Nataliya Braginsky is a high school teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, CT, where she teaches African American and Latinx History, Contemporary Law, and Journalism, and co-advises the school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and Youth Justice Panel. Nataliya is also a 2020 Fund for Teachers Fellow, member of New Haven Educators’ Collective, the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective, as well as a facilitator of culturally relevant pedagogy and restorative justice workshops. She believes that, as a white teacher working within an education system that has its origins in white supremacy and that continues to perpetuate racism, educators—especially white educators—must take an actively anti-racist stance and make a lifelong commitment to their development toward this goal. 

To that end, Nataliya designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to analyze Los Angeles archives, museums, and historic sites associated with the intersection of African American, Latinx, and Indigenous (AALI) histories to support a new state mandate to teach this subject in all high schools. The mandate was sparked by a growing movement led by youth of color who in 2019 successfully petitioned their legislators. While this legislation does not go into effect until 2022-2023, at Nataliya’s school they decided that this course was long overdue. Such a class is necessary in all schools, but is particularly significant in a school that is majority African American and Latinx.

Learn more about Nataliya’s work in curriculum development, culturally relevant pedagogy and restorative justice practices on her website.

photo courtesy of the New Haven Independent

In developing this course, Nataliya surveyed her students. A common request was for untold stories and histories, rather than what is typically taught in history courses. Understanding dominant-narratives while centering counter-narratives is central to the course Nataliya has developed. Another request from students was not to focus only on oppression. As one student expressed: “We barely know the good things, we need to shed light on how brave, strong, and powerful we really are. It’s important to understand our blessings, to have people to look up to who look like us.” While stories of resistance are an important part of the course, students also want to learn of African American and Latinx beauty, joy, and brilliance.

Nataliya is part of the fall 2020 Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship program on Arts, Journalism, and Justice. Read the unit she developed, “Writing Personal Narrative in a Political World” posted by the Pulitzer Center, including the publication of two students’ powerful personal narratives.

“In my search for an educational experience that could offer such narratives and resources, Los Angeles was consistently echoed as the epicenter of intersectional AALI history,” said Nataliya. “LA is particularly rich in lesser-known examples of these histories, and many that are not only rooted in resistance, but also in powerful creation. I found numerous historic sites, museums, and archives that showcase the very history my students are asking to learn. That a group of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people settled Los Angeles, for example, will be incredibly compelling to students.”

Los Angeles fulfills another of Nataliya’s needs as an educator, which is to collaborate. Connecticut is just beginning its collective work in teaching these critical histories, while LA has long led the struggle for intersectional ethnic studies in high schools. Learning from their experiences, sharing lessons and resources, and discussing the complexities of this content will support Nataliya as she continues to develop and improve her course.

Read Nataliya’s most recent article in the Washington Post: “The racist effects of school reopening during the pandemic — by a teacher” and “Not an ‘Achievement Gap’, A Racial Capitalist Chasm” for the Law & Political Equity Project.

Nataliya compiled destinations for her fellowship through talking with Los Angeles historians and educators, and through reading A People’s Guide to Los Angeles. After selecting relevant sites, Nataliya plotted them on this Google map in order to design a thoughtful itinerary.

Information and insights gained from these locations and those whom she meets will inform:

• Students’ creation of a pop-up Latinx museum at her school to accompany a pop-up Black history museum;
• Students’ presentation of final research papers at the school’s annual Social Justice Symposium; and,
• A more balanced and engaging curriculum with a more robust unit on the borderlands.

“Across AALI histories, students will have more stories to draw upon, not only of resistance to oppression, but also stories of creativity, joy, and success,” Nataliya said. “They will have more role models from whom to draw inspiration.”

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Nataliya earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, and an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is most proud of the incredible work accomplished by her students, including:

• A Walking Tour of New Haven’s African American , Indigenous and Latinx History
• Black Is King Compendium
• “The Great Force of History:” The January 6th Syllabus

With any free time, Nataliya leads workshops designed to support educators working toward anti-oppression and liberatory education and writes freelance articles such as this piece about her family’s survival of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the lessons it offers for surviving the pandemic.

(Title illustration by Israel Vargas for the Mother Jones article “Digging Into the Messy History of ‘Latinx’ Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity.”)

This fall, Fund for Teachers introduced a new Circles program bringing Fellows together around various topics. This effort coincided with teachers’ return to school in the midst of a pandemic, so we were uncertain about interest and participation level. What we discovered, however, is that our grant recipients remain life-long learners despite the circumstances and the result has been life-giving for them and inspiring for us.

Members of Fund for Teachers’ Equity and Justice Circle began their final meeting of the semester by watching a Ted Talk inspired by a Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Reading critically, writing consciously, speaking clearly and telling your truth, according to the speaker/teacher/poet Clint Smith, are the four core principles posted in his classroom. These same principles could summarize the first collaborative learning experience undertaken by eight FFT Fellows around a timely topic.

Last summer, Fund for Teachers selected from applications a cohort of ten Fellows to attend a three-day Teaching for Equity and Justice webinar presented by Facing History and Ourselves, an organization dedicated to fighting bigotry and hate with lessons from history. Then, after full days of teaching virtually, the educators returned to Zoom for dialogue about race and culture with the goal of crafting an action plan to impact their students and school community.

Read more about Fund for Teachers Circles here.

“I did a lot of work on social justice fifteen years ago and I thought, ‘I’ve done the work! Good job!” shared 2019 Fellow Tim Flannagan, teacher at Stonington Middle School in Mystic, CT. “But after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, I wanted something more tangible than reading books and discussing with all white peers. I knew Fund for Teachers would do this well, and the resources and reflections, check ins and follow ups have increased discourse and equipped us to take informed action.”

Tim recently launched the Family Anti-Racist Circle in which students and their caregivers (or a member of the staff) read, discuss and identify ways to remedy racism in their community. He secured funding from local foundations obtain 5 copies of 15 books from which students can choose. After the read, Tim will then lead the group in brainstorming and researching ways to address an issue of equity and justice to develop a plan that to implement in the spring.

“I’ve attended several Fund for Teachers events since my fellowship in 2018, and one of the first questions asked during these meetings is Where did you travel on your fellowship? It occurred to me that no one asked that question in the Equity and Justice Circle. It’s not that we’re not interested, it’s just that our work has a sense of urgency and every minute of our sessions is so purposefully planned so that we leave one step closer to accomplishing our goals. Thank you to Fund for Teachers and Facing History and Ourselves for connecting me with this professional learning community and empowering me to create a more equitable and just classroom and school.”

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In 2018, Tim used his Fund for Teachers grant to join a photography tour in Cuba with professional artist and documentarian Louis Alarcon to create learning that combines insights about the island nation with photography and digital literacy skills. In addition to his Fund for Teachers grant, Tim also completed a Fulbright fellowship in Vietnam and received additional grants to learn in Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Germany. Tim has also taught in Brazil and Bolivia. Read about his fellowship here and learn more about his practice on his website, The Alternate Route.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone document that proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Last summer, Jenn Nekolny and Christine Halblander (Jefferson Junior High School – Naperville, IL) used a Fund for Teachers grant to explore how physical and societal divisions in historical and contemporary Poland, Czechia, Austria and Germany impact human rights. They now supplement Social Studies and Language Arts curricula with their insight and experiences to enhance students’ knowledge around migration and refugee issues. In honor of all those striving for human rights, we share this reflection of “Team Mending Fences” and how their fellowship is impacting students’ awareness of humans’ rights. 

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Our fellowship allowed us to look at forced movement of targeted groups in Krakow and Warsaw and the ghettos and camps that swallowed once peaceful lives. Museums and cultural centers in former East and West Germany allowed us to trace the lives of individuals and families. We then met today’s refugees and NGOs who work with them in Vienna and Berlin. Finally, we stayed with Jenn’s host parents and explored how small towns are welcoming asylum seekers.

It was very important for us to share our Fund for Teachers experiences with our students and school community. We were able to speak genuinely about the places we visited. When we shared our interviews and work with asylees, NGOs and individuals who are helping refugees, we spoke of them like they are true friends. Our students felt included in our FFT experience from the beginning; this enabled us to encourage even the most reluctant readers to read Refugee and create an Open House event for our community. 

Our Open House was a great success! Each character/ time period/ journey of the novel Refugee, had a room with student-driven projects, maps, activities, and a food item that represented the culture. We were even able to expand the learning with a graphic novel, Illegal, and mini research boards that gave a refugee. migrant, or internally displaced person a personalized story.

As guests entered the main entrance of our school, they were greeted by one of our School Board members who explained the reason for our event and the passport. As guests visited each of the four themed rooms, they earned a stamp in their passport for trying an activity, sampling a food item, or participating in a learning experience. After visiting all four rooms, completed passports were entered into a drawing to win gift cards to a local bookshop. Parents and kids had a great time with a little friendly competition to see who could earn their stamps!

To add to our theme of learning about refugees, we collected school supplies to be donated to our local World Relief organization. Binders, backpacks, pencils, notebooks and folders were dropped off by families attending our event and will be given to newly- arrived school-aged children who need them.

Our entrance lobby was full of activity! This is where guests picked up and dropped off their passports, and also where our 8th grade students held a bake sale. Families donated baked goods and student volunteers were there to receive them, price them, and tell people about BikeyGees, an NGO that teaches refugee (and other women) how to ride bikes in order for them to have more freedom. BikeyGees is located in Berlin, Germany, and we were fortunate to work with them on our fellowship. We had a large poster explaining their mission, including photos taken while volunteering there. It was important for students (and families) to see where their donations of effort, time and money were going.

Our lobby was also the location for our one-of-a-kind bracelets. Each bracelet had a hand-stamped message (like HOPE or JOURNEY or our school mascot, PATRIOTS) and hand-tied strings. Students worked during lunch periods to create them and then asked for donations and talked with guests about the mission of BikeyGees and what is being done to assist refugees and asylees in other parts of the world. 

Things were a little quieter in our focus rooms. Students spent weeks reading, discussing and organizing their work based on a character in the novel Refugee. Here are some scenes from Josef’s room (Nazi Germany, 1939). A poster asked “What’s in the family’s suitcase?” and the packed items chosen by students were labeled with detailed notes about a party dress that Josef’s mother might have worn, a Torah that Josef needed for his Bar Mitzvah, a stuffed bear for Josef’s little sister, Ruth, and a shawl for covering heads and shoulders for religious activities. Students practiced research and writing as they worked together on this, then guided guests in Josef’s journey. Staying in the heart of Kazimierz and visiting Auschwitz- Birkenau allowed us to discuss some of the connected historical events. Next to the suitcase, visitors use Post-its to write something they would take if they suddenly had to leave home.

Mahmoud’s room (Syria, 2015) welcomed visitors with a summary of his story and the “official” flag of Syria and “rebel” flag of Syria. Students explained the symbols on a poster and students sewed the flags with fabric and felt, guided by our Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teacher. Here, students and one of our EL teachers get the room ready for guests. Students designed the room as if guests were following Mahmoud’s journey on land and sea. Chapter highlights explained where he went and why with maps, photographs, and research. The tension of his journey built as each station was reached by visitors. Students learned how to make hummus in their FACS classes and paired it with vegetables for guests to enjoy. Each plate is divided into fourths, with the name of each country written on one fourth of the plate. This helped us to cut down on waste and allowed guests to start in any room and travel “around the world” with their plates and passports.

We met several Syrian refugees on our fellowship–a car mechanic, a dentist, a student, a mother–all had such a love for their country and a desire to help others. We were able to show students that a country might have issues with politics and war, but the individuals each have a story that isn’t what’s portrayed on the news.

In Isabel’s room (Cuba, 1994), students wanted to mimic the sights, sounds and tastes of Cuba so guests would feel a little of the island on our cold February Open House night. There was a selfie station with a “wet foot/ dry foot” beach theme to represent Isabel’s goal of taking the boat to “El Norte” (the United States). Students used bright colors as a tablecloth for the pineapple and mango skewers dusted with Tajin fruit spice. They did a great job encouraging people to try the Tajin! Our population of families from Mexico and the Caribbean were happy to taste something familiar to their culture.

The entry to Isabel’s room included a game of chance (after all, that’s what we saw over and over in our fellowship) that directed guests to different experiences, including a station with QR codes that linked to videos that taught the rhythm of the clave. Our music teachers worked with students to create short videos at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and provided the clave percussion instruments to try. 

To enhance our learning, we added the graphic novel Illegal, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. Families were introduced to the story of Ebo, a Ghanian boy who leaves his village in search of his brother and sister, who had led before him. Ebo must travel by land and sea, across lonely deserts and through huge cities, always alone. The people he meets along his journey help to guide him as he learns about his own strength. We were able to connect the idea of the “helpers” in his fiction story with what we had learned from Mohammad, Bahar, Tarik and Mo, asylum seekers we had met in Vienna, Berlin, Puchenstuben, and Leipzig. As students read Ebo’s story in Language Arts, we were also talking about cocoa farming and labor practices in Social Studies. As we researched, students found that the Lindt chocolate company had made significant changes to their practices and their cocoa harvesting. Because of this, students chose Lindt chocolate as the snack to represent Ghana (and families were very happy to have this sweet treat at the end of their passport tours through the rooms!).

In addition to reading the novels, students had a unique opportunity to design a complete experience for our Open House guests. From designing the room layouts to determining who would greet guests, explain stops in the rooms, and take care of set up and clean up, students worked together to create something to be proud of! Originally, we had planned to work with 7th grade Language Arts and our EL teachers and students, but as our project was building, many other staff and students became part of the event. Our FACS teacher worked with students to design and sew the Syrian flags and to make the hummus, our band and chorus teachers volunteered to teach students the clave rhythm and how to use the percussion instruments, our library staff offered a selection of books that went along with our theme and 8th grade students provided book reviews to encourage others to read them, the families of our 8th graders made goodies to be sold at the bake sale, a School Board member volunteered to work with World Relief to collect school items and greet guests in the lobby, and countless others offered support to our students for our event.

In Social Studies, students selected a photo from #everydayrefugees and did further research on the reasons why that particular person or group would flee their country. They then added an enhanced caption and a map to show the refugee as an individual and not just a statistic. Students in our Dual Language Spanish classes practiced their reading and writing in the target language of Spanish with the same activity.                

The 8th grade students read connected fiction books and wrote reviews of them to encourage further reading. These were the students who helped with the idea of our fellowship last year as 7th graders; it was very special to have them as part of the Open House, too.

FFT granted us the opportunity to be students and explore the world in a unique way together. We asked a question and designed a plan to answer it. We wondered and through the journey learned about a global challenge and what other countries are doing to help. Our professional perspective changed because we are a team committed to creating a welcoming school community where we model and teach others to open our minds and hearts to the world and all it has to offer.

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Learn more about Jenn and Christine’s learning by reading their post-fellowship report here and accessing the Facebook page they made for students and families to follow.

Turning ideas into action is nothing new for Tracey-Ann Lafayette. As a student at the University of Connecticut, she founded Leaders in Diversity within the Neag School of Education after recognizing that students from underrepresented backgrounds lacked a support system. Upon earning her Masters in Education and beginning her career at Robert J. O’Brien STEM Academy in East Hartford, CT, she founded a statewide LID initiative for BIPOC teachers and even organized a virtual summit last summer called Melanin Magic for educators of color to to embrace and empower their identities in educational spaces. Student activism, however, was the focus of her Fund for Teachers fellowship. Specifically, Tracey-Ann and her colleague researched in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, the history of apartheid as influenced by Nelson Mandela to empower elementary students in social activism and restorative justice.

Read about Tracey-Ann’s learning in South Africa here.

“I continually shared with my students experiences and knowledge rooted in our fellowship – especially student activism while in South Africa,” said Tracey-Ann. “I think it’s important to teach my students to think critically and form their own opinions about the world so I try to give them information about a variety of topics that really make them think.”

And when they thought about Columbus Day, it didn’t make sense.

“They couldn’t understand why anyone would want to celebrate someone who caused so many issues and treated people so poorly so they wanted to speak up about that,” said Tracey-Ann. “We did talk about how even though they feel strongly about something that there are others who feel strongly on the opposite side of things, but they were determined to take action.”

Tracey-Ann felt it was important to support her students and show them that even as a third grader you can make a difference in the world. When the students decided to take their case to the school district, Tracey-Ann helped make it happen. The superintendent and assistant superintendent accepted the class’ invitation to dialogue about why they believed the school district should change the calendar to annually honor Indigenous People’s Day on October 12.

“My FFT fellowship was transformative for my teaching because it allowed me to engage in authentic learning experiences,” said Tracey-Ann. “Learning in South Africa about Apartheid made me curious about the local histories that are surrounding me that I haven’t considered. It also solidified the importance of teaching students about social justice and social comprehension, reminded me of the power that passionate individuals can have, and showed me the impact that children can have on their communities.”

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Tracey-Ann, who holds a Masters degree from the Neag College of Education at the University of Connecticut, is active on social media. You can follow her work on Instagram, Twitter and her blog, Learning with Lafayette. You can also learn more about why she teaches on this short video produced by UConn.

FFT Fellow Rebecca Zisook (Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies – Chicago) also facilitated learning around this topic with her elementary students. Read about their learning here.

 

 

The flatlands of Oakland — where most of my students live — have often been described as a war zone. Nearly every student of mine has lost at least one family member, classmate or friend to gun violence. My students face discrimination for their race, gender, country of origin, religion, immigration status, and usually a combination of these. I have students who are refugees and immigrants from Yemen and Iraq, Burma and Vietnam, Guatemala and El Salvador. Additionally, because of the pervasiveness of gun violence, racism, poverty, and grief in our city, experts estimate that 30 percent or more of Oakland children suffer from PTSD, my immigrant students are now in a state of heightened uncertainty and fear with deportations on the rise. What’s more, my students belong to a generation that is increasingly suffering from tech addiction.

It’s not hard to see why I designed my Fund for Teachers fellowship around the need for more mindfulness, social-emotional learning and focus-building activities in our school. My two-week fellowship at the Penland School of Craft mixed the arts, writing, and mindfulness with an innovative movement program in the peaceful Blue Ridge Mountains. My time spent there also allowed me to build my own practice of slowing down to live more fully and intentionally so that I can help my students do the same.

Why Penland and not a more standard mindfulness program that attracts many Fund for Teachers Fellows? Why not Thailand or Japan? I was more interested in going to Penland because it combines mindfulness with the arts and writing. I also believe we need to build bridges between rural America and urban America, between a red state and a blue state. Another benefit of this particular workshop is the way Penland embraces the word “craft.” This was clear when I read the school director explain why his institution changed its name from “Penland School of Handicrafts” to “Penland School of Craft” in a recent blog post.

[minti_blockquote]”The word craft,”he wrote, “suggests process, skill, commitment, and perfected attention.” The director added that those values are what the school promotes for the world. “They suggest an ideal, not something specific.” Penland’s values are the same I hope to instill in my students. My time at the rural artist community helps me do that.[/minti_blockquote]

My days were spent immersed in a clay workshop and evenings I participated in “movement” courses. I also conducted field research by talking to artists and other educators about the creative process, even those who are in different workshops than mine. Most of my action research, however, took place in Catherine White’s “Woodfiring & the Expressive Hand” course. In that intensive course, I made all types of pottery and discussed the creative process. It is here that I experienced one of my most profound lessons. “That badness becomes part of your goodness,” was a quote from my teacher that I inscribed in the foot of a bowl that I’d apparently “ruined.” Instead of throwing it out, I looked at the unintended grooves and found a way to accentuate them because they looked like the Penland mountains. I want my teaching to evolve like my learning. I want to be more daring with my lessons, turning them into something good — even better — if they fail to go as expected. I want students to also learn this way.

Now, with distance learning, the way that my FFT fellowship helped me with mindfulness is even more important. I am partnering with several teachers to provide mindful literature lessons to my students. Just this week, we did a nice lesson on embodiment. We did a full body scan to focus our awareness on our own body. We then wrote poetry based on Elizabeth Acevedo’s poem “Afro-Latina” in which we explored how she came to love parts of her body and identity that originally caused her shame and learned to love her mixed heritage. The partnership with the ceramics teacher is on hold due to distance learning! However, I am using ceramics in my own life to continue to center myself so that I can be more present with my students.

This fellowship allowed me to be a “newcomer,” which is what my most recently enrolled students are called in my English Language Development class. I was a newcomer in the ceramics studio and to a special vocabulary that wood firers share. All but one of my classmates had had years of experience with clay. My teaching is consequently transformed because I felt the need to create safe spaces for students to question and make mistakes in an environment similar to the one I experienced on my fellowship. Lucy Morgan, who founded Penland in the 1920s, said this about her school: “I’ve never known a place where one experiences such a feeling of liberation, of a taking for granted that mistakes are a normal part of the learning process; of tolerant acceptance of people as they are, yet faith in their desire and ability to grow.” We must build similar environments for all learners, especially English learners.

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This was Lisa’s third FFT fellowship. With her first grant in 2008, Lisa traveled to Japan to research its high schools, teenagers and media; in 2015, she studied multiculturalism in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga, where she explored with a journalist Sydney’s minority populations with multimedia storytelling. You can read more about that experience here.

Lisa Shafer is passionate about delivering an equitable education to all students and giving them the opportunity to voice their opinions through journalism, debate and public speaking. Armed with a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Lisa currently teaches English at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA. Prior to that, she taught journalism at Oakland’s Media Academy of Fremont High School and worked as a professional journalist at several newspapers, including the Toledo Blade, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Contra Costa Times. She started teaching in 2001. 

 

The national spotlight will focus on Tulsa this Saturday when President Trump hosts his first campaign rally since the outbreak of COVID-19. Originally scheduled for Juneteenth, the day celebrated by African Americans commemorating the end of slavery, organizers shifted the event to Saturday, when Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt hopes the President and Vice President Pence will tour with him Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the site of one of America’s worst race massacres.

Watch this 60 Minutes piece on the Massacre.

Ninety-one years later, Kyle Peaden designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship in which he explored the culture and history of South Africa to develop a curriculum that compares/contrasts Apartheid with Tulsa’s Race Massacre to cultivate a zero-tolerance view of racism at Tulsa’s Patrick Henry Elementary, six miles away from Greenwood District. We are grateful and proud to share his insights…

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In 2012, I wrote in my grant proposal:

I see history repeating itself. I see that my students do not know or comprehend of the hate and bigotry that violated our city in the early 20th century in what is regarded as one of the most destructive race riots in the 20th century. While my students may not be involved in the repulsive actions of racist groups of individuals in the past, I can see hints of the same distance from understanding. Students are letting bullying and anger fill the voids where communication, discussion, and understanding should be. I hope to bring about understanding of racism, hate, and intolerance by contrasting the history of South Africa to the history of our city. By visiting South Africa to show the history and recent developments in Apartheid and segregation I can bring students to look closer at their own local history. This quiet city holds scars and wounds from one of the largest race riots in America and it remains a difficult subject to face. These wounds are ignored, and the impact of the race riots still linger. By bringing students to my experiences in South Africa I believe they will be able to use an unbiased process of examination to the history of South Africa and eventually to our history.

Sometimes it is too difficult for a child to think that something so awful could have happened in their home town. A sense of favoritism holds strong in their heart that would leave them less willing to hear or realize what happened here not too long ago in their own backyard. It is my hope to go to South Africa to learn firsthand why one person can do terrible things to another and how the goodness in humanity can prevail. I hope to bring a community of students closer to understanding what did happen, what can happen, and what we can do to make sure none of that will happen here ever again. By looking at examples of strength, ignorance, and hope abroad in South Africa and right here in our own back yard these students will work through questions dealing with morality and morality that can help their own understanding of such subjects.

My exploration started at home in Tulsa. I wondered how a city could recognize and reconcile the immense tragedy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. This question took me on a journey over 8,700 miles away to South Africa. South Africa is a country that exemplifies the evils of racism and the hope that can bring a society from those dark times. I wanted to study the culture of South Africa, its art, food, and people, so that I could gather a greater understanding of what happened and how the country has adjusted from Apartheid.

My journey began near Johannesburg where I spent a week in Soweto, the largest and arguably most influential townships during the resistance against Apartheid. During my stay I met the most welcoming people during my whole stay in Africa. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to teach a lesson at a local art school as soon as I found one and my work with Emilia Potenza, the curator at the National Apartheid Museum, gave me a greater background understanding to the reasons and history behind Apartheid. Not far from this epicenter of struggle I visited the Cradle of Humankind where the fossilized remains of our direct ancestors are found. From Johannesburg I traveled through Kruger National Park driving amongst natures most raw surroundings to the Drakensberg Mountains. The Drakensberg site is home to thousands of Bushmen paintings throughout the mountain ranges. After hiking and documenting these ancient works of art I continued south toward the Cape of Good Hope.

In Cape Town I visited the many cultural and historical sites that represent so much of this diverse country. The blend and recognition of cultures reminded me so much of the country I grew up. I started to understand and recognize the steps towards reconciliation in South Africa and a small step to what might be needed at home. The art and history of this wonderful country helped me to see what steps my students and I can take to repair and resolve our troubled past. While my journey is a personal one, I know that the impact of my steps and my efforts will help students to further their own passage through the difficult topics of race, racism, hate, and hope. In my exploration our dark history nearly broke my heart, the people of South Africa filled it with joy, and my students carry it forward with hope.

I stayed in Tulsa teaching for another two years and my wife and I moved to Wisconsin. I ended up working with the Title I program at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction because I felt like much of what I learned is the systems and structures established during Apartheid had some of the deepest impacts on South Africa and the black community of Tulsa. I wanted to work on addressing those policies and by working at the state level I could work towards a more equitable education system.

My Fund for Teachers experience has helped to inform the decision making and policies in programs I work with. By acknowledging the impacts of multiple landscapes and their relationships with race I am more prepared for the injustices that our youth face. Wisconsin has some of the largest gaps for students of color and our state agency has made the work of closing those gaps one of our highest priorities. Personally, I work not only with Title I-A but in programs that support incarcerated students, students that are placed in foster care/out-of-home care, and I am a part of some of the equity work occurring in our agency. I’ve worked on teams that developed and train all staff in our agency on equity to build a foundational experience for our work. I think it is from the experiences in South Africa, learning from the Apartheid museum, the cradle of humanity, Soweto, and the people (most importantly the people!) that could tell their story that helped me build an understanding of how I can listen and work towards a more equitable education system for all our students.

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Kyle recommends the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation as a starting point for those wanting to know more about the Tulsa Race Massacre. He also encourages us all to reframe language you might here this week referring to the event as the Tulsa Race Riots. “I’ve learned since my fellowship that the word riot incorrectly places blame on Tulsa’s Black community, which acted in response to an unlawful arrest and subsequent rounding up of 6-8,000 Black Tulsans – many for up to eight days,” he said.

 

Fund for Teachers is working to compile a trove of resources on Education Equity from diverse sources for the collective learning of our Fellows and everyone in our community. Check back often for updates. Have a resource you’d like to share? Email liza@fundforteachers.org.

• Teaching Anti-Racist, Anti-Bias Themes in a Racial Pandemic: Fund for Teachers Fellow and Teaching Tolerance advisory board member Jamilah Pitts suggests that when teachers choose to remain silent about moments of racial tension or violence—violence that may well touch students’ own communities or families—these children are overtly reminded of their inferior place in society. Engaging in dialogue about mass incarceration rates; the militarism of police and the killing of innocent black men and women is but one antidote to systemic racism.  Apple podcast | Spotify
• Scaffolded anti-racism resources: We love how this document is organized by the stages of identity development in relation to race. It is an amazing collection of resources to facilitate white persons’ growth.
• Teaching for Black Lives:  A collection of materials and resources highlighting the ways educators can make their classrooms and schools places of resistance to white supremacy and anti-Blackness, as well as sites for knowing the hope and beauty in Blackness.

On Monday, we shared the work of an FFT Fellow to educate his Tulsa students about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre for the first time. Today, as Pride Month begins, we elevate another lesser-known, yet seminal event in our nation’s quest for social justice — this time for the LGBTQ+ community.

On June 27-28, 1969, New York City police raided Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar known for its gay, lesbian and transgender patrons. The BBC story “Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives” proposed that Stonewall was to the gay rights movement what Rosa Parks was for the civil rights one. “And just as Ms Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama to a white man had the effect of animating the civil rights movement 14 years before,” wrote author author Tom Geoghegan, “so Stonewall electrified the push for gay equality.”

For more information, watch this “Stonewall Uprising” episode of PBS’ American Experience.

Use these Learning for Justice resources on this topic in your classroom.

Five miles south of Stonewall Inn sits Eleanor Roosevelt High School, with the mission of “challenging students to act with courage, integrity and leadership [while] preparing them to embrace the moral, social, and intellectual challenges to come.” Leading this work is Tony Cacioppo, humanities teacher and faculty advisor for the Gender & Sexuality Alliance.

In 2015, Tony was named the Live Out Loud Educator of the Year for ensuring his LGBTQ+ students receive the highest quality education and feel supported emotionally and socially throughout the process. To support this work, he designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to explore how London schools give voice to the LGBTQ community in their curriculum and to strengthen representation and support of LGBTQ students and their allies.

“Statistics show that when compared to heterosexual students, queer students all across the country miss more days of school, experience higher levels of depression and other mental health issues, and are much more likely to drop out of school,” wrote Tony in his grant proposal. “I want my school to do more to fight this trend.”

Tony’s guiding questions throughout his month-long tour of the United Kingdom included:

1. How do we ensure that all students—queer or not—truly understand the history and current lives of LGBTQ people?
2. How do we eliminate bias, even when it’s unintentional, from the school community?
3. How do we include LGBTQ achievements, concerns, and topics in the curriculum of all courses in a way that feels authentic and purposeful? And,
4. How do we ensure that queer students are not singled out and or marginalized in any aspect of school life, including in classes, sports teams, extracurricular activities, school dances and field trips?

His exemplars were individuals and organizations at the forefront of the effort to expand the inclusion of LGBTQ voices and issues in schools through the 2017 Children and Social Work Act in England, which requires all schools to teach sex and relationship education (SRE) from the age of 11 on, with plans in place to begin this fall. Tony’s itinerary included:

Gay Pride Flag, National Museum of Dublin

• An interview with a former SRE educator/current staff member at Stonewall (a London advocacy helping to make schools more LGBTQ inclusive) that led to introductions at Stonewall’s School Champions network, where staff have been trained on best practices for LGBTQ inclusion.
• Meeting with Peter Tatchell, a longtime human rights activist and founder of The Peter Tatchell Foundation that turned into a strategy session on implementing his recommendations for inclusion of marginalized students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.
• Workshops through Bish Training, a group that specializes in providing SRE training for schools, and Brook, an organization dedicated to ensuring the sexual health and well being of young people, which yielded best practices to better support the development of healthy sexual identity in adolescents and teenagers. And,
• Discussions with Dr. Polly Haste, the Head of training and Practice for the Sex Education Forum, focusing on ensuring that LGBTQ content is embedded into curriculum rather than discussed for one day so that the school can say it has “covered” the topic.

“One unexpected result was being told by several of the professionals that I spoke to that when it comes to addressing the mental and physical health needs of young people, doing certain things badly is worse than not doing them at all,” said Tony. “We must be extremely careful and thoughtful when talking to students about healthy relationships, sexuality and gender, drug use and eating disorders, etc. We don’t want to do more damage to an already fragile student who is in need of support.”

Tony’s long-range plans include incorporating more LGBTQ+ literature into his 11th and 12th grade English classes.
The culmination of the school year, pre-COVID, was to be a unit specifically on the Stonewall Riots, which he provides here.

“This fellowship helped me to see that there is amazing work going on all over the world if you take the time and have the opportunity to go exploring,” said Tony. “The people that I met and learned from were not just other classroom teachers; they were activists and advocates who care about the same things I do–namely the well-being of young people–and have chosen another path for helping to achieve a similar goal. This showed me the power of educators forming partnerships with anyone who is willing to help.”

“As teachers we get extremely focused on what is going on directly in front of us and with the things that we need to do by the end of the day, week, semester, or year,” he continued. “This project gave me to the opportunity to step out of my own small world and see the big picture. I now recognize that lesson plans and grades have their place, but that teaching can truly be powerful and transformative when it supports who students are and helps them become the people that they are meant to be.”

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Listen to Tony’s acceptance speech at the Live Out Loud Educator of the Year Award Ceremony.