Cross-Cultural Dialogues… Where do we go from here?
or White Educators Talk about Race – Part Deux
In my last post, I discussed the ways White educators tend to handle cross-cultural dialogues. This is especially important now. In an effort to make our schools more emotionally and physically safe, many schools are encouraging teachers to talk about race with students.
Overall, this is a good thing. Nonetheless, some conversations further racial understanding, empathy and healing, while others actually reinforce harmful narratives.
How is you child’s school talking about race?
Using DiAngelo’s Framework to Talk about Race
If we use DiAngelo’s “discourse of violence” framework, we can make some basic predictions about the ways White (and White identifying) teachers lead conversations about race in racially-mixed classrooms. Analyzing the dynamics of power and privilege in our classrooms, and the role we play as educators, can inform the ways we structure and support cross-cultural dialogues about race.
[I’ve included an image of the abstract of her research. You can read the full research here.]
5 Tips for Educators in Guiding Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Race
Elevate Black/Brown voices
If we know we are more likely to favor comments made by White students (white solidarity), we can make a dedicated effort to elevate the voices of Black and Brown students. Come up with a strategy to manage talk time. Set and reinforce clear classroom rules to insure marginalized voices get more time. Also Cross-Cultural Dialogues... Where do we go from here? - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom: