If this is your first year doing this series, we recommend starting with an orientation meeting using the August 2018 material before moving on to our current series.
Overview:
While we have spent much of this year’s inquiry series talking about student-facing antiracist work around curriculum and school culture, it is also important to acknowledge the way that white supremacy culture shows up in our staff culture - and how that impacts BIPOC colleagues. While this month’s primary article explores the particular experiences of Black male educators, next month’s resource will expand to include the experiences educators of all genders, as well as other racial backgrounds.
This month’s primary article, written by Coshandra Dillard for Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) focuses on the experiences of Black male educators in schools - and the types of support networks often needed beyond their schools to sustain them in the profession. It is important for us as white educators to understand this.
Black male educators make up about 2% of all teachers in the United States, so it is likely that some of your schools don’t have any Black male teachers at all. This topic and conversation is essential even in those settings, and maybe especially so. While it is too easy to blame the lack of Black male educators on there just not being enough of them, interrogating the culture of our schools also plays an essential role.
Primary Article:
Black Male Educators Create Space for Joy by Coshandra Dillard*
Guiding Questions:
Additional Readings:
If you feel one of these is better suited to your group, feel free to use as a primary. We have placed an asterisk next to readings written or co-written by BIPOC authors.
Previous Discussion Guides on this topic:
Beginning with this month’s email, we’ve decided to include links to our previous resources on similar topics. We have already collected resources and additional resources above, but if any of these guides better suit your group, feel free to use them.
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
As we grow in year three, we hope that one person in your group can take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went.
Here is a takeaway from a previous meeting:
While we have spent much of this year’s inquiry series talking about student-facing antiracist work around curriculum and school culture, it is also important to acknowledge the way that white supremacy culture shows up in our staff culture - and how that impacts BIPOC colleagues. While this month’s primary article explores the particular experiences of Black male educators, next month’s resource will expand to include the experiences educators of all genders, as well as other racial backgrounds.
This month’s primary article, written by Coshandra Dillard for Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) focuses on the experiences of Black male educators in schools - and the types of support networks often needed beyond their schools to sustain them in the profession. It is important for us as white educators to understand this.
Black male educators make up about 2% of all teachers in the United States, so it is likely that some of your schools don’t have any Black male teachers at all. This topic and conversation is essential even in those settings, and maybe especially so. While it is too easy to blame the lack of Black male educators on there just not being enough of them, interrogating the culture of our schools also plays an essential role.
Primary Article:
Black Male Educators Create Space for Joy by Coshandra Dillard*
Guiding Questions:
- What are some of the challenges Black Male Educators face in our schools? How do these challenges relate back to white supremacy culture?
- What works about the BMEsTalk spaces for the educators who are quoted in this article? How does this illustrate the value of affinity spaces?
- In this article, Ayodele Harrison says that white educators need to ask themselves, “Well, what is it that I need to do to be a better educator, to be a better colleague, to be a better contributor to this community so that it’s welcoming to all?” Discuss this question.
Additional Readings:
If you feel one of these is better suited to your group, feel free to use as a primary. We have placed an asterisk next to readings written or co-written by BIPOC authors.
- I'm a Black Male Teacher Who Works for a Black Principal. It's Been a Game Changer.*
- Diversifying the Teaching Profession*
- Through Our Eyes*
- Disciplinarians First and Teachers Second
- The Burden of Being a Black Teacher
- Schools Have Committed to Hiring Teachers of Color. Now They Need to Keep Them*
- Urban Teachers of Color Pushed Out by Jamilah Pitts *
- Retaining Teachers of Color in Public Schools
- What White Colleagues Need to Understand by Clarice Brazas and Charlie McGeehan *
- Black Parents, Teachers, and Students See a Need for More Black Teachers (video)
- In Isolation: Uniting Male Teachers of Color (video)
- Disrupting the Culture of Silence in Schools by Brendon Jobs *
- Keeping Teachers: Black men and teachers in rural areas are in especially short supply
- Dear White Teacher by Chrysanthius Lathan *
- Why America Needs More African American Teachers - And How to Recruit and Retain Them *
- To Get To College, It Helps Black Students To Have a Black Teacher Early On by Mayowa Aina *
- An Over-Looked Cause of the Teacher-Diversity Problem by Melinda D. Anderson *
- Why Black Teachers Walk Away by Youki Terada *
Previous Discussion Guides on this topic:
Beginning with this month’s email, we’ve decided to include links to our previous resources on similar topics. We have already collected resources and additional resources above, but if any of these guides better suit your group, feel free to use them.
- February 2020: How can we recruit and retain more Black teachers in our schools?
- March 2020: How can white educators be accountable to their colleagues of color?
- March 2019: How can we support colleagues of color and build antiracist work environments?
- February 2019: Why are teachers of color so important for our schools and how can we increase their numbers?
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders.
- Send this month’s Primary Article to your group. Look through the additional readings to see if there is another reading that might be better suited to your group and its interests.
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
- Pass the Hat and collect donations for BMEsTalk this month.
- Complete the Feedback Form.
- Prepare yourself for May by setting a date and time, inviting colleagues, and looking out for our next Discussion Guide on May 1st.
Feedback Form:
As we grow in year three, we hope that one person in your group can take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went.
Here is a takeaway from a previous meeting:
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
This month, we encourage you to donate to the organization featured in this article, BMEsTalk. Their mission is to create and curate safe, rich spaces for Black Male Educators (BMEs) to connect, grow and lead. They do this by hosting various Affinity Spaces including Leadership Development workshops, virtual Happy Hours, and Twitter chats.
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
This month, we encourage you to donate to the organization featured in this article, BMEsTalk. Their mission is to create and curate safe, rich spaces for Black Male Educators (BMEs) to connect, grow and lead. They do this by hosting various Affinity Spaces including Leadership Development workshops, virtual Happy Hours, and Twitter chats.