To effectively address racist incidents, teachers must be prepared. This includes knowing what actions to take beforehand, understanding the various ways they can respond, and considering the key factors involved in facilitating a constructive conversation.
First, get prepared.
Foster relationship development with your students. Throughout the semester, create opportunities for students to engage with you and each other. This can be through one-on-one or group meetings with students, doing check-ins during class time to assess their wellbeing, facilitating meaningful collaborative activities, or incorporating light-hearted humor into class interactions — basically, just be approachable.
Encourage personal reflection and sharing. Allow students to relate course content to their own experiences and share these reflections with the class, when appropriate. Make sure students know in advance if sharing will be expected so they can make informed decisions about their participation.
If the curriculum does not inherently facilitate conversations about pressing social issues, contemplate exploring injustices or inequalities present in the historical or contemporary context of your discipline. This approach can equip students to engage in sensitive discussions.
At the beginning, collaborate with students to establish ground rules for engaging in discussions that involve emotions and heavy topics. These rules can be revisited throughout the semester as needed and referenced during sensitive conversations. Recognizing the potential for bias, both in yourself and in your students, can also demonstrate the self-awareness and openness that are often essential in discussions of a sensitive nature.
Inform students about resources.
Make certain that students are informed about the procedures for reporting hate crimes or incidents related to bias, along with other support services offered on campus. Incorporate this information into your syllabus and make sure everyone is made aware of it.
When a student or students do encounter racism, they should know what the responses to reporting it might be. You, as a teacher, have a number of options for responding to these incidents (not all of them will apply or be available in all situations, however).
How teachers can respond:
- Compose an email to students that acknowledges and denounces the recent incidents, highlighting their potential impact on students' experiences.
- Allocate time at the beginning of class to convey your empathy, concern, and dedication to supporting students.
- Allow students some private time to contemplate their experiences and think about actions they can take to create a more inclusive environment for students of color.
- Encourage students to attend office hours if they wish to discuss the incident or its effects on their learning, and/or make sure they know how to access a school counselor or other professional.
- Provide an optional discussion session for those who wish to engage in dialogue about the event with you and their classmates.
- Lead a conversation with all students to share their reflections.
- Utilize course material to assist students in understanding and addressing the situation more effectively.
- Disseminate information regarding campus resources that are available to support students during this challenging period.
Talk about race.
How to facilitate a conversation about race with students:
- Consider what aspects of the event resonate with you, and determine what insights you wish to convey to your students. Reflect on any biases you may hold that could influence your response.
- Define your objectives clearly. Being open with students about your motivations for bringing up the topic helps to establish the parameters of the conversation and define your role as an educator.
- Articulate your commitments explicitly; express your dedication to fostering a campus atmosphere that is safe and inclusive for students of color.
- Prepare for potential heated discussions. Anticipate scenarios where a conversation may escalate and result in defensiveness from some students. Familiarize yourself with strategies for de-escalation, and addressing microaggressions.
- Embrace the possibility of discomfort. Discussions about race are going to get uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid to talk about your own limitations and biases, too.
- Express appreciation, thanking students for sharing their thoughts candidly and with vulnerability, and just for being present with one another and engaging in conversations about racism.
- Work with students to figure out what comes next. Following the discussion, students might feel overwhelmed or disheartened. Spend time exploring potential steps they can take to promote racial justice and support themselves and their classmates. The goal is to end the conversation with a sense of empowerment rather than a feeling of resignation.
Keep in mind that the most important thing you can do as a teacher is help make your classroom (and the school) a place where all students can safely learn. Sometimes we have to talk about inequity in order to make things better.
Anyla McDonald aspires to become a poet, short story writer, and essayist speaking about racism against Black people, current world problems, and hot topics. When she writes, she does it with purpose and passion. She feels destined to touch others with her words, and wants to be known as someone who takes a stand and impacts lives with her writing.
Anyla offers consulting services to Black student unions, student governments, school boards, superintendents, parents, and teachers facing social challenges within their institutions. She assists them in developing and implementing policies and activities aimed at preventing discrimination.
Anyla is a columnist for Tumbleweird and an intern at Taylored Living Magazine.
