Anti-racist educators
Anti-racism is a verb.It is an ongoing process of unlearning, relearning and changing to eliminate all forms of racism. Anti-racism work means to deeply examine and challenge our structures and individual biases that uphold racism and its power imbalances.
In any given situation, we have the ability to choose either anti-racist action, or racist action. This is especially important for educators as they role-model healthy behaviour for the next generation of leaders — their students. How can educators ensure they are fostering an anti-racist learning environment where cultures and different ways of being are valued, taught and understood equally?
In any given situation, we have the ability to choose either anti-racist action, or racist action. This is especially important for educators as they role-model healthy behaviour for the next generation of leaders — their students. How can educators ensure they are fostering an anti-racist learning environment where cultures and different ways of being are valued, taught and understood equally?
Change starts with you — strive to be anti-racist.
How can white teachers role-model anti-racist behaviour for students?
- Recognize and take responsibility for your power and privilege.
- Hold yourself accountable.
- Acknowledge any reservations or uncomfortable feelings you experience in response to increased racial diversity.
- Cultivate curiosity to grow your own knowledge, relaying it back to your students.
- Understand class differences between people of colour.
- Recognize that various racial groups struggle in different ways — and, thus, aren’t always united in solidarity — under white supremacy.
- Cultivate curiosity to grow your own knowledge, relaying it back to your students.
Starting questions
Below are some questions, developed by educator and community advocate Dr. Sonia K. Aujla-Bhullar, that will guide you in beginning to develop cultural competency and inclusivity in your classroom:.
In ongoing conversations with teachers around equity, diversity and inclusion (aka EDI)- I consistently refer to the need for teachers to bring the student's world into the classroom. This is especially important in today's day and age of curriculum gaps, omissions, and misinformation inundating us through social media. It is a journey where the teacher becomes both the learner and teacher alongside their students. This requires some foundational work on the part of the teacher, a school environment committed to ensuring equitable and safe spaces, and finally the checking and re-checking how students world-views are being seen, heard and felt.
It can look like the following questions being asked:
Teacher work: What are your lived experiences that you most value? What lived experiences have challenged you in the classroom? How does your identity "show up" in your teaching interactions with students? How do you see your position as a teacher being beneficial to student learning? What are your thoughts on power and authority in the classroom? Which views are centred in your classroom (i.e. textbooks, student-centred inquiry)? Are you able to name your identity markers with ease or discomfort?
School environment: How does your school show value to student experiences? Do diverse experiences exist as "add-ons" to the core curriculum and staff development? Is there time dedicated for teachers and leadership to delve into understandings on diversity, equity and inclusion? How do "touchy" subjects get time to be worked through? Is there an understanding of EDI and anti-oppression of marginalized communities? Are there leaders in the school who are informed and able to support the work on EDI? How is diversity valued and understood in your school? Is diversity and Indigenous worldviews centred in the work around teaching and learning? Or is it performative (see a checklist and surface level engagement)?
Worldview: This is where all of the above questions really come into play. We can see this in how issues around the world are ones that have direct and indirect impact on student lives. For example, Black Lives Matters (#BLM) is not a political position. It is a very real worldview in how racism and identity impact the lives of communities day in and day out. How are students, able to see themselves in this movement? Is it something talked about in the classroom directly? Is it indirectly referred to through topics and concepts of historical facts, rights and freedoms, present-day implications? I'll never forget the year that I had my students go search for information on Black Canadians, only to discover that the encyclopedia of Canada (house in our school library) had zero entries of Black Canadians nor other racialized groups. See how this erasure of person's in textbooks can impact how student's may see themselves in your classroom? And how they don't see others?
This applies to so many current events as well. The ongoing #farmersprotest in India is one that many students here in my community are hearing about at home and on the news. How is this brought into the classroom? Or is it a null and void point because it's not in the formal curriculum? For many of us who have studied how the hidden curriculum impacts our students- this is it. What is valued and told as knowledge comes from many directions. How students see themselves in teaching and learning of their schools/classrooms is where we can begin the discussion of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Is it supposed to be easy? That depends on how value is equated to students being centred in the classroom. With their lived experiences as necessary opportunities to engage, learn and live fully. Inclusion is the recognition of who and what has been excluded. Starting here is where the students world is brought to the classroom.
In ongoing conversations with teachers around equity, diversity and inclusion (aka EDI)- I consistently refer to the need for teachers to bring the student's world into the classroom. This is especially important in today's day and age of curriculum gaps, omissions, and misinformation inundating us through social media. It is a journey where the teacher becomes both the learner and teacher alongside their students. This requires some foundational work on the part of the teacher, a school environment committed to ensuring equitable and safe spaces, and finally the checking and re-checking how students world-views are being seen, heard and felt.
It can look like the following questions being asked:
Teacher work: What are your lived experiences that you most value? What lived experiences have challenged you in the classroom? How does your identity "show up" in your teaching interactions with students? How do you see your position as a teacher being beneficial to student learning? What are your thoughts on power and authority in the classroom? Which views are centred in your classroom (i.e. textbooks, student-centred inquiry)? Are you able to name your identity markers with ease or discomfort?
School environment: How does your school show value to student experiences? Do diverse experiences exist as "add-ons" to the core curriculum and staff development? Is there time dedicated for teachers and leadership to delve into understandings on diversity, equity and inclusion? How do "touchy" subjects get time to be worked through? Is there an understanding of EDI and anti-oppression of marginalized communities? Are there leaders in the school who are informed and able to support the work on EDI? How is diversity valued and understood in your school? Is diversity and Indigenous worldviews centred in the work around teaching and learning? Or is it performative (see a checklist and surface level engagement)?
Worldview: This is where all of the above questions really come into play. We can see this in how issues around the world are ones that have direct and indirect impact on student lives. For example, Black Lives Matters (#BLM) is not a political position. It is a very real worldview in how racism and identity impact the lives of communities day in and day out. How are students, able to see themselves in this movement? Is it something talked about in the classroom directly? Is it indirectly referred to through topics and concepts of historical facts, rights and freedoms, present-day implications? I'll never forget the year that I had my students go search for information on Black Canadians, only to discover that the encyclopedia of Canada (house in our school library) had zero entries of Black Canadians nor other racialized groups. See how this erasure of person's in textbooks can impact how student's may see themselves in your classroom? And how they don't see others?
This applies to so many current events as well. The ongoing #farmersprotest in India is one that many students here in my community are hearing about at home and on the news. How is this brought into the classroom? Or is it a null and void point because it's not in the formal curriculum? For many of us who have studied how the hidden curriculum impacts our students- this is it. What is valued and told as knowledge comes from many directions. How students see themselves in teaching and learning of their schools/classrooms is where we can begin the discussion of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Is it supposed to be easy? That depends on how value is equated to students being centred in the classroom. With their lived experiences as necessary opportunities to engage, learn and live fully. Inclusion is the recognition of who and what has been excluded. Starting here is where the students world is brought to the classroom.
Free online anti-racism training
The Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation is currently developing a free six-week online e-course, with expectation to launch summer of 2022, for anyone interested in beginning their anti-racism journey.
Additional resources
- Talking to kids about racism by Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation
- How did we get here? It's time to get real about antiracism with Farha Shariff, PhD
- It's Time to Get Real About Antiracism with Dr Farha Shariff
- Interrupting, Disrupting, and Countering Single Stories with Muna Saleh, PhD
- Teaching Difficult Histories: Challenging but Necessary Conversations for Social Justice
- Amplifying Black Voices - A Conversation with the Black Teachers' Association
- Considering the Emotionality of Antiracist Education with Cathryn van Kessel, PhD
- Teaching Tolerance Lesson Plans for Educators
- How to Start Talking About Race in the Early Elementary Classroom
- 10 Tips for Reading Picture Books with Children through a Race-Conscious Lens
- Why White Parents Need to Talk to Their Kids About Racism
- How We’re Teaching Indigenous History To Our Kids
- It's Not So Black and White: Discussing Race and Racism in the Classroom
- Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism
- Here's How W. Kamau Bell Talks About Race With His Kids
- They’re Not Too Young to Talk about Race
- History of Racism in Canada
- Sometimes You're A Caterpillar
- 8th Fire Wab Kinew 500 Years in 2 Minutes
- Early Childhood Roots of Bias FAQs
- Why Microagressions Hurt
- Three Education Activities for Young People to Challenge Discrimination
- Empowering Young People in the Aftermath of Hate
- Talking Race With Young Children
- White Privilege Lesson Plan
- Celebrating Indigenous Peoples in Canada Learning and Activity Guide
- The Indian Act
- 365 Black Canadian Curriculum
- Confronting Race and Colonialism: Experiences and Lessons Learned From Teaching Social Studies
- Multicultural And Diversity Guide For Students
- The Language of Anti-Racism
- Look Different
- The urgency of intersectionality - Kimberlé Crenshaw
- #APeoplesJourney: African American Women and the Struggle for Equality
- Colourism in the Latinx Community
- Multicultural Education vs Anti-Racist Education: The Debate in Canada
- 10 Ways Youth Can Engage in Activism
- Anti-Racist Work in Schools: Are You in it for the Long Haul?
- Me & White Supremacy
- White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy
- White Accomplices: Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice
- About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Have You Heard George's Podcast?
- 12 Movies to Watch to Educate Yourself About Racism and Protest History, Recommended by Experts
- General Education Resources on Anti-Racism
- Equity Matters - Leadership Edition
- Multicultural And Diversity Guide For Students
- Opportunity for White People to fight for Social Justice
- How Kids Learn Prejudice
- Teach Outside the Box
- White Privilege: Invisible Backpack by Peggy MacIntosh
- The dangers of a single story: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Barefoot Guide Connection
- Empowering the Spirit