Sheldon Eakins:

What's up, advocates? I got a question for us. Did we forget why we were here? And here's why I asked this question. I have been very fortunate with the Leading Equity Center to do a lot of trainings with a lot of our professional staff, teachers, school leaders, counselors, social workers, entire districts that I have been fortunate enough to work with. And over the past few years, one of the things that I have recognized is just because we provide professional development training for our staff, for our faculty and staff does not mean that our students' experiences will change.

Sheldon Eakins:

I'll say that one more time. Just because we provide professional development for our faculty and staff does not mean, does not guarantee that our students' experiences will change. So it goes back to my original question. I'm going to say this is rhetorical because I am recording this podcast, but just think to yourself as you're listening to what I'm saying. Did we forget why we were here? We're going to talk about recognizing the importance of student empowerment.

Sheldon Eakins:

When I was a young child, I'll be honest. I was not the nicest kid. I wouldn't consider myself a bully. However, I definitely liked to tease. Now, if you follow me, if you listen to a few of my shows at least one or two, you know I like to make jokes. And I used to like to make jokes as a kid. But when you start to tease others, one of the things that you recognize is don't tease students, don't tease your peers in front of your teachers. Kids are smart enough to know that. High schoolers, middle schoolers are smart enough to know that.

Sheldon Eakins:

So when we think about the experiences that our students are having, so we're as adults, as educators, we're working hard to be culturally responsive and we're providing, we're doing this equity work at our level, which is great. And I'm not taking anything away from that. I just don't want us to forget that when we are not around, when we have stepped out of the classroom, when we aren't in the hallways, when we're not sitting at the lunch room table, things may happen. Things like racism, teasing, bullying, all of these things can happen.

Sheldon Eakins:

Now imagine a child, a student, a middle schooler who is not part of the dominant culture. They represent a small percentage within the larger scheme of the school. Not only that, but they are a student who does not have any adults who represent any of the identities that they represent, that they identify with. Imagine their experiences throughout the school day when microaggressions occur, when prejudice and discrimination where students when they're raising their hand and they don't seem to be recognized. They almost appear or feel as if they are invisible.

Sheldon Eakins:

Maybe they have had an experience where a student has come up to them and said something to them that was very hurtful and they went to their teacher and told the teacher what happened, and the teacher brushed it off and said, "Oh, Billy was just playing. Lighten up." Let's say you have a Latinx student who has been told, "When are you going back to Mexico?" And let's just say, this student isn't even Mexican, they're Guatemalan. They're being teased or you have an Asian story who's being teased or bullied and told, "Well, why did you bring COVID here? This is all your fault. Your people's fault. Why do y'all eat dogs and cats and bats, all these weird animals? Why do you eat that? It's all your fault. You brought COVID here."

Sheldon Eakins:

How does a student who experiences these type of blatant acts, and again, often not in the presence of an adult, how do they respond to this? How do we empower our students and provide them with the language to advocate for themselves? Now every episode we talk about being an advocate because we recognize that we do not live in a just society. We recognize those things. We have young children, 13-years-old, 15-years-old, 12-years-old, 10-years-old who are having these experiences and they just need the language. They just need to know how do I respond? What do I say when I need help and there's no one else around, it's just me and I'm experiencing these things? How do I respond?

Sheldon Eakins:

Last year right after the murder of George Floyd, I had a superintendent reach out to me and she had the same question. She says, "Sheldon, you've been working with our district for this past year and we really appreciate the work that you're doing. But in the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests and civil unrest due to the result of the murder of George Floyd, we have students and we don't have a lot of black students, but we have students within our schools that need help. They've expressed to us that they do not feel as if their voice is being heard. Sheldon, could you talk to our students?"

Sheldon Eakins:

I said, "Yeah, let's do this." Because I felt that it was very important for us to get to the root of things. I met with this group of high school students and they were representatives of multiple high schools within the district and we came together for 90 minutes. I structured some implicit bias work. We engaged in some breakout rooms. We talked about how they felt as a result of the pandemic coupled with George Floyd. Now this wasn't just a group of black students. This was a mixture of students from all races. One of the things that some of the white students said was like, "I recognize police brutality is wrong. I don't know what to say. How do I support my peers? I'm not black. I don't know what to say or do, but I want to stand in solidarity, but I just don't know how."

Sheldon Eakins:

Now we unpacked all of this within 90 minutes. I felt that it was so beneficial and the superintendent and the staff that was present in this session felt that there was more work to be done because they discovered that although as an administration, although as adults, we sometimes believe that we know how our students are experienced in school. We know how they are feeling, but it brought out a lot of stuff. Some of the things that the students said, talked about how they felt like they'd been racially profiled in the hallways.

Sheldon Eakins:

I had students say that they felt the school was literally just trying to get them out of COVID and finished the school year, that they didn't care about their lives. Their lives didn't matter beyond getting them done with school. How do we figure out grades? What do we do for assessments? That seemed to be the focus. And that was the message that the students got. This past school year, we expanded upon this program and what we did was we created a student affinity group.

Sheldon Eakins:

Now around the same time, when I was working with this group of students in North Carolina, I had another principal reach out to me for her school. They had a social justice club and so their advisor and I worked together and we said, "Let's do this work as well." And so we also created these sessions. So let's talk about that. Why creating social justice affinity groups is essential? Well, this goes back to my original example regarding our students who are not part of the dominant culture. They represent a small identity. Maybe it's racial, maybe it's cultural, maybe it's ethnicity.

Sheldon Eakins:

And so having confidence in one's identity is not always easy when your identity is not part of the dominant group's demographics. Navigating a space in which school staff and students do not validate students' lived experiences and needs may invoke silence and feelings of oppression. The bottom line is students need to occupy spaces in which they can be themselves.

Sheldon Eakins:

Now, what is a social justice affinity group? A social justice affinity group is a group of students who share exclusion and isolation experiences as a result of their identity. Social justice affinity groups also include members willing to utilize their privilege in solidarity with members outside of the dominant school culture. We have to keep in mind that these affinity groups are not just for those who identify with these historically marginalized identities. We also need others who are willing to utilize their privilege, who recognize they have privilege and stand in solidarity with them as well.

Sheldon Eakins:

So over this past school year, the things that we have learned working with middle schoolers, working with high schoolers and creating these social justice affinity spaces. Some of the things that we have learned is a safe space is not enough. Putting a rainbow on the door saying I'm a safe haven, saying that I am an ally was not enough. They need it more than that. Our students wanted to learn terminology. What is a microaggression? What are examples of a microinsult, microinvalidation, microassaults? What are those? What is implicit bias? What is privilege? Do I have privilege? Could you break down race for me? I need support with gender pronouns and my identity within the LGBTQ+ community.

Sheldon Eakins:

How do I respond? They wanted to learn the terminology so that they could articulate their responses in a way that makes them feel empowered. Think about those times when you were a student or maybe you can relate to being the only person or part of a smaller population in a larger space of students, and the experiences that you might have had as a student with microaggressions and bias and privilege. Wouldn't it have been nice if you had received training or maybe you did, maybe you had someone that was supportive of you that helped you navigate your school day and provided you with a lot of the terminology and language and ways to respond in situations. But if you didn't have that, wouldn't it have been nice to have been able to be coached, to receive some training and feel empowered as a student?

Sheldon Eakins:

The next thing that the students told us that they wanted was real scenarios. "What do I say? How do I respond? Break this down to me." My classmate just told me, "You look good for a dark skinned girl. What do I say?" So we provided them with real life experiences, scenarios and we said, "This is a scenario. This is what happened. How would you respond?" And we would unpack that. We created breakout rooms for our students to be able to engage with one another in smaller settings. And then we gave them opportunities to do some work, right? This wasn't a set of venting sessions. There was some action behind this.

Sheldon Eakins:

Okay, let's create a plan that we can present to our administration on some of the challenges at our school and we taught them how to advocate for change. The Leading Equity Center is all about advocacy. Have you thought about creating a social justice, a student affinity group at your school, at your district? Are you looking at ways to get it started, get it off the ground? Maybe you are an individual who wants to get this work done, but just you don't know where to get started. You're toying with the idea. You know that the parents have asked for it. Maybe the students have asked for it as well and you just need help getting it off the ground. We can help.

Sheldon Eakins:

We created 10 workshops that will take your students through a progression starting with implicit bias and self-aware and ending with empowerment and advocacy. And again, this is not just for your students of color. This is for your students who are supportive, again, who recognize that we do not live in a just society.

Sheldon Eakins:

One of my favorite sessions is when my bad isn't enough, a session on microaggressions. We have several other sessions that are all packed into, again, provide a little bit of training support and gives them some fundamental terminology, we move into real life scenarios and unpack that and ultimately we boost their confidence and empowerment to create an experience in school that supports the work that you're doing already in creating an equitable learning space for all.

Sheldon Eakins:

I want to work with you. If you want to learn more, if you want to set up this program at your school it's called the Advocacy Room, an affinity space for student voices. There's a link in the show notes with more information. We'd love to work with you. One student said, "The order of workshops really showed me how I could improve my yourself as an ally and as an advocate. The first workshops about implicit bias and privilege made me look within myself, knowing who I am and what I think."

Sheldon Eakins:

I'll say this again. Creating a safe space for students or putting up an ally sign above classroom door is no longer enough to accommodate our students who have historically been marginalized. How do we create a brave space in which students feel empowered to use their voice in the name of social justice? Many of the students in our schools have experienced microaggressions, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes from their peers and even their school staff. We're offering this to the first 20 groups that sign up for this program a 20% discount. Again, more information is in the link in the show notes.

Sheldon Eakins:

We can't forget why we are here and we have to recognize the importance of student empowerment. Are you ready to transform the culture inside your school or your district? We're here for the kids and we all have to recognize the importance of student empowerment. Let's continue to be a voice in leading equity.

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