What my district deems “the incident” occurred during my first year teaching at a high school in the Greater Boston area. This incident was no different from incidents that happen every day in schools across the United States. A teacher or a student (often white) does or says something culturally irresponsible toward an individual or a group of people (usually of color). In the case of my school district, a teacher used the word plantation during a confrontation with a black student. Initially, the district attempted to handle the issue internally, but not to the satisfaction of both parties involved.
Without belaboring the details, what came to pass was an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and subsequent diversity training directives. Most of the time, the story ends there: The government righted a wrong and gave clear directions for resolution. But what about the students and educators left after the mandated training? In my school district, this is when the real conflict (and positive changes!) began.
The OCR created a plan for the district, but fortunately the district had already taken steps that aligned with what the directives spelled out, such as diversity training for the teachers and assemblies for students. The Anti-Defamation League led a teachers’ conference, from which even the most cynical of educators gleaned some nuggets of insight. The next schoolwide events were two student assemblies during which a third-party group performed skits about race and culture, and then asked questions to the students. The first assembly progressed uneventfully. The second, however, did not make it through the first skit before chaos broke out. As the facilitators passed the microphone around, students raised the topics of “Irish slavery,” criticized affirmative action and made a variety of misinformed comments laden with racial prejudice. The assembly stirred underlying tensions, and many student relationships were damaged by these careless comments. The faculty and I dealt with confused and disrupted students the rest of the day and into the next week. Yet, out of the strife, a rich conversation emerged.
First, teachers and administrators quickly sprang into action and formed the Next Steps Committee to address student, family and teacher responses. While some of the committee’s work was to fulfill the remaining demands of the OCR, much of its efforts were in direct response to the students’ needs for research-based information on race and diversity. The assembly had illustrated that students wanted to discuss race but had neither the skills to engage in difficult dialogue nor the knowledge to do so successfully.
Next, the English and history departments taught lessons on active listening and race, respectively. These lessons, while not particularly groundbreaking in pedagogy or content, communicated to the students that their school was prioritizing new values and provided a common language going forward. Faculty members co-taught the lessons, which presented a united front to the student body. In the post-lesson surveys, students commented positively on the collaborating teachers and the research-based approach. The teachers were not experts but communicators of well-established, factual information. Students of all backgrounds appreciated that teachers didn’t preach their own beliefs but instead used evidence and outside sources to promote cultural responsibility (our district’s term for taking ownership of our actions and creating an inclusive environment).
Additionally, the students in the social justice club, Do the Right Thing (yes, they named it after the Spike Lee movie!), worked with teachers to create representations of various races in classroom materials and provide a safe place to discuss race.
Perhaps even more important to lasting change was the grassroots engagement that sustained them. Teachers acted as equal shareholders in creating a new climate, and students noticed. The teachers who participated in Next Steps or attended Do the Right Thing activities and meetings became visible to students as allies. Students know their teachers will be there for the next incident, when a public figure espouses racist rhetoric, when a fellow student calls them a name. Doing professional development in culturally conscious teaching doesn’t have much of an impact if students don’t think their teachers have their backs. Our school district’s journey ended up being about so much more than race. We were doing the hard, rich work of creating a welcoming environment for every student, every family member and every teacher.
Edsall is a social studies teacher in the Greater Boston area.
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