How A Cultural Lens Can Help Teachers Disrupt Inequity

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How a cultural lens can help teachers disrupt inequity

By Stephanie L. Dodman, Nancy Holincheck and Rebecca K. Fox

Categories: Equity, Learning designs, Teacher leadership

February 2022

Viewing classrooms as apolitical, race-neutral environments isn’t working — and never has. In promoting color blindness, educators have denied student racial identities. In using the broad language of multicultural education, schools have maintained a strict adherence to white, middle class, heteronormative definitions of success. As a result, students from minoritized populations have been asked to adopt the norms of either school or home. Unsurprisingly, school has become a place of dissonance for too many. It is past time to change that pattern, and education leaders have a clear opportunity for change right now. The confluence of racial justice movements and COVID-19 school shutdowns have forced long-existing inequities into the spotlight. Now there is an opening to shift the structures and culture of schools. We see

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