Invariably, issues are raised in classrooms that bring charged responses from students. How can educators set the stage for safe, respectful dialogue and learning?
Natalie Odom Pough, Ed.D., is a visiting clinical assistant professor of education at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Her work and research interests include new educator attrition and curriculum design in the age of social media and social justice activism in schools. Natalie was named a 2018 ASCD Emerging Leader and is a member of the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board.
In this essay, Melvin Pichardo, a young aspiring actor, becomes so immersed in becoming a character for a role that he begins to question who he is as a person and what he feels and thinks.
This toolkit for “Why Talk About Whiteness?” offers nine steps to engage high school students in a guided viewing of The Whiteness Project. The Whiteness Project, an “interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as ‘white’ experience their ethnicity,” is available for free online.
Rose Mary Gilliam just wants to speak her peace and find enlightenment. The 18-year-old New Orleans resident has been a volunteer in the public schools. She’s trained in non-violent protest. She talks with youngsters about making positive life choices. And this week, she’s joining a group of her peers in a reverse “freedom ride” to Washington, D.C., to join a national conversation and to protest inequities in education.