Creating and Cultivating a Diverse and Inclusive Staff
Audience
Teachers and Leadership Team
Overview
A recent study conducted by New York University scholar, Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, denotes that students learn better from a diverse sampling of teachers. His research goes on to suggest that students of all races learn better when they have access to teachers of color. Hiring a diverse staff is just one step in the equation. Cultivating a diverse staff that works together across differences and regularly has critical conversations about race and equity takes work. The goal of this workshop is to invest schools in the power of developing positive staff culture around race, and the benefits that this provides for the students that they serve.
Challenges Addressed
- Fears that arise when thinking about having important conversations about race with co-workers
- Passive diversity - Diversity on staff that doesn’t lead to collaboration
- Lack of institutional support for staff members of color
- Low retention of staff members of color
Program Outcomes
- Develop a deeper understanding of how race impacts our interactions with one another as well as with our students.
- Begin the process of building a multi-ethnic, inclusive and anti-racist organization.
- Begin developing the tools to have crucial conversations about race across racial difference
- Examine their biases, and how they might impede upon the creation of meaningful relationships with co-workers or students.
- Train staff and students on how systems of oppression impact learning, and life trajectory and how to apply this understanding to interrupting that cycle.
Format
Four 1-Hour Planning Meetings (Virtual) +
Full-Day (6 hrs) in-person collaborative sessions
