Teaching for Equity and Justice: Supporting BIPOC Educators

How can we better support BIPOC educators?

This question was at the heart of Facing History’s BIPOC Educator Roundtable series, which culminated on April 10, 2024 when eight BIPOC middle and high school educators from across the US joined a group of BIPOC Facing History staff members for an intimate and honest conversation about their lived experiences as educators of color serving diverse school communities.    

Gathered in Washington, DC at Howard University—one of the oldest historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the United States—this meeting served as a dedicated and safe affinity space for equity-focused BIPOC teachers and administrators to celebrate successes, share challenges, and collectively brainstorm solutions for navigating the complex web of personally-experienced and entrenched societal issues that play out in their schools and classrooms everyday. 

Covering topics like micro- and macroaggressions from colleagues, structural inequities in their school communities, how to center student voice and identity, and what it can look like to see and show up for one another, this cohort of middle and high school educators built community over a year-long series of virtual discussions that led to a rich in-person gathering at the historically Black university. This series was a part of Facing History’s Teaching for Equity and Justice initiative, which offers guided learning opportunities for educators to explore experiences of unconscious bias and work towards mitigating the effects of historic and systemic racism on current educational practices and policies.

You can watch the full conversation here.

We caught up with Erica F. and Damien J.—educators from Chicago, IL and Cleveland, OH who joined us at the roundtable—to learn more about what this experience was like for them.

What has been a highlight of being a part of Facing History’s BIPOC educator roundtable series?

Damien: When you're around a group of people who you can see have the caring and consideration and thought of their young people, it just fills the room, it's like a spirit, a feeling that you have, so it made it extremely easy to talk because I'm with like-minded colleagues who understand. We talked about solidarity and liberation—topics that are critical, key, and extremely helpful. I’ll be able to bring a lot of things back to my school, just the inspiration, the idea of you're not alone. This can be difficult because a lot of times—some of us are in situations where when we leave this place, we’re alone again—but if we can think about the times we all had together, we can use that as tools to get us through.

Erica: This experience has been very affirming. I developed community with BIPOC educators that I don’t necessarily have in my current context. Getting to know them and just knowing that I'm not going through this by myself has been a highlight. And hearing about other perspectives and experiences that I haven’t experienced has deepened my sense of empathy towards other BIPOC educators. Also, my understanding of what BIPOC is has evolved since the beginning of this and I am so grateful for that.

Why do conversations like this matter to you as a BIPOC educator? 

Erica: Representation matters. The context that I work and live in, to know that those conditions exist in other places is affirming, that these white supremist structures are not just contained to one area and they're widespread. By not usually being connected to other BIPOC people, we don't know what's going on in other areas. So it was affirming that, you know just even being here in DC seeing somebody on the street sleeping homeless, you know I see that in Chicago, they see that in Ohio, they see that in LA, and so the same systems and structures that create those conditions in Chicago are well and alive here, and just having this greater sense of interconnectedness can move towards solutions, learning about resources, and other organizations that are in existence and that are doing this work that could possibly connect to or see how solutions to problems are being worked towards in other places and adopting some of those for home—it just opens up more resources and a wealth of knowledge.

What advice would you give to educators in this current political and social moment? 

Damien: Teach the truth. Don’t put your opinion in, because we as educators provide tools to young people. Give them the skills to be able to make their own decisions. Give them the skills for them to be able to critically think. Let them make their own decisions, and you can sit back and say to yourself, wow what a great job we’ve done.

Erica: I'm thinking about the erasure of African American history and certain states and laws, and my advice to both BIPOC and non-BIPOC educators would be to remain committed to lifelong learning.

We can never get complacent or get comfortable or to a place where we don't want to learn. I'm not sure who made this quote, but democracy has to be won with every generation. It wasn't secure with the civil rights movement—every generation has to fight for democracy. So, a tireless commitment to learning, wanting to learn about other people's experiences—there's a wealth of knowledge in that, so that history doesn't repeat itself. That is the biggest thing because if you stop learning, you are limiting yourself.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Erica: I learned about Facing History & Ourselves in 2017 and from the beginning they have been a high quality standard of professional learning, creating the space for teachers to build skills, connect with other teachers, and just [model] what high quality teaching and learning could look like because most of the curriculum that we've been exposed to causes harm—there is curriculum violence, curriculum erasure. With Facing History, I feel like it's a breath of fresh air that was challenging the way things have been done and creating wonderful opportunities like this. Every time I go to a Facing History & Ourselves professional learning session, I leave inspired, curious, full, and thinking about next steps, so thank you Facing History & Ourselves.