A Culturally Responsive Curriculum Examining our teaching and learning through equity Increasing our community’s cultural, racial, and socio-economic diversity can only be fully realized in two ways: by clearly communicating the power of our teaching and learning to attract families and staff of diverse backgrounds, and by making institutional commitments to ensure that we are providing a truly inclusive environment for them. Creating this kind of community requires an examination of practices and policies through many lenses: our culture and environment, the way in which we measure success, and the content and methods of instruction. It also requires providing staff with the support to identify and help overcome their own biases. We recently had the opportunity to engage as a staff in shared reflection and action on these issues through a self-study of three key areas: curricular progression; cultural responsiveness; and expression of our Quaker values. For this process, teachers first documented the knowledge, understanding, and demonstration of ideas and facts each student was expected to acquire, for each class. This enabled them to come
together to examine where variation in student expectations may occur, both from classroom to classroom and in transitions into our Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools. Establishing commonly understood standards in this way is a key method to insure that students are receiving an equitable education. Being able to establish clear progressions of skills and understandings in developmental stages can also help them identify ways to challenge themselves and provide clarity around access to different academic choices. Our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Naa Norley Adom, led the staff in exercises to examine our own identities and biases and how those affect their teaching and interactions with community members. Teachers also met in small groups to share examples of intentional inclusion of diverse perspectives in the curriculum and culturally responsive tactics. Together they examined places where cultural, racial, or religious identities may not be affirmed. This could be due to lack of representation, or due to presentations that focus exclusively on the struggles of marginalized identities.
The National Association of Independent Schools’ annual People of Color Conference is an important event in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion conversations at schools across the country. In recent years, we’ve increased our staff representation across units as well as the number of students able to participate. Some of our staff have also led sessions for other educators and administrators. 8
We & Thee | Winter 2020
