Our Focus
- Gloria McDaniel - Hall
- Feb 10, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Oct 27, 2024
Gloria McDaniel-Hall (National Louis University) and I, Ava Belisle-Chatterjee, (Columbia College Chicago) are exploring our thinking about meaningful use of the State of Illinois’ Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading (CRTL) Standards (https://www.ISBE.net/Documents/23-24RG-P.pdf) as guides for our work in higher education.
At present, we are particularly focused on Standard a, beginning with reflections about our own way of thinking. We have found use of Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s Four Pivot’s (2022) framework very beneficial for a close-up look at our habits of thought and ways for interacting with others.
We are hoping to have others join us in this essential work of beginning with ourselves and pivoting in order to make the changes called for in the CRTL Standards.
Ginwright, S.A. (2022). The four pivots: Reimagining ourselves, reimagining justice. North Atlantic Books.
One of the substandards of Illinois' Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading (CRTL) standards urges us to [i]nclude representative, familiar content in the curriculum to legitimize students’ backgrounds, while also exposing them to new ideas and worldviews different from their own.
In our delving into this substandard, Gloria and I asked ourselves the following questions:
· What do we do to legitimize our students’ backgrounds through the curricular choices we offer?
· How do we facilitate student exploration of new ideas and different worldviews?
This past week we celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day and I thought about how the backgrounds of indigenous students were being legitimized (or not), such that both indigenous and non-indigenous students were learning about indigenous languages and culture.…
We are excited to be presenting at the International Conference on Urban Education this year! It's the 5th conference - it takes place every other year and this year it's in Cancun. Past keynote speakers have included Pedro Noguera, Gloria Ladson-Billings and Sonia Nieto. Check out their site for additional information: https://www.theicue.org
Check out this amazing conference. We hear it is an outstanding resource: https://crsea.org
Doing the work of "reimagining ourselves" can often be difficult, if not painful. Working with others on that journey can be helpful, especially because of the wealth of ideas that gets shared. This link provides some of that wealth shared by a group of Illinois teacher and leader educators. https://sites.google.com/view/crtlresourcesmonson/home
It's very interesting to see how important and meaningful the work of looking inwards is for both teachers and students. This interview (link below), facilitated by Gloria, provides some powerful examples of the kind of impact such work can have on ourselves as teachers and as human beings, as well as on our students' feelings of connection to the learning environment and processes. https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ff.io%2F39DLhzXy&data=05%7C02%7Cachatterjee%40colum.edu%7C069b2a3dd03944b6b1a508dcdf3570f5%7C243ef28877994efcaff5fde4e3f1c98d%7C0%7C0%7C638630667854037094%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=G41YywO7KDcyQuYAnrgCP3u%2FmpR2wyvSTVM7sFafkg0%3D&reserved=0