Fanning the Flames

The subtitle in this article in this month's issue of Educational Leadership reads: "Small groups of committed teachers can drive change." This came just at the right time for me this year. A central part of my coaching/mentoring work is a focus on mentoring early-career teachers around teaching practices that promote equitable classrooms, so this year, I'm also leading a book study with Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. I am, by no means, the equity guru, and I'm on my own journey to understand how privilege, power, structural racialization, implicit bias, etc. manifest in education and shape our students' experiences. But over the past six and a half years, I have noticed small shifts in my little corner of the education system.

Eastern Washington state is rural, Republican, and geographically isolated. But, the demographics are also changing dramatically with an influx of latinx people and other people of color and higher poverty rates across the board.

Five years ago, I worked for a different district in this region and suggested that it might be a good idea to bring in a speaker to explore issues of bias or dip our toes into thinking about culturally responsive practices, or maybe to host a small group of teachers to open the dialogue. I was told by leadership there that this isn't an issue where we live. I knew that wasn't the case, and began seeking out professional learning and professional books myself. Books like Waking Up White, Courageous Conversations, Teaching with Poverty in Mind, and more began filling my bookshelf.

Since then, new leaders have brought this region forward. They did, a year later, host a series of wonderful speakers to help teachers take a hard look at classroom practice and inside ourselves. I joined the state's Mentor Faculty and get to read, learn, and explore alongside some of most inspiring educators around. I got to help facilitate courageous conversations with Robin D'Angelo last year. And, along the way, I discovered I wasn't the only one reading and working with these ideas on my own.

Fast forward to this school year. Teachers kept wanting to have conversations around equity, and it seemed like I was their only outlet. They didn't want another title; they wanted a space. A space to talk with colleagues openly and build a shared language. At the same moment, an English Learning Specialist in my district read one of my program newsletters (which I was convinced no one looked at) and ended up contacting me. We immediately hit it off and hatched a plan to realize our idea for the book study, which would function as the space for dialogue.

As exciting as it has been to begin to see little changes here and there, it's human nature to get impatient, to get frustrated and disillusioned at the pace of change. But seeing this article this afternoon reminded me that our small group of 23 teachers is a spark, and it's not the only one. Soon enough they'll catch.