by Dr. MaryAnn DeRosa and Dr. Alexandra Laing, Worthy Educators and Champions. Edited excerpt from Solving School Challenges: The Everything Guide to Transformative Change
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2023), in the fall of 2021, enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States comprised a diverse student body, with 49.4 million students. Among these, the largest racial group was White, accounting for 22.4 million students. Hispanic students comprised the second-largest group, with 14.1 million enrolled, followed by Black students at 7.4 million. Additionally, there were 2.7 million Asian students, 2.3 million students identifying as two or more races, 0.5 million American Indian/Alaska Native students, and 182,000 Pacific Islander students. This data underscores the rich diversity within the nation's educational landscape, highlighting the importance of addressing the needs and experiences of students from various racial and ethnic backgrounds in educational policies and practices.
Yet, the move to more inclusive and equity-centered pedagogies has been controversial, leading to book bans (PEN America, 2023), curriculum overhauls (Ivarez, 2023), and, in its most extreme form, causing teachers to lose their jobs as shared in these news reports from Georgia (Williams, 2023) and North Carolina (Childress, 2023).
This visceral response may have been guided by fear of losing traditional American content to give space to progressive pedagogy. Or perhaps it’s because of uncertainty, disagreement, or political perspective. However, we believe there is enough space and time to teach with inclusive and equity-centered pedagogies because American histories and stories have always intertwined with Indigenous peoples and historically marginalized groups. Including these stories in our teaching gives a more authentic perspective of our collective unity and times of disunity, not less. Including the voices and stories of our growing diverse population is a gift for all our students who will grow into a more diverse, globally connected world.
Perhaps terminology is cause for combative debates that, unfortunately, only manage to drain time and resources away from the school's work. A term such as Critical Race Theory is confusing, provoking anger and resentment, and means different things to different people. While those feelings are real and should be acknowledged, educators understand that our students move faster and often see the world beyond the traditional lenses. Our students’ world is global and multi-faceted, and for our students to succeed beyond the K-12 experience, their learning must reflect this future. Terminology should lift the entire community, not become points of contention. Don’t we all want to engage in pedagogies that value and promote the human dignity of all our children?
There are several ways to mitigate these concerns and transform your school to embrace equity, thus benefiting the community by transferring negative energy to becoming a more culturally responsive, inclusive, and equity-centered school. Focus on professional learning by offering workshops, seminars, and training sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. These sessions can cover identity, cultural competence, implicit bias, and strategies for creating inclusive classroom environments. But we have to go further than just offering learning. We need to provide opportunities for teachers to engage in dialogue, share experiences, and learn from experts in these fields to foster a culture of continuous growth and inclusivity tailored to the school community’s unique needs. Critically examine your curriculum and instructional materials for bias and representation. Adopt resources and support for integrating diverse perspectives, voices, and histories into lesson plans and classroom activities. And emphasize the importance of culturally responsive teaching practices that validate and affirm students' identities and experiences.
To foster collaboration and community, create spaces for teachers to collaborate and exchange ideas around DEI initiatives and establish affinity groups or learning communities where educators can discuss challenges, share best practices, and support one another in their journey toward equity-centered teaching. The National Equity Project has an excellent collection of Equity Tools you can use to get started, including professional learning courses, messaging guides, question stems, and more (National Equity Project, n.d.). To further the collaboration beyond your school walls, encourage partnerships with families, community organizations, and cultural institutions to bring diverse perspectives into the classroom. This could include providing resources and workshops for parents and caregivers on cultural competency, advocating for inclusive practices in schools, or fostering partnerships with community organizations to address systemic barriers and promote educational equity. The Smithsonian Affiliations is dedicated to Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion and provides content and programming and helps to connect communities. Their DEAI Reflection Guide is specially designed to help transformative educational leaders consider their community partnerships (Smithsonian Affiliations, n.d.).
It’s ultimately our responsibility to ensure school policies and practices promote equity and inclusivity, foster mutual respect and understanding across different identities, and engage diverse voices in decision-making processes to ensure a wide variety of perspectives are represented. This includes utilizing hiring practices that prioritize diversity, providing resources and support for marginalized students, implementing restorative justice practices that address disparities in disciplinary actions, and even formally establishing a DEI role at your school that can support and guide school policies. Each of our diverse backgrounds brings unique perspectives, experiences, and cultural insights to the classroom. Promoting cultural competence among students and staff requires us to draw on our lived experiences to connect with students, adapt instruction to meet diverse learning needs, and incorporate culturally relevant content into the curriculum.
There is great power in recognizing and celebrating efforts toward becoming more inclusive and equity-centered educators. We challenge you to co-create a commitment to equity, identify passionate individuals prepared to lead the work and support them with time, resources, and additional professional learning opportunities that center leadership and community well-being. Centering inclusivity and equity is not a destination but a continuous journey of learning, unlearning, growing, and reflecting. And this work can only happen when the community authentically values and practices trust, safety, and belonging.
References
Childress, G. (2023, June 15). Black charter school teacher fired for using 'dear martin' novel in classroom. NC Newsline. https://ncnewsline.com/2023/06/15/black-charter-school-teacher-fired-for-using-dear-martin-novel-in-classroom
lvarez, B. (2023, August 3). Florida’s new history standard: ‘A blow to our students and nation’. NEA Today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/floridas-new-history-standard-blow-our-students-and-nation
National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Condition of education: Racial/ethnic enrollment in public schools. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved June 10, 2024, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge
National Equity Project. (n.d.). Equity tools. Retrieved June 22, 2024, from https://www.nationalequityproject.org/resources/tools
PEN America. (2023, May 15). Spineless on the shelves: The pernicious effects of book bans on America’s libraries. https://pen.org/spineless-shelves/
Smithsonian Affiliations. (n.d.). DEAI: Reflection guide. Retrieved June 22, 2024, from https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/DEAI-Reflection-Guide.pdf
Williams, R. (2023, August 18). Cobb school board votes to fire teacher who read book about gender identity. Georgia Recorder. https://georgiarecorder.com/2023/08/18/cobb-school-board-votes-to-fire-teacher-who-read-book-about-gender-identity/
Routledge's upcoming book, Solving School Challenges: The Everything Guide to Transformative Change, is a resource you’ll return to again and again and mark up with your favorite sections. The Everything Guide addresses big challenges in education by bringing tried and tested actionable solutions to everything from teacher salaries, retention, and professional learning to innovation in curricula and building trust with stakeholders. Full of graphic organizers and reproducibles and a comprehensive appendix with additional resources for each chapter, The Everything Guide is co-edited by authors Starr Sackstein and Dr. Alexandra Laing, along with authors Dr. MaryAnn DeRosa and Dr. Tiffany Turner Hall - all Worthy Educators and Champions! The Everything Guide is expected to be released in February 2025 and is available for preorder on Routledge and Amazon.
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