Equity- Focused School Year Start- Up

 

Welcome to a new year educators!  Every new school year is a great time to start with equity-centred habits in our classroom practice.  Equity in the classroom, is a lot more than the types of lessons and materials we use; equity is a part of the entire school experience.  Just like how the social markers of our identities effect every part of our lives, they effect every part of our teaching and the learning experiences of our students.  

Creating an equitable classroom experience for students is difficult.  It can be overwhelming as a teacher, because there is so much to keep in mind when navigating all the potential harm we can inadvertently do to our students.  But.  It is important to remember that equity work is an exercise in harm-reduction.  Schooling as an institution is based on colonial practices and traditions, so, when working within that system, we can never make any classroom completely safe.  But that is not to say we can't make it better for the marginalized students we teach.  That's what the goal of entering equity in our practice is about.

I have written about potentially problematic practices in our classrooms in the past covering issues like being an anti-racist teacher; how to decolonize your classroom (bottom of the post); and navigating tough conversations on social issues.  Because I am always aiming to make my classroom even more inclusive, I have learned throughout this year and implemented into my own classroom. Here are few more practices to reconsider when setting up your classroom practice and procedures.  

Seating and Seating Plans

Consider flexible seating driven by student choice:  Flexible seating allows students to move and sit freely throughout the classroom.  It can look like tables instead of desks, or other types of comfortable seating in which students are not required to sit in the same seat. Having a choice in seating allows the students to feel empowered and will enable them to have some control over their environment. It also allows them to have a choice in where, how, and with whom they work with which in turn builds higher-order thinking skills.  More, student choice is key in promoting student personal safety.  Teachers may be unaware of conflicts or problematic relationships in the class, especially at the beginning of the year.  

Don't know where to start in incorporating flexible seating?  Here's a good blog post about it: https://www.differentiatedteaching.com/flexible-seating-for-beginners/ 

Supporting Gender Difference

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird (@rollforlearning on Twitter) has an extremely comprehensive thread on supporting LGBTQ2SI+ students in the classroom.  Among the vast information given, Shawna notes that its important to change our language before day 1- and you can start with some easy changes:

• pronouns: model using pronouns as a regular part of introducing oneself.  
• avoid bathroom passes marked "boy" or "girl" 
• I don't use bathroom passes at all.  Instead of have a small dry-erase board on the door that is the out of the room board.  Students sign their name on the board when they leave.  2 students are allowed out of the classroom (via sign out) at a time.  This also eliminates students having to ask to go to the bathroom- which for privacy's sake is good practice.
• avoid seating plans based on gender
• don't colour-code information for students based on gender. 
• Use terms that don't enforce an inaccurate gender binary.  Here's a list of  gender-neutral terms I may have used in class:

- Folks

- My people

- Students

- Everyone

- Pupils

- Friends

- Humans

- Mortals

- Populi (A little Latin flavour)

- Peeps

- Comrades

- Scholars

- Learners

Be aware of ablism in the classroom/ school

My school board sponsors a trip to see a Minor League hockey game each fall because LITERACY.  But this trip is not inclusive- there are a number of reasons why a students may not be able to attend, from physical reasons to auditory, and visual reasons, or in my case, neurological reasons.  Usually, my special needs students just stayed home, and I took a personal day when the trip happened.  This is ablism.  There was no alternative in place for students or staff who could not attend.  So at my school, we held a Maker day, and had a ceramic company come in and students made bowls, and we personalized water bottles at the school instead.  However, this was not the case for all schools.  Luckily for me, it wasn't a fight for my school to provide funding for these activities- but organizational funding wasn't available for other schools. 

The point of the above story is that accommodations need to be the rule, and not the exception for students.  There is no reason a student should not be accommodated in school.  That is not to say it is the teacher's sole job to make these accommodations happen.  Ask for help from administrators and services to ensure that student needs are met.  This advocacy has (unfortunately) become an important job for teachers as our education system becomes increasingly under resourced.  

Here are some great articles to read for more information on how ablism effects our students education:

How to fight Classroom Ablism, Planbook Blog

https://blog.planbook.com/classroom-ableism/ 

The Problem with Ablism, Canadian Teacher Magazine https://canadianteachermagazine.com/2022/09/26/11465/

Ablism in Public Schools, Study.com 

https://study.com/learn/lesson/ableism-public-schools-forms-examples.html

What are some practices that you have in your classroom to make your teaching/learning space equity-focused? Let me know in the comments!