What does it mean to be an inclusive middle grades educator?

Recently I (Lisa) had the opportunity to serve on a faculty panel exploring inclusive pedagogical practices within higher education. The panel consisted of faculty members from different disciplines including biological sciences, political science, sports administration, communications, and education. While my work has focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in middle level education, it was really inspiring and informative to hear how so many of my colleagues are intentionally working to create inclusive and humanizing educational spaces for their college students. It was also encouraging to see how many professors sought out the professional development opportunity of this half-day workshop. As I reflect on the workshop, what stands out to me is that several of the faculty members who attended candidly shared their desire to engage in inclusive practices but struggled with the implementation of those practices. This fracture between aspiration and attainment is not a new issue within education. hooks (1994) stated that “Despite the contemporary focus on multiculturalism in our society, particularly in education, there is not nearly enough practical discussion of ways classroom settings can be transformed so that the learning experience is inclusive” (p. 35). This is something that I commonly hear when speaking to and collaborating with middle level educators. Quite often they are aware of concepts such as culturally responsive teaching, culturally relevant pedagogy, multicultural education, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and inclusive pedagogy, however they often a struggle to move from theoretical understanding to practical implementation (Falbe & Smith, 2022). The consequence of this struggle is unfortunately seen in education outcomes such as inequitable discipline practices, curriculum that is not affirming of students’ multiple intersecting identities, and the implementation of what are deemed as “best practices” such as socio-emotional learning that are absent of cultural context. (Bishop & Harrison, 2021; Carter Andrews & Gutwein, 2020; Dolet & Salas, 2021; Duane et al., 2021; Gibbs Grey & Harrison, 2020). Central to our vision as editors of Middle School Journal has been to mitigate the aforementioned outcomes by disseminating practitioner-based articles that are grounded in research and that provide practical examples for educators to use to create culturally responsive, inclusive, affirming, and equitable learning environments and experiences (see Brown et al., 2021; Ellerbrock & Vomvoridi-Ivanovic, 2022; Hughes et al., 2022; Linder, 2021; Mizell, 2022; Walls, 2021). Within this issue, we present three such articles. In the DeMink-Carthew and Gonell (2022) article, they argued that while there has been increased synergy within the field of middle level education around promoting social justice education (SJE), “there remains a lack of scholarship and practitioner-oriented guidance concerning SJE in the middle grades. ” Within their article they focused on the lessons learned from examining the practices of three middle grades educators who were committed to engaging their sixth-grade students in an SJE curriculum. They conclude with helpful advice that supports middle level educators in navigating instructional challenges that might arise while engaging in SJE. Next, Dack et al. (2022) focused their article on engaging in differentiated instruction in equitable ways. In particular, they challenge educators to reframe their understandings of student readiness to implement tiering in ways that can support diverse student learners. Finally, in the Dieker et al. (2022) article, they shared how digital tools combined with Universal Design for Learning can be used in mathematics classrooms to support students with language barriers.