In the spirit of Black History Month as a time to reflect and dig deeper into our commitments, CES would like to share some resources for those of you doing social justice and equity work in education. These come highly recommended by Safire DeJong, Ed.D., one of our Social Justice and Equity specialists. Their value will last beyond the month:
This is an hour-long forum on PBS featuring Bettina Love talking about abolition and education from her book titled “We Want to Do More Than Survive”. Here is also a link to her book and a Q&A where she talks about the concepts in her book.
Check out this TED talk by local faculty at Smith College, Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor. “The N-word in the Classroom,” and is a reflection of the work she’s been doing in classrooms over the last few years.
We recommend a book written by our local professor of Social Justice Education at UMass Amherst, Dr. Jamila Lyiscott, titled “Black Appetite. White Food. Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom“. Here’s a short video of Dr. J talking about her book.
Also, if you can, check out this book “Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms“. Here is a link to chapter 1 (available on the website) so that you can take a look.
If you want to talk more with colleagues and community about these topics, take a look at our CES conference Transforming Education for Social Justice which will take place on Saturday, March 14th at UMass Amherst.
And for an all-school read, this month or any month, “The Undefeated“, by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson.