Teachers, Race, and Homework

Before teachers attempt to carry on conversations about race, they need to work on themselves. What that entails varies from teacher to teacher.
Recently, a prominent educational innovator has recommended that the lingering and persistent achievement gap among Black, White, and Hispanic students can only be eliminated by having continuous conversations about race. His thinking? This will help teachers understand racial issues in the U.S. today and relate more effectively to students who are of a different race.
Obviously, any attempt to close the achievement gap among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. today must examine a host of factors, including race. While this idea has some merit, teachers need to do considerable homework before conversing with students even enters the picture. Namely, they need to focus more on stepping outside of their cultural and racial silos. Conversations with students or other educators will only take teachers so far. Online workshops on racial issues, readings and lectures, and staff development meetings, while helpful, are not sufficient.
Disney Inc. encourages its “imagineers” to get down on their hands and knees and imagine looking at the world through the eyes of a child. Teachers need to do something similar; engage in experiential learning designed to provide them with insight into the multiracial world in which we live. Teachers need to step outside of their skin, their language, their history, and their identity. Unlike day-to-day experiences, conversations on race typically allow us to remain in our comfort zone, and if we do venture “outside,” we know we can retreat at a moment’s notice.
Students are a work in progress, but so are teachers. When it comes to race, or any other dimension of diversity for that matter, teachers have work to do. And that work begins with their own personal growth. Not only can this “homework,” be uncomfortable, it also requires time, commitment, and a strong desire to grow.