
CP&I Newsletter #AISDequity
Cultural Proficiency & Inclusiveness- March 2020
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MESSAGE FROM DR. WARD, AUSTIN ISD RACE EQUITY ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISOR
Critical Race Theory: Intersectionality
Critical Race Theory (CRT) formed from a collective movement built on the work of activists in critical legal studies and radical feminism. This month we chose to address the concept of intersectionality in honor of the women in history who have addressed the compounding of oppression when race is layered on other identities. Intersectionality theory has been co-opted, watered down, and appropriated to push people to focus on anything but race. In CP&I we choose to use Intersectionality as a conduit for the empathy required to engage in a deeper level of conversation about difference. There is a national conversation focused on black lives, women's lives and rights, and rights to be free to be who you are and not harassed or belittled or discriminated against.
Here we share some of the women who have written, spoken about and studied the term, this is not an exhaustive list.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Critical Race Theorist, Black Feminist and law professor, popularized the term in 1989 as she set out to define the violence experienced by Black women in America with a look at “compound marginalization”. Crenshaw says, “Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them. Similarly, if a black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination.”
Follow the link to hear Kimberlé Crenshaw discuss Intersectionality at TEDWomen 2016 #SayHerName http://bit.ly/39w3seg
- Read a recent interview with Kimberlé Crenshaw: http://bit.ly/2v79gMu
Gloria Anzaldúa, multi-identity, Chicana Feminist Writer, offers that, “the woman of color does not feel safe within the inner life or her Self. Petrified, she can’t respond, her face caught between los intersticios, the spaces between the different worlds she inhabits.” Anzaldúa’s work looks at histories and institutional practices around language and how the Mexican culture was systematically erased through whiteness.
Learn more about Gloria Anzaldúa: https://www.thoughtco.com/gloria-anzaldua-3529033
Dolores Delgado Bernal, Chicana Feminist Scholar encourages us to look at the system of education critically and not take the inequities we see at face value. She pushes educators to look at the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality on access to opportunity in educational research.
Learn more about Dolores Delgado Bernal: https://www.tcpress.com/dolores-delgado-bernal
Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Scholar “…plac[es] African-American women’s ideas in the center of [conversation], [to] …encourage White feminists, African-American men, and all others to investigate the similarities and differences among their own standpoints and those of African-American women.” She says, “…my hope is that others who were formerly and are currently silenced will find their voices. I, for one, certainly want to hear what they have to say.” And “Black feminist thought cannot be developed in isolation from the thoughts and actions of other groups.” She describes how even the vocabulary we use to define black feminist thought are co-opted and demeaned to a point of disempowerment for those in the struggle.
Learn more about Patricia Hill Collins: https://www.thoughtco.com/patricia-hill-collins-3026479
bell hooks, intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist, and writer, in opposition of the parameters placed on women in a male dominated society writes her name with lowercase letters. She says “…when the child of two Black parents is coming out of the womb the factor that is considered first is skin color, then gender, because race and gender will determine that child’s fate.” hooks talks about the tension in the feminist movement to choose gender or race, both are not allowed to coexist. She chooses to hold both and not privilege one identity over the other.
Learn more about bell hooks: http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/
Critical self-reflection:
How have you understood the term "intersectionality" before? Have you thought of it differently? What do you know, or how will you learn about the impacts of experiences in society at the intersection of race and gender? Act using your personal sphere of influence: Practice with a critical partner to build your voice to speak up and act when you see inequity at the intersection of identities.
AUSTIN ISD OFFICE OF CULTURAL PROFICIENCY JOB POSTING
This position will oversee and supervise all aspects of the three-year U.S. Department of Justice Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization Program.
Employees in this position must be skilled in supporting the proactive equity-focused implementation of youth violence and victimization prevention, intervention and accountability in a middle and/or high school-based setting.
For more information and to apply, visit:
How do I register to attend CP&I Professional Learning?
Austin ISD Staff
1) Search the session number in the HCP, or
2) To view all CP&I sessions in the HCP, search "cultural proficiency" and click "view all sections" under each of the three CP&I courses.
Community Members
We welcome community members to our professional learning sessions. If you are a community member interested in attending any of the CP&I sessions, please email cultural.proficiency@austinisd.org to receive an the EventBrite registration link.
No partial credit available. Please check the session times and plan accordingly.
CP&I PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
No partial credit available. Please check the session times and plan accordingly.
Cultural Proficiency: The 6th C
April 8th session #93133
Mindfulness and Unconscious Bias
April 2nd session #93130
* Completion of Isolating Race required to register.
**********OUR SUMMER SCHEDULE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN APRIL.********
YOU WILL RECEIVE PLED CREDIT AND GT UPDATES FOR ALL CP&I SUMMER SESSIONS.
CP&I Leadership Pathway- Coming Soon!
“Each of us needs to look in the mirror to notice how our particular lived experiences have shaped our beliefs, attitudes, and biases about ourselves and others. And, with increased knowledge of ourselves, we also need to look out the window to understand how racism, classism, sexism and other forms of systemic oppression operate in our institutions to create systemic advantage for some groups (white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, etc.) and disadvantage for other groups (people of color, women, LGTBQ+ people, etc.) in every sector of community life.” ~ Kathleen Osta and Hugh Vasquez, National Equity Project
The Cultural Proficiency & Inclusiveness (CP&I) Leadership Pathway is designed for AntiRacist educators who are actively engaged in a personal cultural proficiency journey in support of educational equity. One of six power skills for Austin ISD, cultural proficiency is the inside/out approach to how we do our work throughout the district. It is a way of being, not a program, initiative, checklist, curriculum, 5 year plan of action, one-or-two day PD, or simply the celebration of heroes and holidays. Cultural Proficiency is an understanding of who you are, your background, values, biases and beliefs, and the impact your identity has on your daily work with students, staff, and families. The facilitators will use the tools of Cultural Proficiency to guide you through critically self-reflective exercises and processes to provide self-examination resources for your journey.
Classroom teachers, look for an email soon from PPft@austinisd.org
to sign up for the CP&I Leadership Pathway!
Spots are limited, so be ready to sign up!
SOAR: Students Organized for Anti-Racism
Students are not the problem in our schools, they are the potential!
Student voice is essential to the work of eliminating the barriers to achieving racial equity that are often unseen or overlooked by adults. SOAR, Students Organized for Anti-Racism, is designed to empower young people of ALL races to become catalysts for change.
This month CP&I with the support of the Austin ISD Race Equity Council launched the first Austin ISD SOAR learning opportunity. SOAR is a path for student leadership development that addresses issues of race, identity, and academic achievement through meaningful and ongoing conversations between students and the adults in their schools. As students are empowered to use their voice as student equity agents, they become more visible advocates for change in their schools.
School Year 2018-19, members of the Austin ISD Race Equity Council wrote and were awarded a grant to support the learning of students. SOAR is supported by principals of O.Henry Middle, Crockett and McCallum High Schools. Students at McCallum engage in ongoing dialogue and delivered social justice learning to the staff on January 6, 2020. Students at O.Henry Middle School and Crockett High School engage in an elective student leadership course to center racial identity development, current events, courageous conversations about race, civic projects and activities aimed at addressing racial disparities in their school and Austin ISD as a whole.
Did you know that schools can identify cultural proficiency as a school-wide goal in the yearly Campus Improvement Plan (CIP)?
Austin ISD Principals
Need to improve campus climate data?
Wonder how to nurture culturally proficient educators on your campus?
Add a CP&I goal to the CIP and commit to learning with us in June!
By P. Gorski and K. Swalwell
In our own teaching, as well as in our work with schools and school districts, we embrace a framework for both multi cultural curriculum development and bigger efforts to create equitable classrooms and schools. We call this framework equity literacy. Its central tenet is that any meaningful approach to diversity or multiculturalism relies more on teachers’ understandings of equity and inequity and of justice and injustice than on their understanding of this or that culture (Gorski, 2013). It relies, as well, on teachers’ abilities to cultivate in students a robust understanding about how people are treated by one another and by institutions, in addition to a general appreciation of diversity (Swalwell, 2011). The idea is to place equity, rather than culture, at the center of the diversity conversation. Key to developing equity literacy for educators and students is cultivating four abilities (Gorski, 2013). These include the ability to:
- Recognize even subtle forms of bias, discrimination, and inequity.
- Respond to bias, discrimination, and inequity in a thoughtful and equitable manner.
- Redress bias, discrimination, and inequity, not only by responding to interpersonal bias, but also by studying the ways in which bigger social change happens.
- Cultivate and sustain bias-free and discrimination-free communities, which requires an understanding that doing so is a basic responsibility for everyone in a civil society.
Click here for the full article... http://edchange.org/publications/Equity-Literacy-for-All.pdf
Critical self-reflection:
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE RESTORATIVE PRACTICES
We used the article shared in last month's CP&I newsletter as a learning anchor for the day: Fostering Identity Safety in School by Becki Cohn-Vargas.
And, the Symposium wouldn't be complete without gathering in community building circles together. Many participants got to experience a student led circle and all adult participants sat in role alike circles. In the picture below you can see the Assistant Principal, Counselor, and Coach/Specialist circle led by two Restorative Practices Associates.
WHAT WE'RE READING
This Book Is Anti-Racist
A Black Women's History of the United States
Authors: Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross
Mindful of Race
"Racism is a heart disease," writes Ruth King, "and it's curable." Exploring a crucial topic seldom addressed in meditation instruction, this revered teacher takes to her pen to shine a compassionate, provocative, and practical light into a deeply neglected and world-changing domain profoundly relevant to all of us.
With Mindful of Race, Ruth King offers:
Tend first to our suffering, listen to what it is trying to teach us, and direct its energies most effectively for change.
Past CP&I Newsletters
February 2020 https://www.smore.com/yvg51
January 2020 https://www.smore.com/3y6ex
December 2019 https://www.smore.com/5f2t9
November 2019 https://www.smore.com/n0x65
October 2019 https://www.smore.com/7te4p
September 2019 https://www.smore.com/7z9hk
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