Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at ISL

Student Life

Creating safe, courageous spaces that promote agency, acceptance, belonging, inclusion, diversity and equality.

To Tanvi and Chloe: Thank you for your contributions in igniting this process.

THE CHALLENGE:

Your design challenge is to create a plan for anti-racist student life that promotes agency, acceptance, belonging, inclusion, diversity and equality.

Some Questions to Consider:

What does it mean to have an anti-racist student life?
How can we promote student agency that includes all voices?
How might we ensure that all members feel a sense of belonging within our community?
What role might different components of the school experience play in promoting positive, anti-racist, student life experience?

Possible Actions:

Through your inquiry, you will likely imagine many wonderful ways to promote a positive student life experience that promotes equality and belonging for all members of our community. A few ideas to consider include designing a plan for affinity or connection groups; developing a plan to promote student agency within the school; creating ethical "bridges" between year groups to share knowledge and experiences; create a student keynote series; or create student allies and support groups that help others in times of need. Also consider where the after school activities fits into this: how might we ensure that all providers live up to anti-racist principles? Through youth and adult partnerships, the possibilities are endless.

Panel Guest for Student Life

Bisi Alimi is an artist, activist, and educator.

Bisi Alimi is the founder and the Executive Director of the Bisi Alimi Foundation, an organisation working to accelerate social acceptance of LGBT people in Nigeria.

Alimi has a BA in Theatre Arts (2004) from the University of Lagos Nigeria and MSc in Global Governance and Public Policy (2011) from Birkbeck College University of London.

Alimi is a multitalented storyteller, actor, activist and angelic troublemaker. He has over 15 years experience working on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Africa.

Before starting Bisi Alimi Foundation, he was a lecturer at the Humboldt University in Berlin teaching “Pre and Post Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Africa”.

In his spare time, he loves to read, watch television and cook. He lives in London with his husband and his two dogs

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT YOUR INQUIRY

The High 88How the school responds to the COVID situation, plus a foreign correspondent reports from Shanghai and Seoul. Climate change and going plastic-free, internationalism, teacher diversity... and of course, Puff the Porcupine.

ISL EVIDENCE TO CONSIDER:

Understanding where we are to help us plan our way forward

The High Articles

-Thank you, Rafa

Issue 76 (October 2018): "White History Year" (Pia Tiwari and Heloise Coubat, page 6), and "This is not Lit" (Suhasini Mehra, page 9)
Issue 77 (November 2018): Letter to the Editor (Jeremy Lloyd, page 4) . "Fifty shades of white" (Khwaish Vohra, page 5). "Colour Films" (Salim Markabi, page 11)
Issue 78 (December 2018): "Humans don't swarm" (Mark Besson, page 7). "When the screen does not reflect you" (Suhasini Mehra, pages 10-11).
Issue 80 (March 2019): A debate on International Day (Elif Civelekoglu and Pia Tiwari, pages 10-11)
Issue 85 (November 2019): "That is racist" (Cloe Uzoukwu, page 3)
Issue 86 (December 2019): "The N-word" (Mark Besson, page 8)
Issue 88 (March 2020): "#StaffSoWhite" (Tanvi Anand, page 3)
A few articles in our online edition, High Fever: What it is like to be a person of color in this world today (Khwaish Vohra); Racism at ISL (Carlijn van der Weijst)

Tiffany Jewell talks about "This Book is Anti-Racist" as part of the Virtual Book Festival for Kids & Teens, in partnership with The DoSeum.

Othering & Belonging --by Awakin Call Editors, syndicated from servicespace.org, Jul 18, 2020

John a. powell is one of the foremost public intellectuals in the areas of civil rights, racism, ethnicity, housing and poverty. Despite a distinguished career, powell spells his name in lowercase on the simple and humble idea that we are part of the universe, not over it. He has introduced into the public lexicon the concepts of “othering and belonging.” For powell, "othering" hurts not only people of color, but whites, women, animals and the planet itself, because certain people are not seen in their full humanity. Belonging is much more profound than access; “it’s about co-creating the thing you are joining” rather than having to conform to rules already set."

What follows is the edited transcript of an Awakin Calls interview with powell. You can listen to the call in its entirety here. -Read More

Student Voice Strategies | Partner with the Student ExpertsEnsure the necessary voice of young people will be present in your work. Members of the Student Voice team and students from our broad network across all 50 states will partner with you in a variety of services.

The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and TodayHow much of a difference can young people make in addressing the problems our society faces? What makes their voices uniquely powerful?

26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With StudentsTo help teachers make the most of these films, we also provide a grab-bag of teaching ideas, related readings and student activities.

Starting Your Podcast: A Guide For Students New to podcasting? Don't panic.

évaluer leurs privilèges et leur partialité et en être plus conscients (voir Racisme, sexisme et homophobie, et Réflexion : Exercices et exemples/Exercices de réflexion personnelle);
encourager leurs collègues à explorer ces problèmes et à en parler;
faire cesser les actes de nature sexiste, raciste et homophobe chaque fois qu’ils en sont témoins. (Voir Stratégies d’action positive/Stratégies réactives.)

Comprendre le sexisme, le racisme et l’homophobie

Certains milieux scolaires sont très homogènes et il se peut que nous entendions rarement parler de situations de violence. Nous pouvons donc conclure qu’il n’est pas nécessaire de parler des problèmes liés à l’équité et à l’inclusion avec nos élèves. Mais les apparences sont parfois trompeuses.

En réalité, tous les membres d’une communauté scolaire peuvent se sentir exclus ou subir des injustices – les élèves, les parents, les collègues et le personnel d’administration. Mais plusieurs différences peuvent être camouflées ou censurées dans une école où les personnes ne se sentent pas en sécurité.

Understanding Sexism, Racism and Homophobia

If our school environment seems fairly homogenous, if we rarely hear of violent incidents in our school, it may be easy to assume that we do not need to address issues related to equity and inclusive education with our students. Appearances, however, can be deceiving.

In a school that is not socially safe, many differences may be camouflaged, or muted, with repercussions for the individuals who must live with secrecy. Young people growing up in environments with less diversity may have fewer naturally-occurring opportunities to develop the tools and awareness that are needed to create an equitable and inclusive school environment.- Read More from Safe Schools

Thank you for the padlet, David, Simon, and Emilie

LOCAL CONNECTIONS:

Building relations in our local community to dismantle racism

Diversity and coexistence

1915-1900.pdf

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT MATERIAL

There is always more to learn...

Explorations in inclusion, diversity, gender equity and innovation in UNHCR

“There is a responsibility on part of the organisation to ensure that we put in place checks and balances around gender equity, and that we have processes and policies. But I would say first and foremost it has to start with each of us at a very individual and personal level.”

Excerpt: In this project, we took some time to reflect on the most latent of innovations. We believe the quest to discover and discuss inclusion, diversity and gender equity will improve our work environments and, crucially, our services to Persons of Concern. We wanted to dig beneath the surface of our conversations around diversity and inclusion to help paint a picture of the changes UNHCR wants to see. To this end, we have collated written explorations of pressing diversity challenges in the organisation, extended recorded interviews with colleagues who have experienced the difficulties of exclusion and merits of inclusion, and an artistic examination of the visual landscape of human interactions and systematic bias formation.

UNESCO Resources for Combatting Racism:

Racism, xenophobia and intolerance are problems prevalent in all societies. But every day, each and every one of us can stand up against racial prejudice and intolerant attitudes. Be a human rights champion, #fightracism and #Standup4humanrights.

International human rights law-

The principles of equality and non-discrimination are enshrined at the heart of modern international law, including in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Charter of the United Nations. They also permeate the two key international human rights Covenants, on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and on Civil and Political Rights, as well as dozens of conventions, treaties, declarations and other important international legal instruments.

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is the most comprehensive instrument concerned with combating racial discrimination. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965 and entered into force on 4 January 1969.

Other international instruments aim to protect vulnerable groups:

United Nations Celebrations

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March)
International Day for Tolerance (16 November)
International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 -2024)

-Read More here

Thank you to everyone who has passed resources along to support our work. Those resources have been shared here. If you have more that you would like to share, please send them to Erin Threlfall .

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