7.16: Your School Has a Diversity Statement. Now What?

First Name Basis Podcast

Jasmine Bradshaw

How To, Parenting, Education, Kids & Family

5 • 629 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all know that 2020 was a wake-up call for a lot of people. It was a time of reflection, a time of change (hopefully), and a time where schools all over seemed to prioritize inclusion by drafting diversity statements.

But here we are in 2022, and I find myself asking: Have the diversity statements made a difference?

It’s not enough for a school to just have a diversity statement up on its website — administrators, teachers, parents and students must be doing the work to make sure the values in that statement are actually reflected in how the school is run.

Dr. Renata Williams knows first hand what it’s like to help a school turn a diversity statement into a reality, and she came onto the podcast this week to help us learn how we can help our schools do the same.

Dr. Williams is an education administrator with over a decade of experience who is currently the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania — the first person to hold this position at the school. She’s worked with administrators at the school to design a comprehensive strategic diversity, equity and inclusion plan for everyone from faculty to students.

In this episode, Dr. Williams helps us understand:

How we can help teachers feel supported as they integrate anti-racism curriculum into their teaching.
How to embrace and foster students’ budding activism.
How parents, teachers and administrators can work together to make diversity statements have real impact at a school.
The value outside experts can bring into helping a school prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion.

Invite Jasmine to speak at your school!

Are you a parent or teacher who wants to help your school turn good intentions into positive action by making anti-racist education a priority? First Name Basis is here to help!

Jasmine Bradshaw, the host and founder of the First Name Basis Podcast, is an anti-racist educator and former second-grade teacher who has a passion for helping schools make real change. Whether you’re looking for a keynote speaker at your next PTA event, want to implement our Ally Elementary curriculum at your school, or need someone to consult with your school and provide teacher trainings, Jasmine is your go-to resource.

Head to firstnamebasis.org/speaking or email [email protected] for more information!

Articles, Studies, & Podcasts Referenced In The Episode

First Name Basis Podcast, Season 7, Episode 6: “Age Appropriate Anti-Racism”

Get in touch with Dr. Williams at [email protected]

Song Credit: “Sleeper” by Steve Adams” and “Dive Down” by VYEN

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the First Name Basis podcast, Season 7, Episode 16. Your school has a diversity
0:07.2	statement. Now what? Teaching our children to be inclusive and anti-racist starts with us within the sacred walls of our home.
0:23.5	First-name basis is designed to empower you with the confidence you need to be a leader in your
0:28.5	family and a changemaker in your community.
0:31.6	Together, we will wrestle with hard questions and use the answers to create the world we want,
0:39.4	a world that reflects our values of inclusion, compassion, and courage. I'm your host, Jasmine Bradshaw, and I am so excited
0:47.0	to be on this journey with you. Hello, First Name basis fam. I am so glad you are here. I'm really excited to share this
0:57.2	episode with you today because I feel like in the time after 2020, which is when a lot of you
1:03.4	probably started listening to first name basis, there has been a lot of work done on diversity
1:08.8	statements. I mean, people are bending over backwards to get
1:11.9	someone to write a diversity statement for them. And now we really need to think about what that
1:16.9	actually looks like playing out in the school. I've heard from some of you that you feel like
1:22.3	your school had a good start when it comes to talking about anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion
1:29.6	in school with kiddos, but maybe it has kind of been put on the back burner or maybe other
1:36.7	things have taken priority, which is totally understandable. But let's talk today about some
1:43.3	things that you can do to help your school,
1:45.6	your children's school, whether you're a parent or your school, if you're a teacher,
1:49.5	get kind of back on track when it comes to really living up to what you wrote in that diversity
1:55.2	statement. So I have invited Dr. Renata Williams here to teach us so much good stuff about what this can really look like in schools.
2:06.4	Dr. Renata Williams is the inaugural director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a school in Pennsylvania.
2:12.6	And so she has a really big job.
2:14.6	I mean, she is in charge of thinking about what it would really look like for
	...

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