"...One place that children can interact with stories on a regular basis is the library..."

The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children

"...Children encounter diversity on a regular basis in their interactions with others at home, in school, or around their neighborhood. As our nation continues to diversify, it is essential that children learn to understand the important role of their culture and the cultures of other people in creating an overall global culture respectful of differences. One way that children learn about the world around them and other cultures is through the social messages found in stories. Stories help children understand how society perceives their culture as well as the cultures of their classmates, teachers, caregivers, and others, thereby influencing their social and identity development. Stories can be found in traditional print materials for children or in newer digital formats. Regardless of the format for delivering a story’s message, children are greatly influenced by the stories they encounter. One place that children can interact with stories on a regular basis is the library..."

Written for the Association for Library Service to Children by Jamie Campbell Naidoo, PhD

25 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity with Students

How do we get students to consider perspectives different from their own? How do we get them to challenge their own biases and prejudices? If, as Atticus Finch famously said, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it,” how do we get our students to do that?

25 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity with Students

February is Black History Month

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development, edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Washington, DC: Network of Educators on the Americas, 1998. 
A 463-page collection developed by educators, parents, and activists determined to create a valuable resource for change. Lesson plans and staff development activities are included, as well as critical examinations of controversial school issues such as bilingual education and tracking. Contains an extensive resource guide of teaching and learning resources and many helpful Internet sites.

Table of Contents here:

Here's the link to reviews at Teaching for Change

A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota

A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota

Edited by Sun Yung Shin

Essays that challenge, discomfort, disorient, galvanize, and inspire all of us to evolve now, for our shared future.

In this provocative book, sixteen of Minnesota’s best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being’s inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness. They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships. 

Minnesota communities struggle with some of the nation’s worst racial disparities. As its authors confront and consider the realities that lie beneath the numbers, this book provides an important tool to those who want to be part of closing those gaps.

The contributors have given us a splendid gift, the gift of touching another human being’s inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness. They are bringing us generously into their experiences, experiences that shape Minnesota, experiences we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships across sometimes very difficult borders. We can read their stories and leave each one with a deeper, more complex understanding of how race and culture are lived in Minnesota—and better prepared for the conversations and changes ahead.
Sun Yung Shin
"Introduction"

Published by Minnesota Historical Society Press, April 1, 2016

Family and Community Engagement

"...Strong communication between school staff and families is important in any school and has special relevance for schools committed to anti-bias education.

Communication built on misinformation, assumptions or stereotypes can create distance between schools, families and students. If handled with respect and cultural sensitivity, however, school-family communication provides an opportunity to live out the values of inclusiveness and equity, which are at the heart of anti-bias education. The following guidelines can help schools avoid communication pitfalls and support teacher-family relationships built on respect..."

Read and Explore here:

Family and Community Engagement

Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education

This critical practices guide offers practical strategies for creating a space where academic and social-emotional goals are accomplished side by side. It also provides valuable advice for implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and describes how teachers can bring anti-bias values to life by

• building and drawing on intergroup awareness, understanding and skills;
• creating classroom environments that reflect diversity, equity and justice;
• engaging families and communities in ways that are meaningful and culturally competent;
• encouraging students to speak out against bias and injustice;
• including anti-bias curricula as part of larger individual, school and community action;
• supporting students’ identities and making it safe for them to fully be themselves; and
• using instructional strategies that support diverse learning styles and allow for deep exploration of anti-bias themes.

Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education is organized into four sections: Instruction, Classroom Culture, Family and Community Engagement, and Teacher Leadership. In each section, you can explore recommended practices, find helpful explanations and learn how each practice connects to anti-bias education. 

Don't Say Nothing

As educators we (sometimes unknowingly) step into roles of advocate, caretaker, guide, and even mother or father to students. Students pay attention to everything we say and do. They particularly pay attention to our silence. 

We may be uncomfortable talking about race, but we can no longer afford to be silent. We have chosen a profession, which—like parenting—requires that our comforts come second to those of children.

Read the article here:

Don't Say Nothing

Kwanzaa and Me - A Teacher's Story by Vivian Gussin Paley

“All these white schools I’ve been sent to are racist,” Sonya says. “I’d have done better in a black school. I was an outsider here.” These are hard words for Vivian Paley, whose own kindergarten was one of Sonya’s schools, the integrated classroom so lovingly and hopefully depicted by Paley in White Teacher. Confronted with the grown-up Sonya, now on her way to a black college, and with a chorus of voices questioning the fairness and effectiveness of integrated education, Paley sets out to discover the truth about the multicultural classroom from those who participate in it. This is an odyssey undertaken on the wings of conversation and storytelling in which every voice adds new meaning to the idea of belonging, really belonging, to a school culture. Here are black teachers and minority parents, immigrant families, a Native American educator, and the children themselves, whose stories mingle with the author’s to create a candid picture of the successes and failures of the integrated classroom. As Paley travels the country listening to these stories, we see what lies behind recent moves toward self-segregation: an ongoing frustration with racism as well as an abiding need for a nurturing community. And yet, among these diverse voices, we hear again and again the shared dream of a classroom where no family heritage is obscured and every child’s story enriches the life of the schoolhouse.

“It’s all about dialogue, isn’t it?” asks Lorraine, a black third-grade teacher whose story becomes a central motif. And indeed, it is the dialogue that prevails in this warmly provocative and deeply engaging book, as parents and teachers learn how they must talk to each other, and to their children, if every child is to secure a sense of self in the schoolroom, no matter what the predominant ethnic background. Vivian Paley offers these discoveries to readers as a starting point for their own journeys toward community and kinship in today’s schools and tomorrow’s culture.

Read an article from the New York Times here:

Are White Schools Bad for Black Children?