AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EQUITY

• Published in: The learning professional Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 18 - 21
• Main Authors: Gleason, Sonia Caus, Berg, Jill Harrison
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford National Staff Development Council 01.06.2020
• Subjects: Active Learning; COVID-19; Educational Environment; Experiential Learning; Learner Engagement; Learning; Social networks; Students; Teaching; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 2476-194X

Since the first enslaved Africans were brought to the North American continent 400 years ago, a chain of events has created a deep foundation for inequities that are still felt in the United States today (Hannah-Jones & Elliott, 2019). At the moment, professional learning efforts to address these questions are uneven, as a result of a range of district planning efforts and resources, wide variation in educators' trust and collaboration, and inconsistent levels of attention to systematic access. Equity-minded teams are examining these logs, looking for patterns by race, home language, and economic status, and helping each other to question how their own unexamined biases may be adversely affecting their communication, how the school's traditions may have created cultural barriers, or how historical factors might have led to unexamined structural barriers that could now be examined in light of new family communication data. [...]some teachers are reporting increases in student engagement with remote learning, as they are thinking outside of the traditional structure of classes and making learning more accessible to more students, including those who previously had lower levels of school attendance and engagement.