A faded orange buoy is hanging from a wooden post surrounded by lush green trees. Photo by Yan Berthemy on Unsplash
Check-In:
I’m the weakest swimmer in my family. Ok, ok, I’m not sure I would describe myself as a ‘swimmer’. I can float. Everyone else can actually swim. My husband grew up in Florida and learned to swim early. I grew up in Wisconsin with minimal access to water. My kids started swim classes before they were out of diapers and now they are both excellent swimmers who love the water. As a parent, I wanted to provide them with a level of safety and security around water that I didn’t have.
In the past few weeks, we have seen a series of shootings as a result of common mistakes. It was the shooting of Payton Washington that had the most impact on me. Payton who walks the same school hallways as my daughter. Gun violence came to my doorstep. The safety that I tried to curate for my kids was shaken. I felt fear radiate through my bones and land in my stomach weighing me down day after day.
Author Dante Stewart, wrote an opinion piece for CNN: I can’t look away from the house where Ralph Yarl was shot. In it he says,
I don’t know if it happened this way, but I know that he [Mr. Yarl] and Ms. Nagbe only wanted what every Black family wants for their child’s life: to grow up, to be free, to make mistakes, to laugh, to play, to grow, to be protected, to wonder, to make it home, alive and intact, just the way we sent them out and remembered them.
On Monday, during my virtual book launch, I was asked to define liberation. Michelle Sadrena-Pledger, EdD defines liberation in the classroom in her book, Liberate! Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning. In my interview with Nicole, she discusses the challenges of fighting for liberation as a Black woman. This week, liberation to me is above all to feel safe and know my family and my community is safe.
What makes you feel safe?
#mondaymotivation: “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me. No fear.” -Nina Simone
Interview with a Leader of the Global Majority:
Nicole Johnson has been an Equity Advocate/Consultant at her former high school at the NYC Department of Education since 2016. The comments below are Nicole’s and do not reflect the opinions of her district.
Mary: What challenges do you face as a Black female system-level leader in a space dominated by whiteness?
Nicole: First off, having to even think about the intersectionality of my identity is already overwhelming. Being a Black woman leading in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space I sometimes forget if I should be advocating for myself or if I’m advocating for employees who have been historically marginalized in our spaces. Are these things mutually exclusive? I’m not so sure yet.
Nicole: I’m having trouble making the distinction between education and accomplishing the goal, but I’ve found recently that while educating people I can reveal new concepts that will help them shift their perspectives and step into leadership roles as allies. It’s a combination of sharing my truth as a Black woman and leading on behalf of the marginalized people in the community.
Mary: What advice would you give to someone about to start a diversity/equity officer role?
Nicole: Make sure you are getting paid and that you have rested well before entering this industry. Do not jump straight into the work from another job and imagine this work as if it’s a soul mission. The work we do of validating and creating space to value people is a bit mind-boggling and if we haven’t engaged in a good amount of personal healing it will be easy to get swept away with the current of disappointment.
Nicole: Practice self-care like it’s your job and try not to take things personally. Think of yourself as an emotional superhero and give yourself a metaphor or story to live in to justify your daily work.
You can read more from Nicole in “Leading Within Systems of Inequity in Education: A Liberation Guide for Leaders of Color”. Let me know if you would like to be interviewed and/or recommend someone to be profiled in this section.
What I’m Reading: Liberate! Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning by Michelle Sadrena-Pledger, EdD.
About the author(s): Michelle Sadrena-Pledger, EdD is the Director of Liberation at the Center for Research on Equity and Innovation.
Book Audience: Teachers and those who support teachers
Book Overview:
This is literally a pocket-sized book that you can carry around with you and can be read in one sitting. Michelle has made all of the research around culturally responsive instruction concrete and specific for implementation. Michelle gives us her definition of liberation:
the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release, and
freedom from limits on thought or behavior (p 4)
Then she gives us the “what” and the “how” of how to achieve liberation in the areas of -consciousness, classroom, curriculum, cognitive capacity bias, communication, and conduct constructs.
Every chapter ends with resources to help you with additional tools for implementation and learning. This is separate from the appendix and suggested reading list.
If you are ever asked or wonder yourself, “HOW do I create a liberatory classroom?” This book answers it for you.
Next Book: Conscious Classrooms: Using Diverse Texts for Inclusion, Equity, and Justice by Allison Briceño, Ed.D. and Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Ph.D. You can find a full list of my book recommendations here. Please note that I am an affiliate with Bookshop.org and receive a small compensation for your purchase when you use the book links provided.
Resources:
May is– Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month
The Freedom to Learn National Day of Action is scheduled for May 3, 2023—The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) has prepared multiple lesson plans and gathered resources that can be used in pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms and on college campuses. Find them here.
Culture Change: What One Historically White-Led Organization Is Learning by Betsy Hodges | Nonprofit Quarterly
Teaching Black History Framework. Black historical consciousness is a Black history framework developed by Dr. LaGarrett J. King, the founding director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education. The framework was developed as a guide for educators and other Black history proponents developing curriculum and effective instructional approaches.
Author and researcher Bettina Love reflects on the 40th year anniversary of “A Nation at Risk.”, a 36-page report released by U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell, under the direction of President Ronald Reagan
Upcoming Events:
AP Leadership Academy
I will be joining Baruti Kafele at his virtual AP Leadership Academy this Saturday, May 6th from 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST to discuss my book.
ASCD Author Workshop
I will be facilitating a 2hr virtual workshop for ASCD: Leading Towards Liberation as a Leader of Color on Wednesday, May 24th from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM EST. You can register here.
Austin Area Book Talk
On Thursday, June 15th at 5pm join a conversation between myself and Dr. Angela Ward. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Liz Garcia. The event will be held at the Round Rock Public Library.
If this is your first time reading, please go back and read my Introductions post.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. If you like it, please share it with your network!
There are certain groups, in charge of the news and narratives, and in charge in general, who keep wanting feel-good answers that make us all feel helpless. They refuse to ask the right questions because it may lead to different answers, answers with actionable solutions.
I don’t feel safe at all where we live.
https://www.abqjournal.com/2594740/17-guns-have-been-reported-in-albuquerque-schools-this-year.html
All who live here know where the guns keeps coming in from, all who live here know of the parents who happened to not notice anything amiss about their children who are planning these awful things, all who live here know what needs to be done.
The district has finally said that both parent and child will be prosecuted. The consequences and “help” needs to come before that.
I don’t feel safe to express any of this on social media because it places me other people’s boxes of “left” and “right”.
How can we be talking about left and right when the children are in the center!