News Articles + Resources for the Social Studies Educator Navigating Race in the Classroom by Caroline Lee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e en-us 2020-11-23 21:45:37 UTC 2020-12-02 03:13:46 UTC hello@padlet.com "Amid a racial reckoning, teachers are reconsidering how history is taught." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954141672 This article shares how social studies teachers across the country reconsidered their curriculum and how they teach in response to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the country. It highlights Professor King at the University of Missouri, who shares that Black history should be centered in classrooms in its full intersectionality. It shares that there are also teachers across the country fighting to get the authorization to teach electives centering Black history and the Black American experience. Teachers also share ways they've already incorporated anti-racism in their assignments—assignments that draw from the lived experiences of those in their classrooms and that highlight more culturally-responsive curriculum. This article does mention Native American and LGBTQIA history as well and mentions that their specific histories should also be included in social studies curriculum.

This article relates back to class in a lot of ways: it shares the practical approaches that teachers across America are taking to decolonize their classrooms and help their students learn about Black and Brown histories. This article is great because it mentions quite a few teachers who admit that this is the first time they've sat down to intentionally do anti-racist work in their classrooms, and it also shares thoughts on how this work cannot be done overnight—especially by "beginners" in this fight. This article is encouraging and informative and sheds light on helpful tips and tricks for educators of all backgrounds.]]> 2020-11-23 21:46:14 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954141672 "Osceola County teacher under investigation for racial remarks." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954144704 This article shares the story of a racist teacher sharing that she has the "right" to "dislike Blacks" because she claims she was attacked on the MARTA by a "gang" of Black people when she was a teenager. It is interesting in that she doesn't just say racist things like unfortunately thousands of other teachers routinely do, but she uses her personal experience to justify this racism.

This story relates back to the idea that teachers should educate themselves on race and learn from/listen to the experts on race. This woman shows that there are those educators who always come up with reasons to justify their behavior and that simply educating oneself isn't enough to decolonize schools/teaching, as there are those who willingly share their hatred and justify it with lived experiences (true or not), people who could/would derail a training on critical race theory. Teachers should be aware that there are always folks like this in schools across America.]]> 2020-11-23 21:47:50 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954144704 "New book helps teachers, principles confront their own racism." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954147896 This article is an interview with Sarah Fiarman and Tracey Benson, two former school principals writing a book on how school leaders should address their own racism and the racism they reproduce in schools. Some of the ways that they highlight teachers and school leaders practicing racism—even if they think they are not—include, unintentionally not encouraging Black + Brown students from participating in class, not taking Black/Brown students seriously or having the same expectations for them as one does for other students, and being more "judgmental" of Black/Brown parents. They admit that though there are plenty of white teachers who say they"care about kids and want to ensure more equitable outcomes," those teachers nonetheless "might be causing harm because of the unexamined unconscious biases that are influencing our behavior every day." They remind teachers that "we have to approach this in a way that we’re all on a racial learning continuum, and that there are folks out there who aren’t knowledgeable enough about how racism affects them and how they promote it, even inadvertently." 

This article relates to class themes in the same way that other articles presented here do—that antiracist work is never done, even if one believes that they've completed all the trainings and done all the readings so they must have it all figured out. This article is geared towards school leaders but nonetheless has practical implications for social studies educators.]]> 2020-11-23 21:49:32 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954147896 "California schools launch anti-racism plan, flouting Trump's threats" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954149029 As a response to Trump's 1776 Commission, California schools developed a plan to ensure that they are continuing to work toward decolonizing schools—a superintendent with the state education department says he is 
reminded that "education continues to be one of our most powerful tools to countering hate." This article reminds teachers that Trump "does not have the power to mandate state school curriculum." 

This article also shares that California is working on making ethnic studies courses mandatory for high school graduation by 2030, and that soon all UC system college students will have a similar requirement.

This article relates back to what we've learned in class in that it shows that schools/state departments can and should fight back against attempts to redefine state/local curriculum and incorporate racist, nationalist propaganda to accommodate white comfort. Teachers should be encouraged by these efforts and feel encouraged to similarly make anti-racist changes in their own curriculum.]]> 2020-11-23 21:50:06 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954149029 "Amid COVID and Racial Injustice, Teachers Matter More Than Ever" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954150821 This article provides a compelling overview of the power that teachers have in shaping students's perspectives of the world around them—particularly during tough times like the coronavirus pandemic and the national reckoning with race in the United States. This author and student at Teachers College shares that teachers should include what she calls intentional relevance/intentional and relevant teaching that speaks directly to the lived experiences of students that "strengthens our civic empathy for each other, delivers academic rigor and knowledge...and models engaged listening in all of our schools." This article calls for empathy for those that are different than us while maintaining that harming others is unacceptable, especially in a classroom.

This article is important for social studies teachers to read as it empowers teachers to meet the moment, whatever it may be—a pandemic, systemic racism, etc.—and teach with these stresses and current events in mind rather than pretending they don't exist within the confines of the classroom. This kind of teaching incorporates the experiences students are having outside of the classroom and ensures they feel they are being treated as a whole person rather than just a student passively learning. This article gives teachers the agency to create culturally-relevant pedagogy that engages students and gives them a safe place to discuss hard things, no matter what they might be. This article perhaps is idealistic in the sense that she doesn't necessarily give a roadmap for accomplishing this kind of feat in a classroom, but she shares a compelling story with important big ideas nonetheless.]]> 2020-11-23 21:50:59 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954150821 "I Was a Racist Teacher and I Didn't Even Know It." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954152994 This article written from the perspective of a teacher with experience working in the US Department of Education is a telling story of a teacher's realization that she isn't doing all she can as a white ally and still upholds/perpetuates systems of racism in her own classroom. After a Black parent was upset over the class watching the movie Glory which subjected her Black daughter to watch the dehumanization of Black people with a crowd of white peers, this teacher realized that she was not the ally she thought she was and was in fact harming her Black students instead when she thought she was doing things that were "on their side." She writes of more realizations: "My reluctance to criticize White literary greats, like Jack London, to call them out over racist writing. My inability to connect with Black boys in the classroom and sometimes my fear of them. My over-the-top habit of portraying myself publicly as someone who is “definitely not a racist.”

This article is important for social studies teachers because, like others in this Padlet, is shows that even those with the best intentions and the most "well-read" of folks on race still, practically, may fall short. "Anti-racism is more of an action than a feeling," the author points out, and this article encourages teachers to re-evaluate their allyship and do more to genuinely decolonize one's classroom in ways that have meaningful impact on the lives of students of color.]]> 2020-11-23 21:52:12 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954152994 "It's Not So Black and White: Discussing Race and Racism in the Classroom." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954153577 Dr. Beverly Tatum shares brief thoughts on teaching race/racism in the classroom in this Scholastic article. She calls for teachers to stray away from only teaching about Black history as it's concerned with slavery, and she encourages teachers to pull stories that highlight the complexity of race in American history—showing that not all white people are bad and that not all Black history is/ever was just Black suffering. Dr. Tatum shares that teachers should lean into discomfort when having challenging conversations to model appropriate and respectful behavior/dialogue to students, and she encourages teaches to help students "find hope" in history.

This article relates back to class because it reminds teachers that it is their responsibility to teach history in all its complexities and convolutedness, and to ensure that students don't walk away from challenging conversations hating one another but rather understanding one another and their privileges and histories. Navigating this is challenging but is an important job for social studies educators.]]> 2020-11-23 21:52:31 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954153577 "How to Create Anti-racist Virtual Classrooms: Strategies for Teachers and Families" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954154173 This article provides foundational definitions for what anti-racist teaching is and how to accomplish it in a classroom: "anti-racist teaching is the idea of looking at instructional planning through an equity lens. It’s thinking about digital accessibility and making content accessible for students who may have cognitive disabilities." Accomplishing this in a classroom involves encouraging students to think openly and critically about race, as well as incorporating diverse perspectives through materials or even guest speakers to further this learning.

But this article is especially important for teachers to read because it gives a rundown of COVID/virtual learning in terms of anti-racist classrooms. Teaches are encouraged to remember that the diversity in each classroom is hard for students to see through virtual learning and thus to learn from one another, so teachers should incorporate opportunities for students to investigate things that are important to them and then share those things with the class. These types of assignments remind the class of the multiple diverse perspectives that students their age bring to class and gives students an opportunity to share parts of their identity with their peers.]]> 2020-11-23 21:52:49 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954154173 "Racism is my high school experience" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954156349 This article from a newspaper in Maine details the experiences Black and Brown high school students had with racism, and those who perpetrated that racism went unpunished despite reports from the students who experienced it. These students share that the administrators and teachers in this predominantly-white school district wouldn't follow school policy on these reports. These students share the emotional toll that this racism and abuse took on them, and that those experiences are inspiring them to fight back against the schools that condoned this behavior.

This article relates back to class content in that it centers the Black experience in predominantly white schools, an experience that is defined by racism and a feeling of not being welcome—by fellow students, teachers, and administrators alike. It proves that though there were likely plenty of faculty at the time that didn't consider themselves racists or perhaps thought they were doing anti-racist work, those teachers ultimately didn't prevent racism from negatively impacting the education and overall wellbeing of Black and Brown students in their schools—whether because they didn't know about these incidents or turned a blind eye /condoned them like so many were reported to have done. Social studies teachers should be reminded that as much as they think they themselves are anti-racist, the schools they teach in are not and the students they teach to are not either; this is a helpful reminder that anti-racist work is never finished. It is also a reminder to center the lived experiences of all students in classroom curriculum and to do everyone one can do to create safe spaces for students to share incident like this with them, and to always be on call to act in defense for one's students.]]> 2020-11-23 21:53:56 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954156349 "Effective Anti-Racist Education Requires More Diverse Teachers, More Training" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954157119 Former students start petitions to advocate for more training among teachers in their former schools, as well as the hiring of a more diverse class of teachers. The folks interviewed in this article call for a "more perfect union" through ensuring teachers practice anti-racism among themselves and thus are more equipped to do that with their students.

Travis Bristol, an assistant professor at the University of California and Berkeley, says that ant-racist education doesn't center white people and the white experience. He calls for more Black teachers in schools, but he stresses that the burden should not be on Black teachers to address racism but rather should be on all teachers.

This article's insistence that white teachers should remember it is their duty to decolonize schools and to educate themselves on race is super important for social studies teachers to know.]]> 2020-11-23 21:54:23 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954157119 "Trump Claims Teaching Kids About Racism is 'Child Abuse,' Wants it Abolished From Schools And Replaced with a "Patriotic Education" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954157869 Trump's response to the NYT's 1619 project was calling it "toxic propaganda" and "child abuse" that "will destroy our country." Trump proposed something called the 1776 Commission which would encourage/(require?) teaching a "patriotic education."

This article relates back to class content in a few ways: first, the obvious federal overstep in dictating what teachers can/cannot or should/should not be teaching; an (illegal) overstep that clearly is dominated by nationalistic and racist ideology. Teachers should maintain a focus for teaching the complicated, complex, and full story of American history—particularly America's founding and American slavery. This article reminds teachers that they—as well as the schools they teach in and the curriculum they choose--are always political. Additionally, this article and the story behind it could provide interesting conversation in a classroom/among social studies students—can the president dictate what is being taught in classrooms? (answer: no.) Should the president use his office to criticize a newspaper like The New York Times? What is the relationship between a president and "patriotism"? What is the relationship between schools and patriotism?]]> 2020-11-23 21:54:48 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954157869 "Suggestions for Teaching About Race" carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954160456 This article takes a pretty academic approach to encouraging teachers + educators to study race and educate themselves, stating that in academic terms, "race is its own specialized field." This article instructs that academics should: self-assess their own knowledge of race and own internalized racism; read work by scholar-activists; reconsider course themes — give accurate/fair representation; dedicate sessions to discussing race an alert students about this beforehand—and ensure that students know one another in order to have productive conversations without tokenization

Though this article seems to be more geared towards professors and higher education, it still takes a practical approach to teachers and educators overall educating themselves by reading more and becoming the student, so that they can then be the best role model for their students for having challenging conversations about race.
]]> 2020-11-23 21:56:12 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/954160456 "15 Classroom Resources for Discussing Racism, Policing, and Protest." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/977810494 This article from Education Week is packed with resources for educators on navigating discussions about race—everything from lesson plans from an organization called Black Lives Matter at School to the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" archives. Social studies teachers should make active use of the work done by so many others already and shouldn't feel pressured to reinvent the wheel. They *should* however do the work/the readings and educate themselves with what's out there in order to facilitate the best learning experience for their students.]]> 2020-12-01 21:48:24 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/977810494 "To Fight Systemic Racism, Social Studies Must Be a Central Part of School Curriculum." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/977850010 In this article, Adina Goldstein gives a passionate plea for school administrators to back up their words on increasing cultural competency and fighting systemic racism in schools through curriculum by increasing support for social studies as a respected, separate entity in schools. Goldstein tell us that in many school districts/states, social studies isn't even a high-tested subjects and is thus regarded on the back burner of a child's education, with calls to focus more on reading and math than social studies. Goldstein says that if teachers and administrators really want their schools to serve as the epicenter for conversations on race and making society more equitable and educated on race, then social studies is going to have to be given the attention and funding that it deserves.

This article was a really interesting read and tied together the importance that social studies plays in addressing and fighting systems of oppression to the current peak of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is an important read for social studies teachers because it centers social studies as an essential piece of the puzzle of decolonizing schools, yet it details the paradox of social studies still remaining under-respected, underfunded and just not taken as seriously. All social studies teachers should take to heart Goldstein's call to restructure schools and putting social studies on par with other "core subjects."]]> 2020-12-01 22:04:15 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/977850010 "Social Justice and Anti-Racist Educator Resources." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/978209227 This article details a ton of anti-racist resources for teachers, compiling everything from reading lists to people/accounts to follow on social media. This document is helpful for social studies teachers in navigating the wide world of resources available and even gives an easy "starting your journey" guideline.]]> 2020-12-02 01:08:20 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/978209227 "'History of Us' Course Introduces Students to their Ancestors and the Role of Race in America's History." carolineelee https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/978450925 This article tells the story of a Tuscaloosa public school system class on Black history. Taught by University of Alabama Professor John Giggie, this course not only centered Black history for the students, but it also had students doing real historical work like sorting through historical documents and utilizing them in various projects—students even remarked how sad and unfortunate it is that there were no records kept on things like family backgrounds/relations, but records were kept on the most mundane of things otherwise regarding slavery. 

This article is important for social studies educators because it showcases what perhaps is a teacher's perfect class. It seems that Dr. Diggie ultimately has free reign over what he chooses to teach and is able to center the type of history he wants his students who are predominantly students of color to know. This article stresses the importance of history that speaks directly to the histories of individual students, and it gives ideas for structuring one's own class in a similar way.]]> 2020-12-02 03:07:42 UTC https://padlet.com/carolineelee/w0s4aunwkxzelo9e/wish/978450925