Why Inclusivity Matters To Us

By Tanea Hibler and Ariel Serkin

When I consider the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I’m not engaging in an intellectual exercise that I can step into, and then step out of. I’m engaging in the work of creating a safe, and a welcome place for myself, and others, to exist. When I mean safe, I mean a place where I feel welcome, respected, valued, listened to, acknowledged, and where people take the time to collaborate with me. I want this FULL experience as an educator and I have worked toward this goal for 15 years. I have a B.S. in Biology, a Masters in Education, a Masters in Teaching Earth Science, and numerous graduate courses, workshops, internships, conferences, and experiences that have allowed me to mature into a great teacher, and I will continue to pursue my education into the future.

As the only Black female faculty at my current school (or one of the few people of color at previous positions), working in a historically and predominantly white male school, I often struggle to feel as if I belong, and if I am serving the right kids. Please don’t get my words twisted, I go above and beyond for my students, and I have helped some of them tap into their passions, pursue amazing opportunities, and at times I just provide a safe space for students to exist as they are. Yet I often exist in isolation within my role as a teacher, and don’t have someone who can relate with my struggles. The question is why? Why might I feel this way, and why does it matter?

Let me use my experience in the NGSS Biology Facebook group, which is moderated by Amber Blount Willis, to reiterate the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equity. As a group member, who is trying to connect with other Black science educators, and increase the number of Black attendees at conferences, or at workshops hosted by AMTA and NABT, I decided to post something in the group such as “Any Black Biology teachers in this group?” My response was met back by Stephanie (a teacher in the group) with “This is awesome to show the diversity of biology teachers, but what difference does it make?” If nothing else, this comment was unwelcome, unwarranted, and unnecessary. At this point I had dozens of Black educators who posted and replied to reach out. I mentioned that I would save the post to connect with them in the near future. However, I decided to also speak up in response to the negative comment (and the heart emojis that it was getting). Later my post was removed, and all the contacts I made were gone. This was the devastating part for me. In this virtual platform, someone actually had the power to keep me from connecting with other Black teachers, and that they chose to use their power this way, hurts. I went back to the group and expressed my disappointment to the group (disappointment about those that were putting out negative energy, and whoever got my post removed). That post was also removed, which prompted me to contact the moderator through messenger. I later discovered I was blocked from the group after the brief messenger discussion with the moderator. Reaching out to the moderator was an attempt to hash out any issues as equals (educators), but she clearly didn’t see it that way, as she said I didn’t have the right to “criticize” the group. She didn’t feel any need to engage me in conversation, acknowledge my feelings, or feel the need to address the disappointment that I posed to the group. This is a reflection of my everyday experiences navigating conferences, engaging in discussion with colleagues, going to workshops, presenting at workshops, applying for jobs, engaging in conversation with teachers in graduate classes, etc. I am always the odd woman out, the only person of color, and no one ever asks why. I am expected to adhere to a system, that in its current state, will not be lifting up many more like me to join me in these spaces.

I can deal with being ostracized, but I’m going to challenge anyone that takes part in a system that allows some teachers to be excluded. What is it about being Black and reaching out to other Black people that makes one so upset? Or was it that I spoke up against the comments on my post? Maybe it was that I challenged the moderator of the group? In either case, it is apparent to me that white fragility has prevented me from reaching my goal, it has prevented teachers from sharing their perspectives with each other, and it has prevented further needed discomfort in the NGSS Biology group, it actually dictates what I am able to pursue on a day to day basis as a teacher. Sitting in discomfort would have been a sign of possible growth for the teachers who were engaged and reading my post. Why does the complaint of one person (presumably White) take precedence of 25 or more Black people?

What was it about having all those Black teachers posting and connecting that really upset the group? I mean, one can’t actually say that they don’t value groups that help teachers make connections and learn from other educators. But even worse, the message for all the remaining 8,000 people in the group is, this is not a welcome or safe space. We will ostracize you if you don’t go along with our norms. What have the norms been for people of color and their allies? It’s always been that you can exist in a white space, but don’t congregate together, don’t discuss any frustrations you might have, be grateful and don’t complain, don’t challenge the status quo, and you aren’t welcome if you can’t abide by these norms. In fact, emotional or physical violence is often inflicted against Black people who challenge the norm.

If this is the conscious, or unconscious, response to my posting and trying to connect with educators, then what type of unconscious biases might impact how all these teachers play out roles with their students, or with other colleagues at work? Or is our society so segregated that the average White science teacher doesn’t have Black colleagues? Can these biology teachers even comfortably discuss race with their students? Do these teachers even value the experience their students have? Furthermore, what does this say about the day to day interactions that impact teachers of color, students of color, and their communities? If teachers aren’t even willing to engage respectfully in virtual spaces, and they expect people of color to defer to them, what happens in actual schools? Who is expected to defer to whom? Who is encouraged to be a science teacher? Who is encouraged to teach AP classes? Who is encouraged to speak and share their experiences, who is, or isn’t motivated to change systemic practices, who determines the agenda for department meetings, and who determines the curriculum we teach, and how to teach it?

Hey ALL you teachers out there. It is time that we challenge the system, and try something new. Look at what we have done since the founding of the first public school in 1635, who we have served at these institutions, and what the outcome has been for those left out? Schools have historically not served people of color, they are not producing enough STEM teachers of color, and not producing students of color to go into STEM. In fact, public schools have historically failed students of color and continue to do so. As Robin Diagelo stated in her book White Fragility, “If I am not aware of the barriers you face, then I won’t see them, much less be motivated to remove them. Nor will I be motivated to remove the barriers if they provide an advantage to which I feel entitled.” In 2019 we chose not to see, so we don’t have to act. I’m asking asking you to see. Historian Ibram X. Kendi says to be anti-racist is to admit that racist ideas and structures exist and to call them out. So let us acknowledge that the results of our actions in some areas, and inactions in others, are exclusions of certain groups of people. Exclusion will be the default if we do nothing. This is an exclusion from the full experience of being a teacher, a student, a colleague, a friend, a leader, and a citizen. I challenge you, regardless of how you see yourself on the racism spectrum, to reflect more deeply about the role you play to maintain the structures within our educational system and professional groups, and next time someone gets you upset, reflect why, dig deeper, and learn about what drives your unconscious, and how that makes you act, whether that be in virtual space, on a sidewalk, in school, church, or home.

As a teacher I value having a space to share and connect with other science educators. I also appreciate engaging and learning from other teachers. Being removed or blocked from the NGSS Biology page is frustrating, but we will find those we consider allies in many spaces (virtual or otherwise), and these relationships give me hope. What is the response of a true ally? Let me ask a friend I had the pleasure to meet at the AMTA leadership conference at ASU.

“Ariel, I consider you an ally. Can you tell me how you engage in the authentic work of building inclusivity into your classroom, and why is this so important to you?”

Ariel’s response: Like many white liberals, I look at myself and the false ways that I tried to be an ally over the years. I remember being around people who said things such as “I don’t see color” and thought that it was a remarkable way to see the world. I thought that it was the goal of the people to get beyond color, that we were all part of the same humanity. I was wrong.

You see, I’m an observant Jew and in many ways I can blend in with the rest of society. I can pass for the majority as a white woman. And yet, I can recount stories of prejudice and Anti Semitism against me personally, about how being a religious minority impacts my everyday life. If Anti Semitism is something that I have to encounter on a regular basis as I have white privilege, how much racism is out there that I have been allowed to, by the color of my skin, pretend did not exist? If I feel as though I’m “other” when my public school celebrates Christmas and I don’t, how much more so do my students of color feel othered when the school, curriculum, and culture are written by and for white students?

I thought that I understood based on my experiences growing up in New Haven, CT I was a natural ally to people of color. I attended an inner city high school where I was the minority as a white person and as a Jew. It has taken years of hard examination to realize that the power and privilege that I have and the racism that I have internalized over the years.

To answer Tanea’s questions, how do I work to bring inclusivity into my classroom? I try in a number of ways.

1st: I educate myself on racism and the role of educators. I have read books such as Whistling Vivaldi, Everyday Antiracism, White Fragility, and How to Be an Anti Racist. I allow myself to be uncomfortable and recognize that having internalized racism does not make me a bad person.

2nd: I have tried to separate the idea of being racist is being bad. We have an image that racists are members of the KKK and walk around in their white hoods. They are identifiably “bad people.” But, that’s not reality. Many people have perpetuated racism without being bad. We need to look at the systemic problems and the ways that we have internalized them and work to break them down.

3rd: I look at ways that I have perpetuated racism. In a number of the schools that I have taught at, students of color have been in the minority. When assigning groups, I have intentionally separated my Black students because in my head, I thought that I was doing the right thing. Upon reflection, I know that I would never have made groups with, for example, only one female student. My initial thinking was that I didn’t want to make my students feel as though I separating the students of color from the white students when I should have asked what the students wanted to make sure that they felt supported in the class. I look that I initially wrote “separated students of color from the rest of the class” and realized that even here I had perpetuated racism by assuming that white was the norm and everyone else was other.

4th: I have begun to look at the way the curriculum itself is biased. We teach assuming that science is based solely on facts and evidence and that it’s “right.” We credit the white men who published results wihtout having the conversation about other people who contrinbuted to the advances in science who were not recognized because of their race, sex, or religion.

5. I talk about who is valued when it comes to modern science and try and incorporate resources such as STEPUP for Physics and Underrepresented Curriculum into my teaching.

6. I value people’s experience and hear them and do better the next time.

Why is it important to me?

I wish I had a clearer answer, it’s because I believe that if one of us is not free, then none of us are free. If all educators do not work to dismantle racism and racist ideas in our classrooms, we regularly fail our students and colleagues. We fail our students and colleagues when we believe that white teachers know their communities and know what is best without consulting others. We fail our colleagues and friends when we don’t support them and expect them to do the hard work of educating everyone else on racism and its impacts.

I want to be the best educator I can be and I want my students to have to best educators that are out there. To do that, I need to be actively anti racist.

**If you would like to join us to continue to build these relationships, consider joining our Facebook group -Science Teachers for Social Justice