Anti-Racist Classrooms

“As long as we are not ourselves, we will try to be what other people are.”

Malidoma Patrice Somé

Tip: Create an environment where students are expected to thrive and excel academically without losing their own cultural and linguistic identity.

• Gloria Ladson-Billings is considered one of the foundational leaders in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. In this article, she discusses how educators leverage a student’s cultural identity as a vehicle for learning. But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.
• Research, Pedagogy, and the Academy: A Q&A With Gloria Ladson-Billings
• There is an idea of a “double consciousness” that exists for students of color in our education system. In this TEDx Talk, Gracia Bareti shares her personal experiences growing up balancing traditional food and cultural norms with growing up in predominantly white schools. She discusses the Cultural Awareness Course Addition Act and how to bring other cultures into the K12 curriculum.
• Educators must think carefully “about the message their curriculum sends to students about whose voices and stories are worthy of academic study”. How the #DisruptTexts Movement Can Help English Teachers Be More Inclusive by Katrina Schwartz.
• Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy
• How can educators reach students where they are and take them on the learning journey? Teaching isn’t about managing behavior by Christopher Emdin.
• How can we be unified without being uniform? What does it mean to be community responsive and why does it matter for educators and school leaders? Lessons on Place, Context, and School Leaderships via The Way Out is Back Through podcast.
• Dear White Teachers: You Can’t Love Your Black Students If You Don’t Know Them by Dr. Bettina Love
• Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is often called “just good teaching”. We challenge you to read this article with an equity lens to determine how you can take what works to fully engage the students who need it most. Educating Everybody’s Children: We Know What Works — And What Doesn’t.
• School counselors and social workers also have a role to play. This Diversity Toolkit from the USC School of Social Work can help.

Questions to consider:

1. What voices and perspectives are missing in the curriculum? Where can I find them?
2. How can I center a student’s identity, culture, or language to good teaching practices?
3. What measures can be put in place to prevent students of color from being “othered” in the classroom?

For Starters…

1. Be intentional about the narratives and resources you bring into your classroom.
2. Provide space for your students to explore their own identity so that it produces positive outcomes.
3. Provide space for white students to learn from and about black and non-black people of color.

“To be antiracist is to think nothing is behaviorally wrong or right — inferior or superior — with any of the racial groups. Whenever the antiracist sees individuals behaving positively or negatively, the antiracist sees exactly that: individuals behaving positively or negatively, not representatives of whole races.”

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Tip: Engage in your own anti-racism journey and the continuous process of self-assessment.

Investigate the racial inequities that exist across race and access to quality education:

• Institutional racism shows up in the ways in which our schools are funded. The EdBuild 23 Billion report displays the gaps in funding between white and non-white schools across economic class breakdowns.
• Redlining (lending practices that discriminate against marginalized groups) contributes to the systematic denial of resources to black and brown communities and low-income communities. Redlining and its stealth impact on Education.
• Watch Dr. Carol Anderson break down the systematic refusal to invest in schools and black communities in retaliation to Brown v. Board of Education. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide.

Continue to engage in their own personal anti-racism journey and self-reflection:

• Anti-racist educators view the success of their black students as closely tied to their own success as an effective teacher. What Anti-Racist Teachers Do Differently.
• The Seeing White Podcast Series explores the notion of whiteness, where it comes from, and how it manifests historically and contemporarily as a force of power in the United States.
• Dr. Ibram Kendi discusses antiracism at the Aspen Institute. How to be an Antiracist.
• How Ibram X. Kendi’s Definition of Antiracism Applies to Schools by Katrina Schwartz
• Anti-Racist Reading List from the renowned antiracism scholar, Ibram X. Kendi via Chicago Public Library.

Questions to Consider:

1. How am I continuing to evaluate my own understanding of race and cultural identity?
2. How does structural racism impact the conditions and circumstances of the lives of the students in my classroom?
3. How is justice in the United States experienced differently for different groups?

Journal Prompts for Anti-racist Reflection:

1. How have I participated in normalizing white culture at the expense of other cultures?
2. I want to learn, how can I walk in love and empathy instead of defensiveness and judgement?
3. Who are the people in my professional learning network? Are they mostly white? Are there any black and non-black people of color?

“You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself. You should instead fear unexamined racism. Fear the thought that right now, you could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don’t know it. But do not fear those who bring that oppression to light. Do not fear the opportunity to do better.”

Ijeoma Oluo

Tip: Provide opportunities for students to engage in discussions on race, justice, and equity.

Although schools do not deliberately teach students about race, students bring their ideas about race with them from home and continue to learn about race through their engagements with peers. These resources can assist educators with tools and strategies for discussions about race in the classroom.

• The first step in talking about race in the classroom is the courage to have these important conversations. Amber Coleman-Mortley provides educators with a pep-talk and reasons why these discussions are so important. We Must Be Fearless In The Face Of Race.
• In this TED Talk, Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo discuss what it takes to be racially literate and their journey collecting stories about racial awareness across 50 states.
• Get more student-developed racial literacy tools. Dig deeper into Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo’s book “Tell Me Who You Are” and learn about the research on racial literacy.
• What messages are you giving to your black students in your classroom? In this article Professor Howard Stevenson discusses why we should have discussions about race with kids: You’re always communicating about race, whether you talk about it or not.
• Conversations on race in the classroom need to be constructed in a way that encourages all students to learn about race. White students need to learn about race. What white students need to learn about race, by Ali Michael and Eleonora Bartoli.
• Racial stereotypes can be harmful to student self-identity and often play out in group dynamics that impact students of color disproportionately. Here is a tip sheet for talking to kids about racial stereotypes.
• Teaching Tolerance Framework for Teaching Hard History: American Slavery
• Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism
• How Should I Talk about Race in My Mostly White Classroom?

“The paradox of education is precisely this; that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

James Baldwin

Tip: Realize your role in centering the humanity of your students as imperative for fighting injustice and inequity.

• What we call controversial issues are often issues of survival for our students. “Educators often teach Social-emotional learning (SEL) absent of the larger sociopolitical context” as they touch upon controversial and politicized issues. We must lean in. Why We Can’t Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning by Dena Simmons.
• Social-emotional learning (SEL) is often used to police student behavior rather than elevate student potential. Watch panelists discuss the ways that educators and administrators can better understand their role in perpetuating structural racism in schools. EQ & Education Equity: What should education do to counteract racism?
• How do we teach them to approach the world with love and possibility when they so often seem targeted for harm? Listen to this discussion on Supporting Kids Of Color In the Wake Of Racialized Violence with Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith and Dr. Sandra “Chap” Chapman.
• Abolitionist Teaching Network Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social And Emotional Learning
• CASEL CARES: Owning Your Power to Raise Kids Who Challenge Racism

Tip: Create conditions for students to develop the skills necessary for critiquing and changing cultural norms, values, and institutions that produce inequity.

• Culturally responsive teaching requires educators to recognize students for who they are and the value they bring to the classroom with the goal that students address the inequity around them. “Social justice education is centered in democracy and the freedom to exercise one’s full humanity”. What Is Social Justice Education Anyway? by Crystal Belle.
• An important part of culturally responsive teaching is training students to critique the inequities they experience locally. Creating Classrooms for Social Justice by Tabitha Dell’Angelo
• In this article, Joshua Block a white educator, explains why white teachers must empower students with backgrounds different from their own. He provides a few techniques to help execute this well. Educate to Liberate: Build an Anti-Racist Classroom.
• Introduction: Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice

Questions to Consider:

1. Am I leveraging social-emotional learning as a tool to police student behavior or to connect with student needs?
2. How can I leverage social-emotional learning as a vehicle for mutual respect amongst students, between teachers and students, and between teachers and parents?
3. How is justice in the United States experienced by different groups? What are examples of engaged civic actors fighting injustice? What can I learn from their effort to aid in the fight against injustice experienced today?