My name is Jaison Hiltner and I am a Secondary Education and History major at The College of New Jersey. I have always had an interest in the historical field ever since I was super young. I find amazing satisfaction in studying the lives, cultures and events of the world that came before us and how it relates to life today. I hope to become a high school history teacher in the future and use my studies here at the college to advance the lives of my students and hopefully give them the same love for learning I was given.
By: Jamilah Pitts
This article details different "dimensions" that educators must study in their mission to enforce anti-racist beliefs. These dimensions from the article include:
The demographics of staff, particularly in schools with predominantly BIPOC students
School leadership and paths to school leadership
School governance (e.g., network and district leadership)
School curriculum
Teaching and learning practices
Definitions and measurements of academic success
Definitions and measurements of teacher success
Allocation of resources and budget
These dimensions express a variety of ways that schools can uplift students who encounter more difficulties in learning than many students encounter. It also explains how anti-racist educators who have to acknowledge that the original mission of schools were to promote white supremacy and silence opinions that upend this mission. Through this acknowledgement, it allows educators to find areas where they can change the curriculum in order to promote diversity and equity.
These strategies can be utilized in the classroom by giving examples of areas where schools can develop and improve upon previously discriminatory practices. The examples of dimensions where anti-racist educators shows areas where students can improve and without that improvement, it seems as though the education system will continue to neglect and hurt those that need more support from educational leaders and faculty.
By: PBS Wisconsin Education
The video touches on a variety of strategies that can be conducted by educators to give their classrooms a windows for students who do not normally receive representation. They give three different ways that educators can give students windows to different cultures. They are:
Read
Watch documentaries
Listen to peoples stories
This can utilized in the classroom because it touches on how to present the classroom in order to give representation to students. Presenting notable Native Americans, Black, Latino, Asian, etc. persons allows students to see people of their culture and gives them people to look up to
This tactics can be use gbre greatly within the classroom epseicallt the piece regarding understanding the strengths and not just the weaknesses of students. Allow students to feel understood and heard also could possibly open up the ability to have a narrative if a student feels as though they need someone to talk to. While Roth can not fully understand the struggles of his Black and Latino students, he can give them the stage to talk out their problems and feel heard if they do not have that otherwise
By Kristina Rizga
Robert Roth was a high school history teacher who attended one of the largest youth-led Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 in front of Mission High School in San Francisco, where Robert Roth taught U.S. History and Ethnic Studies from 2005 until he retired in 2018. Roth listened to teenage speakers who were urging white people like himself—including white educators, who make up 79 percent of the U.S. teaching force—to step up as allies in the fight for racial justice. In 1964, he joined what soon became the nation’s largest anti-school-segregation boycott in New York City. He was a student at Columbia University in 1968 and was a key part of one of the largest college anti-war and anti-racist protests of that era. He first started teaching in San Francisco in 1988 and explains in this interview how he has been grappling with what it means to be an anti-racist teacher working in majority Black and Latino schools. The most impactful statement he makes is:
"It’s really important to let students know that you will be in dialogue with them about all aspects of their work, including their grades. If a student knows that they are seen and heard, they can handle critique and challenge. But if they feel condescension or disrespect, they will very often tune out. An effective teacher is able to name a student’s strengths, and not just their weaknesses. If the back-and-forth is just negative—looking at what’s not there, picking on what a student doesn’t yet know how to do—then that’s a recipe for disengagement. And in order to understand the student’s strength, you have to understand the student." -Robert Roth
By: Larissa Wright-Elson
Wright-Elson's strategy revolves around a few stances and changes that she enforces within her classroom. These changes are:
"Our words must match our actions"
"We must broaden representation in classroom reading"
"We must embrace tough conversations"
"We must explore different ideas, and listen with intention to change"
"We must commit to constant self reflection and admit our own bias"
"We must use media to strengthen understanding"
"We must keep doing the work"
These potential changes, if committed to, can potentially allow the classroom to become more equitable for students who experience some form of oppression
This tactics could be used in a classroom through their acknowledgment while conducting classroom lessons. The stance of "we must embrace tough conversations" is very important for history educators as it is very important to talk about aspects of history that are uncomfortable. If we as educators choose to censor our history, we are not doing our due diligence.
This strategy can be used within the classroom through its usage whilst teaching racial topics. Through topics such as slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, Native Americans, etc., these strategies should be utilized to properly give these topics the gravity they should be conducted with. These topics are not light and should be taught with no censorship as well as producing an education that touches on all aspects of racial knowledge, not just talking about racism and white supremacy.
By: Charlie McGeehan
Charlie McGeehan is a white educator who wrote about his realization of not having an educator of color until they reached college. He cites the reason for not noticing before as he viewed whiteness as "normal", making him not notice color subconsciously. Due to this, he, along with a group of educators in Philadelphia called Building Anti-Racist White Educators, conducted studies and conversations to find ways to break out of our white washed historical precedent. The strategies he came up with were:
White people have a responsibility to work with other white people to build anti-racist identities and practices.
True anti-racism training must be ongoing, and it must involve networks to support us in this practice.
This work must be accountable to the people of color who find themselves targeted by racism on a daily basis.
Humility must be central to this work.
Talking about racism and white supremacy isn’t enough.