Anti-Racist Classrooms Begin with Anti-Racist Educators: A Call To White Educators for Authentic Action
Claudia Traub, Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Diversity Talks
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in education: the coveted buzz words for 2020/21. We, as white educators, wear them like badges as newly inaugurated social justice heroes — a rush to our online guide to “anti-racist” teaching, a nod to teaching the Black Panther Party during Black History Month, and perhaps an acknowledgement that our curriculum needs to be more culturally responsive. But what happens next?
How do we share, and further, teach the book from the “diverse books” list if we have not done the self reflection and anti-racist work personally first? Offering a book without a full understanding of how to teach that book does not allow for anti-racist teaching. It is merely the addition of a book. It is a place to begin. Using a book we found in the “anti-racist” book list without having come to terms with our own power and privilege in the classroom and in the world, isn’t enough. As white educators we cannot make the anti-racist classroom a reality without first doing the work of breaking down our own racist and biased practices. We must first decolonize our own expectations, priorities, and ideologies. We need to confront our role in wider systems of oppression.
Teacher & Student Perspective
Partly, our difficulty in realizing an anti-racist classroom may stem from confusion on what that actually looks like. While developing our new Abolitionist Teaching Fellowship at Diversity Talks, we conducted targeted focus groups with high school students and teachers. We asked them questions about their perceptions of an anti-racist classroom, and what changes they would like to see. Teachers and students from the same school districts gave strikingly different answers. Students’ comments were more likely to highlight aspects of their educational experience rather than curriculum; especially their desire to form genuine connections with their teachers. Some students mentioned they avoid seeking help because they don’t feel like they know their teachers well enough to do that. They want teachers to see them holistically (i.e., I am not just a math student) and highlight their schools’ failure to establish an inclusive space that represents and affirms all parts of who they are (their various identities — race, gender, sexual identity, religious, mental health, etc.). Students also brought up that schools need to teach students to think about their privilege relative to other students to help make the school community more inclusive.
Talking with teachers, many were grappling with the question of what falls within and outside their role as educators. Should they be sharing personal stories in the classroom? Will being vulnerable undermine their ability to teach? What does anti-racist teaching mean for math and science? We heard repeated concerns about content allocation as well as balancing institutional expectations and restrictions. Many (cis white) educators admitted to feeling uncomfortable talking about race or bringing up racial and other identities in the classroom. Importantly, their expressed lack of basic familiarity with the language required to discuss racial, gender, and other identities left them unable to productively engage with stories in ways that empower underrepresented or marginalized voices in their classroom.
A Call to Action
The anti-racist classroom begins with an anti-racist educator. Change, authentic, and sustainable, begins with us. We, white educators, are part of and benefit from systemic racism in our educational institutions. From inequitable funding policies to an alarming rate of expulsion for Brown and Black students as compared to white students to deficit based assessment structures aimed at marginalized communities. These systems need to be broken down and rebuilt in order for real change to take place. Still, we need a place to begin. We must first start with self reflection — breaking down systems of inequality and discrimination in our own classrooms, listening to youth and community voice, building deep relationships, emphasizing joy in our spaces, and becoming accountable for the harm we inflict, even when unintentional. Creating ongoing communities of practice, like those we are building in the National Abolitionist Teaching Fellowship, that hold us accountable and support us in our work is imperative. Gathering with co-conspirators, and partnering in thought, and practice is essential to moving from the performative to the authentic. Engaging in a space where it is safe to fail forward, and where the work is done with an eye towards grace and humility is our goal.
I don’t write this as a woman who has completed her journey. I write this as a woman who cringes at some of the things I have said and done as an educator. I write as a white woman who understands the harm I have perpetuated without deliberate intention, but to understand is only the very beginning. I write as a white woman who is part of a predominantly white teaching force that serves Black and Brown students. This system of white washed curriculum, deficit based assessment and culturally insensitive teaching ensures the further harm and marginalization of Brown and Black students. Immediate and critical action is needed if we do not want to perpetuate over 400 years of “white rage” on Black and Brown youth, families and communities.
