Bending The Arc Off-Schedule
Still a Social Justice Newsletter for Educators
Greetings!
Rather than wait two weeks to share some fantastic pedagogical treasures, I want to put three options on your radar which I think and hope many will find useful and thought-provoking.
Where students can make themselves at home
The first is a blog post by math educator and podcaster, Kwame Sarfo-Mensah, on the AIELOC website. He talks about the key steps we can take to make our classrooms spaces where all students experience a sense of comfort and belonging. (Each measure also links to further reading, so bonus!) Kwame suggests:
“In this world where government officials across the globe are shutting down DEI programs, censoring and banning culturally responsive and identity-affirming curriculum in schools, and pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, it is more imperative than ever for us, as educators, to create classroom spaces of inclusion and belonging that feel like home for our most vulnerable students.”
Kwame’s list of actions to “help our students feel comfortable in our classrooms” struck me with their clarity and applicability:
Incorporating translanguaging practices in our daily instruction
Adopting a restorative approach to discipline and relationship building
Understanding that social emotional learning must be done with an antibias, antiracist (ABAR) lens.
Making our classrooms more accessible to students with physical disabilities
What helps a group work?
The next option for reconsidering your practice is an offering by Sarah Silverman, who is a Faculty developer with particular expertise in disability studies. Sarah also identifies as Autistic. Through a blog post and slides from a recent workshop about class participation and group work, she presents educators with valuable food for thought about how we structure socially intensive work in our learning spaces.
In “Group Work, Participation and Neurodiversity,” Sarah invites us to consider different ways of thinking about and acknowledging neurodiversity that move us away from deficit mindsets and harmful labelling. She challenges readers to recognize the role that both explicit and implicit dominant norms in our classroom play in creating barriers for learners with various forms of marginalized identities.
“I think a particularly important takeaway from the neurodiversity paradigm for educators is that neurodivergent people face barriers not inherently or only because of their neurological differences, but because of the norms that prevail in society and in educational spaces.”
Something I especially appreciated about Sarah’s post was the way she presented a series of “what would happen if…” questions at the end of a case study to help practitioners think through the implications of their decisions in a constructive fashion.
About that reading…
Finally, for folks active in the humanities and other reading intensive fields, I found this workaday intervention by History professor, Cate Denial, simply stellar in its candor, usefulness and practicality! Cate describes a non-punitive reflection assignment for students in her classes which she uses to determine her course of action for the next lessons.
“The reading reflections ask the same questions every time. I first have a question about how much reading the students did – they indicate the amount through bubbles like “25-50%” or “all of the reading.” I make it abundantly clear in word and action that I don’t ask this question to be punitive, but to make it possible for me to prepare to teach on days when most of the class got 50% of the reading done. I then ask:
What new things did you learn from the reading?
What do you think it’s important we talk about today?
What left you confused? What questions do you have?
Is there anything else you want to share?”
There is an aspect to this approach that is fundamentally learning-affirming. The opening question and the way it is explained invites trust. And Cate points out that the process creates a feedback loop which allows students to recognize how their needs - questions, revelations, concerns - are reflected in the lessons that follow. The reflection form is a relational tool, a way for students and teacher to get a better read of each other as they progress through the semester or year.
If you’re not yet familiar with Cate Denial’s work, there’s no time like the present to get her recent book, A Pedagogy of Kindness.
I hope these suggestions serve to remind us all that as educators our pursuit of caring, inclusive and responsive pedagogies are the forms of social justice we can practice every day, all day. Wonderful examples abound!
Happy teaching and learning, y’all!
Sherri