Ten Factors that Impact Action toward Greater Diversity in High School Curriculum Design & Review8/20/2020 I have held several leadership responsibilities in secondary education over many years. As a consultant for a national network, director of school support for a regional network, and high school administrator, one focus has been my curiosity, increased self-awareness, and work toward racial equity in schools. This has grown over my years of being engaged in this work, despite failures along the way. 15 years ago, I was part of a conversation with academic department chairs at my school, where I asked, “How come we don’t have student data, disaggregated by race?” As eyes looked down, I was quickly told by a tenured department chair, “We don’t do that . . . and you are a racist. Everyone in this school gets treated the same way.” That particular comment continues to guide my curiosity and growth. No one around the table was ready, perhaps. As one direct response to the racial unrest because of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, I worked with a group of educators (regionally) to develop a race/ethnicity Examination (audit, really) for a regional network of high schools. This audit allowed a school to reflect while gathering and evaluating perceptions about race in their schools – to begin to examine policies and systems. The first iteration of the Examination also had the potential of comparing and contrasting results with other schools in-network and across time. When we invited schools to participate in a pilot project to test this Examination, we got no volunteers, for various reasons. The initiative faded. Schools were not ready, perhaps. I was introduced to Courageous Conversations about Race (Singleton & Linton) in graduate school. Since then, I have introduced this framework in my own school and with a network of diversity directors in schools regionally. We practiced. We modeled. And the practice grew to other schools and works. During those various practices with Courageous Conversations, I grew by listening to others and by developing my own racial autobiography, where I reflected on this central question: “What can you recall about the events and conversations related to race, race relations, and/or racism that may have impacted your current perspectives and/or experiences?” (Singleton, Linton). Over the past few years, have been part of a high school working curriculum group as part of the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, sponsored by the UCS Jesuits, and I have recently participated in my son’s school diversity & equity summer book read: How to be an Antiracist (Kendi). It is valuable for me to be continuously engaged in this work . . . to learn new things about others and myself. At the same time, it is frustrating to make mistakes, missteps, and fail; and, it is challenging because the work is slow, with dead ends. However, I/we must continue . . . Today, our school is guided by the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences (specifically, accompanying youth and walking with the excluded). Our school’s Black Student Union (BSU) recently responded to the summer’s racial uprisings by developing a practical list of “asks,” of the school – pathways for our school to engage in changing policies and systems. Last winter and spring, I had one-on-one reflecting conversations with faculty. Reflection trends around last year’s conversation thread of race/ethnicity complement the recent list of BSU asks. When I see connections between and among independently organized initiatives aimed at changing policies and systems, I feel consoled. Finally, last week, our Examination (audit) group from many years ago began communicating to re-ignite that once-failed initiative. And, in partnership with The Boniface Foundation, I participated in a few days of examining how we approach race conversations among colleagues at school and with our students in class. All of these past & current initiatives focus on policies and systems and inform my way of proceeding this year, as I consider 10 factors toward re-imagining a course I will be teaching in the department of English at my high school. Re-imagining it to be more diverse. These factors also complement the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm for learning and teaching that we employ at my school. And each factor presents concrete challenges for us all as we design and review curriculum through the lens of diversity. Factor 1: Work on the Work My past and current work on racism allows me to feel comfortable being uncomfortable and informs how I proceed, decisions I make, and actions I take. My goal is continuous quality self-improvement (progress, not perfection), continuing to stay plugged into this important work, listening to others, and taking advantage of professional development opportunities that focus on racism and my roles. I listen to those who know more than I know and challenge me about my own racist baggage. Just this morning, I responded to an email from my son’s elementary school about participating in the next book club focusing on Between the World and Me (Coates). I said yes, and today I will order the book and begin reading it. I listen and respond to where I am being called. This is a continuous process of working on the work. For me, working on the work results in action & praxis. Reflection: where is your entry point for starting or continuing work on racism? Factor 2: Use Data At my school, we developed a perception survey that students take toward the end of each year, which informs the way we proceed and the areas of focus we have for the coming year. It is not a perfect tool – we are continuously revising it, but it is an institutionalized tool applied to a system to help change that system. This survey’s results are disaggregated by race to provide us with a clear picture about trends in academics, faith formation, sports participation, co-curricular involvement, and family life. From results, we can clearly identify consolations and desolations, as they pertain to policies and systems in the school. As a teacher, I also have access to my student course list, where I see specific information about my students that includes photos, race/ethnicity, indication of learning preferences and plans, family background, residential addresses, etc. This data provides me with a broader picture of the students I teach and gives me a glimpse into their lives outside my class. I use this information during my class when I’m challenging students to connect the experiences of the our content to their lives. Reflection: what data points can you readily access and how does data inform action? How does data analysis reveal strengths and challenges to your school’s policies and systems? Factor 3: Examine Course Assumptions Everyone brings baggage into school and into classes – my students and me. This baggage is based upon our lived experiences, and it informs the way we operate in the world – the decisions we make and the actions we take. In The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It, Fr. Bryan Massingale talks about how we become racist . . . “It’s something that you absorbed by just living. Just by taking in subtle clues such as what the people in charge look like. Whose history you learned in school. What the bad guys look like on TV. The kind of jokes you heard. How your parents, grandparents and friends talked about people that didn’t look like you.” When I reviewed the process of reflection during the creation of my own racial autobiography, I learned this: racism is absorbed by just living – having the freedom to make decisions based upon experiences. But what do I do? As a teacher, I continuously revisit the assumptions I make based upon my baggage (based upon my lived experiences), and I examine existing course assumptions and experiences I bring with me to my curriculum and my classroom. I also challenge students to examine their own baggage, assumptions, and ways of proceeding. Reflection: what baggage do you bring with you into school every day? How does that baggage inform your assumptions about your curriculum, your classroom, and students? How do those assumptions drive your actions? Factor 4: Employ Existing Frameworks I use resources I’m given by colleagues and professionals to continuously re-examine how I approach classes and my work. Recently, I was given valuable tools that help me shape my course this year. Our director of diversity and inclusion and our school’s Jesuit chaplain recently introduced me to Ignatian Conversations, a framework with suggestions for listening and talking. Our director of diversity and inclusion introduced me to Critical Analysis of a Curricular Unit, a framework for reviewing lessons through a cultural competency lens. I am continuously reviewing and revising our class visit rubric, based upon Characteristics of Professional Development, which includes a diversity, equity, and inclusion component with specified cultural competency indicators. I use these existing frameworks to re-shape my classes, to be better. Reflection: what existing frameworks do you use to help you re-shape your course curriculum? Factor 5: Start at the Top I changed the title and overarching theme of my (English) course to be more inclusive. I replaced “The American Dream” with “American Voices and Dreams.” This new title suggests a vision for my course that is not limiting or reductive. It is expansive. This new title reminds me how I should think about creating a more inclusive experience for students. Reflection: how do you rename an existing course to suggest an expansive and inclusive vision? Factor 6: Review & Design the Course During a review of my course curriculum over the summer, I removed literature and replaced the removed items with a more diverse selection of voices. In addition, I am cognizant of the times in which we live. To that end, I include immigrant narratives and contemporary black voices, while I integrate history lessons from diverse primary sources. In fact, this year, we will discover how the pandemic affects all types of people in this country. In addition, I develop specific action-experiences for students during units and lessons that help students “live” the lessons of the literature and challenge us to reflect on “How do we think and act in new and different ways after having read this material?” My course is relevant to 2020, while exploring how we got here. Reflection: where is your entry point for reviewing and re-designing your curriculum and how are you making it relevant to today? Factor 7: Integrate Experience From day one, we develop a community of trust in our class, as we begin to understand one another and our individual contexts. We use community conversations, so we begin to understand one another. I challenge students to connect their own lives to the lives and ideas within the history and literature, and I model this by providing experience examples from my own life. Reflection: where is your entry point for learning about and using experiences? How do you share your life with students? Factor 8: Teach Vocabulary I use discipline-specific language with students and set high expectations that we all use the same discipline-specific language during class. We practice using the language. I also use specific phrases when practicing difficult and courageous conversations, and I teach students to use those phrases during conversations in and out of our class. Here is a list of phrases we will practice this year during class:
Helping students learn and appreciate vocabulary and introducing students to helpful conversational phrases is culturally responsive teaching that promotes equity (Lee). Reflection: what are discipline-specific vocabulary terms you teach and use with students? How do you teach students important phrases to use during class conversations? Factor 9: Reflect on Policies & Systems I use cultural competency critical analysis – along with a focus on policies and systems (ref. Kendi) – with students to frame conversations during class. This analysis challenges us to think about how to explore and change policies and systems. Prompts include:
Reflection: identify policies and systems at your school that need work or change. Factor 10: Construct Rules & Protocols Finally, I use our “Ignatian Conversations” framework to model and practice conversations during class, that assumes Ignatius’s Presupposition of good intention and includes 5 attributes:
These conversation attributes are in my syllabus and they challenge us all to a higher level of respect and understanding. Reflection: how do you explicitly model and assume good will? Sources Kendi, Ibram. How to Be an Antiracist. Penguin, 2019. Lee, Laura. “The Value of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Distance Learning.” Edutopia. 15 June 2020. Massingale, Bryan N. “The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It.” National Catholic Reporter, 1 June 2020. Singleton, Glenn and Curtis Linton. Courageous Conversations About Race. Corwin Press, 2006.
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Pete MussoAssistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction Archives
May 2022
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