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DIVERSITY MATTERS
May 2020
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Meet D. Farai Williams, METCO's new Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
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I am introducing myself at a moment when sobering reality is setting in. Though many of us expected the news, Governor Baker’s recent announcement that our schools will be closed for the rest of the school year confirms the "new norm" is here to stay. We’re all in this together; we stay apart out of care for each other, but that isolation leaves many of us feeling isolated, alone, stressed out, stir-crazy, or a combination. Our need to connect with students, families, teachers and administrators must be rewired through the virtual space, with no clear map.
Though I am new to this particular role, I am not new to METCO. I was a METCO student in the Concord-Carlisle School District, and I am a current CCHS parent. I am not new to the work either; I have lived it all my personal and professional life. I teach and facilitate with an embodied pedagogy I've developed over my career. This therapeutic, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive approach creates space for transformative learning. My practice engages people from diverse backgrounds and experiences to draw on personal narrative and ethnic-racial identity to build understanding of power, privilege, and systemic oppression—ultimately in support of diverse, equitable, and inclusive policies and practices.
I hope to support the long-standing DEI work already happening in districts, strengthen underdeveloped areas, and innovate with districts that are in the beginning phases of the work. I also know this is a time to pause, center ourselves and each other, and make this road by walking. To be present with the times and needs of our community, METCO HQ will focus our DEI lens on social emotional learning practices.
I am looking forward to meeting and working with you in the coming months, to learning about your experiences and communities, and to creating spaces for growth and transformation that will benefit all of us, especially the learning of the young people in our care.
Stay well,
Ms. D. Farai Williams
Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
METCO HQ
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Professional development for this moment
You've probably received dozens of lists of resources to help you adapt to the isolation mandate.
METCO's website
has curated a few especially for Boston parents (focused on health, food, and homeschooling needs). We have a tab for educators too, with professional development links from a variety of sources. With events and trainings on hold, we are responsible for directing our own learning and growth around racial justice, equity, and inclusion.
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- Racial Equity Tools has compiled a comprehensive one-stop shop for guidance on how the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbated by racism, and how to account for that effect in your programming. Check out COVID-19 Racial Equity & Social Justice Resources.
- Harvard Graduate School of Education's ongoing series, "Confronting the Coronavirus Outbreak," features expert advice on school leadership, supporting families, and providing stability for students during the crisis.
- Wayland's Diversity and Equity Coordinator Caroline Han has created a must-read resource called The Equity Lens, a print-friendly newsletter packed with practical and provocative quotations, tips, recommendations, poetry, historical context, and photos custom-curated to help us develop this work while we're out of the classroom. We're particularly inspired by the METCO student highlights from METCO Director Dr. Tony Laing!
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Getting informed about "trauma-informed"
"Why am I so tired?"
asks therapist
Jenn Geryol
—a question you may be asking yourself. Her answer rings true for all educators, and students and families too:
"This situation is a form of community trauma."
Schools have been focusing on "trauma-informed" practices for several years now, incorporating a recognition of trauma's impact on learning and development into policies and teaching approaches.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
provides recommendations for the highest-priority student supports, activities, and outreach strategies for educators in this comprehensive article from
Teaching Tolerance.
Now we're called on to apply this lens not only to students, but to ourselves and our communities, within and outside of our schools.
Dr. Shawn Ginwright
(above)
of San Francisco State calls on us to see how trauma is bound up in oppressive cultural and social systems
—
and how healing requires disrupting those systems. He
reframes the approach as
"healing-centered engagement,
" an asset-driven focus on the
"well-being we want, rather than symptoms we want to suppress."
METCO calls on all of us to align our personal and professional selves to that goal.
All of us are experiencing some kind of loss. For some of us, and some of our students, this is the irrevocable loss of a family member or loved one. For others, we have lost routines, long-planned milestones, a sense of stability. Coping with loss, and helping others to do so, is now a core competency.
This guide
from
Care Dimensions
is a good place to start.
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Equity in remote learning
The equity and inclusion lens is just as important in this new world of virtual classrooms as it has always been in our buildings. Here are a few powerful readings to help navigate key challenges to ensuring that Boston and suburban students can participate fully together even when physically separated.
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- Virtual Education Dilemma: Schedule Classroom Instruction vs. Anytime Learning (Education Week) "When and how often during the school day do my students need to see me?"
- How Do We Grade During the Shutdown? “Do No Harm” is the Answer (Association of Washington School Principals) "If we are assigning grades right now, what we are grading is PRIVILEGE."
- The lessons we should really be teaching kids in the pandemic (Vox) "Now is the time to push aside the elaborate academic schedules and teach our kids something more lasting about humanity."
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SATURDAY, MAY 9:
COVID19 & Racial Embodiment
An unmissable conversation with
Resmaa Menakem
(
My Grandmother's Hands
) and
Dr. Robin DiAngelo
(
White Fragility
) about how whiteness circulates in the pandemic, how racism intensifies the stress for people of culture, how that toxic stress is embodied, and what we can do individually and communally. This is the second in a series, and will focus on submitted questions.
LEARN MORE
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THURSDAY, MAY 14:
National Coalition on School Diversity Virtual Keynote
Emory Professor
Vanessa Siddle Walker
(
The Lost Education of Horace Tate
), journalist
Dani McClain
(
We Live For The We
), Western Carolina University Professor
Elizabeth McRae
(
Mothers of Massive Resistance
), author
Courtney E. Martin
(
The New Better Off
), and Integrated Schools podcaster
Andrew Lefkowits
will discuss the hidden history of educational advocacy in America, the roles of black women and white women in the battle over desegregation, and the present and future of equitable and integrated schools.
LEARN MORE
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THURSDAY, MAY 21 | TUESDAY, MAY 26 | THURSDAY, MAY 28
Building Racial Equity Trainings from Race Forward
Race Forward’s Building Racial Equity series is a collection of interactive trainings for those who wish to sharpen their skills and strategies to address structural racism and advance racial equity. Unlike “diversity trainings” which primarily focus on interpersonal relations and understanding, the Building Racial Equity trainings emphasize how to challenge and change institutional racial inequities.
LEARN MORE
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THURSDAY, MAY 28
Conversations We Were Never Meant To Have About Native American People
IDEAS presents its first webinar, featuring
Debby Irving
(
Waking Up White
) and Arawak activist
Claudia Fox Tree,
followed by a Q&A with Lexington's Director of Equity & Student Supports
Johnny Cole,
Sharon ELA coordinator (and co-founder of Wayland Community for Social Justice)
Rebecca Smoler
.
LEARN MORE
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Before the pandemic changed our world, METCO towns used physical gatherings to further the mission of integration and equitable education. In January,
Brookline
took 20 students to the 18th annual
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Festival
in Washington, DC. This event is the largest HBCU recruitment event in the country. Close to 15,000 students and parents and over 70 HBCUs support high school students in their college process. View photos from the event and other resources
on the METCO team's terrific
blog
.
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Outside of school, community groups also play a valuable role in educating suburban families about creating an inclusive environment for children to learn.
Natick Is United
is a great example. They partnered with
Natick Public Schools
in February to screen the film
I'm Not Racist, Am I?
, which follows 12 teenagers from NYC who came together for one school year to talk about race and privilege. Since the pandemic began, they have been promoting webinars and virtual book clubs from the
Boston Knapsack Anti-Racism Group
including an interactive history of racial injustice from EJI, a discussion of actions people can take to support equity, and a presentation on xenophobia and COVID-19.
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I've been studying the challenging and inspiring "abolitionist teaching" of University of Georgia Professor Bettina Love, and her essential new book,
We Want To Do More Than Survive.
Her 2014 TED talk is from another era, when we discover the genius in our students in person. But the lessons apply even over Zoom, don't they?
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Diversity Matters
is a monthly newsletter from
METCO Headquarters that
shares stories, resources, and announcements to help suburban school districts make the most of racial integration.
Click here to subscribe
!
If you have information you would like to share in next month's newsletter,
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