Accepting Educational Accountability

• In Event: Rethinking Teaching Black History: Assessing K–12 Teachers' Black Historical Consciousness

Abstract

Prior to the 2011-12 school year the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) social studies elementary curriculum followed a gradually increasing world view. My first act as Supervisor of Social Studies was to make our curriculum more representative of our students. I added African nations in the 6th grade curriculum as well as adding in the black people’s experience in the colonies to the 5th grade curriculum.
Secondary covered Black history, but it was in much of the same dogma that Dr. LaGarrett King categorized as black heroes/messiahs, oppression, and empowerment. Exceeding acts of heroism are the daily trudges and common folk. The stories of black oppression often avoid or ignore the perspective of the white supremacists oppressors and unearned advantages given to whites. There are also intersectional divides (classism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, colorism) that were created for some to advance within the black community at the cost of others. Black stories can be empowering but how do we teach white students to process guilt and privilege?
To change this we uplifted our curriculum by exploring black peoples’ experiences right in the community we inhabited. We added voices and perspectives to the curriculum by creating a program called Making Invisible History Visible that asks students, and teachers, to talk to locals, examine primary documents, and reconstruct the narratives of the stories we were told to represent our black neighbors.
I worked on our state standards revision team in 2011 and 2018. With some encouraged colleagues, I added black history, not only to our U.S. history standards, but wherever we could open the door to discuss black experiences in all of the social studies in Nebraska. Our U.S. and World History standards dropped the names of many popular historical figures to make room to be critical about how much of “their story” is being told. Slavery’s role in capitalism was added economics and gentrification in geography standards. The most recent 2018 iteration included a focus on marginalized people and progressed furthering the conversation about inclusion.
The de jure changes that were implemented did little to change the de facto experience in the classroom. Teachers were still uncomfortable discussing race. I tried to support them with pedagogical methods to ease them into the work. We had book study sessions and invited keynote lectures on The Political Classroom (Hess, McAvoy). I even brought in Black Lives Matter organizers to discuss the movement in professional development .
I continually found myself fighting against those who felt unsure or unwilling to address concepts of race, racism, and their existence in our society. Now as Director of Equity and Diversity, I am working with our curriculum supervisors to examine how we can treat black History and culture with the appropriate integration so that the curriculum and pedagogy lead to the social justice and personal agency our schools and students need.

Author

• Barry Ethan Thomas, Omaha Public Schools