Written by Everyday, I step into my school and see pictures of white women on the walls: old-timey white women from the 1850’s when my school was founded, middle-aged white women who are alumni and doing impressive things in the world, scores of white women who graduated in years past. These faces greet me as I walk towards my classroom and affirm my place in this building. Everyday, I walk past fellow white teachers. Walking quickly with their heels clicking against the old wood, walking with purpose and power, assured of their status in this building. And everyday I walk past classrooms of students learning of and through well-known white figures like Shakespeare, Sir John A., Pythagoras, Deb Ellis, Bill Nye, or Darwin.
It is time to challenge this racist status quo in my teaching practice.
This year, my goal as a teacher is to de-centre whiteness in the English classroom.
But first, let’s hear a little about racism from the always-entertaining and informative Francesca Ramsy of MTV’s Decoded, so we can get closer to being on the same page about racism.
So what does “de-centring whiteness mean”?
If you are white, which I am, it is not difficult to look around our institutions and see white-culture reflected back at you. When I was a young person in school in rural southern-Ontario, all of my teachers were white, all of the books (Every. Single. One.) that I read had white protagonists in them, and most (I’m estimating 99% until high school) of my classmates were white. My whiteness was held up in front of me like a mirror and validated.
In the classrooms that I teach, my students do not represent the larger diversity within the city of Toronto. As a teacher in an independent school, this is not surprising considering how much it costs families to send their children to my institution. That said, as more independent schools are waking up to how important it is to be inclusive spaces for families of all backgrounds, there is a shift within the student population to be more racially diverse. This is one reason for de-centring whiteness: not all of my students are white.
But it’s also for the white folks in the house.
We do all of our students a monumental disservice, you could even say a human rights violation, if our hidden curriculum is only valuing and validating whiteness. All students need to see more than just the single stories of groups of people in order to enter the world post-graduation a responsible citizen of the world.
So what does “de-centring” whiteness entail?
Well, at its most basic, it includes me providing and teaching books with racially diverse characters and exploring the voices that are not included in any text that we read. Who is present and who is silent?
It includes exploring and discussing concepts such as implicit bias, micro-aggressions, single stories, white supremacy, power, and privilege.
It involves ensuring that each student in my Middle School has the ability to investigate all aspects of their identities.
One of my favourite partners in crime at my school, a fellow provocative rabble rouser, proposed that we bring this question of identity investigating forward to our Middle School at a December faculty meeting. We asked:
How might we ensure that each member of the Middle School has access to opportunities in which they can share and investigate all aspects of their identities, especially those aspects that may be marginalized, difficult to understand, or not widely represented in our community?
And ran a protocol with about ½ of our Middle School faculty, collecting beliefs and doubts about the possibility of running student affinity groups.
As I write this, I can hear the voices of Cohort mentors coaching me to keep it manageable, to remember my sphere of influence, and to design something that I actually have the power to control. So my action plan is not to run affinity groups (as it might not be until next year that such a project is ready to launch…if ever), but rather, this is what I think I can bite off reasonably this year:
- Collect data and research about launching affinity groups
- Meet with key stakeholders about this possibility, sharing findings from first preliminary MS Faculty protocol
- Run at least one protocol with stakeholders outside of MS Faculty (parents, students, board members?)
While I serve the Cohort 21 community as a facilitator, every year I chose a project focus to research, blog about, and experiment with in my classroom. Why wouldn’t I leverage the collective hive-mind power of many CIS Ontario teachers together in one space, with one purpose? With so many people to ask questions to, and so many school experts to be connected with, I have always found that connecting my school goals with my Cohort 21 action plan research is the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.
So, Cohort hive-mind, my question for you is: how do you support your students of colour? What opportunities do you provide your students to explore their identities? Do you / have you used affinity groups in your school and, if so, what has your experience been?
What a wonderful blog! After reading it, it reminded me of the lack of diversity in the school I teach at as well. What’s funny is, I am an Asian who grew up in a little northern Ontario town. We were the family that made the town multi-cultural. When I went away to school, it was interesting to see the diversity. Now teaching, in a nice neighbourhood in Toronto, I again see the lack of diversity. However, I find our school looking for ways to increase the diversity in the school and whenever possible, expose/teach the kids about the interesting and beautiful cultures that surround them. It was about 15 years ago, when a grade 2 student I taught was in disbelief that I was Chinese. He said he didn’t believe me. It took quite a bit of convincing. This gave me the nudge I needed to introduce the students I teach about the cultures around them…the beginning of our World Fair projects. I know it’s not much, but it’s a start. I am hoping that this little introduction is just the beginning of helping the students we teach understand why diversity is so important! @kdavis, @gvogt
What a wonderful blog! After reading it, it reminded me of the lack of diversity in the school I teach at as well. What’s funny is, I am an Asian who grew up in a little northern Ontario town. We were the family that made the town multi-cultural. When I went away to school, it was interesting to see the diversity. Now teaching, in a nice neighbourhood in Toronto, I again see the lack of diversity. However, I find our school looking for ways to increase the diversity in the school and whenever possible, expose/teach the kids about the interesting and beautiful cultures that surround them. It was about 15 years ago, when a grade 2 student I taught was in disbelief that I was Chinese. He said he didn’t believe me. It took quite a bit of convincing. This gave me the nudge I needed to introduce the students I teach about the cultures around them…the beginning of our World Fair projects. I know it’s not much, but it’s a start. I am hoping that this little introduction is just the beginning of helping the students we teach understand why diversity is so important.
This is a great post. An important post. A vital post. A call to action.
We have run affinity groups – not in Middle School but in GR. 9-12, and we are currently running a faculty learning team that is taking on an approach called Activist Allies. I will share this post with them and encourage them to get in touch.
Celeste, thank-you!
Such an important post and conversation starter, Celeste!
I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately, as racism, inclusion and white- privilege has come up a lot this past year in a parenting -facebook group that I belong to. As a Teacher-Librarian is has triggered me to think about the books that I purchase and whether or not they reflect the diverse student-body at my school (not just when it comes to race, but also different families, different abilities, etc.) The sad truth is that there are not enough materials published on these subjects.
It is also incredibly hard when I receive negative feedback from students regarding some books that challenge the “norm”. For example, right before the break I had a SK student tell me that her mother told her the book “Morris Micklewhite and the tangerine dress” by Christine Baldacchino was inappropriate. It is about a boy who gets ridiculed for wearing a tangerine dress from the dress-up clothes at school. He wears the dress because it reminds him of his mother’s hair and he likes the ‘swish’ sound it makes when he walks. The book addresses bullying and acceptance for people being different in a very kid-friendly way. But to this parent, it was inappropriate for her daughter. It’s tough, because I need to respect the parents decision to not want her child reading certain books, but it also breaks my heart.
Here are some interesting articles or resources I’ve come across on my journey to explore this topic:
An article (includes link to a Tedtalk) about diversity in children’s literature:
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/09/diversity-childrens-books-slavery-twitter/
A different booklist – A bookstore in Toronto that focuses on multicultural books and other resources.
https://www.adifferentbooklist.com/
10 Insidious Ways White Supremacy Shows Up In Our Everyday Lives:
https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/09/white-supremacy-everyday-life/
How to be a white-ally to marginalized communities
(American perspective, but worth the read).
https://medium.com/@keeltyc/how-to-easily-be-a-white-ally-to-marginalized-communities-fb0ff326e7ac
Celeste, thank you for this post. I deeply appreciate the bold and important direction of your action plan.
Last year at Branksome, for Black History Month assembly, the students of the Afri-views Club (which, now that I think of it, might effectively be an affinity group of sorts) did a powerful presentation in which they shared personal stories of experiences with micro-aggressions and being othered. The impact of that assembly on the student body has been palpable and visible and wonderful. It was wonderful to see students lead students to being “woke.”
The other thing I wanted to bring up in response to the questions you asked, especially around exploring identities was…books. I know it’s a very librarian response, but having diverse literature represented in the library’s collection and engaging students with them (through book talks, through the English classroom, etc) is one way to foster deep exploration of identity through literature.
Looking forward to chatting with you more about all of this!
Super important post, thank you Celeste. Something I’ve been thinking a lot about, too. In my role, providing diverse books for students is at the top of my priority list and I’ve been working to add to our collection of teacher resources. I’d be happy to share some collection development I’m doing in this area. Do you know about #weneeddiversebooks? https://twitter.com/diversebooks
Wow. Just wow.
Thank you for waking up my brain this morning. Great post!