GOOD MORNING!

Community of Practice

October 22, 2013

Creating an Environment to Advance Racial Equity

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.

Dr. Maya Angelou

Every child has the right to a quality education.

This promise is far from reality for kids across the

U.S.

To dramatically improve educational experiences, outcomes and life options for students and families who have been historically underserved.

National Equity Project Mission

We support leaders to design creative and transformative solutions to their

own equity challenges.

And implement their solutions in ways that empower and liberate their communities.

We believe people can solve their own problems.

Problems and solutions are technical AND relational

Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Technical

Relational

Morning Mixer

Find someone and share . . .

What brought you here today? What “problems” are you interested in

solving?

Here’s what we are going for today . . .

Connect with each other and with our ‘Racial Equity’ work

Talk, share, reflect and learn together as a ‘Community of Practice’

Consider some ideas for practicing ‘transformative leadership’ in your context

Practice – using each other – talking about and leading ‘equity work’ inside your organization

Community AgreementsAn invitation to try these on

• Show up (or choose to be present)

• Pay attention (to heart and meaning)

• Tell the truth (without blame or judgment)

• Be open to outcome (not attached to

outcome)

• ADDITION . . . Maintain confidentiality

YOUR ORGANIZATION is a ‘Living System’

Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Technical

Relational

Human Systems Lens

Living systems contain their own solutions. When they are suffering from declining performance – the solution is always to bring the system together so that it can learn more about itself from itself. Somewhere in the system there are people who have already figured out how to resolve this problem. They are already practicing what others think is impossible.

To make a system healthier, we need to simply connect it to more of itself. It is crucial to remember that, in organizations, we are working with webs of relations, not with machines.

Margaret Wheatley

INSANITY

Doing the same things over and over again and expecting

different results.

REFRESH . . . Racial Equity Theory of Change PROCESS

Thrive is awarded a grant from the Kellogg Foundation

Seven Large Group Stakeholder convenings (150 people) over a year’s time to develop a Racial Equity Theory of Change (RETOC)

Work Group met in between to synthesize the work of the larger group

Community of Practice was an idea that originated during the development of the RETOC, participants needed a venue to develop skills, share lessons learned and PRACTICE taking leadership

REFRESH . . . Racial Equity Theory of Change MAP

Step #1: What We Want – Defining our Racial Equity Outcome

Step #2: What We Need – Identifying the Building Blocks for Change

Step #3: What Helps or Stands in the Way – Identifying Policies, Practices, Cultural Representations

Step #4: What We Must Know – Understanding the Politics of Change

Step #5: What We Must Do – Gearing Up for Action

TABLE TALK

When did YOU enter this work?What feels promising or exciting to you?What questions do you have?

1- Equity

2- Living, Complex Systems

3- Systems of Advantage

3- Opportunity Gap

4- Structural Racialization

5- Targeted Universalism

©2011-2013 CTWorkingMoms.com

EQUITY doesn’t mean EQUAL

WHAT IS A SYSTEM?

Events

Effects

Patterns

Conscious Individual Individuals and Groups

Achievement Gap

Patterns

Underlying Structures

Mental Models

Cultural & Institutional

Values

Subconscious /

Unconscious

SystemsLens

Institutional andInter-Institutional

Opportunity Gap

A system, any system, produces

what it is designed to produce.

from “Bridges, Tunnels, and School Reform: It’s the System Stupid: by Thomas Kelly Phi Delta Kappan, October 2007

A Systems Truism

1779 Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned." Scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish."

Systems of AdvantageWhite privilege is an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks…an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day. 

Dr. Peggy McIntosh

Systems of Advantage

Some people ride the “up” escalator to reach opportunity

Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there

john powell, Kirwan Institute

“success is not a random act. it arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities”

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

opportunity and structures

Opportunity is defined as a fair chance to achieve one’s full potential.

Using a Lens of Racial Equity

Individual

Institutional

Structural

…allows us to uncover the policies practices and behaviors that sustains unequal outcomes for children and families

Three levels of analysis

•Individual

•Institutional

•Structural

We must use our imaginations to construct a set of images that illustrate the debt. The images should remind us that the cumulative effect of poor education, poor housing, poor health care, and poor government services create a bifurcated society that leaves more than its children behind.

From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools

- Gloria Ladson-Billings

structural inequality

example: a Bird in a cage.

– examining one wire cannot explain why a bird cannot fly.

– but multiple wires,

arranged in specific ways, reinforce each other and trap the bird.

– we must consider how we each stand differently with respect to our opportunities for work, education, parenting, retirement…

– we must understand the work our institutions do, not what we wished they would do in order to make them more equitable and fair

Situatedness

All on The Same Boat

All on the same boat…but not on the same deckAll on the same boat…but not on the same deck

Opportunity is related to how we are situated…Opportunity is related to how we are situated…

How is opportunity different depending on the “deck” one is on?

This approach supports the needs of the particular while reminding us that we are all part of the same social fabric

• universal, yet captures how people are differently situated

• inclusive, yet targets those who are most marginalized

Targeted Universalism

Targeted Universalism

Universal Programs

Targeted Programs

Targeted Universalism

KIVA PANEL

1. What is your current understanding of what it means for you to do or lead ‘racial equity work’?

2. Where have you felt some strength, confidence or success?

3. What questions or challenges still remain for you?

Sankofa “return & fetch”

The Sankofa Bird looks backward with the egg of the future in her beak, constantly checking as she moves into the future.

LUNCH BREAK

Working through a CRITICAL INCIDENT

Consider a “critical incident” to be a significant event,

occurrence, or interaction that has impacted your leadership

and work in some way. Ideally, this critical incident will be

something that you personally observed and/or participated in,

rather than something you heard about from someone else.

“Helping Trios”

A structured process designed to help an individual/team think more expansively about a particular concrete problem or dilemma.

Round 1 Partner ‘A’ (15 minutes)4 minutes ‘A’ shares incident while ‘B’ & ‘C’ listen and take notes

2 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ ask clarifying questions

6 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ conversation- B & C talk about what they heard

raise questions on behalf of their colleague, ‘A’ listens and takes notes

3 minutes ‘A’ responds to what he/she heard as desired— “What was helpful?” Then have an open conversation.

Round 2 & 3 Repeat for Partner ‘B’ & “C”

HELPING TRIOS

42

ACTION . . . What’s your next MOVE?

Taking it Forward

“There’s never any guarantee of victory in history. Nevertheless, if we can commit to

loving, serving, and understanding each other – recognizing that we are far more alike than we

are different – we have a chance.”

Cornel West

GOING FORWARD