They teach units of American history as more inclusive using the text as just one supplementary source and 2. We ll celebrate their lives merely as a display to pass by or we might say as extracurricular activity. It s not easy to involve all of her teachers, to teach them the importance of changing. But she has involved about four-fifths of her staff so far in the Equity Project. No district mandate helps her out.
Teachers choose professional development courses from an array of competing agendas.
Unlike Minnesota, for instance, there is no strong, funded State mandate for making diversity a top priority for professional development. Two sixth grade teachers teaching Central American and Canadian history, a recommended unit, center their units on milestones in each nation s political and economic development. The people highlighted tend to be either affluent public figures or faceless native groups like say the Aztecs. Again, the racist, sexist and classist messages go unspoken. Teachers begin to recognize these and other damaging hidden messages and they take two measures.