Like many people of my generation who cut their teeth on the critical insights of bell hooks, news of her passing in December unleashed a wave of reflection for me about the ways she’s impacted me as a person and public scholar. Beyond the many moments of resonance I experienced while reading her writings over the years, her impact on me is most powerfully encapsulated in an experience I had in 2008 when I met her.

As battles rage surrounding how we narrate history in the classroom, there are broader debates unfolding about how we approach diversity, equity, and inclusion work within our schools and personal lives. Irrespective of the identities we hold, questions abound. Where do we even begin this work in our schools and in other contexts? How do we find common ground? And why is there such enduring disagreement about the definition and significance of keywords like racism, antiracism, intersectionality, microaggressions, and civility? Is there just one answer?

Pamela E. Donaldson, Facing History's Associate Program Director for Equity and Inclusion, and Laura Tavares, Program Director for Organizational Learning and Thought Leadership, recently published an article on the School Library Journal website. There, they offer educators an invitation into equity work within their own school communities centered around personal introspection and self-education, as well as collaborative learning and reflection with fellow teacher colleagues. Below is an excerpt from the piece:

Do you ever wonder how we as a society arrived at this place of profound educational inequity, and what we can do about it as educators? 

Facing History’s most recent Teaching for Equity and Justice Summit explored this timely, complex, and longstanding question in a dynamic, three-day virtual summit with over 300 educators in attendance. Together, we tackled some of the most vexing issues facing educators today and explored rich frameworks designed to empower teachers to orient their work toward equity and justice. Here are some of the core themes that we explored together:

Laura Tavares, Facing History's Program Director for Organizational Learning and Thought Leadership, recently placed a piece on the School Library Journal website in which she interviews Dr. Kimberly Parker, cofounder of #DisruptTexts. #DisruptTexts is a "crowdsourced, grass roots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum." In this interview, they discuss the impact of Dr. Parker's early experiences on her educational vision, how educators can expand upon the literary canon when selecting texts, and how educators can help their students see themselves as readers. Below is an excerpt from the piece:

Facing History's Chief Officer of Equity and Inclusion Dr. Steven Becton and Kaitlin Smith recently placed an article in the School Library Journal newsletter about the historical contexts that shape educational inequity and what it takes to disrupt it.

As many educators are teaching under extraordinarily challenging circumstances, we know that a central issue for educators is how to center equity and justice in their classrooms and schools. The long history of racism in education is still with us, and after a summer marked by racial violence, and an ongoing pandemic that is disproportionately impacting people of color, issues of equity and justice remain urgent and pressing.

If you are someone who is new to this work or if you are looking to recommit yourself to equity and justice, here are five ways to ground your teaching:

At Facing History’s inaugural Teaching for Equity and Justice summit in 2020, we had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Scott Seider and Dr. Daren Graves—two developmental psychologists committed to deepening communities’ capacities to educate and care for Black and brown youth. Co-authors of Schooling for Critical Consciousness: Engaging Black and Latinx Youth in Analyzing, Navigating, and Challenging Racial Injustice, Seider and Graves shared a wealth of insights from their research on the importance of cultivating critical consciousness in the classroom and how to get started. Below are some excerpts from their presentation:

This July and August, Facing History hosted our first ever Teaching for Equity and Justice Summits for over 450 educators from across North America. Throughout the summit, educators committed their time and energy in order to engage in deep learning, reflect on their own mindsets and practices, and to hear from scholars like Dr. Bettina Love, Dr. Pedro Noguera, Dr. Scott Seider and Dr. Daren Graves and our Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, Steve Becton. 

As part of Facing History’s Teaching for Equity and Justice summit series, we recently hosted Dr. Bettina L. Love in a riveting presentation on her work and vision for education. We look forward to sharing some of our key learnings at the conclusion of the second summit, but we’d like to make sure that Dr. Love’s paradigm-shifting work is on your radar in the meantime.