Our greatest teacher leaders will be those who teach and reach a broad section of our students…including those students who do not look or live like them.

Pedagogy For All

04/08/23 02:51 AM 1 Gerald Denman, Executive

Director, Office of Diversity Affairs

Goals for this Session

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Provide a “dangerously safe” place for you to engage in dialogue to examine the dominance of whiteness.

Internal Focus: Self-reflection activities to continue to deepen your understanding of your own racial identity and how it impacts your work.

External Focus: Understand and internalize the continuum of cultural proficiency and apply your learning.

Application: Develop a picture of powerful pedagogy in your classroom or worksite, and construct new lenses to see what may have been invisible…this will allow you to engage in more effective practices.

Gerald Denman Executive Director, Office of

Diversity Affairs

Assumptions of the Session

All of us are at different places on the journey to being culturally competent.

Two primary “isms” in school-systems that threaten social justice are classism and racism.

The new descriptor of a great teacher/educator has to have cultural competency at its core.

Adults learn in community and through dialogue.

No one has all the answers…All people have to grapple with issues of racism and classism…

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director,

Office of Diversity Affairs

Definitions

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

“When teachers do not understand the potential of the students they teach. They will under teach them no matter the methodology.” ---Lisa Delpit

“The very best practitioner in education will fail without the right attitude. Attitude underlies everything necessary in successful teaching.”—Linton & Singleton

It Starts With Our Thinking

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

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The Journey to the Right Attitude Begins with Self

On a typical day, what percentage, from 0 to 100%, does race impact your life? Illustrate on rectangles.

Why? Discuss with a partner.

Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Reflect and Discuss Are there students and adults I empathize with

more than others? What accounts for this difference?

How do I react when racial issues come up in a conversation? Do I feel anxious? Defensive? Do I speak openly? Do my reactions differ if the group is the same race as I am?

5 minutes

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affaris

This Work Begins with

Self-KnowledgeWhite Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack and examples of white privilege – time to reflect on what you read.Highlight any conditions that jump out at you.(3 min.)Discuss in pairs. (5 min.)

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research.

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Education Redefined 1 out of every 10 students in our the Puyallup School

District are students of color

5 out of every 5 students in our system has to function effectively in a dynamic world and as citizens of the world

Where we have been: I am a good educator/person and I am comfortable engaging students and families who look like me and who are from a culture similar to mine.

Where we need to be: Education and cultural competency are now tightly coupled. We can no longer say we are great educators, or even good educators if we are not committed to being culturally competent and skilled in the full engagement of all students and families in our school communities.

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

“When Race and Class cease to be predictors of achievement.”

Pedro Noguera

How Will We Know We Have Truly Great Schools?

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Cultural Responsiveness Continuum

Cultural destructiveness: negating, disparaging, or purging cultures different from your own.

Cultural incapacity: elevating the superiority of your own cultural values and beliefs and suppressing the cultures that are different from your own.

Cultural blindness: acting as if differences among cultures do not exist and refusing to recognize any differences.

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

…Culturally Responsiveness Continuum

Cultural pre-competence: recognizing that lack of knowledge, experience, and understanding of other cultures limits your ability to effectively interact with them.

Cultural competence: interacting with other cultures in ways that recognize and value their differences, motivate you to assess your own skills, expand your knowledge and resources and ultimately, cause you to adapt your relational behavior.

Cultural responsiveness: honoring the differences among cultures, viewing diversity as a benefit, and interacting knowledgeably and respectfully among a variety of cultural groups.

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Real-World Connections…

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Working in pairs (10 minutes)

Reflect on your own experiences. Generate a real-life example that illustrates each level on the continuum.

Provide examples using situations or events while refraining from using names and identifiers.

Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness VisibleActivity: Watch the video in three sections. Jot down your reactions on paper. Respond to reflective questions at the end of each section. Debrief with a partner. (55minutes)

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Reflections…Round 1

What moved you? Who or what was easiest for you to identify with? Who or what was the hardest? What were the parts of the DVD that brought up

feelings for you, such as shame, guilt, envy, anger, sadness, recognition, joy satisfaction, hope or other feelings?

Jot down your responses. Talk with a partner.

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Office of Diversity Affairs 15

Reflections…Round 2

How do stories from the video relate to your own life?

Why do you think they stood out for you?

Jot down your responses. Partner talk.

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Office of Diversity Affairs 16

Reflections…Round 3

How do the messages about race, culture, and privilege impact schools? Your work?

Jot down your responses. Talk with a partner.

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Using Our Privilege for Social Justice Don’t just “try on” your new glasses, wear them all the time.

Once you fire the “bullet” and unveil white privilege you can’t undo it, you now know it…you either choose to ignore it, deny it or use this knowledge to create social justice.

Do something—act differently with your new knowledge.

Resist being preoccupied with worry about “doing it wrong” or making a mistake… lead with questions.

Dare to make people uncomfortable, including yourself.

Openly advocate for systems and practices that promote equity.

Seek out and foster cross-racial connections, conversations, and dialogue.

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Final Thoughts…Live in the Questions

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Who are the students who are honored in our schools?

Is this honor and praise distributed equitably?

How do you decide which students are worthy of celebrations?

Do most of them look like you?

What will these students speak about you and your work?

Are all students visible, does every student have a voice, do they all matter?

Is your classroom or school a place of selection or development?

How are you engaging promise…the promise found in every single child who enters our classrooms and school?

Are you willing to be haunted…haunted to reflect, haunted to question your practice, your habits, haunted to change?

Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

Our Students are Counting on Us!!

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Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs

References

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Bolgatz, J. (2005). Talking race in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children. New York: The New Press.

Perry, T,. Steele, C., Hilliard, A. (2003). Young, gifted and black. Massachusetts: Beacon Press Books.

Greene S., Abt-Perkins. (2003). Making race visible. New York: Teachers College Press.

Lelyveld, J. (2001). How race is lived in America. New York: Times Books.

Lindsey, R.B., Robert, L.M., & Campbell/Jones, F. (2005). The culturally proficient school. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.

Loewen, J. W. (1995). Lies my teacher told me. New York: Touchstone.

Singleton, G.E., Linton, C. (2006). Courageous conversations about race. California: Corwin Press, Inc.

Gerald Denman, Executive Director

Office of Diversity Affairs