Moving IDEAS* to REALITY
Nadine Bailey (Western Academy of Beijing) & �Katie Day (Tanglin Trust School, Singapore)
*Inclusion; Diversity; Equity and Equality; Access; Social Justice
Reality
Saying
Doing
Being
*
Survey overview - 38 responses
By Datastat - Modification from Wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10878816
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Context & labels
Multi-culturalism
Diversity
Inclusion
#BlackLivesMatter
#MeToo
Intersectionality
Social Justice
1991:
Teaching Tolerance
2021:
Learning for Justice
“Our work has evolved in the last 30 years, from reducing prejudice to tackling systemic injustice”
1950’s
Third Culture Kids
internationalism
international-�mindedness
2018
transnational youth
cosmopolitanism
[a la Danau Tanu]
1999 / 2001 / 2009
2018 / 2020
A rose by any other name...
How does it become real?
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
“Do you believe in fairies?...If you believe, clap your hands!”
― J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Saying
What people are saying
Starting by updating the schools inclusion policy helped to gain traction on DEI with all leadership stakeholders and confirmed the schools belief in supporting inclusion for all.
ABAR work in particular is challenging and being challenged but we have the backing of the highest levels so we are pushing through.
This focus is relatively new at this stage, but certainly seems to be one that will underlie future planning, policies and practice.
International School Librarian responses
What people are saying
Very underdeveloped at my school, perhaps to do with a mistaken belief our highly homogeneous population (>95% Han Chinese) does not need these? (VERY mistaken)
I tried for 7 years. Now, I’m moving on. Very disappointed in the school leadership in this regard.
The DEIJ committee didn’t accomplish much this year at my school. I created the LibGuide and they said they would promote it but they didn’t
International School Librarian responses
How does it become real?
“So rather than waiting...he did the imaginable.”
― Dan Santat, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
Doing
Designing solutions/finding paths...
HUMAN / IDEAL
NB: The intersection of desirability, feasibility, and viability is a Design Thinking construct
TECHNICAL / THEORETICAL
ECONOMIC / PRACTICAL
How you start matters less than making a start
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash
Who?
Pathway - hitching a ride
Join forces with an existing initiative / club / event*:
* examples from survey
Photo by Silas Tolles on Unsplash
Pathway - lighting a flame
Start an initiative and get people to join*:
* examples from survey
Photo by Georgiana Avram on Unsplash
Pathway - orders from above
Mandated by Law; Board of directors; Head of School; Department; Owners; shareholders etc.
* examples from survey
Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash
Pathway - community pressure
Our students, alumni, teachers parents have used their voice and requested:
* examples from survey
Photo by Lan Nguyen on Unsplash
Being… progression
https://www.medicalinterviewsuk.co.uk/2019/02/18/looking-beyond-unconscious-competence/
What?
How does it become real?
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit
Being
1983 / 1991 / 2006
2011
Graphic version: 2020
An imagined community is the concept of a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.
International schools �as Imagined Communities
Stories as vehicles of irresistible imagination...
“As a culture worker who belongs to an oppressed people �my job is to make revolution irresistible.”
― Toni Cade Bambara, author/activist (1981)
Got an international resource?
Add slides to this HYPERDOC
Constraint:
Example 1 resource 5 ideas...
#SocialJustice #secondaryschool #Indonesia #Dutch #1960s #CivilRights #protest #picturebook #racism #imperialism #colonialism #poverty #privilege #equality #Sukarno
Suggested by Nadine Bailey - @intlNadine
Example 1 idea 5 resources...
Beyond “Stamped”
Beyond “Stamped”...
Suggested by Katie Day - @librarianedge
1
2
5
4
3
Beyond “Stamped”...
Suggested by Katie Day - @librarianedge
1
2
(2021) 4-part docu-presentation by Haitian filmmaker, Raoul Peck - via HBO & the BBC - see syllabus & further learning list
#racism #history #adult #HaitianRevolution #slavery #Africa #nativeamericans #imperialism #colonialism #genocide #holocaust
BLONDE ROOTS (2008) by Bernardine Evaristo - (Noughts & Crosses for adults) -see reading guide
#adult #satire #fiction #slavery #colonialism #racism #imperialism
Beyond “Stamped”...
Suggested by Katie Day - @librarianedge
BLACK & BRITISH: a short, essential history
(2020) by British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga - young readers’ edition - from Roman times thru 21st century; illustrated version forthcoming
#racism #history #global #secondaryschool #UK #slavery #imperialism #colonialism #IndustrialRevolution
(2010) by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos - see teaching guide
#history #secondaryschool #racism #slavery #imperialism #colonialism #global #IndustrialRevolution
3
4
Beyond “Stamped”...
Suggested by Katie Day - @librarianedge
(2011/2015) by Trevor R. Getz, illustrated by Liz Clarke; graphic novel re a young woman in 1876 Ghana who argued in court against being treated like a slave; includes a reading guide; see article; see website; see animated film (also on Kanopy)
#racism #history #Ghana #Africa #secondaryschool #slavery #imperialism #colonialism #feminism #gender
5
Got an international resource?
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Constraint:
If this was a macro view, join us �Saturday 29 May : 1pm BST / 8pm Singapore & Beijing
for a micro one:
#NotOurDiversity: Beyond BANA �(British, Australasian, & North American)
What? - library “stuff”
What? - other “stuff”
What? - other “stuff”
What? - other “stuff”
What? - other “stuff”
What? - other “stuff”
Who? - people to guide us
Diversity audit resources
Books mentioned
Catalogues to peruse
Catalogues to peruse
�
Libguides / school sites
Libguides / school sites
Other resources
Other resources
Other resources
Other resources
Curriculum Integration (CI)
(CI) Grade 1
Many Who We Are units (for ex. KG about families, G1 about relationships) include concepts of diversity and inclusion.
Grade 1 integrates social justice into their creative expression unit.
CI Grade 3
In response to BLM and student interest, Grades 3 addressed issues of race and police brutality & engaged with issues of discrimination through reading and performance.
Grade 3 changed a unit that used to focus on the Victorians to be about different cultures now and in previous centuries.
Civil rights explored when learning about Martin Luther King Jr for Grade 3.
(CI) Grade 4
Grades 4 equality in MUN units
A civil rights (U.S. lens) unit was piloted in Gr. 4 this year.
G4 Sharing the Planet unit on biodiversity, the concept of diversity is explored
(CI) Grade 5
Grade 5 Immigration has a focus of equity and disparity
"Art for Social Justice” is a unit in Grade 5
Many Who We Are units G5 identity include concepts of diversity and inclusion.
G5 (starting now): "Central Idea: Being aware of our historical perspectives and biases may lead us to take responsible action. Lines of Inquiry:1. Causes and effects of historical and current inequalities 2. How varying perspectives are expressed 3. What motivates change makers to take action"
Grade 5 inclusion addressed in a unit that looks at human migration (refugees).
Select texts for diversity & inclusion - Wonder, with year 6,
Grade 5 PYP Exhibition many groups looked at BLM / ALM
(CI) Grade 6
We have a social justice exploratory class in middle school (6,7,8)
Grade 6 has an entire human rights unit
Select texts for diversity & inclusion - New Kid by Jerry Craft - racism and microaggression
G6 Language unit -memoirs and biographies on “unlikely Heroes” includes minorities, different abilities, non-traditional backgrounds, LGTBQIA+ etc
G6 Language unit - “what’s fair” related to human rights
(CI) Grade 7
Gr. 7 Lang & Lit unit on Gender & Identity and another on Stories of Social Justice
We have a social justice exploratory class in middle school (6,7,8)
7th grade English Language Arts has a social issues bookclub unit.
(CI) Grade 8
Gr. 8 Humanities - Big business small communities looks at equity and equality
Gr 8 unit on Earth Rocks (Earth Science) looks at fairness and development
G8 literature unit on the book “Unwind” looks at social justice and taking action and creating videos for change
Noughts and Crosses with year 9.
Year 9 look at conflict, protest and peace in the 20th century, including Gandhi, MLK, Mandela, Greta Thunberg, #BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ+, climate change, women’s rights, social injustice, national independence, etc.
(CI) Grade 9 / 10
grade 9 L&L does a story unit on diversity and other voices. Who gets to tell their story?
"G9 World Civilizations, now from a Pacific perspective rather than eurocentric
Refugees (https://libguides.ash.nl/refugees), a student service project - working with a local refugee centre. "
Grade 9 - Service Learning, 9-11 HS Discovery Weeks are based around service now
In response to BLM and student interest, Grades 10 read Jason Reynold's Stamped
No integration comments
No integration or discussion beyond mention of "international mindedness, caring, vague mentions of "Social Emotional Learning", global contexts", etc. but nothing deliberate or meaningful
I haven't seen any evidence of this except for the last UOI for G5
Not yet. But we are challenging the English department’s “canon” of dead white men and are working with them to create booklists for every grade level that is more inclusive and diverse.
Only collection development, I’m afraid and I haven’t bought books for 2 years. COVID budget freeze.
I haven't seen any evidence of this except for the last UOI for G5
The ideal is seamless integration
No
None
Work in process
SEL framework has been created and features IDEAS very, very strongly. This will be rolled out next year with curriculum links. Anything that is not embedded in existing curriculum is being rolled out during Morning Meeting K-5 and during mentoring in MSHS. The framework is 26 pages long and extremely specific.
Nothing fully articulated and integrated yet. In elementary, there are many strands of these concepts worked into PYP units of inquiry.
Next year our HODs will be looking at the HS curriculum with the DEI lens.
There has been a school-wide effort on looking at the literature shared in the curriculum and adjusting book club books, curriculum links, classroom libraries, and even assessment tools to be more diverse and inclusive.
Far more obvious attention being paid to LGBTQ issues in advisory and service learning -- than anti-racism in the curriculum.
None except for the Slavery history unit and apartheid
We are just beginning this process.
Other comments
UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) is embedded across the school. It is specifically taught in library lessons and class lessons. Each classroom has an RRSA Article displayed outside. The Articles are displayed on lesson slides, there is a section of the library and wall display dedicated to it. There are a series of wall posters on the stair cases displaying RRSA Articles. The Rights promote equality, inclusion, celebrate diversity and social justice.
We are still working on the implementation of integration. We hope to provide mentor text or books that include diverse characters for elementary students.
We are currently 'de-colonizing' the curriculum through a multi-year process that will essentially never reach it's end.
"We have had a number of enrichment days and weeks when departments have been rehired to integrate above themes into the lessons during that period of time with lots of awareness raising in the lead up.
We are meant to offer diverse learning experiences within core classes with specialist help. This is a new goal for us, however, so we don't have specifics worked out. From what I understand it to be, inclusion is differentiation but with student choice.
Other comments
There are numerous Language and Literature and Humanities units across the grades that look explicitly at social justice but none that are brave enough to touch on equity in terms of sexual orientation for example. One L&L unit uses "Long Walk to Water" and then uses a range of supplementary including "Never Fall Down" , "Chinese Cinderella" etc.
We are looking into a more intentional integration.
English department agrees to have more books related to different gender options and our collection is adding more titles chosen by the head of English. Language support is informing teachers about learning diversity and have created a learning diversity week where our library presented a collection related to characters who have a learning diversity.
Frequent book displays tied to events in the school; an attention to DEI when building our core collections in Y7 to Y9
Our school seems to be in the early stages of addressing these issues--I would say that individual departments are attempting to change their curriculum, but that it seems to be more up to individuals and departments rather than being driven by school leadership in any coherent way.
Other comments
Our school-wide PD focus this year has been on DEI and Social Emotional Learning. Teachers and outside consultants provided a large number of workshops throughout the year.
I'm including a link to one of the workshops I provided related to conducting diversity audits in general and tips for conducting classroom library diversity audits. The slide deck has lots of resources that may be useful even if a person is not considering a doing an audit.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YMoxr9ITIWynV3tHbTikYFNY5l_BoRRhPtLjcn94Kgc/edit?usp=sharing
In addition to this, our school has created a commitment statement regarding DEI.
https://www.sas.edu.sg/about-us/dei
Signage throughout the school reflects this shift as well. Students have been serving on panels to discuss DEI issues in school. Students are also included in PD around this topic.
Other comments
In conservative Panama there has been some parent push back on addressing LGBTQI rights and empowering students in this area. Sometimes it feels we are stifled by the government oversight and church influence in the country
We talk a lot about diversity and equal rights and representation in advisory
Our school doesn’t have equality clauses or initiatives yet they deny that our school is racist. It is a struggle to hire BIPOC teachers
ISTE has release for first time a free online course in Spanish. I got a scholarship to study for free, they gave 1000 scholarships for teachers from Latin America and it is about how to teach online in rooms with diverse students background. It helps to reflect our prejudice as teachers.
We need more guidance and training and courage.
A Book Week focus at the beginning of the year helped teachers to see what resources could be integrated.
The link to the right should now be working…..��Sorry that it wasn’t before!
9pm Katie/Nadine
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Constraint:
Contact details:
Nadine Bailey (Western Academy of Beijing)
Katie Day (Tanglin Trust School, Singapore)
Nadine Bailey: @intlNadine
Katie Day: @librarianedge