THAT LECTURE MADE ME FEEL INVISIBLE AND SIMULTANEOUSLY ANGRY!

This word “equity” in education is a rather interesting word for me. I hear it used in a variety of different ways…some correct and some downright confusingly. Some see equity as some sort of new and hot topic while others have engaged in equitable practices for decades without affixing the word, equity to their work. For them, equity was just plain common sense (I like to put myself in that category). I even hear some use this word with a great deal of zeal, emotion and passion which is justifiable given the need for equity in all of our schools and classrooms for all students, but particularly for students of historically underserved populations such as African American and Latino students. I have also witnessed the word equity make some feel uncomfortable and uneasy as it forces all of us as educators to have to come to grips with who we are as equitable practitioners in our classrooms and schools. In classrooms across North America, equitable practices must evolve into a complete way of life.

As it relates to the aforementioned, in a post-graduate course I took, I had a professor who grouped the different generations of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries by categories and labels. As I listened to the lecture, my equity eyes and ears were in full effect as equity is simply the way that I have been wired over the past four decades. My professor made reference to an era in U.S. history which were the years beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 through the early 40’s.  He referred to the people of that era as the “be happy you have a job” generation. In the context of the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, I get it fully. Here’s the problem though as it relates to equity. I was one of only a handful of African Americans in the classroom. My life experience, history and culture is that of an African American in urban North America. Because of that experience, I view the world through THAT lens and found the lecture to be insensitive toward African Americans. Consequently, I received the professor’s message (who happened to be white) as “unconscious bias.” “Unconscious” because I was convinced that he meant no harm at all. He was presenting this information through his own cultural lens without considering the entire class. 

As an African American, the aforementioned period means something very different for me from “be happy you have a job.” In other words, in addition to the Great Depression, there was another “Great” happening simultaneously – The Great Migrations of African Americans migrating from the southern states to the northern and western states for different and better opportunities. A better word for “migrations” in this context though would be “escape.” African Americans were escaping the brutal socioeconomic oppression of living in the south post-slavery and the wrath of the KKK, angry white mobs and militias, etc which created a reality of lynchings of thousands of African Americans (men and women) throughout the south from 1882 – 1968.

As an African American listening to this lecture, I concluded that it was not speaking to me at all…it did not consider me…it did not address me and it ignored my historical reality. I began to think about children in classrooms – particularly underserved students of historically oppressed populations and how when subjected to inequitable teaching practices and unconscious biases, find themselves in situations that are comparable to the one I found myself enduring that day. I felt simultaneously invisible and angry….not for myself, but for the countless children across the country who are subjected to the same but may lack the wherewithal to address it and express it. Of course, I spoke up and the professor was better for it. But what about the child who lacks a context to speak up? This youngster invariably suffers in this environment which may have lifelong implications. Equitable classroom practices are therefore a must. No child can afford to be ignored and left out. As a society, we must ensure that all children are met right where they are which requires solid relationship building, student-centeredness, cultural-responsiveness, cultural-relevance, differentiation, personalized instruction and professional learning for staff that address each of the aforementioned toward giving all children an equitable opportunity for classroom success.

The Brother and Sisterhood of the Principalship

I recently attended my daughter’s probate which was the culminating ceremony for her induction into a sorority which she worked really hard to become a member of.  She is now a part of a national / international sisterhood of sorors. As I watched the probate, I couldn’t help but think about the principalship. Yes, I drew a connection between the broad sisterhood of sororities and the broad brotherhood of fraternities to the “fraternity” of the principalship. Sororities and fraternities are the embodiment of vast lifelong bonds rooted in a commonality of membership, belongingness, commitment, sisterhood / brotherhood and purpose. As I stood there and watched the ceremony, I thought the exact same thoughts for the principalship.

I served as a principal for fourteen years. I remember vividly and dearly the “blood, sweat and tears” of principal leadership. As much as I loved it and as rewarding (and enjoyable) as it was, I will never conclude that it was easy work. It was quite challenging to say the least. The principalship is constant “heavy-lifting.” So when I see other principals in action, I instantaneously relate to them, identify with them, “feel their pain,” “feel their successes,” and in many cases, feel a kinship to them. We as principals are also a “fraternity” of sorts. There’s a bond there that the non-principal may never really understand.

I will be the first to admit that the principalship is not for everyone (just as being a member of a sorority or fraternity is not for everyone). It is a special position that not everyone is built for. It requires so, so much of an individual on so, so many levels. Following are a hand full of examples (that by no means are meant to be exhaustive).

The principal wears countless hats in the span of any given 30-minute block of time throughout the course of a school day…and the principal is expected to “wear each of those hats” quite well simultaneously.

The principal is expected to have immediate answers and solutions for every issue that arises in a school. And although this expectation isn’t realistic, there are staff, students, parents, central office personnel and community members who expect immediate answers and solutions nevertheless.

Everything that could possibly happen or go wrong at any given moment in a school falls directly on the shoulders of the principal. As the leader of the school, the buck stops with the principal. Regardless of whether or not the principal is directly responsible for an occurrence that took place in the school for example, the principal is held accountable.

On top of all of the principal's numerous responsibilities, the principal is expected to be the instructional leader of the building. Student achievement is a direct reflection of the principal. Instructional leadership is therefore the principal’s primary responsibility and must therefore be made his / her number one priority (outside of school safety) and given maximum attention.

The principal is expected to be an expert in school law, school finance and the school curriculum. The principal cannot lead optimally if he / she lacks an expertise in each of the aforementioned.

The existing school climate and culture are a reflection of the principal too. What you “see, hear, feel and experience” in a school are a direct reflection of the principal’s leadership,

The principal must also be able to effectively navigate the politics of the school, the district, and the city / town in which the school is located....which is not always an easy endeavor….and definitely not taught in grad school, but another area that the principal must be truly adept.

Theoretically, the principal would like to please everyone but in all actuality, cannot. Someone somewhere will always be displeased. In fact, the principal will probably not be “loved” by EVERYONE. If the principal has a need to be loved by everyone, he / she is probably in the wrong business. The principal must therefore have and maintain “tough skin.”

Principals have families too but they devote so much of their time and energy to their schools that they sometimes (and for some often time) neglect their own families for the betterment of their students. They are constantly striving to strike a balance between school and life outside of school.

I could actually write forever about the role and challenges of the principal but I will stop here...(more coming soon in my next book, The ASPIRING Principal 50: Critical Questions for New and Future School Leaders – May, 2019) but I will end it with this...as mentioned above, the principalship isn’t only a job, profession, career or even a mission…it’s a “fraternity of school leadership”…a brotherhood…a sisterhood. In that vein, I promise you that as principals continue to seek ways to maximize their “membership” in this powerful “fraternity” of school leaders, the translation is a “win-win” for the students, staff, parents and communities that they lead.

For further Principal Kafele resources, visit PrincipalKafele.com.

Race, Equity and the Classroom Teacher

Looking back on my years as a classroom teacher in the 80s and 90’s, I recall vividly the “equitable practices” that were an inherent part of my teaching repertoire, but I had no language to attach to them such as “equity.” During that era, there was no “buzz” in the education community around “equity” in the classroom and instituting equitable classroom teaching practices. That is not to say that equitable practices didn’t exist however. It is to say that there was no category called “equity” to place these practices under. The closest thing to “equity” was differentiated instruction and personalized learning which I will call the “cousins” of equity but I certainly do not consider them to be synonymous with equity. I therefore engaged in equitable practices because in my thinking, this was just the right thing to do. It was “who I was” as a classroom teacher. In other words, I identified that children were in different “places” in my classroom with vastly different experiential backgrounds, realities, challenges, obstacles, needs, interests, goals, aspirations, ambitions, learning styles, ability levels, etc. This meant that I couldn’t afford to be the same person to all 25 of my students all the time. I had to be someone different to all of them if I was serious about meeting the unique set of needs of all of the learners in my classroom. Some years later, this word “equity” came on the scene with a vengeance which confirmed for me that I must have been doing something right all along.

The word “equality” on the other hand was not on my radar. I knew instinctively that if I treated my students equally…if I was the same person for all of them, I was doing the majority of them a grave disservice and injustice. Treating them equally would be the easy way out relative to planning and preparation each week. Heck, I could write generic, “one size fits all” lesson plans that theoretically covered every learner in the classroom but in reality, that would boil down to a lesson plan that took no individual student into consideration as the plan was being developed. Equality therefore had no place in my classroom. Equality was reserved for a “museum reality” in all actuality. It was all about equity for me. Moreover, differences in children can be quite vast and thereby pose a rather a daunting challenge for any teacher to address them all. How we performed as teachers in the 20^th Century where “equality” may have been a goal simply will not measure up to needs of the 21^st Century learner. Teaching the 21^st Century learner requires an elevated focus on equity in all we do.

As a presenter, I have learned over the years that the topic of equity at the classroom level can be a rather difficult and uncomfortable dialogue to have with an audience when it addresses race, ethnicity or class. If the conversation is generic and addresses areas such as: student experiential backgrounds, their realities, challenges, obstacles, needs, interests, goals, aspirations, ambitions, learning styles, ability levels, language differences and children with disabilities, it can be a very rich and rewarding dialogue. The problem I find as a presenter is when the dialogue on equity is centered around race and I happen to be one of the few persons of color in the entire room. In too many cases, it converts into a tension-filled dialogue that makes a lot of people in the room feel unnecessarily uncomfortable, uneasy and / or offended…when this should not and CANNOT be the case.  As educators, we cannot afford to shy away from the equity dialogue that addresses race when it makes us uncomfortable however. Instead, we must embrace this dialogue because our learners of color of historically oppressed populations in particular are dependent upon its outcomes. In other words, if the data points out that our children of color are on the wrong side of the achievement gap, the equity conversation on race is unavoidable. The will, the drive, the determination, the passion to engage in this dialogue as a staff must be more than evident.

In schools  where the student body is racially diverse, or predominantly learners of color of historically oppressed populations, or even just a small fraction of the students are learners of color, it is absolutely imperative that school leaders, teachers and support staff are not only comfortable with the dialogue on racial equity in the classroom but they openly embrace it without personalizing the discussion. The intent is to meet the needs of the learners while simultaneously meeting them where they are so the dialogue is consequently necessary and unavoidable. School personnel must therefore be committed to creating a building-wide culture amongst staff of mutual respect and understanding of one another’s positions, toward all staff ultimately evolving to a “place” where we can put our personal differences, political differences and biases aside while simultaneously maintaining an openness about understanding the life experiences of our students of color of historically oppressed populations to the point that we can actually see them through THEIR lenses toward meeting their academic, social and emotional needs. Toward doing so though, staff must evolve to a point where everyone in the room feels comfortable in the dialogue and can embrace the dialogue around racial equity in the classroom without anyone in the room feeling offended. This is absolutely healthy and productive for the school, and it’s a win-win for your students of color.

For further Principal Kafele resources, please visit PrincipalKafele.com.