Schools Should Be Talking To Students About Black Lives Matter, Police Violence, and Racism. The Problem? Teachers Have Not Been Prepared to Meet This Moment
In the midst of an ongoing pandemic in which teachers have been incessantly asked to make changes on the fly, yet another wave of anti-Black police violence has broken into the national discourse. As with each time before, many justice-minded families and community members are demanding that our schools engage students in conversations and lessons about race, racism, and policing in our country. Think pieces abound about what schools should be doing to help students understand what they are seeing and hearing on the news; yet most miss the most significant challenge: We have not prepared educators to meet this moment.
Parents like me who are committed to dismantling racism want our children to be taught by people who deeply understand social justice, but our entire education system is designed to produce educators who do not have the knowledge, skill, experience, or relationships to engage students in productive conversations about racism or police violence. For example:
The overwhelming majority of educators learned almost nothing about race and racism in their own K-12 schooling and most graduated from teacher certification programs without learning much about racism, dialogue facilitation, classroom management, or trauma.
There is little value placed on teaching for social justice in hiring, evaluation systems, or even curricular standards.
80% of teachers are white (and the majority of them do not have even one friend from a different racial background).
The professional development and support provided to teachers once they enter the field doesn’t come close to making up this gap.
Our system is not training the teachers we say we want, and so we do not have the teachers we know we need. So when we tell educators who know very little about issues of race and racism to “speak up,” that they “can’t say nothing,” to throw out their lesson plans and talk to students about the crisis of police murder in our country, it’s like telling Spanish teachers to teach calculus tomorrow because there’s a math crisis. It is setting unprepared educators up for failure and setting vulnerable children up for harm.
So what do I — as a person committed to racial justice and radically reimagining schools — suggest educators should do given this reality?
First, I think any educators, schools, districts, and universities committed to racial justice (and other issues of social justice) need to commit to the long game by providing professional learning opportunities and tools to help make up for how educators were failed in their own education. If you aren’t actively engaged in learning for change, chances are you aren’t going to have the skills to respond in ways that adequately meet any one moment, regardless of your good intentions or desire to do so. You can’t correct 30, 40, or 50 years of missing information in a 4-hour workshop, or even a 4-day or 4-month one. If you are looking into hiring a consultant or organization to help support your diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice efforts, here are ten good questions to ask.
Second, in this moment, I suggest educators get honest about what they know and who they are and choose their actions accordingly. The guiding principle should be: DO NO HARM. Here are my recommendations:
EDUCATOR A — “I DON’T THINK THAT MUCH ABOUT IT”
If you…
· haven’t given much thought to issues of race or racism before now
· haven’t opted into the professional learning on social justice or diversity offered by your school
· think people have a point when they say things like “Well, ALL lives matter” or “If they had just listened to the police, they wouldn’t have gotten shot”
DON’T SAY ANYTHING! The risk that you will do harm to your students is too great. You have not done enough of your own personal work when it comes to racism to have the tools to lead students in doing theirs. Teach what you already had planned. Don’t get in the way of your colleagues who are talking to their students about racism. Use this moment as an opportunity to start doing your own learning and reflecting so that you will be better prepared next time (because there will always be a next time).
EDUCATOR B — “I SUPPORT DIVERSITY BUT HAVEN’T DONE MUCH”
If you…
· know that Black Lives Matter
· recognize the injustices in our society
· are saddened by the racism of our country and world
But you…
· haven’t read or watched much to learn more about the history of race in our country
· don’t engage in conversations of substance with family and friends about these issues
· haven’t taken advantage of the professional learning opportunities or book study groups your school or district offers
BUY A BLACK LIVES MATTER PIN! Wear it every day. Then buy a Black Lives Matter poster. Put it up. Say nothing unless asked specifically by a student to comment on your pin or your poster. If asked, be ready to say something like, “I’ve been watching the news about the many Black and Brown people being killed by police and I am enraged and saddened. This is not okay and I am working to make sure I am a part of the solution.”
Look at the lessons you were planning to teach and figure out a logical way to incorporate Black brilliance and joy (again, you don’t need to comment on this, just do it). Make sure what you do isn’t reinforcing stereotypes (in general it is a good idea to avoid food, sports, and music — unless directly related to your content). Some examples:
If you were planning to read a picture book, pick one by a Black author featuring a Black child that isn’t about discrimination.
If you’re teaching a math or science lesson, remind students about a great Black mathematician or scientist.
If you’re teaching a social studies lesson, talk about Africa — the people, not the animals.
If you’re a Spanish teacher consider showing an episode of Black in Latin America or teaching about an important Afro-Latinx leader.
And then keep doing this, in whatever subject you teach, for as long as you teach.
The goal of this response is to signal to all students that you are trying to be on the side of justice. It makes a statement without putting students of color in the position of having to help you learn or exposing them to more trauma and triggers from a poorly planned lesson. And, if you are white, it models to white students the importance of publicly stating your commitment to racial justice while avoiding doing something unjust.
Oh, and if you tell your students you are working on being part of the solution, you should probably get to reading, watching, and reflecting!
EDUCATOR C — “I’M ON MY SCHOOL’S EQUITY TEAM AND I’M READING THE LATEST BOOK ON RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES!”
If you…
· have long supported diversity, equity and social justice efforts in your school and district
· eagerly signed up for the equity and diversity PD
· read the latest books and articles, listen to the latest podcasts, and watch the latest films about racism in America
· regularly attempt to talk to your friends and family about these issues (even if the conversations aren’t all going well)
· donate to justice organizations and go to their marches
· have been trying to incorporate more diversity into your lessons
PLAN A LESSON! I recommend you develop an intentional lesson plan (minus the “assignments” and “grades” of course), asking the following questions as you plan:
What are your objectives? What are you hoping students get from this?
How are your goals and objectives ALIGNED with what you’re planning to do?
What RELEVANT social justice concepts are you hoping students come away better understanding? (Racism? Implicit bias? Police violence?)
How are you using INTERESTING pedagogical approaches that are developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and relevant to students’ lives?
How are you incorporating DIVERSE perspectives from people committed to justice — especially those of your students?
What are you doing that is EMPOWERING for students’ identity development and ability to take action for justice?
What more do you need to know in order to lead this? How are you going to learn it?
What have you done to make sure you are minimizing harm to students — especially students of color? What like-minded colleagues, accountability partners, and co-conspirators can you run your plan by?
At Justice Leaders Collaborative we call this lesson planning process A RIDE. I encourage you to thoughtfully consider the ride you are leading all your students on — students of color and white students — when you broach these topics.
If you want to open space for less structured dialogue, you hopefully have already set guidelines and norms for engaging students in conversations about race, racism and other issues of social justice. Now is the time to put those to use! If you want a few more tips, I suggest reading Race Dialogues: A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom.
If you are an administrator, there are three other things you can do:
Get the police out of your schools and get that police car away from your front entrance.
Get really honest about the individuals on staff so you can distribute resources in ways that help them develop more capacity when it comes to issues of justice.
Proactively take a public stand so that when someone complains about the Black Lives Matter pins and posters and the lessons on race and racism (as you know they will!), teachers know you have their backs. Consider connecting this work to other school and district goals such as preparing “global citizens” and “ethical decision-makers.”
And if you are a parent wanting more for your children, keep demanding that your local schools, districts, universities, and teacher preparation programs take seriously the need to invest in and value the skills that will produce educators capable of teaching for social justice. Those of you who have class or race privilege, stop baking cupcakes for fundraisers, and start organizing to demand that your community prepare and retain anti-racist (and anti-classist, anti-sexist, anti-heterosexist, anti-ableist, etc.) teachers so that your children have a better chance of becoming critically thinking adults committed to social justice.
In sum, whatever your role in schools, you should do as much as you possibly can, aligned with your current knowledge and skill, while minimizing potential harm, especially to the most marginalized students. Good luck!
Shayla Reese Griffin, PhD, MSW, is the co-founder of Justice Leaders Collaborative, author of “Those Kids, Our Schools: Race and Reform in an American High School” (Harvard Education Press, 2015), and co-author of “Race Dialogues: A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom” (Teachers College Press, 2019).