifying one's social position in qualitative research is a mechanism to make us aware of our own assumptions and biases, which is an important step toward improving the rigor and trustworthiness of our qualitative work ( Galdas, 2017).

In this article, we have troubled the current approach to positionality, which can be abstract and difficult to grasp in practice for the novice critical qualitative researcher. We have argued for a creative way to begin to make our social identities more tangible and visible. Positionality is conceptual and practicing positionality is not a straightforward process. It is instead a very complex element of reflexivity since our identities develop over time. We see an opportunity to extend the current discourse on positionality in the form of this proposed research tool-the Social Identity Map. The use of the map is beneficial as it gives form to an abstract, fluid, and changing part of the research process. It can be used as a tool to add rigor and trustworthiness to qualitative studies, especially for novice researchers who are learning how to position themselves in their work and how their positions impact their research.

Although we note that the Social Identity Map is a starting point and building block in the process of identifying social locations and positions, we do acknowledge that, at first, it may seem to be categorical. This, however, we feel is necessary (at least initially) to begin thinking about who we are, how we identify, and how this may impact our work. Once researchers use this map and outline broad social categories they identify with, we encourage an ongoing process of positioning oneself, which encompasses a thorough, integrated, and interconnected understanding of social identity.

The implications and benefits of using this mapping tool for qualitative research are multifold. Although many researchers identify their positionality in their work, often times how this directly impacts their research is unclear, not deeply discussed, or left out altogether. This tangible map has the potential to aid novice researchers to be explicit about where and when they stand in what society. It is a preliminary tool for drawing out issues of identity, which helps researchers to think through their positionality in relation to their research. This is beneficial as it enforces a form of accountability in qualitative work by explicitly asking researchers to locate themselves and actively think about how this impacts their work. Instead of positionality being used generally or as a blanket concept at the beginning of a study or article, this tool allows for a more concrete and interactive understanding of positionality. Moving from a more conceptual understanding to a tangible and continuously evolving conceptualization of positionality is not only advantageous for researchers but also for the audience who reads their work to better understand how findings and conclusions have been derived from the research.

By mapping our social identities and visually exploring how we approach, understand, and interpret our work through the use of this mapping tool, we begin to go beyond our immediate identities and may discover other social forces that shape how we approach our research topics. For example, by identifying and deeply thinking about our race, class, and age, we may begin to see how larger systems of privilege and oppression play out in our work. We may identify and question larger forces such as racism, classism, and ageism and begin to see in which ways they impact and interact with who we are, who our participants are, and how this becomes embedded within the research. In the same vein, using the Social Identity Map as an exercise may also help researchers become more aware of stereotypes and assumptions that are rooted in their social identities and question how they may come into play when conducting research. The map allows researchers to think deeply about how their assumptions translate into discussions with participants, influence their understanding of participants' experiences and lives, and how this impacts the way they code, analyze, and interpret findings. Therefore, this mapping tool opens up the discussion of positionality conceptually and visually, allowing us to see forces at play that otherwise may be lost or left dormant in our work.

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the substantial contributions, collaboration, and deeply humbling mentorship from Dr. Joan Eakin. Dr. Eakin's guidance on the development of this paper was invaluable to DJ and NM. She is a true role model for those lucky enough to learn from her. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the students who participated in DJ's facilitation for the class, "Doing Qualitative Research: Design and Data Collection", taught by Dr. Denise Gastaldo at the University of Toronto, in addition to the scholars who participated in DJ and NM's workshop presented at the Critical Pedagogies Symposium at York University. The thoughtful feedback from those who participated in the facilitation and workshop have been invaluable to the development of the social identity map. We would like to acknowledge our supervisor Dr. Gillian Einstein for her support and encouragement of our academic endeavours. We also thank Dylan Wagman for his wonderful editing of this paper...multiple times. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge and thank the reviewer of this manuscript, whose thoughtful comments were much appreciated.

ORCID iD
Danielle Jacobson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7792-8099

References

Bowleg, L. (2012). The problem with the phrase women and minorities: Intersectionality-An important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 1267-1273. |
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Campbell, R., Wasco, S. (2000). Feminist approaches to social science: Epistemological and methodological tenets. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 773-791. |
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Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research . (2018, May 24). What is 'critical'? p. 1. Retrieved from https://ccqhr.utoronto.ca/about-cq/what-is-critical/
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Social Identity Map: A Reflexivity Tool for Practicing Explicit Positionality in Critical Qualitative Research - Danielle Jacobson, Nida Mustafa, 2019

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Abstract The way that we as researchers view and interpret our social worlds is impacted by where, when, and how we are socially located and in what society. The position from which we see the world around us impacts our research interests, how we approach the research and participants, the questions we ask, and how we interpret the data.

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Media Bias Chart 7.0; Literacy curriculum on their site which includes 10 lessons in which students learn content analysis methodology

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Media Bias Chart 7.0; Literacy curriculum on their site which includes 10 lessons in which students learn content analysis methodology

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Ad Fontes Media is the home of the Media Bias Chart®. We rate the news and news-like sources for bias and reliability.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2XN0CQazr0

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Non-profit organization that supports folks to pen their own civil rights into existence

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Non-profit organization that supports folks to pen their own civil rights into existence

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Pass your own law. Change your community | Rise Now Nonprofit

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We write laws. We penned the Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights into law 32 times. We'll help you write your own laws into existence too. We are Rise Now.

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Understanding ADA for middle- and high schoolers

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Understanding ADA for middle- and high schoolers

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Background

Our grantee's Maine school partnered with a local land trust to learn about maintaining ADA-compliant hiking trails. To deepen their understanding of the significance of accessibility, students first reflected on the experiences of people with disabilities. The class anchored their discussions by reading newspaper articles, short stories and novels about people with disabilities.

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Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act

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Our grantee's Maine school partnered with a local land trust to learn about maintaining ADA-compliant hiking trails. To deepen their understanding of the significance of accessibility, students first reflected on the experiences of people with disabilities. The class anchored their discussions by reading newspaper articles, short stories and novels about people with disabilities.

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Allyship: The Key to Unlocking The Power of Diversity

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Allyship: The Key to Unlocking The Power of Diversity

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How we use technology to encourage diversity and inclusion.

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It is no secret that the tech industry has reshaped how society lives - from ordering weekly groceries online, recording fitness goals, revolutionizing healthcare and everything in between. Technology is intrinsic to almost every single thing people do. With this in mind, the industry creating these ground-breaking solutions must represent the society which uses it so readily - currently, it does not.
Representation in technology
In a report released by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, it was outlined that white people are represented in industry at a higher rate in the tech sector's executive category than the rest of the private sector, at 83%-more than 15% higher than their representation in the professional category, which includes jobs like computer programming. Other groups are represented at significantly lower rates in the executive category than in the professional category, including African Americans (2% to 5.3%), Hispanics (3.1% to 5.3%), and Asian Americans (10.6% to 19.5%).Additionally, if we focus on gender, less than 7% of tech professionals in Europe are female.

The representation of those in intersectional communities is even lower. For example, between 2007 and 2015 there has been a 13% decrease in the number of black women professionals. Even though white women are now substantially more successful in reaching the executive level than all minority men or women, white men are still 47% more likely than white women to be executives.

To have the most successful and well-rounded tech industry, representation of marginalized groups in industry must improve. To invoke this change, the majority must help, support and advocate for the minority. If engaged correctly, allies hold the power and the key to stimulate positive change.
What is an ally?
An ally is any person that actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole.

Everyone has the ability to be an ally as privilege is intersectional - white women can be actionable allies to people of color, men can be allies to women, cis people can be allies to members of the LGBTQI+ community, able-bodied people can be allies to those with different abilities, economically privileged people can be allies to those who are not and so on.
What is allyship?

a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.

not self-defined-work and efforts must be recognized by those you are seeking to ally with.

an opportunity to grow and learn about ourselves, whilst building confidence in others.

Becoming actionable allies
To be allies, words and action must be in sync. Words without actions are detrimental and work against changing the culture in technology.

To be a true ally, you should:

Lift others up by advocating,

Share growth opportunities with others,

Not view venting as a personal attack,

Recognize systematic inequalities and realize impact of micro-aggressions,

Believe underrepresented people's experiences, and

Most importantly - listen, support, self-reflect & change.

Small actions, big impact
Allyship is a continual investment of time in supporting others, holding ourselves accountable when mistakes are made, apologizing and being prepared to rework the approach towards allyship as needs change.

Through personal actions, a more inclusive environment can be fostered by:

Becoming a sponsor - champion someone from an underrepresented community to support career growth and increase company retention.Being a sponsor is different to being a mentor- sponsoring is being actively involved in aiding someone's career progression, mentoring is providing advice.

Calling out inappropriate behavior - People in privileged positions have the ability to call out unacceptable behavior towards underrepresented people and be heard. Underrepresented people may not be comfortable raising issues due to a fear of backlash or risk of jeopardizing professional relationships.

Tasking all employees with getting involved with diversity and inclusion related tasks -embracing diversity & fostering an environment of inclusion is good for business. Everyone should be involved. Do not assign this daunting task to underrepresented people only.

Using inclusive language - Be aware of gendered terms, and use language which embraces all walks of people. For example,using "partner"instead of gendered terms such as "girl/boyfriend" or "husband/wife" to be more inclusive of those in the LGBTQI+ community.

Rolling out unconscious bias training regularly - Understand that unconscious, unchecked bias cannot and will not be fixed after one unconscious bias training session. This is a growing process and continued challenging of ourselves and peers must happen to aid growth and learning in this space.

Trying different recruitment methods - To attract and retain different kinds of people, use different recruitment methods. Partner with organisations which actively push for equality in that space, be present at conferences, and reach out to underrepresented people for their honest feedback on where they would look for roles - listen to the people you are trying to reach.

Recognizing privilege and use it to amplify underrepresented voices - Understanding andrecognizing privilegecan be a daunting and uncomfortable task. Having uncomfortable conversations with yourself, understanding the systematic and societal issues which may have played in your favor is eye opening and allows you to use this privilege to amplify those who do not have it.

Following an array of voices - Learning and growth will not happen without being challenged. Follow different people and listen to them. Challenge yourself to cross-examine your bias after learning from different voices.

In conclusion, a true ally must regularly listen to those around them, adapt their thinking, rework what they believe to be correct & become comfortable being uncomfortable.

Itcan be a unique and challenging journey becoming and remaining an ally, but certainly one worth taking.

... Read More

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Allyship - The Key To Unlocking The Power Of Diversity

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To have the most successful and well-rounded tech industry, representation in industry must improve. To invoke this change, the majority must help, support and advocate for the minority. If engaged correctly, allies hold the power and the key to stimulate positive change.

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Maintaining Higher Standards for Students with Disabilities

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Maintaining Higher Standards for Students with Disabilities

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President Obama has said that we are stronger when America fields a full team. Unfortunately, too many of the 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities in this country leave high school without the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in a 21 st century, global economy. While the vast majority of students in special education do not have significant cognitive impairments that prohibit them from learning rigorous academic content, fewer than 10 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Too often, students' educational opportunities are limited by low expectations. We must do better.

That's why the Department is changing the way it holds states accountable for the education of students with disabilities. For many years, the Department primarily focused on whether states were meeting the procedural requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Generally, we have seen significant improvement in compliance.

But if kids are leaving high school without the ability to read or do math at a high-school level, compliance is simply not enough. This year, we also focused on improving results when we made determinations as to whether states are effective in meeting the requirements and purposes of IDEA.

With this year's IDEA determinations, we looked at multiple outcome measures of student performance, including the participation of students with disabilities in state assessments, proficiency gaps in reading and math between students with disabilities and all students, and performance in reading and math on NAEP.

I believe this change in accountability represents a significant and long-overdue raising of the bar for special education. Last year, when we only considered compliance data in making annual determinations, 41 states and territories met requirements.

This year, however, when we include data on how students are actually performing, only 18 states and territories meet requirements.

In enacting IDEA, Congress recognized that improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities. We must do everything we can to support states, school districts, and educators to improve results for students with disabilities. We must have higher expectations for our children, and hold ourselves as a nation accountable for their success.
Michael Yudin is Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education.

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Higher Expectations to Better Outcomes for Children with Disabilities - ED.gov Blog

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President Obama has said that we are stronger when America fields a full team. Unfortunately, too many of the 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities in this country leave high school without the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in a 21st century, global economy.

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Inclusive Classroom Tools for General Education Teachers

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Inclusive Classroom Tools for General Education Teachers

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In schools across the country, students in special education and general education are increasingly learning together in inclusive classrooms. This is a significant civil-rights achievement, but it also means students in special education are being taught by general education teachers who may not have the training and skills to best serve them.

What does this mean for teachers on the ground? "There is diversity from A to Z in today's classroom, and teachers need support and encouragement in acquiring the skills to serve all of these children," says Sharen Bertrando, special education development program specialist at WestEd's Center for Prevention and Early Intervention.

What General Education Teachers Should Know

The central legislative force behind education's inclusion movement is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)-the federal law that mandates that all children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education and that "to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities ... [should be] educated with children who are not disabled." The law also requires that each child be placed in the least restrictive environment-the educational space most like that of the child's typically developing peers in which she can succeed academically.

Once a child is identified as having a disability (as defined by IDEA), an individualized education program (IEP) is crafted by a team of school professionals and the child's parents or guardians. IEPs include information on academic performance, emotional and behavioral issues, and academic and behavioral goals. Teachers have a legal responsibility to implement the requirements outlined in the IEP.

Betsy Weigle, a fourth-grade general education teacher at Adams Elementary School in Spokane, Wash., says, "IEPs are written in very formal language and can be hard to decipher." She recommends teachers "go to the person who wrote [the IEP] to get an overview and go over the child's goals together."

That person is often a special education teacher with a wealth of experience and training for general education teachers to tap into. From model-teaching a lesson to looking over unit plans, a special education teacher's expertise is an essential resource for the inclusive classroom. School psychologists, reading specialists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists, depending on the disability, can also give valuable input.

Barry W. Birnbaum, author of Foundations of Special Education Leadership: Administration, Placement, and the Law, suggests general education teachers shore up their skills by taking continuing-education units in special education. Principals can also arrange for special education coursework to be offered on teachers' in-service days, says Birnbaum, who is also the special education specialization coordinator at Walden University.

Acquiring the skills and strategies to work with students with special needs is essential. It's also important to get to know the whole child. This should include building a relationship with the family. "Very often, parents are left out of the equation," says Rick Wolfsdorf, a collaborative special education teacher at John W. Dodd Middle School in Freeport, N.Y., "but they shouldn't be. They need to be a part of the team effort."

Teaching to All Learners

When students in general education and special education share a classroom, it is crucial their teacher create an environment that brings out the strengths of each. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an education approach based on the philosophy that there is no one way in which individuals learn and that lessons, curriculum and classroom configuration should be designed, from the outset, with the needs of diverse students in mind.

UDL calls for instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments to be aligned with the following guidelines:

Provide multiple means of representation-Present content in different ways to give students a variety of options for acquiring information and knowledge.

Provide multiple means of expression-Ensure students have a variety of ways of demonstrating what they know.

Provide multiple means of engagement-Create a stimulating learning environment by offering various ways for a student to engage, based on preferences and interests.

Differentiated Instruction (DI)-the process of modifying instruction and assessment, as needed, to meet the learning needs of a particular student-also allows educators to teach or make assessments in a variety of ways, based on the interests, abilities and knowledge base of each student. Brad Cohen, assistant principal at Addison Elementary School in Marietta, Ga., insists on seeing differentiated instruction at work in his classrooms. "If you are a teacher and you are teaching all the children in your class the same way, you are not hitting all of their needs," he says.

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Seamless Teaching : Navigating the Inclusion Spectrum

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In schools across the country, students in special education and general education are increasingly learning together in inclusive classrooms. This is a significant civil-rights achievement, but it also means students in special education are being taught by general education teachers who may not have the training and skills to best serve them.

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This module-a revision of Collaborating with Families, which was originally developed in cooperation with the PACER Center-addresses the importance of engaging the families of students with disabilities in their child's education. It highlights some of the key factors that affect these families and outlines some practical ways to build relationships and create opportunities for involvement (est. completion time: 1 hour).

Work through the sections of this module in the order presented in the STAR graphic above.

Related to this module

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Family Engagement: Collaborating with Families of Students with Disabilities

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This module-a revision of Collaborating with Families, which was originally developed in cooperation with the PACER Center-addresses the importance of engaging the families of students with disabilities in their child's education. It highlights some of the key factors that affect these families and outlines some practical ways to build relationships and create opportunities for involvement (est.

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Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)

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Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)

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[ en Español]

Children and adults with severe speech or language problems may need to find other ways to communicate besides talking. There are many types of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) they can use. Speech-language pathologists, or SLPs, can help.

On this page:

About AAC

AAC means all of the ways that someone communicates besides talking. People of all ages can use AAC if they have trouble with speech or language skills. Augmentative means to add to someone's speech. Alternative means to be used instead of speech. Some people use AAC throughout their life. Others may use AAC only for a short time, like when they have surgery and can't talk.

There are a lot of different types of AAC. No-tech and low-tech options include things like

gestures and facial expressions,

writing,

drawing,

spelling words by pointing to letters, and

pointing to photos, pictures, or written words.

High-tech options include things like

using an app on an iPad or tablet to communicate and

using a computer with a "voice," sometimes called a speech-generating device.

A person may use different types of AAC because there are many ways that we all communicate. An AAC system means all of the tools of this type that a person uses.

Working With A Speech-Language Pathologist

An SLP can help find the right AAC system for you or your loved one. They also help you and the people you talk with learn how to use AAC to communicate. Not every tool works for every person, so it is important to find the right one for you. SLPs work with other professionals like occupational therapists and physical therapists if you have different physical skills that affect how you access your AAC system. Some AAC tools are covered by insurance, but some are not. Your SLP can help you understand your options.

Common Concerns

You may have questions or concerns about using AAC. Professionals have been studying AAC for years, so we've learned a lot about how AAC helps people communicate. Here are some of the areas that research has helped us understand.
Age, Skills, and Timing
Some people wonder if children need to be a certain age before they can use AAC. Research shows that AAC helps people of all ages (even those younger than 3 years old)! You can use AAC early. There are no thinking skills, test scores, or other milestones that you need to reach before AAC can help.
Talking and Motivation
A lot of people wonder if using AAC will stop someone from talking or will slow down language development. This is not true-research shows that AAC can actually help with these concerns! People who use AAC can also learn how to read and write.
Movement
You might wonder how someone can use AAC if they have trouble moving their arms and hands. There are many ways to use an AAC system besides touching it. Your SLP may work with occupational therapists (OTs) and physical therapists (PTs) to find the best way for each person to use their AAC system.

You probably have other questions. The best person to talk to about AAC is an SLP. A good place to find an SLP who specializes in AAC is ASHA's Profind.

Other Resources

This list does not include every website on this topic. ASHA does not endorse the information on these sites.

To find an SLP near you, visit ProFind.

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Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

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Children and adults with severe speech or language problems may need to find other ways to communicate. There are many types of AAC that they can use. Speech-language pathologists, or SLPs, can help.

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CEEDAR MTSS, UDL, and Differentiated Instruction Resources

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CEEDAR MTSS, UDL, and Differentiated Instruction Resources

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In your Module Workbook under the MTSS chapter, please complete the pre-assessment measure. If you are not able to download the Module Workbook, please take note of your answers to the pre-assessment questions so that you will be able to compare them to your answers on the post-assessment at the end of this chapter. The Answer Key is provided at the end of the MTSS post-assessment.

MTSS leverages the principles of Response to Intervention (RtI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and integrates a continuum of system-wide resources, strategies, structures and practices to offer a comprehensive and responsive framework for systematically addressing barriers to student learning.

Introduction

For many years, we have focused our preparation of teachers and academic leaders on meeting the needs of diverse groups of learners for whom they will hold responsibility. In the past, general education teachers gave core instruction for all students; then education specialists, prepared to serve students with specific needs, worked separately in pull-out sessions or self-contained classes with students who had been identified as requiring special education services.

While both sets of teachers still have their responsibilities, MTSS provides a system and process for teams to work together rather than separately in isolation. In fact, MTSS requires teams of general education teachers, education specialist teachers, parents, administrators and service providers at the local school and district levels, community organizations, and professional development trainers to work together for every student. MTSS shows promise for addressing the needs of all students and personalizing learning.

All teachers have a diverse group of learners in their classroom. Most students receive core instruction in the general education classroom, some with additional accommodations. Other learners might be pulled out to resource rooms or self-contained classrooms to receive targeted skill interventions. Regardless of the location or context, all teaching and professional staff in a school should possess shared ownership for the learning and progress of all students.
Promises to Keep: Transforming Educator Preparation to Better Serve a Diverse Range of Learners

The National Center on Intensive Intervention defines MTSS as:

A prevention framework that organizes building-level resources to address each individual student's academic and/or behavioral needs within intervention tiers that vary in intensity. MTSS allows for the early identification of learning and behavioral challenges and timely intervention for students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes. The increasingly intense tiers (i.e., Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3), sometimes referred to as levels of prevention (i.e., primary, secondary, intensive prevention levels), represent a continuum of supports.

The core of MTSS is data-based decision-making. This involves collecting data, monitoring each student's individual performance, and designing and implementing strategies and levels of support necessary so each learner can succeed. This system is fluid and students can move between tiers and levels of support as their needs change. In this way, MTSS provides a new way of addressing the needs of students who struggle and need intervention, despite the presence or absence of disability.

MTSS Components

The following core components are key aspects of most MTSS frameworks:

1. High-quality, differentiated classroom instruction for all students. This instruction is standards-based, differentiated for diverse learners, and carried out by highly-qualified teachers who use evidence-based strategies, such as Universal Design for Learning.

2. Systemic and sustainable change. This calls for continuous improvement processes at all levels of the system (grade or course level teams, school site teams, district teams).

3. Integrated data system. School and district staff collaborate to create an Integrated data collection system that is not limited to state tests, but includes universal screening, diagnoses, progress monitoring data, teacher observations, and parent surveys for continuous systemic improvement.

4. Positive behavioral support. School site and district staff collaboratively select and implement school-wide, classroom, and research-based positive behavioral supports for achieving important social and learning outcomes.

California Department of Education Multi-Tiered System of Supports.

Universal screening

Data-based decision-making and problem-solving

Continuous progress monitoring

Focus on successful student outcomes

Continuum of evidence-based interventions

A core curriculum is provided for all students

A modification of this core is arranged for students who are identified as non-responsive

A specialized and intensive curriculum for students with intensive needs

Focus on successful student outcomes

MTSS Benefits

There are numerous benefits of MTSS, most notably improving education for all students. Implementation of an effective MTSS program eliminates the "wait to fail" situation that prevents at-risk students from receiving intervention sooner versus later. MTSS also provides supports for teachers with instructionally relevant, easily understood information which allows teachers to know what works now to improve student's skills. And, MTSS encourages better collaboration between teachers and families. Here are a few other benefits:

Provides specific types of support for teachers in the form of professional development, technical assistance, and instructional coaching;

Outlines clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and accountability for teachers, building leaders, and district personnel;

Provides a coherent system for continuous improvement;

Ensures that a common understanding or language exists when discussing implementation and expected outcomes;

Benefits ALL students when the model is implemented with fidelity!

Research has shown that 70% of high school students are in need of special, specific supports, even when they are not eligible for special education identification. MTSS addresses those needs with systemic improvements across classes, schools, and districts.

MTSS and RtI

The phrases "Response to Intervention," commonly referred to as RtI, and "Multi-Tiered System of Supports" (MTSS) are often used interchangeably among many educators. They are not necessarily the same.

RtI processes focus on students who are struggling and provide a vehicle for teamwork and data-based decision making to strengthen their performances before and after educational and behavioral problems increase in intensity. RtI refers to the practice of providing effective instruction and intervention across three tiers to all students. Assessment, progress monitoring, and data-driven decision making are all components of successful RtI implementation. The hope is to reduce the number of students being referred to Special Education and to provide research- and evidence-based high quality instruction in all tiers.

Tier one is for core instruction for the full class in a regular classroom. All students' receive effective, differentiated instruction provided by a classroom teacher using evidence-based core curriculum and positive behavioral management strategies. During Tier 1 instruction the teacher identifies students who may need additional supports, using key indicators (poor grades, absenteeism, signs of abuse/neglect, behavioral problems, and other signs of disengagement). Students with these at-risk factors who are not responding to usual supports are referred to the MTSS team. The team meets and discusses the students who need additional supports and lays out a plan for the students. Tier 1 is expected to bring approximately 80% of students to acceptable levels of proficiency.

Tier two is short-term support for those students identified during Tier 1. For students who don't respond effectively to Tier 1 instruction, Tier 2 supplements core instruction using targeted, evidence-based small-group interventions to help them catch up. This supplemental instruction is expected to bring up to 15% of students to proficient levels. This may involve additional tutoring, one-on-one counseling, behavior contract, self-monitoring plan. Parents are included in the discussions; progress monitoring is key. Students who respond well to Tier 2 additional supports are returned to Tier 1 and students with slow progress remain in Tier 2, while students who do not respond to the additional supports are reviewed for Tier 3.

Tier three involves the application of intensive, evidence-based interventions which are designed to increase the rate of student progress for the approximately 5% of students who need very intensive 1:1 intervention. There are interagency collaborations, mentoring, counseling, and problem-specific interventions. Good progress after these supports results in the student being returned to Tier 1 or Tier 2. Slow progress results in the student continuing in Tier 3. No or minimal progress results in the student's eligibility for referral for special education evaluation which means parental consent, more intensive evaluations, and/or IEP. When personal safety, family crisis or death, abuse, trauma, suicidal/homicidal ideation are present, students at any level will be immediately placed in Tier 3.

Watch this video: MTSS overview - Ask the Expert MTSS v RTI (1.26 min)

For a .Zip file of all related documents for this section select HERE
Look over the newsletter from St. John Elementary School for an example of how one school has implemented and communicated MTSS.

After reading the Andrew Case Studies about the academic history of a boy named Andrew, please complete the table below. Describe Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions that were implemented in the Alternative Scenario for Andrew before he was referred for special education evaluation.

For this Table, please refer to your Module Workbook MTSS Chapter. If you have not done so already you may download it here Word doc select HERE, for the screen reader accessible PDF select HERE:

1. Select one course that you teach, how would you integrate the discussion of MTSS into course lecture?

2. What course project can you assign students for them to demonstrate understanding and beginning skill in implementing MTSS to address tiered intervention in an academic area?

Hunter, W.C., Maheady, L., Jasper, A.D., Williamson, R.L., Murley, R.C., & Stratton, E. (2015). Numbered heads together as a Tier 1 Instructional strategy in multi-tiered systems of support. Education and Treatment of Children, 38, 345-263.

Wilson, J.A., Faggella-Luby, & Wei, Y. (2013). Planning for adolescent Tier 3 reading instruction Teaching Exceptional Children, 46, 26-35.

Danielson, L., & Rosenquist, C. (2014). Introduction to the TEC special issue on data-based individualization. Teaching Exceptional Children, 46, 6-12.

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L.S., & Vaughn S. (2014) What is Intensive Intervention and why is it important? Teaching Exceptional Children, 46, 13-18.

Behavioral Tiered Support

Supporting Behavioral Needs: A Multi-Tiered Approach (5.52 min)

A Comparison of RtI and MTSS

MTSS differs from RtI as it has a broader scope and is more comprehensive.

MTSS is not designed for consideration in special education placement decisions, such as specific learning disabilities. MTSS focuses on all students in education contexts.
click to enlarge

The venn diagram figure displays similarities and differences between California's MTSS and RtI processes. Both rely on RtI's data gathering through universal screening, data-driven decision making, problem-solving teams, and are focused on the Common Core State Standards. However, the MTSS process has a broader approach, addressing the needs of all students by aligning the entire system of initiatives, supports, and resources, and by implementing continuous improvement processes at all levels of the system.
From: California Department of Education Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) home page

For Administrators

You are almost to the end of this chapter. In your workbook, please complete the MTSS post-assessment measure and compare the results to your pre-assessment measure. If you were not able to download the Module Workbook, please complete the post-assessment and compare the results to your pre-assesment measure of this chapter.

MTSS leverages the principles of Response to Intervention (RtI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and integrates a continuum of system-wide resources, strategies, structures and practices to offer a comprehensive and responsive framework for systematically addressing barriers to student learning.

Final Reflections

Respond to the questions below in your Module Workbook: MTSS Chapter:

1. Briefly state what you believe Multi-tiered Systems of Support is:

2. Why is MTSS recommended for all classrooms?

3. How might you use MTSS in your own teaching?

4. How might teacher candidates demonstrate that they can/will use MTSS in their teaching?

Schools That Work

Prasse, D.P. Breunlin, R.J., Giroux, D., Hunt, J., Morrison, D. " Thier, K. (2012). Embedding Multi-Tiered System of Supports/Response to Intervention into Teacher Preparation. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 10(2), 75-93.

Riccomini, P.J. " Smith, G.W. (2011). Introduction to Response to Intervention in Mathematics. In Gersten, R. " Newman-Gonchar, R. (Eds.). Understanding RtI in Mathematics: Proven Methods and Applications. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

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Multi-Tiered System of Support Chapter | CEEDAR

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In your Module Workbook under the MTSS chapter, please complete the pre-assessment measure. If you are not able to download the Module Workbook, please take note of your answers to the pre-assessment questions so that you will be able to compare them to your answers on the post-assessment at the end of this chapter.

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Racism By Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Racism By Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Includes book chapter promoting asset-based views of Black families in special education.

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Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education is a thought-provoking and timely book that provides a landscape for understanding and challenging educational (in)opportunities for Black students who are identified for special education. This book provides a historical and contemporary analysis through the eyes of Black children and their families on how they navigate and push against inequitable schooling, ways they are reframing discourse about race, dis/ ability, and gender in schools, how educators, administrators, and school counselors contribute to disproportionality in special education, and ways that parents are collectively organizing to dismantle injustices and the carceral state, or criminalization, of special education.

Each chapter provides a ground level view of what Black students with dis/abilities experience in the classroom, and examines how the intersection of race, dis/abilty, and gender subject Black students to dehumanizing experiences in school. This book includes qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring the material realities of Black students who are isolated, whether in separate or general education classrooms. Drawing from Critical Race Theory, DisCrit, Critical Race Feminism, and other race-centered frameworks this book challenges dominant norms of schools that reinforce inequality and racial segregation in special education.

At the end of each chapter the authors present practitioner-based notes and resources for readers to expand their knowledge of how Black students, their family, and guardians advocate for themselves and their own children. This book will leave educational advocates for Black children with a clearer understanding of the obstacles and successes that they encounter when striving for a just and equitable education. Furthermore, the book challenges readers to be active agents of change in their own schools and communities.

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Racism by Another Name by Dorothy E. Hines, Mildred Boveda | Waterstones

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Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education is a thought-provoking and timely book that provides a landscape for understanding and challenging educational (in)opportunities for Black students who are identified for special education.