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Fear of Open Conflict Responses (from Carmen)

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Fear of Open Conflict Responses (from Carmen)

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“Thank you so much for sharing with me, I wouldn’t have known otherwise.”

“Your truth is a gift, thank you.”

“What’s a word or phrase I can research to learn more?”

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Norms and Protocols from School Reform Initiative

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Norms and Protocols from School Reform Initiative

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Protocols By Tag | New Protocols | Spanish Protocols | Portuguese Protocols | Protocols For Youth Engagement

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https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/1469266822

https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/lemons-to-lemonade/book239497

HTTPS://WWW.RADICALCANDOR.COM/

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Raising hands and role play

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Paul Gorski and Seema Pothini argue for a "case method" approach to challenging teaching scenarios. The case method uses real-life scenarios to help educators practice seeing student circumstances and behaviors through an equity lens, taking many contextual factors into account. Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education includes 35 school- and classroom-based scenarios that address a variety of issues related to identity and diversity. The book also includes a seven-step process for analyzing these case studies, as identified in this excerpt. This toolkit highlights one scenario and provides a guide to applying the case study-analysis model.

Essential Questions

1. What is the case method of developing teacher practice?

2. How does the case-analysis process help us develop our skills when assessing challenging student scenarios?

Procedure

1. On your own or with colleagues, read the case study, "(Racist) Terms of Endearment." In this scenario a high school math teacher overhears a white student calling an African-American classmate the n-word. When the teacher confronts the student who used the n-word, he claims that he was using it as a term of endearment-a claim that is not explicitly contested by the "friend" to whom he's directing it

2. Reflect on the scenario or discuss it with colleagues. Use these questions and points for consideration to guide your thinking.

3. Follow the steps in the Case Study Analysis Worksheet to practice the seven-step approach and develop a plan of action. Refer back to the article to see how each step is applied to the case involving Samantha and Ms. Grady.

4. Check out the book Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education (Routledge, 2014) for more school- and classroom-based case studies addressing issues like race, class, ability, gender, sexual orientation and religion.

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Toolkit for Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education

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Paul Gorski and Seema Pothini argue for a "case method" approach to challenging teaching scenarios. The case method uses real-life scenarios to help educators practice seeing student circumstances and behaviors through an equity lens, taking many contextual factors into account.

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Techniques for Developing Alternative Ways of Thinking.pdf

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Techniques for Developing Alternative Ways of Thinking.pdf

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The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards (SSIR)

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Professionalism has become coded language for white favoritism in workplace practices that more often than not leave behind people of color. This is the fourth of 10 articles in a special series about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching

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Through accessible language and candid discussions, Storytelling for Social Justice explores the stories we tell ourselves and each other about race and racism in our society. Making sense of the racial constructions expressed through the language and images we encounter every day, this book provides strategies for developing a more critical understanding of how racism operates culturally and institutionally in our society.

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An analysis of teaching standards in all 50 states to better understand whether states incorporate culturally responsive teaching.

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Week 2: Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education

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Week 2: Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education

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"You really shouldn't be having tests on a major holiday. We can communicate this up to the teachers and the administration," math teacher and affinity group leader Jeannie Rumsey told the students. "We can find another time for you to make that up, but this is a major holiday for you and you should be able to celebrate it." After organizing and communicating with their administration, the group succeeded in adding the major Muslim holy days to the following year's school calendar. The dates were given the same treatment as the Christian and Jewish holidays: no tests.

This example of collective action is one of the purposes of affinity groups in schools: They allow students who share an identity-usually a marginalized identity-to gather, talk in a safe space about issues related to that identity, and transfer that discussion into action that makes for a more equitable experience at school.

Dylan Posos, a student at John F. Kennedy High School in San Antonio, Texas, attests to the power of affinity groups to create safer learning environments. Dylan joined Kennedy's LGBT club in November 2014 after being disturbed by anti-LGBT bullying happening at school. He had not yet come out as transgender and was nervous about being judged. With the LGBT club, though, he found he could just be himself.

"The club motivated me to email my teachers. I came out with all my teachers, and now all my teachers call me Dylan," he says. "I'm more comfortable in school instead of being uncomfortable, not paying attention. It's like a weight off my back. The club gave that to me. It makes learning easier, really. It just gives me more confidence."

Having confidence in their identities is not always a given for students. Schools, like other institutions, are spaces in which those outside the dominant culture can feel disregarded, whether the disregard is intentional or not. Trying to negotiate and learn in such spaces makes the process of going to school stressful. Students of color, for example, may be dealing with what education professor Howard Stevenson calls racial stress: anxiety or fear that stems from racial encounters with individuals who are unaware or uncaring about the experiences of people of color. This kind of stress can contribute to feelings of loneliness and being "unseen" at school.

Darnell Fine, a seventh-grade English teacher and middle school diversity coordinator, speaks to the predispositions of many schools to overlook the needs of students outside the dominant group. "I think [school] can be a place that relegates students, especially students of color, especially students of marginalized groups, to silence," he explained. "It strips them of their voice. The students aren't voiceless, but due to the parameters of schools and how schools can marginalize students, they are at times not a place ... where students can express themselves."

Students need to be able to be themselves at school-and that's where affinity groups come in. A group of students who share an identity are going to relate to each other in ways they can't with peers who can't or don't understand their experience. It's about safety and, in some cases, about fundamental issues of injustice.

"The reason why affinity groups exist in the first place isn't because students want to segregate themselves from the rest of the population," Fine points out, "but because the population is excluding them to begin with." Gathering in safe spaces around shared identity allows students to engage in conversations about how they can subvert the structures that push them to the margins. In turn, these conversations "push the school to be more social-activist-oriented and less assimilationist-oriented," says Fine.

First Things First

Before a school can become more social-activist-oriented through affinity groups, someone has to get the ball rolling. Mike Ackerman, a counselor and affinity groups coordinator at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, Massachusetts, suggests starting by assembling a task force to get the initiative off the ground; this group should absolutely include students. Early collaboration can also involve soliciting the experience of other schools that have gone through the process of launching affinity groups, Rumsey noted.

In the idea-generation stage, an important step is to assess the attitudes and needs of the school. Fine recommends an anonymous diversity or multicultural survey of students, parents and school staff. Learning about concerns within the school community provides a springboard. "Let's say students of color don't feel comfortable going to their teachers," Fine illustrates. "You need to create a safe space for those students to voice those concerns and to start to organize."

Getting backing from the school's administration is also key, says Rumsey. "If your administration isn't in support of [forming affinity groups], it's not going to be successful. And, for that matter, the group's impact on your students will be severely limited," she says.

"I needed to have my principal and my admin on board with this because the conversations that we were having [in the affinity group] were very hard conversations. They were conversations that threatened the power structure," Fine says. "I knew my principal and the dean of students had my back. I wasn't tip-toeing around the conversation. I was allowing kids to voice their concerns and then propose initiatives to effect change in the school."

Launching a Successful Affinity Group

Once the higher-ups are on board, the task force can begin determining (based on the needs assessment) what groups are most necessary and finding facilitators. Another survey can be useful here, this time to find out how the adults in the school identify and what groups they'd be interested in leading. Rumsey and her team were careful to look for facilitators whose identities fit with the groups in question. Otherwise, the authenticity of the group's work could be in jeopardy. Fine puts it this way: "I can be an all-out advocate for my female students. It still doesn't erase the male privilege that I'm bringing into that affinity group."

But sometimes students need a group for which there is no appropriate adult leader. In that case, ask the students what they want to do. At Rumsey's school, Muslim students showed strong interest in having an affinity group for a couple of years, but no adults in the school identified as Muslim. She asked the students if they wanted to look for someone from the wider community or if they wanted her to lead it; they were comfortable with her and chose her.

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Affinity groups offer a platform for voices often relegated to the margins.

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"Racism" and "global citizenship" sound incompatible-like oil and water. This past year, however, we've been forced to acknowledge that systemic racism exists even within the "international school ecosystem," to borrow AIELOC's expression.

It exists even in international schools with a diverse student body. But how?

According to Nick, a North American teacher at an international school in Indonesia, it gets taught as part of the "hidden curriculum."

"It's what we say we teach, which I believe we believe in and we're trying to do, but by the very makeup of the institution, we are teaching this hidden agenda," Nick explained. "It's not like anybody's setting out to try to teach it, but it's being taught because it's our daily experience here."

Pennies before rupiah

An alumna of Nick's school believed the curriculum shaped the cultural hierarchy on campus. Lianne said, "I think because our teachers were mostly Americans, a lot of our study material was based out of the States. I learned what a penny was before I learned about the Indonesian rupiah!"

Lianne was referring to the math problems in her textbooks, which used currencies that were not used locally.

"And social studies was always about [western] history before world history," Lianne added. Scientists and literary authors also mostly had English or other European names.

But it isn't just about who or what is included in the textbooks. It is also about what is omitted.

Missing pieces

Large portions of the world do not appear in these textbooks. Or, if they do, it's tokenistic.

By high school graduation, an international school student who grew up in Asia might have learnt about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and its role in the start of a major war between European powers. They might also be able to write essays on Medieval Europe and the European Renaissance.

Yet, they might not know the significance of the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia when the heads of newly decolonized African and Asian states held a large-scale summit for the first time. They might know very little about Asian history and may not even have heard of the Ottoman Empire. It is also likely that they have never learnt about the legacies of colonialism in present-day political structures.

Students may be familiar with the European origins of "Roman numerals" but they might not have heard of the Indo-Arabic origins of the numbers they use daily.

After graduating, Lianne went on to study English literature in Australia. "Then I go to university," she recalls, "and it's like, ooh, colonization? Hmm, how come I didn't study that at school? Duh, we were being colonized!" Lianne let out a laugh.

But it isn't just about textbooks.

The operating system

"I honestly think that it was just the system," Lianne offered. "It was the operating system of the school: the workbook, the teachers, and then most of the kids were of course American kids. It's the oil kids, Mobile Oil, Castrol, right?"

Nick gave a more specific example. "For certainly the vast majority of our students," he pointed out, "they see Indonesians in subservient positions-primarily drivers, nannies, maids, gardeners, secretaries, electricians, and what have you."

The large number of local cleaning, gardening and security staff on campus generally remained nameless and faceless to students and teachers.

"How many Indonesians do they see in positions of power?" Nick asked. "They don't, right?"

Most of the teachers were white, including Nick. At the time of my interview with him, all five of the leadership positions in the high school administration were filled by white men. This was despite the use of international recruitment processes in a female-dominated industry.

Token diversity?

Although there were some non-white educators at the school, this does not prove the absence of racial bias in the hiring process.

It is possible that some were hired because they fit the existing images or stereotypes of non-white educators. Around half of them taught languages other than English. Only two were Black: a male physical education teacher and a female guidance counselor.

While I had not given it much thought at the time, it was uncanny to hear Ryan Haynes, a counselor who works at another international school, say in an interview recently on The Global Chatter podcast that people often assume he's a physical education teacher due to the stereotype of Black men as athletic. Haynes also noted that guidance counselors are sought after internationally.

Internalizing the structures

The racial composition of those in positions of authority does not go unnoticed by students.

Teachers like Nick could see the negative impact of the hidden curriculum on their own children who also attended the school. Nick, who was married to an Indonesian, observed that his seven-year-old, mixed-race daughter looked down on Indonesians.

A senior student at Nick's school also shared a story that illustrates how students unknowingly absorb the racial biases of a hidden curriculum. "One of the things that I find really strange is," said Tim, "when I'm here, most of the workers in McDonalds ... in all these restaurants are Asian, and then going back to the States and having [to give] orders to someone who is white or Caucasian is really strange to me. It's really weird. I don't know why."

Tim was not used to seeing white people in working class occupations serving others. He had expected them to be in positions of authority.

Enduring patterns

The demographic makeup of international schools has undergone major changes across the world over the past few decades. But little has changed in terms of the hidden curriculum. Nick and his students' description of the school in 2009 closely echoed that of Lianne's experience in the 1980s to 90s.

Today, the same stories are still being told in many places. Last year, the Organisation to Decolonise International Schools (ODIS) led by two recent graduates of international schools stated, "Many international school alumni have testified that their education was too Westernised and centred on white culture, history and achievements."

This does not mean, however, that international schools have completely failed.

Although he was critical, Nick also said, "There's no other school I wanna send my children to. I really believe that it's an incredible [education] that we're offering-the multiculturalism and all of those aspects that are powerful and good."

But he added, "There is this dark underbelly that isn't being addressed there. I think it poisons the system to some degree."

Danau Tanu, PhD, is an anthropologist and the author of Growing Up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, the first book on structural racism in international schools. Available now in paperback. www.danautanu.com
Related articles:

Portions of this article first appeared in Growing Up in Transit, edited for this post. Pseudonyms have been used for all interviewees to protect their privacy.

Osmosis: When children internalize racism through school (October 2020)

Strange Bedfellows (September 2020)

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The Hidden Curriculum | The International Educator (TIE Online)

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"Racism" and "global citizenship" sound incompatible-like oil and water. This past year, however, we've been forced to acknowledge that systemic racism exists even within the "international school ecosystem," to borrow AIELOC's expression. It exists even in international schools with a diverse student body. But how?