Reflection, Inquiry, Self-awareness, and Empathy: Strategies to Integrate Racial Equity in Teaching

Educators have been launched into uncertainty and unpredictable changes in teaching and learning. Navigating the emerging world of school calls for new levels of support for teachers. Citizen U, a program of the Barat Education Foundation, and DePaul University’s Office of Innovative Professional Learning with support from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, are providing a free micro-credential program consisting of three one-hour webinars to support teachers as they rise to meet the challenges of the unknown and the known. Teaching during COVID-19 and in a time of dismantling systemic racism requires innovative approaches grounded in compassion, mercy, and empathy.

The RISE program puts teachers at the center of transforming our schools with equity and innovation, providing strategies that integrate social emotional resources with racial equity. RISE—Reflection, Inquiry, Self-awareness, and Empathy—deepens educator knowledge and skills in using inquiry-based teaching to operationalize equity throughout school culture.

Webinar 1: RISE – Reflection
This webinar provides instructional strategies that engage students in discussing the emotional, economic, and educational impact of racism from a historical and a current perspective using inquiry and story. Using primary sources from the Library of Congress, we guide teachers in the use of the Primary Source Analysis tool alongside a new and innovative Reflection Tool as a resource to launch candid and respectful dialogue around racism.

Supporting Materials & Related Resources

• RISE – Reflection Presentation (.pdf)
• Primary Sources
  • Re-construction, or “a white man’s government” political cartoon, 1868
  • Slave Story photograph, 1920
  • Little Rock, Rally at state capitol photograph, 1959
  • Peoples’ Bicentennial Festival poster, 1975
  • Primary Source Spotlight: John Lewis
• Primary Source Analysis Tool (fillable .pdf) Library of Congress
• RISE analysis tool & RISE analysis guide
• Videos
  • 5 Tips for Being an Ally
  • Morgan Freeman Reads Rep. John Lewis’ Last Words
• Journal & Mind-Spirit-Body-Emotion Check-in (Google doc)
• Micro-credential assignments (Google doc)

Webinar 2: RISE – Inquiry and Self-awareness
This webinar highlights the use of self-awareness tools to examine beliefs about teaching and learning to operationalize racial equity and the use of primary sources from the Library of Congress as an essential resource to engage in this process. Learn how to help students investigate stories of racism in education through both historical inquiry and current context analysis and strategies for employing controversial discussions.

Supporting Materials & Related Resources

• RISE – Inquiry & Self-awareness Presentation (.pdf)
• Webinar 2 Chat transcript (.txt)
• Primary Sources
  • Fire me! w’at you mean, chile? illustration, c 1920
  • Little Rock, 1959. Mob marching from capitol to Central High photograph, Aug. 20, 1959
  • Civil rights leaders talk with reporters after meeting with President John F. Kennedy after the March on Washington, D.C. photograph, Aug. 28, 1963
  • Young boys harassing the Horace Baker family, the first African American family to move into the all white Delmar Village neighborhood of Folcroft, Pennsylvania photograph, Aug. 30, 1963
  • African American school children entering the Mary E. Branch School, Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia Sep. 16, 1963
  • Dark laughter. Now I ain’t so sure I wanna get educated political cartoon, Sep. 21, 1963
  • Primary Source Nexus: African American resources
  • Primary Source Nexus: Culture resources
  • Primary Source Nexus: Timely Connections connecting historical primary sources to contemporary events
• Primary Source Analysis Tool (fillable .pdf) Library of Congress
• RISE analysis tool & RISE analysis guide Barat Education Foundation & DePaul University
• Video: P&G Ad – The Talk
• Affirmative Interview Plan (.pdf)
• Historically Responsive Literacy (.docx)
• Ready for Rigor (.pdf)
• Micro-credential assignments (Google doc)

Webinar 3: RISE – Empathy

In this webinar facilitators model the integration of  culturally relevant pedagogical practices as well as leadership practices that consider equity at the forefront. Participants work with primary sources from the Library of Congress to create a personal plan of action for their own professional and personal vision of racial equity.

Supporting Materials & Related Resources

• RISE – Empathy Presentation (.pdf)
• Micro-credential assignments (Google doc)
• Primary Sources
  • Eight African American children, in kindergarten, learning washing and ironing at Whittier Primary School, Hampton, Virginia photograph, 1899
  • African American school children and teacher, studying leaves out of doors photograph, 1899
  • Africian [sic] American school children posed with their teacher outside a school, possibly in South Carolina photograph, between 1900-1910
  • African American children photograph, between 1915-1923
  • African American children learning about war rationing at school photograph, Apr. 1943
  • School integration. Barnard School, Washington, D.C. photograph, May 27, 1955
  • African American children on way to PS204 photograph, Sep. 13, 1965
  • African American and white school children on a school bus, riding from the suburbs to an inner city school, Charlotte, North Carolina photograph, Feb. 21, 1973
  • George Meadows, murderer & rapist, lynched on scene of his last crime photograph, c 1889
  • Marching near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to protest the lynching of four African-Americans in Georgia photograph, 1946
  • African American woman being carried to police patrol wagon during demonstration in Brooklyn, New York  photograph, 1963
  • Civil rights march on Washington, D.C.: African Americans carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias photograph, Aug. 28, 1963
  • Civil rights march on Washington, D.C. – African Americans behind a storm fence with police on the other side photograph, Aug. 28, 1963
  • African American demonstrators outside the White House photograph, Mar. 12, 1965
• Primary Source Analysis Tool (fillable .pdf) Library of Congress
• RISE analysis tool & RISE analysis guide Barat Education Foundation & DePaul University
• Videos
  • Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police Cut video via YouTube
    Feb 6, 2017
  • Black Student Voices: What We Need from Our Schools Education Week video via YouTube July 30, 2020

The RISE Program is led by Dr. Donna Kiel and three educational experts in the field.

Dr. Donna Kiel
Dr. Kiel is the founding Director of the Office of Innovative Professional Learning at DePaul University and a professor in the Educational Leadership. Dr. Kiel has been a secondary counselor, teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Dr. Kiel is a much sought after professional development provider and leadership coach. As Principal, Dr. Kiel’s work to support success of marginalized students resulted in a US News World Report Bronze medal. Dr. Kiel was a key founder of the Catholic Schools Opposing Racism organization and is a consultant for teaching methods to support racial equity.

Dr. Tina Curry
Dr. Curry is a distinguished equity consultant who has been an educator for 22 years. She earned an Ed. D in Reading and Language from National Louis University in 2015 and has worked as a middle school language arts teacher, high school reading teacher, middle school and high school literacy coach, high school equity coach, district literacy specialist and university adjunct professor. She is the author of The Tale of Two Literacy Coaches: Implications for Building Coaching Capacity and a contributing author of Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters. Her expertise includes culturally responsive teaching, equity, diversity in literacy, and instructional coaching.

Felicia Shaviri
Felicia is an equity and life coach and best-selling author. Felicia combines her personal experience growing up in Englewood with her 20 year experience as a correctional officer to inspire others to live with unity, authenticity, insight, and wellness. Felicia has led workshops and retreats in which she has inspired countless people to become active agents of change and equity. Felicia’s passion for health and fitness add to her work in helping others realize their potential. She is a much sought after consultant and coach.

Suzy Evans
Suzy has been an elementary educator and professional development provider.  She has worked with the Our American Voice® Program (OAV) since its inception. Suzy led OAV students from the Englewood and Back of the Yards neighborhoods on a civil rights study through the south, learning through history in Selma, Birmingham, and Memphis so that these young leaders could use their voices in their own communities.