Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices

Every day, teachers must make thousands of choices: which content to cover which activities to assign and who to ask for help, how to answer questions from students, and how to respond to the behavior of students. These decisions made every day can have a huge impact upon the life of children both for good and bad. They can open doors or cause permanent harm they can help students feel valued and respected or deter their enthusiasm at school. In this class we will explore the nature of these interactions, practice responses to challenging situations and create an equity-based set of teaching practices and mindsets to help all of our students, particularly the most marginalized students. Together with students from your organization or school as well as online learners from all over all over the world, you'll engage in four phases of inquiry, practice and action, and finally finish a final project. Through each investigation, you'll analyze and revisit aspects of inequality in the context of educator mindsets and community-based thinking. You will also imagine the impact of change on communities through case studies that document the process and practice engaging in difficult situations using digital space for practice, and then begin to influence change with actions-oriented tasks. The initial investigations will focus on interactions and relationships with individuals students, before extending out to study the impact of prejudice on schools, classrooms, and communities. When you participate in activities with your peers online and offline, you'll develop an extensive set of tools and resources to utilize with your students and colleagues in your own local environment. When you finish the course, you'll be able to better understand you and your students and new resources to help all students succeed and collaborate with your school's community to further the task of ensuring that teachers are equitable. The most enriching and satisfying experience of this course is taking it with your colleagues. Hence, we suggest that you contact some of your colleagues who may be interested in taking the course along with you. They will be able to understand your situation as well as the students at your school, as well as your culture at the institution you're working in. Just one or two of them could be the beginning of a cohort for equity within your organization or school.