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Important Terms

Why Teaching for Equity Matters

Leaders

Workshops

Videos

Books for Educators

Podcasts

Ideas for Action

Important Terms

• Equity: equity is fairness. To achieve equity, more resources may need to be devoted to those who do not have access to them than to those who already do. (Dr. Gordon Nagayma Hall)
• Equity literacy: a comprehensive approach for creating and sustaining equitable schools. The foundations of equity literacy are (1) a commitment to deepening individual and institutional understandings of how equity and inequity operate in organizations and societies, and (2) the individual and institutional knowledge, skills, and will to vigilantly identify inequities, eliminate inequities, and actively cultivating equity. (Paul Gorksi / Equity Literacy Institute)
• Culturally responsive teaching: pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. (Gloria Ladson-Billings) or, alternatively: pedagogy that builds the learning capacity of the individual student. (Zaretta Hammond)
• Culturally sustaining pedagogy: teaching and learning that seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling and as a needed response to demographic and social change. CSP takes dynamic cultural and linguistic dexterity as a necessary good, and sees the outcome of learning as additive, rather than subtractive, as remaining whole rather than framed as broken, as critically enriching strengths rather than replacing deficits. (Dr. Django Paris)
• Abolitionist teaching: tries to restore humanity for kids in schools. Abolitionist teachers are willing to put their reputation, home, and lives on the line for other people’s children. Abolitionist teachers work to eliminate (abolish) systems of oppression inside and outside of their school environments. (Dr. Bettina Love)
• Social justice: full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. A vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members of a space, community, or institution, or society are physically and psychologically safe and secure. (Maurianne Adams and Lee Anne Bell)

Why Teaching for Equity and Social Justice Matters

Chances are since you’ve ended up here, you don’t need much convincing. But, just in case, here are some statistics that reinforce why teaching for equity and social justice matters (all statistics provided by the National Center for Education Statistics unless otherwise noted):

• In 2018, 18% of children under the age of 18 were in families living in poverty. Low-income students are five times more likely to drop out of high school than those who are high-income and 13 times less likely to graduate from high school on time.
• In fall 2017, the percentages of students who attended “high poverty” public schools were highest for Black and Hispanic students (45% each), followed by American Indian/Alaska Native students (41%). The percentage of students who attended high-poverty public schools was lowest for White students (8%).
• Black students who were matched with a Black teacher in kindergarten were as much as 18% more likely than their peers to enroll in college. (U.S. News and World Report) In school year 2017-18, 15% of students in public school were Black, but only 7% of teachers were Black.
• Dropout rates remain highest for Native/indigenous students, with almost 1 in 10 dropping out before graduation.
• During school year 2017-18, 16% of students served under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) dropped out before graduating, and another 10% received an alternative certificate instead of a high school diploma.
• 75% of transgender youth feel unsafe at school, and those who are able to persevere had significantly lower GPAs, were more likely to miss school out of concern for their safety, and were less likely to plan on continuing their education. (GLSEN)
• In 2018, school districts serving the largest populations of Black, Latinx, or Native students receive roughly $1,800, or 13%, less per student in state and local funding than those serving the fewest students of color. For a school district with 5,000 students, a gap of $1,800 per student means a shortage of $9 million per year. (The Education Trust)
• 87% of state history standards include no mention of Native American history after 1900, and 27 states don’t mention Native Americans in their K-12 curriculum. (National Congress of American Indians)

Education Leaders Who Inspire Us

Here’s a list of folks who are leading the conversation on teaching for equity and social justice today, whether on the local or national level. They inspire and inform our work. Follow them on social media, or seek out opportunities to hear them speak to dig deeper on these issues.

YCD Workshops on Teaching for Equity and Social Justice

YCD has a curated library of over 60 workshop guides on every aspect of inclusion and justice work for middle and high school youth to explore in their own youth-led club or group — with new workshops being published every month. These guides can also be used by educators as part of their in-school curriculum, where interested.

Additionally, YCD offers educator professional development at YCD conferences/events; past topics include:

Culturally Responsive Teaching 101

Are you unsure how to apply culturally responsive teaching methods to your lessons, or why it’s even important? Join Dr. Maria Salazar as she uses her experiences as a student, educator and now professor to demonstrate the value of culturally responsive teaching. Dr. Salazar will also provide several examples of culturally relevant lesson plans from a variety of content areas—math, social studies, foreign language and more—to inspire you.

Restorative Justice: Closing the Equity Gap

We will practice a community building circle, and discuss the unique and dynamic ways circles are used in schools to change climate and culture. You will then do a brief activity that demonstrates the influence of perspective. You will learn how restorative practices eliminate the power differential between people, which creates equity in conflict and discipline situations. The training is interactive, relevant, and fun.

Teaching Controversial Topics in the Classroom

This workshop provides strategies you can use to bring controversial subjects in your classroom while ensuring they are presented in an even-handed manner that will resonate with students, parents and administrators regardless of their political beliefs.

We Hold These Truths: How Diverse and Inclusive is Your US History Curriculum?

This workshop, led by a history teachers and students, will help high school students stretch their learning beyond the textbook to make sense of our past and present. We will analyze our own history class experiences and then identify and develop plans for learning and teaching a more inclusive US History curriculum.

Videos Addressing Educational Equity and Social Justice

Stay up to date for future student-generated videos on this topic and more by subscribing to YCD’s YouTube channel.

Equity and Social Justice Books for Educators

This list is for teachers, educators and adults looking for guidance on advancing equity and social justice within the classroom or school system. You can find free e-books or your local library using OverDrive.com.

Podcasts on Teaching for Equity and Social Justice

Here is a list of recommended podcasts you can download and follow to explore educational equity and social justice work in more detail.

Ideas for Local Action to Advance Equity and Social Justice in Your Classroom and School

1. Learn about culturally responsive teaching as well as culturally sustaining pedagogy, and enact change in your pedagogy. Start with The Dreamkeepers by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, the mother of culturally responsive pedagogy theory. Add to this Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World, edited by Djanjo Paris. Look for an upcoming training session from Zaretta Hammond to dig deeper, and join the Facebook group Ready4Rigor. Most importantly, use these tools and training to deeply reflect on your pedagogy and curriculum, and work diligently to make the needed changes. Look critically at the performance of your students across racial backgrounds, without casting judgment. If students of color are not achieving and succeeding in your classroom, what needs to change in your approach?
2. Engage your colleagues in a social justice book club, to have a community-wide approach to improving and striving for equity and social justice in your building. Read and learn from educator Hayley Breden on her experience starting a social justice study group for teachers. Ensure there is dialogue, engagement, action, and accountability throughout the process. We have several recommended books below on this page, if you need a place to start.
3. Work to include and engage parents and caregivers from all backgrounds in their children’s education. Does your school provide school communications is more than one language? Is on-site childcare provided when parents are invited to the school building? How accessible is your building for the disabled or for those who use public transportation? What times are you expecting parents to show up, and how does this impact parents or guardians who work non-traditional hours? Some of these considerations cost money to address properly, yes, but grant funds from community foundations or other organizations may be available to close any funding gaps. Start by surveying and asking parents and caregivers what they need through a variety of channels, conduct the research, uncover the barriers to parent participation and communication, and work with your administration for full inclusion. Learning for Justice provides a deeper dive into how to approach family engagement for anti-bias education.
4. Technology is becoming an increasingly necessary component to education (especially during a pandemic), yet almost 12% of students nationally do not have home internet access or computers. (National Center for Education Statistics) What support is your school providing to students who need technology assistance, and how is this being executed practically? Ensure technology does not contribute to inequity in your classroom and building. If you are finding inequity — don’t accept it, work with administration on a plan to address it.
5. Join the #ClearTheAir Twitter community, which hosts chats most Wednesdays at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT. This community is a group of educators who believe (a) community, learning and dialogue are essential to our personal and professional development; (b) we have the power and responsibility to lay the foundations necessary to create a more just and equitable society; and (c) education is a vehicle for social change. The initiative was founded by Val Brown, an anti-bias professional development facilitator. And if you’re not already on Twitter — join! There is a wide community of educators there to connect with and learn from.
6. English / Language Arts teachers and curriculum designers: look into the #DisruptTexts movement, a crowdsourced, grassroots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum that students deserve. This group also engages in a Twitter chat, though not in real-time, so educators can post throughout a given week. New prompts are posted each Monday morning at 8am ET. Learn more about how to participate here.
7. Does your school use study hall, suspensions and expulsions to handle conflict? Look into restorative justice as an alternative model for discipline that is grounded in community, mediation, and student leadership. Learn more about restorative justice, as well as the “pushout” of Black girls from the education system, in this TED talk from Dr. Monique Morris. Attend training sessions from experts in the field (we can recommend some) and engage your administration in a conversation on changing the way discipline is handled in the building. Note enacting this kind of change takes buy-in from everyone to work, and it also takes significant time and guidance from those who have done it before. Use your voice to persuade others to re-imagine what a just discipline system looks like in your building.
8. Support students looking for a faculty advisor to sponsor their clubs and extracurricular activities, especially if they want to start an anti-oppression or social justice club. Don’t underestimate the power of lending your time and support to students looking to make positive change within your school. YCD provides a free guide to help you and student leaders get a new club started, as well as a guide for existing clubs to grow and thrive.
9. Purchase a copy of Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Educators. This guide is designed to help educators translate their vision of a just education into concrete activities, and can be a valuable resource throughout the year.

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