Juniors and seniors studying the Black Experience in the 20th Century listen to ODCL Director Roderick White, who is co-teaching the elective with History Teacher Pat Miletich. The course focuses on the arts, literature, history, and cultural impact of African Americans during the 1900s.
Shaping an inclusive educational community Although a party of one — plus an occasional college intern —the work of Roderick White’s office is a thread that weaves K-12 throughout divisions and across departments. He joined USN in 2015, nearly a decade after the Board of Trustees adopted the school’s Strategic Plan for Diversity. On a given day, he usually co-teaches the course Black Experience in the 20th Century, tends to the needs of students in his advisory, collaborates with faculty on curriculum inspection, and moderates conversations on the use of racial epithets and microaggressions in classrooms and hallways. Here he shares details on the work of the Office of Diversity and Community Life. Q: What is the Office of Diversity and Community Life? A: At its core, ODCL is rooted in helping to lead the USN com-
munity in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Established at USN in 1997, ODCL serves all three divisions to empower students and faculty to be agents of change, facilitate the school’s efforts to reflect the ethnic and cultural composition of Nashville, and support affinity groups for students and parents. Most of the work is making sure we present students with a safe space where they can tackle and discuss really hard topics — that we can entertain discourse without fighting. The idea is not to have everyone agree with each other; it is to have everyone respect each other.
22
Q: How does ODCL transcend divisions? A: Some of the most progressive work done under the umbrella
of ODCL is that of 40 faculty and administrators working on four different committees established in 2016 to further the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the school. The Culturally Responsive Teaching Committee is charged with ensuring USN is creating a curriculum that is deliberately inclusive and diverse, utilizing identifiers such as but not limited to age, ability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, spirituality, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status/class. This group works to examine and constantly update existing curriculum to ensure that USN can continue to offer content that is academically rigorous and also speaks to the broad palette of scholars who grace our classrooms. This time outside of the classroom is to not only
2000 EDGEHILL
