ANTIRACISM LEADERSHIP TEACHING AND LEARNING ANTIRACISM

TEACHING AND LEARNING ANTIRACISM

Mary Lockey opened Castilleja School to achieve equity in education, offering young women a once-rare opportunity to prepare for college. Since then, Castilleja’s mission has evolved, now seeking to educate young women to become confident thinkers and compassionate leaders. Our Diversity & Inclusion Statement further defines our values, asking each member of the community to commit to learning from diverse voices and experiences and aspiring to engage our differences with courage, honesty, intellectual curiosity and respect.

In recent months, as Black LIves Matter protests swept through our city, our state, our nation, and the globe, we began to look inward at Castilleja, asking ourselves whether we were truly fulfilling our mission and living our values. This process was both sobering and galvanizing because we realized that we were falling short, and we understood that we needed to make meaningful and sustainable change. This summer, while we worked hard to redefine what leading and learning would look like in the era of COVID-19, we also deepened our commitment to becoming a more just and equitable community by creating a thoughtful framework for Teaching and Learning Antiracism at Castilleja. Building from the Leadership Competencies already embedded in our curriculum, we defined five Antiracism Competencies:

Valuing Competing Narratives Understanding Positionality Moving Beyond Essentialism Sitting With Dissonance Committing to Rewire

Our shared work to address systemic and institutionalized racism will rely on students and employees honing these skills to inspire needed change throughout all aspects of campus life. At Castilleja, curriculum has always been more than the content covered in the classroom. What we teach, the pedagogy of how we teach, the experiences we create for our students, and the skills they acquire along the way combine to form the Castilleja program. Understanding that authentic growth requires hard work, this year and every year, the Castilleja community has committed to this work because there is no other choice among true leaders.

LEADING WITH AN ANTIRACIST PURPOSE

Committing to Rewire Habituating knowledge into new practice, or changing habits to align with learning. Understanding Positionality Understanding and owning that an individual’s “location” within a community (i.e. their rank and status) is impacted by social and organizational frameworks. Valuing Competing Narratives Valuing multiplicty of life stories, perspectives,

Valuing Competing Narratives M o v i n g Bey on d Essentialism Sitting with Dissonance Understandi n g P osi t i o n a l i t y Committing to Rewire Purposeful Embracing P r o b l e m C u r i o s i ty Empathy Collaboration Reflection Ambiguity St rat e g i z ing INITIATIVE AGILITY PURPOSE CORE COMPETENCIES LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES ANTIRACISM COMPETENCIES

and experiences. Moving Beyond Essentialism Moving beyond thinking that is rooted in the belief that things and people are what they seem. This thinking presumes that people can be categorized into intrinsic and enduringly different groups.

Sitting with Dissonance Valuing discomfort and ambiguity (including with regard to oneself—not applying essentialism to one’s self-concept).