麻豆原创

Growing up African American in a white suburban school district, Lisa McDonald longed for teachers to recognize her potential. 鈥淢y being a teacher stems from this brown little girl who wanted someone to take the time to know me,鈥� says McDonald, a 麻豆原创 Science Education doctoral student. 

McDonald struggled with reading, yet in sixth grade she qualified to transfer out of her inner-city Rochester school to where 鈥渢eachers had never taught a kid who looked like me.鈥�

In fact, McDonald next encountered a teacher of color at 麻豆原创, where Professor of Science & Education Felicia Mensah has acquainted her with critical race theory 鈥� racism viewed as part of America鈥檚 systemic fabric. Mensah encourages all aspiring teachers of color to reflect on their own experiences of race and use racial experiences in the classroom 鈥� for example, teaching a scientific principal using foods kids eat at home.

But as Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Associate Professor of English Education, recently asserted while facilitating a professional development conference in suburban Detroit, bringing race into the classroom isn鈥檛 an idea reserved solely for people of color.

A white teacher had said that her school, being mostly white, didn鈥檛 鈥渘eed to鈥� foster cultural awareness.

Sealey-Ruiz offered a measured response. 鈥淵ou know, white people also have cultural identity,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e all have racial and class identities. So, why not engage your students in theirs? When they leave home, they are going to see people of different ethnicities. You are not preparing them for full citizenry if you lead them to believe that white is an invisible norm that isn鈥檛 worthy of discussion.鈥�

Sealey-Ruiz wants educators to conduct an 鈥渁rchaeology of self.鈥�

鈥淏efore they conceptualize lesson plans, teachers need to do self-work around race, gender and sexual identity,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen the curriculum will flow in the right direction. It is a sustaining, lifelong process that can鈥檛 be taught in a professional development conference or a book.鈥�

Lisa McDonald is applying that outlook in her first-grade classroom at The School at Columbia. There, she routinely asks students whose family backgrounds span the globe to explore goals, dreams and ethnic traditions through written narratives, poetry and dioramas. 

鈥淐hildren need to be able to see themselves and merge learning with their interests,鈥� McDonald says. 鈥淚 want to be the teacher who gives them a voice.鈥�