Using CARE to Guide Conversations about Race

By Regina Sackrider, Equity/CARE Program Director, rsackrid@pps.net

As we begin the school year following the tragic events in Ferguson Missouri, many students and teachers may want to engage in conversations around race. How can teachers create safe, culturally relevant classrooms where all student voices are heard?

In this particular case, as in all cases, culturally relevant practices, strategies, and teaching are essential for individual learning. Collaborative Action Research for Equity (CARE) is a framework which allows teachers to intentionally create a classroom community where all student voices, perspectives, and cultures are valued.

We recognize that schools are at different phases within the CARE process and that some schools are just beginning their CARE professional development during the 2014-15 school year.

Read on for basic information about using the CARE framework to connect to recent events and conversations about race.

A CARE Teacher’s role is to do the following:

• PLAN: Do your own work first, by engaging in personal reflection to deepen your understanding of race. In addition, identify, examine and decenter the role and presence of whiteness in your own life and classroom. As you begin the CARE process, identify a group of focal students of color who are currently in your classroom, design lessons that are explicitly and intentionally planned using CARE frameworks, and meet regularly with your CARE team and District Equity TOSA/Coaches throughout the process.
• TEACH: Share your classroom practice with observers through the CARE Observation cycle after each seminar.
• MONITOR: Monitor the progress of your focal students, taking notes during the lessons and sharing them with other CARE team members during the regularly scheduled CARE team meetings.
• ADJUST: In collaboration with colleagues, reflect on what worked and what needs modification
• PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT: Document all lessons, reflections, and relevant artifacts to add to portfolio.” Record your reflections on your teaching (areas of strength and areas for growth). Record your reflections on your own development as a culturally responsive teacher for your CARE portfolio.

The Equity Department and the Office of Teaching & Learning are working to make additional resources available so that these conversations can continue to be productive.

If you have questions or want to know more, please contact your school’s CARE team members and administrators, or contact Regina Sackrider at rsackrid@pps.net.