Educators identifying as 'White' encouraged to attend anti-racist workshops

Posted December 2020

By Narden Ishak

Staff Reporter

BARWE, or Building Anti-Racist White Educators, a multi-year decentralized inquiry series available around the country, arrived at DDSD this fall to help teachers identifying as “White” explore their biases and improve their teaching practices.

“The BARWE resources are intended for white educators,” said DDSD instructional coach Belle Koskela. “In our district, nearly 90% of our teachers identify as white, while we serve an extremely diverse community.”

BARWE was established by Philadelphian educators whose mission it was to build an anti-racist system that fully nurtures the social, emotional, and academic well-being of students, as well as the professional well-being of teachers. Their monthly Reading and Inquiry Series provides a set of tools for learning, introspection, and action related to issues of racism in schools, classrooms, and communities.

“This BARWE Inquiry series was designed with the understanding that it is not the sole responsibility of people of color to educate White people about race,” states the mission statement on the BARWE website. “White people must take responsibility for our own growth to be anti-racist educators and community members.”

There will be monthly district meetings throughout the year and in the future. There will be 3-4 online districtwide gatherings via Google Meet each month to accommodate different schedules. Participants can choose the one session that works best for them each month. Teachers will be notified of the gathering times if they are on the email group list, which currently has 101 members. Teachers and staff members can request to be on the BARWE email group by emailing nancy_leggett@ddsd40.org.

“Joining is open to any staff member in the school district and they can join anytime,” said Koskela.

The topics discussed during the gatherings are based on Inquiry Series 1 from the BARWE website. BARWE also provides the materials needed on their website, like articles, podcasts, and discussion questions. DDSD started a little late so they discussed the August topic in October: “Why do white teachers need to talk about race?” They discussed the September topic in November: “How can our curriculum challenge dominant and oppressive ideologies?” They will discuss the October topic in December: “How can we identify and challenge implicit bias in our own practice?”

“Please approach this inquiry series as a learner,” states the BARWE website. “We all have room to grow with our understanding of race in our schools and communities. No one is an expert who has come to explain race to others; we are striving to be in dialogue with one another to learn and grow collectively. The work of growing our race consciousness is messy and mistakes will be made. We understand harmful impact is possible even with good intentions. Given this, we encourage folks to offer each other support, feedback, and corrections. We invite you to meet potential discomfort with curiosity and openness rather than defensiveness.”

The gathering is a decentralized small group discussion. For most of the gatherings the participants break out into small groups of 3-4 people. There’s an activity called “pass the hat.” Under usual circumstances a hat would be passed around the members present during the gathering to donate to an organization. Last month, a link, instead of the hat, was shared so teachers could donate to the Oregon Teacher Scholars Program.

"White teachers, even those with experience and compassion, can unconsciously cause pain to students of color in their classrooms. We believe that through consistent study and reflection, we can slowly address our own unconscious biases and make changes so we can better support the academic, social and emotional well-being of our students of color, “ states the BARWE website. “We want YOU to be part of a decentralized inquiry series to support teachers to better explore their own biases and improve their own teaching practices. We hope that through regular reflection and conversation, you can get better at recognizing and resisting your biases and the impact they have on your students and colleagues of color."