by Sarah Said

A few years ago, I had a decision to make, either I can allow the system to shape me or I can try to shape it. I don’t march well to another person’s drummer, I march to the beat of my own drummer. As I faced leaders and supervisors who told me, “You gave up your first amendment rights when you became an administrator,” or you “really have to be quiet about this,” I couldn’t drink the kool-aid anymore because the taste did not fit what was important in education. As a person of color, Black lives do matter to me, and as a Palestinian American, I will stand up for Palestinian human rights. If we are going to enable student voice in schools and classrooms and do that successfully and equitably then we need to enable our own voices as well.

Know the Issues that Are Faced In Your School Community

You need to learn the school community you serve. How? Yes, riding the school bus with students and seeing places of worship that families attended are great ways. But I ask you this question, “What have you done to learn about the issues that the families you serve are affected by in their communities?”  In our district’s family engagement meetings we learn the surface of what the community faces on a day to day basis. But how often is your school having parents in a forum and listening to their voices? Many times thoughts like, “It’s too much work to hold meetings and listen” or “It’s getting too sticky and I don’t want to have these conversations” cross our minds. When we stay at surface level with learning about what the families we serve care about and need, we give into white supremacy (even if we’re not white) by allowing the discomfort to control us in our actions. 

Student voice can really be a portal to understanding the issues in your school community. Are you making space for student voices to be honest in saying what they care about- not just the cliche identity projects we have in our classrooms? How many more “coat of arms” projects are students going to do?  Really, when I think about that lovely coat of arms I needed to do my Freshman year of high school, I didn’t feel safe enough in my classroom to tell my teacher and peers the real deal regarding me and my struggles. How is it any different twenty years later? We can’t voice what we don’t know. Knowing our students requires building safe spaces and relationships. A coat of arms that originates from white eurocentric culture is not going to help you connect with students. Being your authentic self as a teacher and school leader will. 

Knowing the issues, means really having to get out of your comfort zone. You won't change if you continue to be comfortable. Your sources of learning may differ at different times from being a member of local social media pages to learn about community issues to actually attending grassroots organizing meetings as a listener to learn about the issues that impact the families and students you serve. Find the people who are willing to talk to you and share with you the history of the different demographics in your community, the successes they have had and the struggles they have. And be open to listen to the feedback that you are given by the people who are organizing for social justice in communities. Many of these organizers do the job of trying to better their community and they are not paid for it. Their feedback comes from a place of love for the community that they serve as well.

Find Your Way To Be Involved

As educators, balance has been a word that we have used over and over again since the pandemic started. Now as we are starting to open up as a world, we want to go on vacations and be out and about, as we should. But also, every once and a while, even if you don’t live there, find a time where you can be involved in your school community, be your authentic self, give, and learn.

Here are some practical tips to get started:

• Engage yourself and the students you serve with service learning community based projects. This year my school embarked on the “Stand Up Stumps”, learn more about that here.

• With the pandemic having an impact on families’ household resources, there is a high need for volunteers at food pantries, soup kitchens, and anything that helps a family sustain their household. Give your support as a volunteer and provide outreach there.

• Attend functions in your school community that honor diverse voices. Many communities have arts functions that have been honoring the community and some of these are online. It really is a learning experience for you.

• Attend (in person or online) a city council or town hall meeting to watch people have a voice in the community.

Provide Your Students With A Safe Space And Forum

Really, family and student voices are complex and simple in schools at the same time. The complexity exists because the American education system has created complexity and social caste of schools. We need to listen to haves and not have nots. If we’re considering being what Bettina Love has coined as “Abolitionist Teachers” we need to find ways to restructure our schools so that equity is at the center of what we do. This means reflecting on how we show up in our work in order to create spaces of safety for students and families to be who they are. 

What are steps we can take to honor creating that safe space? You need to have consistent conversations with your students. Learning for Justice’s Let’s Talk guide has much guidance on that, including how to lead with values, not politics. My school has daily crew circles. These conversations help students build a relationship with you so that eventually you can all have a voice together in this work to create systemic change. As you have these conversations you will see that the students you serve are not just numbers in test scores; they are faces with stories that you need to elevate your voice for. Your heart, vulnerability and authenticity are the keys to making this work successful.

Once you’ve learned the issues, now you have to challenge the system. This is where the discomfort really will come in. You need to have those prepared and honest conversations with your school leaders, district leaders and school boards that can be very messy, but out of the mess there may be a beauty of the results you produce together. When you have those conversations, keep in mind that people take their work personally--as much as you want to create change--attack the policies, not the people. You have to remember to separate these.

In the past, the feedback I have gotten has been, “All this work you advise people to do doesn’t teach kids how to read and write. You need to drop what you’re saying and doing and pull students out of the classroom for interventions.” Yes, there is a time and place for all the support students need. Here is the thing, we need to have systems in place where we can understand the story behind the data. This work is a different way to connect people and see the data in the form of stories. As Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan say in the book Street Data: A Next Generation Model Equity. Pedagogy, and School Transformation, “Data can humanizing, Data can be liberatory, Data can be healing.” At Confianza, we promote a healthy data model that incorporates multiple measures and look beyond what’s on the surface (read more here). We can learn together through this data to create systemic change that could remove hurdles that can support families in supporting students. Many times household and community trauma is what prevents students from learning how to read and do math problems. We will still need academic student support and intervention, but not as much as we thought because we may realize we need more support in community, family, and student healing from generations of struggle.

We can’t be silent anymore as educators. It’s our time to stop drinking the bland kool-aid and think about how to add more sweetness to the system for all students. When it comes to being an activist and advocate in your school and community, walk that line. You didn’t lose your first amendment rights when you became an educator when it comes to student well being. Hear Truth, Feel Truth, Speak Truth.

To Further Your Learning

• Let’s Talk from Learning for Justice

• Love, Bettina L. 2019. We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.

• Safir, Shane. Dugan, Jamila 2021 Street Data: A Next Generation Model For Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation.