#BARWE215
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  • About Us
  • Inquiry Resources
    • How to Start a BARWE Group
    • Norms
    • Problem of Practice Protocol
    • Discussion Protocols
    • Bringing in Coconspirators
    • Facilitators Troubleshooting Guide
  • Current Series 22-23 School Year
    • September: How do we (re)connect and (re)commit to a/nother year of striving towards being antiracist educators?
    • October: How does a practice of accountability connect to our anti-racist work?
    • November: Where has accountability shown up for us in the past and where can we grow?
    • December: How can we be in accountable and transformative relationships with our students in order to create spaces for Black, Brown, and Indigenous students and all students of color to thrive?
    • January: How can we be accountable to our Black students in our planning and teaching practice?
    • February: What does accountability look like in your school or organization?
  • New Groups Start Here (Series 3)
    • September: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in ourselves and our institutions?
    • October: How can we as white educators center Black joy in our classrooms and schools?
    • November: How can we more deeply reflect and/or apply what we learned about white supremacy culture and Black Joy?
    • December: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our curriculum?
    • January: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our curriculum?
    • February: How can we create classroom culture that resists white supremacy and that nourishes Black joy?
    • March: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our classroom culture? How can we co-create joy with students?
    • April: How can we help develop staff culture that resists white supremacy culture and makes space for Black joy?
    • May: How can we help develop staff culture that resists white supremacy culture and makes space for Black joy?
  • Previous Inquiry Series
    • Inquiry Series 1 (2018-19 SY) >
      • August 2018: Why do white teachers need to talk about race?
      • September 2018: How can our curriculum challenge dominant and oppressive ideologies?
      • October 2018: How can we identify and challenge implicit bias in our own practice?
      • November 2018: How does whiteness affect our practices, relationships, and expectations in the classroom and the school community?
      • December 2018: How do we disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline?
      • January 2019: How can we ensure that our schools value Black lives?
      • February 2019: Why are teachers of color so important for our schools and how can we increase their numbers?
      • March 2019: How can we support colleagues of color and build anti-racist work environments?
      • April 2019: How can we implement culturally relevant teaching to challenge the culture of power that exists in schools?
      • May 2019: How do we push our schools, classrooms, and communities to incorporate more equitable disciplinary practices?
      • June 2019: How do we move this conversation forward and include more educators?
    • Inquiry Series 2 (2019-20 SY) >
      • September: What does it mean to develop an anti-racist identity as a white educator?
      • October: How do our implicit biases affect our students?
      • November: How could incorporating ethnic studies in our classrooms and schools help make our curriculum more antiracist?
      • December: How can we ensure that our school discipline policies are equitable and do not push girls of color out of school spaces?
      • January: How can we ensure that our schools value Black lives?
      • February: How can we recruit and retain more Black teachers in our schools?
      • March: How can White educators be accountable to their colleagues of color?
      • April: How can we interrupt anti-AAPI and xenophobic narratives in our classrooms and school communities?
      • May: How do we support our students during this crisis and connect to the larger fight to dismantle race and class oppression in our communities?
    • Inquiry Series 4 (2021-22 SY) >
      • September: How do we prepare ourselves for a year of striving towards being antiracist educators?
      • October: How can we take action when doing anti-racist work in spite of real or perceived risks?
      • November: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
      • December: What is a risky topic in my curriculum and how do I lean into that topic instead of shying away?
      • February: What barriers exist to forming partnerships with our students?
      • March: How would a commitment to equity principles increase our capacity to build authentic partnerships with BIPOC colleagues?
      • April: How would a commitment to equity principles increase our capacity to build authentic partnerships with BIPOC colleagues?
      • May: How do we develop a better understanding of Black educators’ realities in order to better support them?
      • June: How do we reflect on our year of BARWE work and move our antiracism work forward?
  • Summer Events
    • Summer 2019 "Seeing White" Discussion
    • Summer 2020 Reading Series >
      • Summer Reading 2020: Purpose
      • Zoom Meeting 1: Stamped
      • Zoom Meeting 2: Stamped
      • Zoom Meeting 3: We Want to Do More Than Survive
      • Zoom Meeting 4: We Want to Do More Than Survive
    • Summer Series 2021 >
      • Why are we accepting payment this year?
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Inquiry Resources
    • How to Start a BARWE Group
    • Norms
    • Problem of Practice Protocol
    • Discussion Protocols
    • Bringing in Coconspirators
    • Facilitators Troubleshooting Guide
  • Current Series 22-23 School Year
    • September: How do we (re)connect and (re)commit to a/nother year of striving towards being antiracist educators?
    • October: How does a practice of accountability connect to our anti-racist work?
    • November: Where has accountability shown up for us in the past and where can we grow?
    • December: How can we be in accountable and transformative relationships with our students in order to create spaces for Black, Brown, and Indigenous students and all students of color to thrive?
    • January: How can we be accountable to our Black students in our planning and teaching practice?
    • February: What does accountability look like in your school or organization?
  • New Groups Start Here (Series 3)
    • September: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in ourselves and our institutions?
    • October: How can we as white educators center Black joy in our classrooms and schools?
    • November: How can we more deeply reflect and/or apply what we learned about white supremacy culture and Black Joy?
    • December: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our curriculum?
    • January: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our curriculum?
    • February: How can we create classroom culture that resists white supremacy and that nourishes Black joy?
    • March: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in our classroom culture? How can we co-create joy with students?
    • April: How can we help develop staff culture that resists white supremacy culture and makes space for Black joy?
    • May: How can we help develop staff culture that resists white supremacy culture and makes space for Black joy?
  • Previous Inquiry Series
    • Inquiry Series 1 (2018-19 SY) >
      • August 2018: Why do white teachers need to talk about race?
      • September 2018: How can our curriculum challenge dominant and oppressive ideologies?
      • October 2018: How can we identify and challenge implicit bias in our own practice?
      • November 2018: How does whiteness affect our practices, relationships, and expectations in the classroom and the school community?
      • December 2018: How do we disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline?
      • January 2019: How can we ensure that our schools value Black lives?
      • February 2019: Why are teachers of color so important for our schools and how can we increase their numbers?
      • March 2019: How can we support colleagues of color and build anti-racist work environments?
      • April 2019: How can we implement culturally relevant teaching to challenge the culture of power that exists in schools?
      • May 2019: How do we push our schools, classrooms, and communities to incorporate more equitable disciplinary practices?
      • June 2019: How do we move this conversation forward and include more educators?
    • Inquiry Series 2 (2019-20 SY) >
      • September: What does it mean to develop an anti-racist identity as a white educator?
      • October: How do our implicit biases affect our students?
      • November: How could incorporating ethnic studies in our classrooms and schools help make our curriculum more antiracist?
      • December: How can we ensure that our school discipline policies are equitable and do not push girls of color out of school spaces?
      • January: How can we ensure that our schools value Black lives?
      • February: How can we recruit and retain more Black teachers in our schools?
      • March: How can White educators be accountable to their colleagues of color?
      • April: How can we interrupt anti-AAPI and xenophobic narratives in our classrooms and school communities?
      • May: How do we support our students during this crisis and connect to the larger fight to dismantle race and class oppression in our communities?
    • Inquiry Series 4 (2021-22 SY) >
      • September: How do we prepare ourselves for a year of striving towards being antiracist educators?
      • October: How can we take action when doing anti-racist work in spite of real or perceived risks?
      • November: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
      • December: What is a risky topic in my curriculum and how do I lean into that topic instead of shying away?
      • February: What barriers exist to forming partnerships with our students?
      • March: How would a commitment to equity principles increase our capacity to build authentic partnerships with BIPOC colleagues?
      • April: How would a commitment to equity principles increase our capacity to build authentic partnerships with BIPOC colleagues?
      • May: How do we develop a better understanding of Black educators’ realities in order to better support them?
      • June: How do we reflect on our year of BARWE work and move our antiracism work forward?
  • Summer Events
    • Summer 2019 "Seeing White" Discussion
    • Summer 2020 Reading Series >
      • Summer Reading 2020: Purpose
      • Zoom Meeting 1: Stamped
      • Zoom Meeting 2: Stamped
      • Zoom Meeting 3: We Want to Do More Than Survive
      • Zoom Meeting 4: We Want to Do More Than Survive
    • Summer Series 2021 >
      • Why are we accepting payment this year?
#BARWE215

June 2019: How do we move this conversation forward and include more educators?​

Welcome to the June installment of the BARWE yearlong inquiry series, our last for the 2018-19 school year. Thank you for joining us this year, and we look forward to continuing and deepening this work in the future.

We are still planning what we will do for the 2019-20 school year, but would like to announce that we will be doing a Summer Podcast discussion group. We’ll be listening to 1-2 episodes of the "Seeing White" podcast from Scene on Radio each week. You can register here for our group, and we will send out details in the coming week about online and in-person discussions throughout the summer.

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: June Inquiry

Overview:
We are grateful that you have participated in our inaugural BARWE inquiry series, whether it’s been all year or just a few months. This month, we’re looking back and looking forward.

Looking back: we’d like any of your members who participated frequently to take time to fill out this end-of-year feedback form, and we encourage you to use the questions in the feedback form as group discussion prompts this month. If you don’t have time to meet (we know June is busy!), we’d appreciate you sending the link out anyway to your group so we can collect as much feedback as possible.

Looking forward: One essential “next step” of anti-racist work is to bring more people into it. We especially know that it is critical to reach out and engage our white colleagues who might not recognize their own biases or could use a push to prioritize racial justice work in their practice. As such, our reading this month is a guide to building and using networks within our schools to get more people involved. This is a resource we used in our first Facilitator Training back in April. Finally, we will be participating in a summer podcast group (think book group, but with a podcast) and want to invite you to join us! 

​Primary Articles:
Recruiting New Participants: Anti-Racist Relationship Map

Guiding Questions:
  • Reflection Questions on Feedback form
  • Who are you going to recruit to join BARWE next year?
  • How would you approach a colleague to invite them to join BARWE next year?

Additional Readings:​​
  • Helms’ White Identity Development Model
We are also including a summary of Helms’ White Identity Development Model as an additional reading. It delineates the stages white people often go through as they grapple with their whiteness, white supremacy, and racism, and is useful context that can help us figure out how to approach different colleagues who are at different stages in the process. We see the development model not as a strict progression in one direction, but a process people move within, often cycling through and bouncing between stages.

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! Also 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 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 your favorite “Pass the Hat” this month.
  • Complete the Feedback Form.
  • Join our Summer Podcast (Book) Group!
  • Have a great summer and look for new emails starting in September!

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:


  • 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:
It makes the most sense to put aside our discussion protocol this month, and use it as a planning session based on the resource provided as the primary reading. If you would like to stick with the Discussion Protocol this month, it makes sense to use the Helms’ White Identity Development Model as your primary text.

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.

Thank you all for you 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 look back that the organizations we have donated to this year, choose your favorite, and make another donation. Alternately, you can choose a local organization that works for racial justice and is led by people of color. If you donate to another organization, please email us to let us know who you donated to, and we'd love to consider them as a future "Pass the Hat". 
​
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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