Resources for Teachers on Equality, Diversity, and Civil Rights

published June 30, 2020

photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash

by Catharine Hannay, founder of MindfulTeachers.org


Here are a variety of resources you may find useful for professional development and in teaching different ages of students (from young children to university and adult education) about equality, diversity, and civil rights.


First, Here's My Personal List

These are the resources that I've found most useful in challenging my assumptions and helping me see from different perspectives. Some of them are written for teens, which is helpful to me as a middle-aged White American woman trying to better understand youth of color.

• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi: a novel-in-stories that shows, in alternating chapters, what happens to eight generations of the same family, in Ghana and America.

• Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds: a novel in short chapters of powerful narrative verse, about a fifteen-year-old boy's decision whether to murder the guy who killed his brother.

• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia: fantasy/magic realism/adventure story featuring a 12-year-old boy who's mourning the death of his best friend. He gets involved with traditional African gods and black American folk heroes. The story is quite moving, with occasional flashes of laugh-out-loud humor, especially from the irrepressible Gum Baby.

• True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman: a novelist shares his own experiences as a volunteer teacher of teen inmates (who are predominantly youth of color), as well as the young men's own voices about their experiences before and during their incarceration.

• With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo: a novel about a black Puerto Rican teen mother in Philadelphia who's a gifted cook, loyal friend, and devoted granddaughter. Emoni juggles responsibilities as a parent and student while navigating complex relationships with the father of her baby, her own absentee father, and a sweet boy who may become her friend or something more.

• More Than a Month, documentary by Shukree Hassan Tilghman: "a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, sets out on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month... Through this thoughtful and humorous journey, he explores what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America."

Preview and clips available at PBS.org.more information, including an educator guide, available at Independent Lens/ITVS.

• The Danger of a Single Story: TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: "Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories... if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Resources for Professional Development

Here are some useful resources for personal reading and reflection, and potentially for use in teacher training or professional development workshops.

• Are Your Diversity Strategies Missing the Mark? 9 Ways to Get It Right Hedreich Nichols at Cult of Pedagogy

• A Call to Action: White allies should speak out on behalf of unheard black people and communities: by Jourdan Hilaire at Inside Higher Ed

• A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be Anti-Racist by Larissa Wright-Elson at PBS Teachers Lounge

• Common Beliefs Survey: Teaching Racially and Ethnically Diverse Students from Greater Good in Education

• Ending Curriculum Violence, by Stephanie P. Jones at Teaching Tolerance: "misguided efforts to teach Black and Brown history can be traumatic for students."

• The Traumatic Impact of Racism and Discrimination on Young People and How to Talk About It, from the American Academy of Pediatrics (chapter from Reaching Teens, 2nd edition)

• What Anti-Racist Teachers Do Differently by Pirette McKamey at The Atlantic

• What White Colleagues Need to Understand, by Clarice Brazas and Charlie McGeehan at Teaching Tolerance: "Educators of color report that they’re expected to take on a disproportionate share of work supporting students and teaching about race and racism. This work, they say, is often made more difficult by the indifference—and sometimes resistance—of white colleagues."

Resources for Teaching About Racism and Social Justice

I got some great suggestions from other teachers on the Mindful Teachers Facebook page.

• Teaching Tolerance was mentioned a few times. This is an excellent source for both classroom and professional development resources. (I've used this site both in teaching and in increasing my own knowledge of issues related to race & ethnicity, religion, ability, gender & sexual identity, etc.)

• Education for Liberation Network: "a national coalition of teachers, community activists, researchers, youth and parents who believe a good education should teach people—particularly low-income youth and youth of color—how to understand and challenge the injustices their communities face."

• The Marshall Project: "Nonprofit journalism about criminal justice": This isn't specifically for educators (and much of the content wouldn't be appropriate for younger kids), but it could be a valuable resource for teaching mature teens or in a university setting.

• Planning to Change the World 2020-2021: A plan book for social justice educators from ReThinking Schools

• (Another recommendation is Radical Dharma, which I included in Buddhist Perspectives on Diversity, Discrimination, and Social Justice.)

And here are a couple more sites with good resources for teaching different ages of students:

• Talking About Race and Resources for Educators from the the National Museum of African American History and Life

• The 1619 Project Curriculum, which "challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation's foundational date," and lesson plans based on current events from the Pulitzer Center.

Recommended Books for Kids

Here are a couple of lists with recommended children’s books, as well as a call to rethink the list of children's classics.

• Anti-Racist Reading List from sharemylesson.com "for children in grades preK-12, as well as for adults, that can help us all become more kind, caring, and empathetic. "

• My People: 25 Picture Books about Protest, Pride, and Promise from Amanda Christine at Black Children's Books and Authors

• Looking for Excellent “Diverse” Books for Children? Start Here! and 20 Picture Books for 2020 by Embrace Race

• Weeding Out Racism’s Invisible Roots: Rethinking Children’s Classics, by Padma Venkatraman: "Racism in classics can’t be negated merely by alerting young readers to its presence. Unless we have the time, energy, attention, expertise, and ability to foster nuanced conversations... we may hurt, not help. Pressuring readers of color to speak up also removes free choice and can be harmful."

Conclusion

I hope these lists of resources are useful and thought-provoking. As always, use your own best judgment about what's appropriate to share with your students and colleagues. This means thinking carefully about:

• what resources might be useful for your own learning vs. what's appropriate for sharing with others whose backgrounds may be different from yours; and

• how safe your students or colleagues feel in sharing their own perspectives: this includes how comfortable they feel with you, with each other, and with your venue (your school/classroom space or online platform).