Co-Creation of Critical Affinity Spaces That Promote Diversity, Equity, and Welcome in Nebraska Public Schools

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Designing Supports for Educators in a Trump Era

Abstract

Purpose: This paper considers the design, ambition, and results thus far of two related and voluntary teacher affinity groups in eastern Nebraska; a solidly ‘red’ part of the country, but also an area that is demographically fast changing and where the commitment to public education remains strong. The development of these affinity groups is informed by the first author’s prior, related research and practice (First author, 2018; Herrera, & Holmes, 2014) and loosely echoes the design of Bieler’s (2018) multicultural education continuum focused on supporting teachers from preservice, through/beyond induction. The two affinity groups described here, one oriented towards pre-service teachers and the other for practicing educators, share a commitment to social justice and to supporting teachers of color (TOCs) and other educators vexed by our nation’s continued racialized patterns of inequality. Both groups find that they are dealing with issues of identity and inequity exacerbated in the Trump Era.

Theoretical Perspective: Consistent with Bieler (2018) who articulates the relationship between high dropout rates and high teacher turnover as being different manifestations of the same problem, the program designs described here acknowledge that supporting inclusive practice in equitable classrooms is complex and difficult. This means professional networks play a vital role in uncovering and contextualizing social and institutional inequities as well as supporting teacher to challenge those inequities as they transition and grow into impactful veteran teachers.

Methods: Consistent with design research (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012), this paper names the design concepts used related to the iterative research, development, and implementation of both affinity groups. Different than often-top-down and didactic structures of formal professional development, both affinity groups are carefully constructed to foster participant agency, with the topics co-determined and co-facilitated with participants. The informality and organic characterization of these collectives allow for nimbleness- as both programs are informed by participant narratives, stories/counter-stories, and lived experiences in relation to current and local events (political, social, cultural).

Findings: Both efforts are part of a larger voluntary network that spans pre-service to established practice with faculty involvement bridging the groups. That educators continue to be drawn to this network suggests that it fills a professional vacuum. They are staying to exchange ideas about how to maintain/ improve critical multicultural orientations, while establishing community within and across their immediate contexts. These collectives are functioning as professional learning communities without the trapping/ rigidity of more formalized structures.

Scholarly Significance: Building and then sustaining the capacity of schools to provide an affirming and liberatory education for all students is not easy. Moreover, it becomes more difficult in an era when social narratives are so xenophobic and disparaging. In the face of such challenges, it is important to document efforts and informed approaches that help educators build and maintain solidarity as critically conscious and efficacious change agents. The example here, from a small red state, pertains well beyond the boundaries of these particular efforts.

Authors

• Amanda Morales, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Edmund T. Hamann, University of Nebraska - Lincoln