full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Afrika Afeni Mills: 4 ways to have healthy conversations about race
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: ientidfy your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.
In my work with educators around the country, when we exlorpe what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in ewedek Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that pivodre free instructional resources that suprpot lessons and doaulgie with students about race. So access to instructional rurscoees isn't the true cglehnlae. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external faotrcs as challenges than it is for us to apcect responsibility to influence what is within our loucs of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial raical harm in this cturnoy. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.
Open Cloze
Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: ________ your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.
In my work with educators around the country, when we _______ what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in ______ Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that _______ free instructional resources that _______ lessons and ________ with students about race. So access to instructional _________ isn't the true _________. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external _______ as challenges than it is for us to ______ responsibility to influence what is within our _____ of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial ______ harm in this _______. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.
Solution
- resources
- racial
- dialogue
- edweek
- identify
- accept
- support
- locus
- factors
- explore
- country
- challenge
- provide
Original Text
Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: identify your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.
In my work with educators around the country, when we explore what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in EdWeek Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that provide free instructional resources that support lessons and dialogue with students about race. So access to instructional resources isn't the true challenge. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external factors as challenges than it is for us to accept responsibility to influence what is within our locus of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial racial harm in this country. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.
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Important Words
- accept
- access
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- confronting
- control
- conversations
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- find
- free
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- honest
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- identify
- influence
- instructional
- lack
- lessons
- locus
- manifestations
- organizations
- percent
- provide
- race
- racial
- racism
- report
- research
- resources
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- school
- share
- special
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- step
- steps
- students
- substantial
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- today
- training
- true
- underlying
- understandable
- work
- wrong