Designing Supports for an Era With Exacerbated, Not New, Racism and Inequity

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

Abstract

Purpose: This paper analyzes a research-based effort to design a “workbook” for professional development, supporting educators in collective equity and antiracism effort today. Leveraging insights from this symposium’s other papers, we explore an effort to design a paper-based and digital workbook supporting teachers to collectively address race and equity issues that are both “timeless” and currently exacerbated. As per the 2020 AERA call, we consider codesign of such “tools for talking” a key collaboration realm for researchers supporting practitioners in the current era-- a divisive and exhausting moment when convincing and supporting colleagues to join collective equity effort is particularly important.

Theoretical Perspective: Aligned with prior work on critical bifocality in education, or the ability to critically analyze both everyday practice and structural inequality simultaneously (Weis and Fine, 2012), this workbook (and the text it accompanies; see Paper 4) seeks to nurture equity effort by challenging educators to critically reflect on, rethink, and redesign what they say routinely about and to students. The workbook is designed to empower educators and others in schools today in everyday “resistance,” reflection and action against inequalities both timeless and contemporary, via retooling the most everyday action of the school day: talking (Erickson, 2004). The text and workbook also enters antiracism work using an “equity” frame, in a strategic effort to engage the “non choir” alongside “the choir” in a divided nation; the workbook explicitly calls out the antiracism of “equity” work to respond to the current moment.

Methods: During and after a collaborative study of a book in use by teachers in 2018-19 (paper 4), researchers and practitioners started collaborating to design a workbook inviting teacher reflection and collective action today. This design effort took shape over a quarter-long collective course and in ongoing communication with participating PD providers. In workbook design, we proactively anticipate educator reactions to “equity” work in a Trump era. That is, we build not only on research showing how teachers throughout past decades have reacted to “diversity” PD (Irvine, 2003; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Gay, 2005; Wiseman & Fox, 2010), and when asked to examine deeply held beliefs (Aragon et al, 2014; McFalls & Cobb-Roberts, 2001), interrogate life experiences (Gay & Kirkland, 2003) or lead educational change (LaDuke 2009). The workbook also seeks to provide an awareness-booster for today’s divided nation, showing how everyone can “join the work” of equity. Also in direct response to the current moment, the workbook explicitly invites educators into antiracist equity work, links to resources for anti-hate action, and invites educators into networks of antiracist effort.

Findings and Scholarly Significance: In sharing this participatory design research effort to design a workbook to prompt educator reflection and action today, we demonstrate how researchers can leverage their skill sets to join practitioners in codesigning educator supports tailored for the current era. By listening to educators and tailoring tools to meet their current needs, researchers can help design professional development tools that address today’s issues of diversity and inequality head-on in ways today’s educators will welcome, “hear” and use.

Authors

• Emily Chiariello, Chiariello Consulting

• Erika Rae Reece, University of California - San Diego

• Dolores de Los Angeles Lopez, University of California - San Diego

• Anita Caduff, University of California - San Diego

• Andrew Matschiner, University of California - San Diego