Beginning the personal work to uncover how we are complicit in racism is a journey, not a destination. Starting with self includes allowing ourselves the space and time to begin from a place of love, and notice how our own values, morals and thought-processes impact how we serve our students and community. It takes a lifetime of personal and professional reflecting and reflexing on one’s intersecting identities and social location; and interrogating the ways in which these factors can contribute to the oppression of others.

Engaging with educational research from the BIPOC academic community about how to counter bias and systemic discrimination, working to actively disrupt racism, and holding a posture of practice over perfection allows one to maintain a growth mindset, be called-in with humility, and actively unlearn their biases. To positively impact student success and sense of well-being, doing this inward work to Reflect, Interrogate, Disrupt and Dismantle, along with developing critical consciousness and actively making choices that celebrate, affirm, protect and defend the lives of Black, Indigenous and people of colour, centring student’s lived experiences through student voice, engaging with community, and building deep, healthy relationships with students, will help one to become an anti-racist educator.