Welcome to the December installment of the BARWE yearlong inquiry series.
On January 17 at 8pm EST, we’ll have our first Twitter chat at #barwe215. Please mark your calendar and join us!
If this is your first month, please start with Section 2: Facilitation Information.
If you have already participated in a previous month's discussion, we are glad you are continuing the work! Start with Section 1.
Information regarding norms, discussion protocol, and pass the hat can now be found in Section 3: Inquiry Tips & Information.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
On January 17 at 8pm EST, we’ll have our first Twitter chat at #barwe215. Please mark your calendar and join us!
If this is your first month, please start with Section 2: Facilitation Information.
If you have already participated in a previous month's discussion, we are glad you are continuing the work! Start with Section 1.
Information regarding norms, discussion protocol, and pass the hat can now be found in Section 3: Inquiry Tips & Information.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
Section 1: December inquiry
Overview:
According to the ACLU’s reports on the Civil Rights Data Collection, “For the first time in history, public schools in America serve mostly children of color.” As harsh discipline policies and police in schools proliferate, an increasing number of vulnerable students are being pushed out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system. As this month’s primary article investigates, it is not only systemic policies harming our students. It is the biases and practices enacted in individual classrooms, and it begins as early as pre-school. In this month’s discussion guide we seek to build on previous conversations around identity and bias in order to generate reflection on our experience and awareness. Please explore the additional readings selection to find a robust toolkit on “Organizing to Combat the School-to-Prison Pipeline.”
Primary Article:
Race, Discipline, and Safety at U.S. Public Schools
(Also, look up your school or district data here: Miseducation: Is There Racial Inequality at Your School? )
Guiding Questions:
Additional Readings:
According to the ACLU’s reports on the Civil Rights Data Collection, “For the first time in history, public schools in America serve mostly children of color.” As harsh discipline policies and police in schools proliferate, an increasing number of vulnerable students are being pushed out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system. As this month’s primary article investigates, it is not only systemic policies harming our students. It is the biases and practices enacted in individual classrooms, and it begins as early as pre-school. In this month’s discussion guide we seek to build on previous conversations around identity and bias in order to generate reflection on our experience and awareness. Please explore the additional readings selection to find a robust toolkit on “Organizing to Combat the School-to-Prison Pipeline.”
Primary Article:
Race, Discipline, and Safety at U.S. Public Schools
(Also, look up your school or district data here: Miseducation: Is There Racial Inequality at Your School? )
Guiding Questions:
- What is the school-to-prison pipeline? How does it manifest itself in your school and district?
- How can you relate this data to your day to day experience? (If your school isn’t listed, what would you imagine your data would look like?)
- What does discipline and counseling look like at your school? Does your school think critically about its discipline and data, particularly in regards to race?
- How might this research be used as a jumping off point to disrupt the pipeline?
Additional Readings:
Section 2: Facilitation Information
If this is your first month participating in the inquiry series, welcome! There are a lot of materials in this email, but here are some quick tips that can help guide you through them:
- If your group is just starting this month - we recommend that you start with the August materials, and then pick up with the current month. Find all past month resources on our website.
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - during lunch, before school, after school. If you start with a group of 2, that’s great! If 20 folks at your school are interested now, even better! The goal is to grow our work.
- Send this month’s Primary Article to your group. You could even send this to a broader group of your colleagues - maybe it will pique someone’s interest!
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Overview, Norms, and Discussion Protocol. If you have a large group, maybe ask a colleague to help facilitate.
- Pass the Hat at the end of your discussion and collect donations for Philly Student Union this month.
- Complete the Feedback Form.
Section 3: Inquiry Tips & Information
Norms:
As you facilitate this work with your peers, it is important to keep some norms in mind. You can open your sessions by reviewing these (and more, if you’d like to add) with your group.
This BAR-WE Inquiry series was designed with the understanding that it is not the sole responsibility of people of color to educate white people about race. White people must take responsibility for our own growth to be anti-racist educators and community members. It also matters how we approach this work, so please keep the following norms in mind while engaging in these discussions:
Suggested Discussion Protocol:
In our experience, we have found conversations about racism and white supremacy to be most fruitful when primarily done in small groups (4 or fewer people). This makes folks more willing to share, and also gives each person more time to talk and process. We have also found it productive to use a protocol for these conversations - and have someone serve as a timekeeper during each segment.
Feedback Form
We want to know who is using these resources, what they find useful, and any recommendations for improvements in the future. 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 are a few takeaways from previous meetings:
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 Philly Student Union, organizing partner of We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police Free Schools. “The Philadelphia Student Union exists to build the power of young people to demand a high quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. We are a youth led organization and we make positive changes in the short term by learning how to organize to build power. We also work toward becoming life-long learners and leaders who can bring diverse groups of people together to address the problems that our communities face.”
Don’t forget the snacks!
If you are looking to buy refreshments for your session, we recommend supporting businesses owned by people of color, especially Black-owned businesses, if at all possible. In Philly, we recommend Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Franny Lou’s Porch, and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books.
As you facilitate this work with your peers, it is important to keep some norms in mind. You can open your sessions by reviewing these (and more, if you’d like to add) with your group.
This BAR-WE Inquiry series was designed with the understanding that it is not the sole responsibility of people of color to educate white people about race. White people must take responsibility for our own growth to be anti-racist educators and community members. It also matters how we approach this work, so please keep the following norms in mind while engaging in these discussions:
- Please approach this inquiry series as a learner. We all have room to grow with our understanding of race in our schools and communities. No one is an expert who has come to explain race to others; we are striving to be in dialogue with one another to learn and grow collectively.
- The inquiry series does not take the place of anti-racism or diversity trainings that school districts can and should offer. When done well, such trainings are valuable. Nevertheless, we believe that any one-off training is inadequate, and this inquiry series is designed to encourage the ongoing reflection on race in our teaching and in our schools.
- As white people engaged in this work, it is important to maintain humility around the topic of race when in dialogue with our colleagues of color. The goal will never be to explain to a colleague how they should feel about race; rather, we want to learn how to be productive allies in the work towards racial justice in education and society.
- Keep the focus on RACE. It is easier to shift the conversation to colorblind versions of the topics; nevertheless, we must persevere through any discomfort to identify how race is central to our work and advocacy for justice in our schools.
- Finally, as you keep in mind the ongoing nature of this work, please expect and accept non-closure. It is OK to “hang in uncertainty” and not rush to quick solutions. We believe sustainable, meaningful growth will result from the commitment to reflection.
Suggested Discussion Protocol:
In our experience, we have found conversations about racism and white supremacy to be most fruitful when primarily done in small groups (4 or fewer people). This makes folks more willing to share, and also gives each person more time to talk and process. We have also found it productive to use a protocol for these conversations - and have someone serve as a timekeeper during each segment.
- 10 mins - If you have the time, give everyone a chance to write and reflect on the article and questions at the start of the session. You can also ask people to do this in advance and bring their reflections with them. We don’t recommend starting without giving everyone time to reflect individually first.
- For the rest of the protocol, it is recommended that you split into groups of 2-4 people, so that everyone can have a chance to share and discuss. If you have limited time, use smaller groups.
- 3 mins - Person 1 shares their reactions and reflections on the article and questions
- 5 mins - others ask questions of Person 1 and Person 1 answers
- Key point: Other group members should limit their reactions to each Person’s reflection with ONLY questions, not statements. This can be hard at first, but we’ve found it to be a fruitful structure for conversation.
- Rotate through the group members following the Share-and-Question structure
- End with open discussion - however much time you have.
- If you have a larger group, this would be the time to bring the small group discussions back together.
Feedback Form
We want to know who is using these resources, what they find useful, and any recommendations for improvements in the future. 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 are a few takeaways from previous meetings:
- “The structure provided (the reading, protocol, and additional resources) allowed us all to engage in a deep way vs someone trying to find this all on their own. So the facilitation support was critical for us - it is going to allow us to share the load of facilitation from meeting to meeting.”
- “I think the major take away for many of us was distinguishing between "celebrating diversity" in the classroom and actually doing work to dismantle racist structures in our society (and classroom). We agreed that our school does not understand this distinction and does not do nearly enough to actively work to be ANTI-RACIST and not just "pro-diversity".”
- “One big idea was the need to address and acknowledge race, rather than have a colorblind perspective. We connected this idea with ways we can address racist comments in our own lives, and give our students a space to discuss their own identities.”
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 Philly Student Union, organizing partner of We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police Free Schools. “The Philadelphia Student Union exists to build the power of young people to demand a high quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. We are a youth led organization and we make positive changes in the short term by learning how to organize to build power. We also work toward becoming life-long learners and leaders who can bring diverse groups of people together to address the problems that our communities face.”
Don’t forget the snacks!
If you are looking to buy refreshments for your session, we recommend supporting businesses owned by people of color, especially Black-owned businesses, if at all possible. In Philly, we recommend Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Franny Lou’s Porch, and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books.
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