Creating Bias-Free Classrooms
ENCOMPASS now offers a unique training program that helps schools increase their effectiveness in addressing bias in the classroom.
Created in response to a request from Beginning Teachers Support Assessment (BTSA), the interactive training uses live, improvisational theatre to allow teachers to practice managing conflicts.
Working alongside human relations facilitator, Diane Flinn, and adult professional actors, Kevin Blake and Rose Portillo, ENCOMPASS has trained a dozen teen performers with one goal in mind: to provide teachers with an opportunity to identify and practice the skills they need to manage diversity and build inclusive classrooms.
The young actors are students at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts: Mike Lion, Charlotte Williams, Nicole Nelson-Campos, Michelle Sui, Alana Bonilla, Noah Prestwich, Kyle Pool, Tyiesha Stanford, Lydia Renteria and Miya Chua.
So how does this new training work? Well, just imagine you're a teacher...
You show up to your monthly professional development meeting. You remember this one is on equity in the classroom, but aren't quite sure what to expect. All you know is that you're exhausted from work-the students were a handful today. You're surprised and intrigued when you learn that the training will involve youth actors. Hmm, this should be interesting.
The facilitator says you are going to start the training by assessing your skills and your comfort in dealing with various diversity-related conflicts. With your assessment worksheet in hand, you are ready to evaluate how comfortable and how effective you think you would be in each upcoming scenario (on a scale: 1 to 5). You meet four teachers (played by our two adult actors), and imagine yourself in their shoes as they tell you their stories:
Mr. Lee isn't quite sure how to cut through the tension he senses between his Latino and Armenian students-he's White and wonders what, if anything, he can do to bring his students together. Ms. Johnson talks about how issues of religion have become so much more complicated since she transferred from a small private catholic school to a public school filled with families of different faiths. Though Mr. Ellis is energetic, he's admittedly clueless about how to respond to the boy in is 2nd grade class who only hangs out with girls, has a Hannah Montana backpack, and wants to wear a girl's costume in the elementary school play. Ms. Brooks is overwhelmed by "those parents" who she claims care even less than their kids about ensuring homework gets adequate attention.
You realize that these "teachers" were of course actors, but their stories resonate with all of the teachers in the room. You immediately realize you wouldn't be very effective in Ms. Johnson's shoes. You hadn't given much thought to religious differences in your classroom, but realize that you should reflect more on that before the winter holiday season. You mark 1 out of 5. With statements like "those parents," it sounds like Ms. Brooks may need to think through her stereotypes of her students' parents-generalizing them into one group won't get her very far in solving the problem of academic success. Knowing you would approach it differently; you give yourself a 4 out of 5. Mr. Ellis' scenario is a tricky one to you. You feel ready to discuss and deal with the harassment and name calling that the boy may experience --that's never allowed. However, you aren't quite sure whether you would intervene, ignore, or encourage his unconventional gender behavior. Hmmm, 3 out of 5.
After some group discussion, you are told that now you are going to have an opportunity to observe two classes and the issues that arise within them. Next thing you know, students trickle into the room and you are watching Mr. Wilson try to keep his history class off each other's backs and on the topic at hand-the Immigration Act of 1994. After the scene is over-it dealt primarily with language barriers and attitudes towards immigrants-the students leave the room. You and the other teachers now have some time to talk with the adult actor and each other about what you think could be done differently. Then the students come back in and you are able to see your advice in action as he instructs the class with a new approach!
In the next scene, Ms. Moreno's Spanish class, issues of gender, sexual harassment of women, and homophobia are embedded in the scene. This time, after you brainstorm, the facilitator takes volunteers from the group that want to step in as the teacher-you watch intently, learning just as much from the failures as the successes.
The program ends with an opportunity for all to hear from the youth actors regarding their perspectives on the tactics used. You realize that, as a teacher, you rarely get to hear directly from students who aren't your own regarding what works and what doesn't. Because these are professional actors--not your students, it feels safer to show that teachers are still learning-and it doesn't feel vulnerable or inappropriate.
The youth speak both from their own experience and from the position of their characters -the class clown who always speaks his mind, the straight-A student who thinks immigrants are free-loaders, the student embarrassed to speak in class because her English skills aren't strong, the young girl who gets called a lesbian in front of the class, the student who secretly is struggling with her sexuality, and so on. You're learning how much a teacher's behavior makes a difference, and which actions are more likely to support an inclusive classroom.
Okay, you can stop imagining. As you might guess, each teacher has a different experience of the program-the above narrative describes one potential reaction.
So why do teachers need this type of training? Why now? Well besides working with an unprecedented level of diversity in California classrooms, the teaching community has come to understand that these skills are invaluable. The benefits soar beyond teachers' personal sanity and in-classroom confidence. Through skill building programs like Creating Bias-Free Classrooms, educators cultivate the skills that ultimately impact their students' experience of social equity in the classroom and their overall opportunity for success.
Our hope in creating this program was that we could design something more effective and more engaging than standard teacher workshops on cultural competency or how to work with diverse youth populations. The teachers overwhelmingly positive response to this training lets us know that were are certainly on to something here with our fresh, stimulating approach to teacher training.
As an organization dedicated not only to youth, but also to the adults who impact them, ENCOMPASS is excited to embark on this project and offer it to more educators in the greater LA area. To learn more or to request a training, please contact skylerjackson@encompass.org
