Introduction
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including a Black author in our readings or finding short excerpts by people of color that aligned with our unit expectations. I collaborated with my neighboring teacher, who is Puerto Rican, Brazilian, and Black, to incorporate more interactions with and discussions about texts written by Latinx authors. I began researching and reading African, Asian, and South American authors to add to my literary canon and to use in my classroom. I started giving shout-outs and blurbs about books I was reading and asking if students wanted a copy. When they expressed interest, I bought more copies or loaned my copy. I started a book club that met before school. Sometimes students met during lunch to discuss books they wanted to read next.
Equitable Instruction, Empowered Students is about transformative education—learning that allows students to recognize and analyze injustices and barriers while creating, imple menting, and evaluating collective and cooperative plans for dismantling biases and injustices. Transformative education is a response to the ways in which the status quo fails to support teachers and empower students. Let’s examine some of the key ways transformative education seeks to transcend the status quo.
A Departure From the Status Quo Perpetuating the status quo in education has continued to widen inequities. Based on high-stakes standardized testing, the status quo dictates what type of curriculum students are allowed to learn, pay based on student performance on test scores, and resegregation of schools. Additionally, the drive toward achieving the status quo has led to data manipulation, teacher exhaustion, and staff departure. The status quo—achievement based on standardized test scores—dictates district funds, teacher placement, and what educational pedagogies, ideas, and concepts can be implemented in classrooms. The status quo is constraining and destroying education; and it is time to change that. What do inclusion and cultural competence mean in the sphere of education, and what do they have to do with creating equitable learning environments? Inclusion and cultural competence are the first steps educators must take toward creating an equitable environment. Inclusion allows all people to share their ideas. Becoming culturally competent means appreciating diverse cultures, attitudes, traditions, values, and beliefs. Creating an equitable learning environment first requires inclusion and cultural competence because
©️2022 by Solution Tree Press
I still have more work to do—researching, interviewing, surveying, and adapting curricula—to ensure that I provide students with diversity in reading. I am still striving to provide more inclusive literary choices for students and to expand my personal and professional reading to incorporate greater diversity. I continue to alter spaces in education to more accurately reflect our global sphere. I am on a mission to ensure that students not only feel included but also see that their perspectives can transform society in positive ways. This book was born from that desire.
