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Equity in Education: Lessons Learned at the 2018 Showcase
One of most highly-rated sessions at the 2018 Showcase Redesigning for Student Success was a powerful conversation on equity. In the session titled Inviting the 4 Letter Word Into the Classroom: The Intersectionality of Race, Writing, and Dialogue, participants started by reflecting on how they see themselves and one another, then bridged those conversations into a exploration of the inequities that students experience in school and ways that educators can better support students.
The session was led by Michelle Clark, Project Co-Director of the Deeper Learning Hub at the Center for Research on Equity and Innovation at High Tech High's Graduate School of Education. She is also Co-Director of the Share Your Learning Campaign a national movement to get 5 million students publicly sharing their work by 2020 through exhibitions of learning, student led conferencing, and presentations of learning. We followed up with Clark after the Showcase in order to share some of the important content with our wider audience. Below is some of what she had to say:
How do you think about the role ongoing conversations about equity play into our roles as educators?
"For many educators, unless they are either forced to engage in these conversations or voluntarily put themselves in these spaces, they may go their whole career without these deep transformational conversations about equity in their role educating young people. Equity work begins with empathy work. [As educators] we cannot interrupt inequitable practices if we don't first understand what other people are going through - by listening to others and hearing their perspectives. We must create space for educators to engage in these empathetic conversations with each other and to let students have these experiences as well."
Why are conversations about equity important when considering student-centered learning?
"What school is like for kids often depends on what school they attend. Often, the most marginalized students are subjected to the most rote learning experiences. Studies show that experiential learning is far more transformative in terms of engaging students with the content, and what students retain. All students should have the opportunity,
and be encouraged, to participate in their learning through practices like expeditions, student-led conferencing, and presentations of learning."
What books do you recommend for educators who are interested in starting these conversations on equity in their schools?
Courageous Conversations about Race (Singleton and Linton, 2005)
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (Hammond, 2014)
Culturally Proficient Leadership (Terrell and Lindsey, 2008)
In addition to the books suggested above, Clark also recommended the following TED talk:
How students of color confront imposter syndrome. She recommends viewing this TED talk as an introduction to a review of the Cultural Wealth Model developed by Tara J. Yosso. An in-depth research article on the topic,
Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth is available from the
Journal on Race, Ethnicity and Education (Volume 8, 2005 - Issue 1). Clark provided an
abridged summary of the research article as well. Lastly, Clark recommends reviewing the
Dimensions of Equity chart developed by Zaretta Hammond to help distinguish multicultural education, social justice education, and culturally responsive pedagogy (see below).
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