Submitted by: Adele de Biasi Pelz
The World Language Department devoted this meeting to discussing the abstract entitled: Diversity and Inclusion in World Language Instruction by Sheri Dion. The article talked about four main topics :
Submitted by: Adele de Biasi Pelz
The World Language Department devoted this meeting to discussing the abstract entitled: Diversity and Inclusion in World Language Instruction by Sheri Dion. The article talked about four main topics :
Submitted by: Adele de Biasi Pelz
5/26
Submitted by: Joanne Magee
In the final meetings we made final comments and reviewed our narrative responses for the DEI work we covered this year.
Performing Arts report 2020/21 Academic Year
Members of our Department:
Music: Susan Glass, Nick Wight, Damon DueWhite, Carrie Nichols, Aedin Larkin.
Drama: Joan Jubett, Joanne Magee
Dance: Kristina Walton, Deborah Damast, Peggy Peloquin.
This year was particularly challenging for the performing arts department as our programs were understandably compromised and re-imagined in several ways in order to meet the needs of our students during the global pandemic. Many of us taught very different classes. In the LS, specialists were extremely limited . We all were unable to provide our usual programs so it was very hard to change the actual curriculum if it was not being taught. As we had a priority to revolutionize our programs as we adapted to the spaces, the remote times and the constraints, we also worked as best we could on the following process. We hope to continue with more time and focus in the years to come as this year was especially herculean for the performing arts.
Submitted by: Susannah Flicker
https://jamboard.google.com/d/167b4nwSaG0bAkBo_3FblKPv07KfR5-DWuiaQLmtJT_o/viewer?f=0
Submitted by: Karyn Silverman
The following notes are from the joint Library and Educational Technology Departments. We work closely and will have only five faculty between the two departments across all three divisions next year, all of whom were present at this meeting.
Positive movement regarding DEI initiatives:
Although this has been a complex year to navigate, true for all but specifically for Library and Technology complicated by lack of access to our spaces (both libraries and the Tech Commons at 6th Ave were repurposed to accommodate distancing and space requirements as dictated by the DOH), we are happy to report that we did manage to move forward in several target areas.
From a content access perspective, the librarians continued their work building a more inclusive, diverse collection; publishing has centered specific stories (generally focused on white, American, cis-het characters) and our collections have reflected that bias in available material. The recent explosion of greater diversity in the authors and experiences being published allowed us to significantly overhaul areas of concern. Specific areas of focus this year were picture books at the 6th Ave campus and the romance collection at the Charlton campus. Focal areas in picture books were greater representation of POC and female characters and authors. In romance, focal areas were greater POC rep and less heteronormative focus.
The librarians also significantly expanded our digital holdings, particularly recreational reading material in e and audio formats. This has been an on-going initiative, but was particularly critical this year to support fully remote students. There was some overlap between fully remote students and race and fully remote students and socioeconomic status, and increasing these collections meant those students were not further disenfranchised by lack of access to school resources. Expanding the audio collection is also a boon to neurodiverse students. Digital literature also allows students who may be working through questions of sexuality or gender to read freely without fear of anyone being aware of what they are reading, although we don’t know how significant an issue that is for members of our community.
Finally, we examined what books we promote passively and actively, and we began the process of auditing the books selected for readalouds (6th Ave) and promotion on the library Instagram (Charlton) and increasingly expanding the representation in the books we center. As part of this process, for the 2nd year running, our HS summer reading list focuses on generally underrepresented voices (works in translation, works set in other countries, works by and about authors and characters of color across all genres, greater representation of LGBTQ+ authors and stories, and almost all books available in audio as well as print and e-print).
From an equipment access perspective, this year marked a hige increase of getting devices into the hands of lower and middle school students. We hope to be able to continue this level of access and support even as the pandemic draws to a close.
When it comes to information access and awareness, the HS digital and information curriculum for grades 9 & 10 has continued work on finding sources that show women and POC in the fields of information science and digital studies. Our focus on teaching media literacy continues to use current and topical case studies that reflect an issue of social justice (e.g.: connecting cultural appropriation in TikTok to copyright; studying algorithms through the lens of human biases and social inequity).
Challenges:
The biggest challenge has been working within patriarchal systems of communication. We are a predominantly female department (whether considered jointly or separately) and our work is often complicated or stopped by a lack of communication from male administrators. Regardless of intent, the impact is that we feel left out of important conversations, and that our expertise in our content and pedagogy is neither respected nor included in policy and decision making.
Lack of materials: we continue to be frustrated that we cannot always find research materials that center experiences other than white, cis-het, usually male perspectives; this is a particular issue with databases.
Looking forward, the lack of staff will be a challenge. Fewer staff means a lack of equity for our students. The libraries (which at 6th Ave encompasses the Tech Commons) have long been spaces that allow students to stay at school until 5 or 6 pm. For students who may not have printing or robust internet connections, or a quiet workspace at home, this access is crucial to their academic success. Looking beyond the academic, the long hours have also allowed students who live far from the school and far from one another to spend social time together. With the staffing reductions in our library faculty and staff next year, we will not be able to provide this level of access.
Ways we would like to be supported:
What to know about our department:
We are thrilled Kalil will be joining LREI and looking forward to working with him!
We work well together and prefer to work collaboratively, whether with each other or with our divisional colleagues. Our focus is on learning — our own and that of others — and our modality is support and connection.
We are in the midst of a massive reorganization; this is a moment of flux and we are struggling to navigate the balance between growth and function. This reorganization has left us understaffed to a degree that will slow our forward momentum on DEI work. We are eager to do the work, but we feel limited by external institutional factors (staffing and money; structures that disempower our department). We are deeply embedded in the pedagogical and progressive mission of the school and responsible for many services that support students and faculty across all divisions, which means that if we cannot keep our momentum, we risk stagnation or backwards movement that will effect many other departments, particularly in as regards entrenched dominant and supremacist voices in research and reading material and as regards access to technology that can be used to support mission-drive, project-based progressive teaching in the classrooms.
Submitted by: Susannah Flicker
We continued our work from last week. We are working on compiling a summary/document of all of our ideas about how we can better address diversity and equity both as a department and in our individual practices. Document coming soon.
Submitted by: Jennifer Hubert Swan
We discussed database use across divisions, database renewal, and how to decrease the inherent bias present in most mainstream academic databases when demonstrating their use to students.
Submitted by: Clair
Ordering for Next year
Submitted by: Adele de Biasi Pelz
The World Language department used this time to begin creating a document of questions and ideas around cultivating meaningful information about our students to better serve their needs, interests, struggles and well being.
Submitted by: Adele de Biasi Pelz
This was the first time our full school department met together after moving to online teaching. We used the time to catch up, discuss our challenges, and share best practices, websites, and resources.
It was anecdotal and uplifting and most of us left feeling better about our experiences and how we could incorporate new ideas into our practice.