An Equity Journey: From Empathy to Action

In early June, as the nation was moved toward a national outcry for racial justice in ways that we haven’t seen since the Civil Rights Era, our team paused and deeply reflected on how we, too, are part of the problem of White supremacy culture that permeates our systems and culture in America. Since then, we have consistently revisited this topic and have reevaluated our work - both internally and externally with our partners - searching for ways to more explicitly center racial equity and to challenge our White dominant behaviors. While our team has been invested in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work as an internal staff for a few years, the past 3 months have provided rich opportunities to put this work into action with our partners in new and very intentional ways. I am excited to take another “pause” today and reflect on some of the work we’ve been doing and some lessons we are learning along the way. 

Since August, we have been working with a few districts in New Hampshire in supporting their priority to ensure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion + Justice (DEIJ) be centered in their schools and classrooms. These districts each sought training to help build their educators’ capacity in bringing an anti-bias/anti-racist (ABAR) lens to their pedagogy. In an unprecedented time when districts across the nation are scrambling to shift instruction and assessment to virtual and blended formats, it may be “understandable” to brush off the work of DEIJ, given the competing priorities that schools are facing. The fact that these districts, even in the face of conflicting demands on teachers’ time, have chosen to move forward in prioritizing this work, speaks volumes about the leadership and commitment to building a racially just and equitable future in their communities. 

In each of the districts and schools, we asserted a collaborative approach to the professional learning, having local leaders co-facilitate the content in ways that would show solidarity, capacity-building on the leader’s part, honor local context, and ensure greater investment and sustainability in this work. We did not want the work of DEIJ to become “just another PD session” during a time of increased stress. Through this co-ownership model, we took school teams through a learning arc that consisted of the following topics: 

• Digging into SELF (identities, bias, power, privilege, etc.)

• Exploring PLACE (manifestations of racism and bias in local context) 

• Oppression & Racism (using local data as a point of discovery to explore the opportunity gap close to home) 

• Creating a Portrait of an Anti-Racist Educator (using locally, co-constructed definitions) 

• Teach-in about Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (as a pedagogy to use toward becoming an anti-racist educator)

• Application of knowledge (using an anti-bias reflection tool to take stock of instruction, assessment, and classroom)  

This learning arc was implemented over 2-3 sessions per school over a few hours. The first thing you may be thinking is: Wow! That’s a lot of content in a short amount of time. And you are not wrong about that! The goal of the learning experience was to introduce pieces of this work in strategic ways, while ensuring we get to a place of application within pedagogy, with tangible next steps. Through these professional learning sessions, we are supporting our partners in shifting classroom pedagogy, school culture, and practice through this work. However, we would not have been able to co-construct our “north star” - the portrait of an anti-racist educator - without first unpacking our own identities, biases and privileges and how those manifest within the broader context of our society as racism and oppression. Similarly, diving into Culturally Relevant Pedagogy - a critical pedagogy and approach - would not have been meaningful without first deeply understanding how racism is real. Though we weren’t able to go as deep as would have been ideal, this arc allowed educators to learn and apply vocabulary, concepts and resources in new ways. The following image shows one school’s co-constructed North Star. It was constructed through a series of prompts and discussions among the school team as they identified what they believe educators need to know and be able to do if they want to be anti-racist educators. This portrait will now be an artifact for their school community that they can use over the coming months as they deepen their knowledge and learning as a staff. 

Most would agree that the work of moving towards anti-racism is lifelong and ongoing. There is not a manual or program of courses to follow that will “cure” us of the racism and cultural norms that are ingrained in us through centuries of oppression. However, there are actions that we can take to begin (or continue) this learning journey. We definitely took big steps in these communities over the past few months. While my reflective (and critical!) self is already planning new iterations of this work, here are some key lessons learned that I want to share: 

• Trust: Creating a safe and trusting environment cannot be ignored, skipped through or glossed over. Creating norms and expectations is a step in creating a trusting, safe, and brave space, but working with local leadership to deeply understand the team’s pulse is also key. Facilitating this work virtually is hard! Co-facilitation was important in creating an atmosphere of openness and vulnerability that allowed conversations to go deeper than I anticipated.  

• Buy-In: While I strongly believe that anti-racism is a human rights issue that transcends political lines, our current context has made this a highly politicized topic. This means that there are going to be people who do not believe that racism still exists, and thus, will be critical of this work. While there is not an easy solution to this, I think my approach here is to use this learning arc as an opportunity to bring a full team of staff into the conversation, but to now spend time in the future going “deep” with a subset of people who have the passion and desire to do so. This will allow the work to go further, faster. Creating a coalition of the willing may be the best approach to increasing the impact and making this work sustainable. 

• Slow & Steady: While there is value in getting through a learning arc to the application phase, this work is a journey and should be approached with a “slow and steady” mentality. I noticed that the schools who had leaders that cared less about getting to “application” were those who seemed to be more authentically invested in building a sustainable culture shift among their colleagues. Some educators shared feedback in the post-session surveys that the work felt like “lip service” from their district leadership, feeling a lack of true investment in this work. There seems to be a correlation between this “lack of investment” and the “fast and furious” approach to learning. Those who want easy answers and clear actions for educators to shift their pedagogy may not understand the need to invest in a longer term and slower journey to do this meaningfully.  

• Long-term Investment: As I have shared, there is some value in approaching this learning as a full staff experience in dosages that are manageable by all. I think that’s what we tried to do with this arc. However, if I had a magic wand and could choose how to implement this work, it would not be through 2-3 professional development sessions. This work is personal, challenging, and complex. It requires ongoing conversation, deep self-reflection, and vulnerable feedback. I would love to see an opportunity in the future that allows us to work in a community of practice model over a semester or a year. In a model like this, I could facilitate learning in a personalized way that would help spur even greater sustainability and buy-in. 

I am excited about the ways in which our organization has finally prioritized and been able to lead work in this space. It has been a value, a passion and a desire among our team for a long time. As I say in my sessions, “The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” (Alvin Toefler). I look forward to continuing to learn, unlearn and relearn alongside our partners in this work - and will document our learning along the way!