The demographics of our nation are changing. The U.S. census predicts that by the year 2020, “...more than half of the nation’s children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group” (U.S. Census Bureau 2015). Despite this trend in student populations, 82% of educators are white. The Center for American Progress and the National Education Association refer to this as a “diversity gap” (Holland 2014).
It is vital to the health of our country that our educational programs reflect the diversity of our student bodies. When students see their experience reflected in the curriculum, they feel recognized and included. By teaching about diverse experiences in local history, white educators can shift the attention away from their own personal experience to further explore the experiences of their students. This can be difficult to achieve; educators often make assumptions about shared values and experiences because of their implicit biases.
Before teaching this curriculum, it is imperative that educators take the time to reflect and gain awareness of their own perspective, assumptions, stereotypes and values. Everyone has a perspective, but not everyone’s racial or ethnic background includes a history of institutional oppression. How do we open our minds to diverse perspectives while also acknowledging the critical need for social justice? This reflection can inform teaching and influence how we approach and respond to students. We all have biases, no matter our color or culture; bringing them to the forefront before we lead difficult conversations is the only way we can be ready to create a safe space in our classroom.
Below you will find several resources to help prepare yourself for teaching this curriculum.
As a prerequisite, please download and fill out the 3 worksheets listed below (downloadable above and at the end of this section or, here:
Examining Personal and Diverse Perspectives (downloadable at the end of this section). This worksheet will help guide a personal reflection on race and black history while also asking you to consider the particular group(s) of students you will be teaching
Difficult Conversations: A Self-Assessment offers a format to examine your personal vulnerabilities, strengths, and needs before leading a conversation about race in your classroom. (created by Teaching Tolerance)
Responding to Strong Emotions helps you plan how to respond to emotions that may arise while having conversations about race in your classroom. We have to make sure we are not suppressing emotion under the guise of “being respectful.” It is important to note that repressing emotions is the status quo in the dominant white culture. Students may feel anger, and with good cause. Anger is often a secondary emotion, meaning that the student may be feeling fear or sadness more than anger, but is having difficulty expressing that. We need to be able to check in with our own emotions to make sure we do not react out of a discomfort with anger, a need to protect ourselves, or a desire to temper emotion. (created by Teaching Tolerance)
Other suggestions for preparing yourself to teach this curriculum:
Familiarize yourself with the secondary source overviews and other secondary sources, as well as the primary source documents
Watch the videos cited throughout this curriculum, especially OPB’s Local Color and Lift Ev’ry Voice
Spend time with the following resources:
Endnotes
The United State Census Bureau. 2015. “New Census Bureau Report Analyzes U.S. Population Projections.” Accessed March 24, 2017. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-tps16.html 3/24/17
Holland, Jesse J. 2014. “U.S. Teachers Nowhere as Diverse as Their Students.” The Big Story, March 4. Accessed March 24, 2017. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-teachers-nowhere-diverse-their-students
The racial and ethnic composition of our classrooms is significant. Obviously, we do not expect African-American students, or any students, to speak for or be the representative of their racial or cultural group. Similarly, we do not want to highlight or set up African-American students as the experts of anything and everything about their culture or history. There are issues to consider and questions to ask as we teach African-American history and address related issues of culture and race.
In all classrooms educators should :
Address and normalize racial/cultural identities
Bring forth multiple perspectives and teach perspective-taking
Bring in guest speakers, specifically, African American or Black guest speakers
Speak from your own racial/cultural identity/perspective
Ask questions and bring forth issues of fairness and dynamics of justice
Continuously build relationships with students and families: understand their cultural assets, perspectives, and experiences
Create a culture where all students are encouraged to speak from their perspectives, identities, and cultural backgrounds
Acknowledge the racial and cultural composition of your class
Access African American voices and perspectives through videos, literature, social media
Talk with the African-American students and families prior to beginning the lessons and ask if they have any stories, artifacts or resources that they would like to share.
Increase comfort and confidence in talking about and facilitating discussions on race and racism