The following articles, podcasts, guides, and handouts are a collection of resources that developed my understanding of racial and cultural literacy, equity pedagogy, and culturally sustaining leadership in schools. Most of the resources come from my post-graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University: Reimagining Education Summer Institute: Teaching and Learning in Racially Diverse Schools, 2018, The School Law Institute, 2017, MD-ICCCR Advanced Certificate in Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, 2011-2015. Please feel free to contact me with recommendations to add to the list.
1. Four Misconceptions of Culturally Responsive Teaching, 2017
The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, Episode 78, Host Jennifer Gonzalez
Host Jennifer Gonzalez interviews author Zaretta Hammond to debunk common misconceptions about culturally responsive teaching. The podcast covers how the author defines diversity, the importance of optimizing learning to shift from dependent to independent learners, and responding to pushback of engaging in CRT.
Jennifer Gonzalez is a former middle school teacher. Her podcast covers a variety of educational topics for the “nerdy teacher,” mostly through interviews with teachers, learning experts, parents, and students.
2. “Microaggressive Impact on Education and Teaching: Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race in the Classroom,” Chapter 11 from Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, 2010
Derald Wing Sue
This article explains how difficult conversations on race are perceived differently by students of color and white students. After a brief overview of microaggressions in education, the author reviews common microaggressions experienced by students of color and barriers that white students may perceive that all inhibit honest racial dialogue. This article focuses on college level discussions, but he offers a framework for all educators to facilitate difficult racial conversations: be aware of their own values, biases, and assumptions of human behavior, understand the worldview of the culturally diverse students, possess a repertoire of facilitation or teaching strategies to aid students in self-reflection and learning.
Read this article for a brief overview that explains microaggressions in everyday life.
Read this article for a comprehensive list and explanation of microaggressions (see chart).
3. Let’s Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics With Students
A Teaching Tolerance Guide
This guide prepares K-12 teachers on what to do before having difficult conversations (assessing your comfort level, planning for strong emotions, etc) and how to support student engagement, including nonverbal strategies of checking in with students and how to respond to their strong emotions. For educators who are preparing to engage in conversations about race and racism and discuss other types of discrimination, such as gender bias, ableism, and religious or anti-LGBT persecution.
Created by Teaching Tolerance, a Southern Poverty Law Center project that offers free resources for teachers who care about diversity, equal opportunity, and respect for difference in schools.
4. Strategies for Creating Racial Equity In Schools and Classrooms
Border Crossers
This excerpt is from the resource guide, Talking About race in the Classroom: A Training for Educators Committed to Racial Justice. The training, run by excellent facilitators, introduces key topics including 4 types of racism (institutional, interpersonal, internalized, and ideological), microaggressions and unconscious bias, and successful strategies for dialogues addressing race and racism. This excerpt in particular offers short-term strategies for responding in the moment to situations related to race or racism and long-term strategies for promoting racial equity.
Border Crossers trains and empowers educators to “dismantle patterns of racism and injustice in our schools and communities.” Since 2010 Border Crossers has trained thousands of educators across the United States, envisioning “a world where all young people learn and thrive in racially equitable, liberating, and empowering educational spaces.”
5. Exploring Digital Literacy Practices in an Inclusive Classroom, 2015
By Detra Price-Dennis, Kathlene A. Holmes, and Emily Smith
This article shows how one 5th grade teacher’s work in an inclusive classroom can serve as a model for how all students benefit from having access to digital literacy practices. Ms. Smith draws upon students’ individual and collective strength to showcase their diverse perspectives in a Ted Talk inspired project. The authors offer a framework for teachers to promote student development: foster a community of leaders, embed digital tools into the curriculum (for them to be consumers and producers of knowledge), and link academic goals to real-world platform. The article also includes a chart of one student’s literacy practices and shows how each app/digital tool allowed the learner to demonstrate her competency. For educators interested in using technology that support social justice projects in inclusive classrooms.
Detra Price-Dennis is an assistant professor of elementary inclusive education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Kathlene A. Holmes is an instructor and doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Emily Smith is a fifth-grade teacher at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin, Texas.
6. When Race Enters the Room: Improving Leadership and Learning Through Racial Literacy, 2014
Sonya Douglass Horsford
This article gives an overview of racial literacy—“understanding what race is and how it functions in society”—and its importance for educational leaders to improve their leadership. The author gives a practical approach of offering a multi-step progression beginning with racial literacy and then moving on to “racial realism, racial reconstruction, and racial reconciliation.” These steps are concisely explained in the author’s other article published in nais.org. For educators and leaders who want to a gain a theoretical framework for developing leadership through racial literacy.
Sonya Douglass Horsford is an associate professor of Education in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University.
7. Culturally Responsive School Leadership: A Synthesis of the Literature, 2016
Muhammad A. Khalifa (University of Minnesota), Mark Anthony Gooden (University of Texas), James Earl Davis (Temple University)
This article gives a comprehensive review of emerging literature on culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL). The authors focus on the unique characteristics and behavior of culturally responsive school leaders, especially of urban school principals. They highlight and discuss four strands of leadership qualities: critical self-reflection, development of culturally responsive teachers and curricula, creation of culturally responsive environments, and the engagement of students, parents, and indigenous contexts. For school leaders and administrators interested in learning about common actions and behaviors attributed to CRSL (helpful chart included in article).
8. Supplement A. Racial Equity Lens
What is racism? This article gives an overview of the 4 I’s of Oppression and describes how racism manifests on ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels.