Teach to Change Now
An anti-racist toolkit by Educators for Educators
The following toolkit and resources within was curated by educators, for educators in response to the urgent need for access to educator-specific anti-racist learning in one place. The teacher curators partnered with anti-racist expert Lorena Germán to ensure all materials included are high quality, appropriate for anti-racist learning, and center the voices of BIPOC experts. The goal of this toolkit is that each user will learn, move forward in their anti-racist journey, and start the next school year with at least one reflection and action step on their path of becoming an anti-racist teacher. Individuals and systems in this country can no longer inadequately respond to or ignore race, prejudice, racism and white supremacy within our school spaces because it is either convenient or too-challenging to tackle — especially for white educators who can always choose to opt out from difficult race work. As educators collectively, we must prepare ourselves to actively confront racism in all our school spaces.
“In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti racist.”
Anti-racist work, at any level, begins with reflection. Begin with the Equity Self-Audit and the adaptation of Andrew M. Ibrahim’s Continuum of Change to orient yourself to your best entry point.
Begin exploring resources in the toolkit at your self-determined point of entry. The Learning Resources are designed to meet you where you are.
Differentiated Calls to Action
Some educators know immediately why they are focusing on anti-racist work, and others may have a less clear articulation despite their commitment to entering the work through an equity lens. These identity-based calls to action address how the purpose and importance of the work may be different depending on both an educator’s racial identity as well as the racial identities of the students that they serve. These identities are currently broken into Black, White, and IPOC (indigenous or person of color). If you are a non-Black teacher of color, either identifier statement may more aptly apply to you; these identifiers are intended as a starting place and are non-complete.
Anti-bias and anti-racism (ABAR) work is deeply personal and differs based on who you are and where you teach. Each educator is called into this work with a unique background that has shaped their world-view, and therefore the nature of this work – what you do and why you do it – will be different for every individual.
To more closely examine why this work is important within your unique school community and teaching context, you are encouraged to select the most appropriate identifier that most closely aligns with your identity or consciousness entry point.
The Collective
The Teach for Change Now Collective is a collaborative effort by a diverse group of educators and experts. As educators, we must prepare ourselves to actively confront racism in all our school spaces. In partnership with Black leadership, anti-racist experts, and teacher leaders, this toolkit provides educators with differentiated resources to position themselves as lifelong learners and anti-racist educators.