Because you can't improve schools without talking.
With permission of “Educator X,” I’m sharing what we both think is a pretty decent engagement between two people with very different perspectives on book banning.
What do you think of this exchange? What are its pros and cons? What would you have said, that I failed to say? I’ve enabled comments for now. Please respond as if Educator X is listening.
-Mica Pollock, #Schooltalking (feedback welcome to micapollock@ucsd.edu)
Authors: Mica Pollock and John Rogers
with Alexander Kwako, Andrew Matschiner, Reed Kendall, Cicely Bingener, Erika Reece, Benjamin Kennedy, and Jaleel Howard
January 2022
The Conflict Campaign: Exploring Local Experiences of the Campaign to Ban “Critical Race Theory” in Public K–12 Education in the U.S., 2020–2021 by Mica Pollock and John Rogers with Alexander Kwako, Andrew Matschiner, Reed Kendall, Cicely Bingener, Erika Reece, Benjamin Kennedy, and Jaleel Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By Mica Pollock & Mariko Yoshisato
Background/Context: This paper launches public analysis of #USvsHate (‘us versus hate’), a collective initiative to invite ‘anti-hate’ lessons and youth-made public messaging in U.S. schools. Building on multiple research traditions, the Authors designed and piloted #USvsHate regionally, then nationally, starting in 2017.
Full article can be found here.
By Mica Pollock & Mariko Yoshisato
Background/Context: This article explores how the classic U.S. educator effort to stay politically “nonpartisan” when teaching became particularly complicated in an era of spiking K–12 harassment, when government officials openly targeted and denigrated populations on the basis of race, national origin, gender, sexuality, and religion. We share research on a pilot (2017–2019) of #USvsHate, an “anti-hate” initiative we designed and studied with K–12 educators and students in the politically mixed region of San Diego, California.
Link here.
I wrote this OpEd featured on edweek.org. My goal was to support collaborative antiracist effort by clarifying how “antiracism is not some zero-sum game of ‘us’ vs. ‘them.’ It’s a collective investment in the human
‘us.'”
“Anti-racism is about leveling the playing field of opportunity, dismantling opportunity barriers, benefiting
from the rich diversity of all communities, and treating all people humanely.”
Link to original article: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-no-it-isnt-racist-to-teach-anti-racism/2021/05
View article PDF here.
I was lucky enough to join a great group of educators featured in a Center for Anti Racist Education’s (CARE) web series episode on sustaining antiracist practice.
Visit their website: https://antiracistfuture.org/.
I appreciated the chance to offer this 1-hr webinar for the Swift Education Center, introducing Schooltalk for educators. The series overall was designed to “help build confidence and competency around equity-forward professional practices.”
Slides available here.
In October 2020, I spoke with colleagues at the Berkeley Graduate School of Education about three “onramps” to K12 antiracism I have designed and helped design: Everyday Antiracism (edited, 2008), Schooltalk (2017), and #USvsHate (2017+). Check it out!
Presentation slides here.
In March 2021, I spoke with principal Candace Hunstad, school instructional coach Brigid Dux, ESOL teacher/school equity lead Samantha Gauta (all of Fairhill Elementary), and district coordinator of professional learning/cultural responsiveness Junena Thomas — all educators from Fairfax County, Virginia — about their use of Schooltalk for sustained antiracist equity work at the school level. It was a really exciting discussion about how to go beyond initial use of books to long-term use of texts for change. Sharing here to support others in similarly sustained efforts!
Session guide here.
An article I wrote to support educators to navigate hateful speech in schools; it was featured in ASCD’s November 2020 newsletter, Education Update (Volume 62, Number 11).
Read here.
Read the whole issue here.
