Welcome to Office Hours!
My name is Marccus
and I’m an assistant principal in Denver, Colorado.
In today’s episode, we will be addressing
a challenging, but extremely important topic
on how to bring social justice
and anti-racism conversations into your classroom.
Today’s students will become
the citizens, advocates, and leaders of tomorrow,
and you as educators
have an opportunity to shape the future every day.
To help educators have these anti-racism conversations
with their students,
Microsoft has partnered with experts across the subject.
The newly released “Anti-racism journey for educators with students”
is a kit of resources, grounded in social and emotional learning.
It is built by experts in the field of
equity and inclusion, restorative practices, and education technology.
This learning path empowers educators
to build the knowledge and capability needed
to support equity and anti-racism work with students.
I sat down with a few of the contributors,
each with unique experiences and expertise,
to hear their take on why the Anti-Racism Journey is needed,
how educators can use it,
and their hopes for classrooms of the future.
Welcome Ken!
How did you create the Anti-Racism Journey for educators?
A lot of educators want to be able to engage in the work
and I think that journey provides
a really definitive pathway for learning about yourself,
learning about bias, learning about race, learning about all these structures
that go far beyond just simply reading a book.
Those that choose to just simply read a book
are looking to microwave the work versus
actually take the time and work your way through it methodically
recognizing that it's a marathon, not a sprint.
What do you hope educators and students take away from the Anti-Racism Journey?
So the way we designed the kit
and the way the kit is framed,
the delivery of the curriculum itself
creates that opportunity, that moment, that space
to begin to engage students in a very fundamentally different way.
And to influence at some point,
the system itself of education that continues to isolate
and perpetuate the kind of racism that we know exists.
In partnership with some really great people at Microsoft,
we were able to really provide tactical solutions
so that people who wanted to do the work, but didn't know where to start,
were able to really go through this journey and this path to make that happen.
So part of the work really embodies if educators are saying they want to do this
in partnership with myself, and Keith, and Ken, and Microsoft Team
we were able to really dive in and create that journey for educators to work through.
So for me it should be a both/and, some of it should highly individualized
and then some of it should be in small group where you can at minimum engage
in necessary and meaningful dialouge.
and then others could be a component of
honestly about being able to have discusions around what you're learning
and reflecting on your own experiences as an educator
as well as your own experiences just in general.
Because we need to recognize the difference between sympathy and empathy
and this journey truly helps people recognize that
and go through that work on a very fruitful and reflective journey
and introspective journey.
I think Ken Shelton said it best
“The more we normalize discussions about racism, and the more voices and narratives we bring into the classroom.... the better”
I encourage all of you to explore these resources and please bring social justice and anti-racism conversations into your classroom.
Links can be found below to start your learning path today!
Keep the conversation going
and follow us on social media @MicrosoftEDU,
to share any questions or suggestions.
Again, I'm Marccus and I’ll see you in the next Office Hours!