The Equity Recap: 2023

As we wrap up 2023 and the first 5 months of The Dragonfly Rising Podcast, we're celebrating the top 3 episodes!!

1. E6: Equity Unveiled: The Importance of Culturally Responsive Leadership with Dr. Gabrielle Wallace
2. E4: Equity in Action: Awareness and Building an Equity Community with  Dr. Tami
3. E3: Equity in the Classroom: Cultivating Minds, Inspiring Change, Building Community with Kelly Schrems

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Discovery Call

Transcript

 Hello, and welcome to another episode of the dragon fly rising podcast with me, your host, Dr. Tommy Dean. I am so excited for our episode today. , today's going to be our 20, 23 recap as you may know, , we launched, , the podcast. But the very end of July. So five months into 2023, and I'm so excited about the work we've been able to do. And the information we've been able to share. With you, the listeners around equity and education and highlighting some of the amazing things that educators around the country are doing. 

So if you hadn't taken a peek at Instagram, one, why not please head over and give me a like, and a follow and,  share that with your friends over, uh, on Instagram at dragon fly rising LLC, but so excited about, again, what we've accomplished. , the dragon fly rising podcast is now being listened to in six different countries.  Super excited about that. I feel like that's a huge accomplishment in just the 10 episodes. , that, , I've been able to put out so far. So looking forward to what's coming up in 2024.,  as we move into getting ready to launch 2024, there are actually two ways you can help continue to support, , the content and this podcast. 

, it's linked here in the description, but also in my bio on Instagram. , you can one to send me a gift. So thank you. , for doing that, there's a link there for that as well as an opportunity for you to subscribe to the podcast, to help support it and this content creation. So thank you in advance for your support and the links are in the description and over an IgG. , but getting back to the purpose of today's episode. 

So today we're going to take just a look back over the last five months. With the content that I've been able to share with you all and to share a few clips to highlight..  those, those top three episodes. So.,  coming in at number one is,, the episode that I was able to record with Dr. Gabrielle Wallace. 

 Shout out to Gabrielle. She is now a doctor from the time that we first recorded her. , podcast to now. So the culture responsive leadership. Episode. , Gabrielle really spent, , sometimes sharing with us the importance of culturally responsive leadership and.   Her work centers around. You know, critical reflection, organizational change. And making considerations for how we.  Show up and bring those assets into the edge educational spaces. 

So, , I'm going to. Just share a little clip from her episode here for you all to take a listen. 

 This, this is everyday work.   speaking on earlier. You know, , I have this badge, or I have this certification. And being a socially responsive leader, this is the everyday work of how we function. What is our mindset when we show here, and what are the behaviors that we exhibit  that align to our. Values  and Not just our values as a school, right? Sometimes what has happened is we have created  values as institutions, and I don't think this is just schools, this is just anywhere That's an, a large organization. We create our own culture and way of functional way being the problem comes when it doesn't intersect or align with the people we serve.

 And so the people we serve have values, and that's kind of what it goes back to is that these culturally responsive leaders, before they had a name and a or a title to 'em, were people who said, oh, the community is dealing with this equity issue. How can we support them and educate them to deal with that issue?  Right.   Or this community may not have wealth in the form. Shout out to Yo Dr. Yso may not have cultural wealth and I mean  wealth as far as income, but they have a lot of cultural wealth, meaning.  They have a loving family. Okay? Or they have friends or they understand how to navigate different social scenarios.

 They have dreams and aspirations. They have language more than one, you know, so there's all this richness that makes you up as a person and a culturally responsive leader sees that not only in the students, but in the teachers and in the community members, and is able to.  I can bring all these people together and honor their experiences

Yes.  And see them as assets,  rather. Yes. That's the key I think, is that, that that shift in the view, and you were to, you wrote something about that critical self-reflection, and I think that's, Where this goes for leadership, right? You said critical self-reflection is a mindset that drives equitable decisions while culturally responsive leadership is expressed behavior that brings those out.

Right. So to  me,  and tell me if I'm interpreting this wrong, but.  When I'm self-reflecting and I'm thinking about all the things you shared, right? I'm thinking about the community, I'm thinking about the people under my leadership.  How do my actions  reflect seeing those as assets?

Yes.  Yes, that. That's it, Tammy. That's it.

Wow. So how are actions reflecting the assets of those in our community? So I'm going to encourage you if you haven't yet listened to that full episode, , head on over to your. Podcast provider that you're in now. , and please take a listen to Gabrielle's episode on culturally responsive leadership. 

, she offers in that episode, some practical tips and protocols for leaders to initiate these conversations and implement some positive changes. And, , I just want to clarify, right.  A leader can mean, , the assistant superintendent superintendent, a principal assistant principal. It can also mean an instructional coach. You could also be a leader. In the space that you're in. 

So how do you take that opportunity to be an equity leader in your environment? Take a listen to Gabrielle's episode.



To learn more. 

So moving in, , through our journey, , of the top three episodes for the dragon fly rising podcast for 2023. , next step is. I think. So powerful. It's actually an episode where I actually don't have a guess. It's just Dr. Tamimi by myself. Uh, but really talking about awareness and community and those of you that know me, or have had the opportunity to work with me. , and for those of you that don't. , one of the key drivers for me. Is how are you doing the work and building awareness of self.  In your equity journey. 

So understanding those. Pieces that make up who you are, your life experience, how we understand the world intersectionality. Of who you are. Um, the things you have learned. And grown from. , where you live all, all the things right. Um, because.  One of the essential pieces of equity work is community. 

And how are you building and fostering that community. And that community begins  with yourself. Because if you aren't clear on understanding



what motivates you? Or the emotions that come out of this work, , it can cause some challenges. , as you try to move forward. So like that honest reflection of yourself and, and building this community and viewing and seeing your assets as well as opportunities for growth, but really. What are the assets of those students, the educators, the leaders, the partners that you have around you. 

 We're going to just pop on in a little bit to that episode where I talk about listening. , and listening to respond. Versus react. So a lot of times in equity work, there is a lot of emotion and feelings and we might not completely. I have done all the work to understand why we're feeling that way, but.  Our agency lies in how we respond. Versus how we react. 

So taking that pause. So let's just take a listen to a clip from that episode. Where i talk a little bit more in depth about that....

a lot of times when we think about difference, um, and celebrating the difference,  it ends up showing up as, um, a very well-intentioned surface level. Look at a. Those differences or tho it comes out as like cultural or racial difference and looking at diversity from a  very one dimensional perspective. 

So that that diversity equals, you know, what is the racial makeup of the students in front of me or the educators in front of me? What is the, cultural difference? Connect to that? What is the socioeconomics difference, you know, associated with that?   But really  part of the way to shift to thinking about  experience and diversity as asset.

And valuing and honoring those ways of  knowing the world and being in the world.   And then therefore learning in the world  is being able to see di diversity as multidimensional.

There is not a  one piece  part of diversity because if you think about yourself, they, you are a multi-layered person.  You have a variety of components  and experiences and connections that make you who you are. And so as we're thinking about  building and fostering  an equitable and  socially just learning space, or if you're a leader, a working space, For your educators who can therefore help build this for, for students, right?

That means coming and building relationship and showing up as your true and authentic self.  And part of being able to show up as your true and authentic self is starting at the beginning with an awareness of you. And yourself and who you are. So just like if you are in a friendship or a romantic relationship, right,  those relationships are better and stronger  when you have an awareness of yourself, and that means what you've experienced. 

What you haven't experienced,  how you see yourself,  how the world sees you.  And you know, a lot of times those two things don't match how you see yourself and how the world sees you or what is true about  you  and who you are. Right? And you know, I can  pause and just give an example here is. You know, I mentioned this in, in a little bit in my, you know, meet Dr.

Tammy is, you know, I grew up in the nineties. I mean, well, I don't wanna say grew up. I mean, I did eighties, nineties, you know, um, I'm a Gen Xer. I think I already said that. But  what I'm going with this here is.  How to quote unquote categorize me has been a challenge for my whole life. Like I've heard a lot of, I don't know what you are.

I know you're something,  or assumptions were made about what that quote unquote something is or was at the time. And so for me,  how I.  Identify or identified myself was very different from what the world see saw and still sees like that.  I wish I could say I don't still hear that. I do.  Uh, I just, I just heard it again the other week.

Right. And, and then there's surprise about it because,  you know, and to be fair, as humans, part of what we do is we try to categorize, , and group.  People things to make sense of our world. That's part of how we make sense of our world. So in some ways it makes sense that that happens, but I am in a place where I am very strong and confident and aware of my own experiences, the intersectionality of those experiences, and how that leads to how I interact with others in this equity space or just in any relationship.

So,  If you're finding that you are in an earlier part of your journey and you're like, where, where do I even start? And I'm gonna say, start with yourself.  Start with  building that relationship with yourself and being true and honest. So this is a time for an honest accounting of.  What you've experienced, what you haven't, who you've interacted with in the world or haven't.

When you do  interact with various cultural or racial groups or genders or people of, uh, differing sexual orientation than you, whatever the group might be, or the experience might be, what? What happens? What is your experience? What are your thoughts? And part of this exercise  is to build this awareness around yourself and what you know, what you've experienced, and what you haven't to identify, where you have opportunities to grow, but it also  builds opportunities for you  to identify. 

Your triggers.  So  one of the things that,  keeps coming up or will come up as we engage in this work is there's a lot of feeling and emotion associated with a lot of  equity work  and learning to know and understand your emotional.  Triggers and to begin to self-reflect and investigate the why behind those triggers and those feelings, um, is going to be key to being able to take a moment and pause  and reflect and respond versus react. 

And so those things  then, Allow you  to be more comfortable  engaging in the work 'cause you have an awareness and then you can start to build an awareness and build opportunity to engage with the students you work with, with the teachers you work with in authentic ways.

Wow. So my. Question slash challenge for you all is. To reflect on as we move and get ready. , to move into 20, 24 and the second semester of the school year here in the next week or so. , if you're listening to this ad December 31st or nearby, , is.

How are you building awareness?  And. Using that as an opportunity to engage with others. So.  Just be thinking about that also, , be looking for some new content I'm going to be dropping. And my website and on my IgG. Paige around this topic. To help support you with that process and doing that work. So be on the lookout for those things. 

So I love when Sarah DUP is things happen. And so moving into our top, the number three slots for our top three episodes has shear. It was the cultivating minds episode. That I recorded with Kelly and Kelly is a high school teacher in Bloomington, Illinois. And how appropriate that her episode focuses on exactly that. 

 Building community with students. And bringing in. Diverse texts that reflect the experience that look at.  History from multiple perspectives. And so in this episode,  Kelly is using the book wake, which is linked in the notes as well as on my webpage , if you would like to read it where the author is actually a researcher, but she it's a graphic novel and it's, it's fabulous. 

I highly recommend you read it. , where it's. Her own reflections and moving through this as a black woman, as a researcher and trying to find out the story. Uh, women and black women specifically,  During the slave revolts, so fabulous graphic novel, but let's listen a little bit. She, the intentionality behind what Kelly. Was planning for her students. , in her episode.

Right. Is that like she flips back and forth? So like every other chapter is like one chapter about these women-led flavor volts that she's researched. And then the next chapter is about like her experience in, in researching it and how she's struggling as a historian, as a female historian, attempting to find documentation.

Like there's this one whole chapter.  Where she talks about, I can't remember, it's like a, a bank in London where she wanted to go and get these like primary documents that she thought would help her write this research. And the bank is just straight up like, no, we do not give documents. We

was Lloyd's of London, right? Wasn't it? Yes. Yes.

that's what it was. And they were like, no, we're not giving you anything. Obviously in this institution is attempting to hide their Past involves with slavery is why they're refusing to give her these documents. But I really like it for my students, and particularly in a dual credit class, because they're not only going to see these amazing stories of women-led slave revolts, but they're also gonna see the challenges that historians can face in finding these documents, which can really, it can really answer the question like, okay, why are women missing?

Like, why don't we have these stories? Where are they and how can we find them? And then also just. Sometimes the inability to do so. The sad truth that we have institutions that are trying to hide these stories, and I'm hoping it leads to great conversations about how do we get around that? What is it actually like to study history?

Yeah.

Yeah, I do think that's something that's so compelling. I know there was multiple pieces like that, Lloyd's of London, like how they were basically ensuring the slaves on the slave ship. Right. And so I. This powerful idea. And you know, we see this in lots of places in America and American history, and especially in this climate right now, right?

Where we're trying to deny the events that happened and took place. Right? And so I think that's interesting, right? Because this is our, ancestral connection back to England and the colonies and all those things. And they're trying to hide what they were involved in and like, Let the the truth be the truth.

 And I think that's the biggest thing when we talk about, and you can tell me what you think about this. When I think about like equity and social justice, to me it's like, let's focus on the truth. Like it's not, we can't apply to today's evaluation or expectation or social cultural norms to what happened, doesn't make it right.

But at the same time, like ignoring it, we're doomed to. Repeat our history, right? We're not gonna really be able to think about the systems and structures that exist and how to make them better.  Because if we can't go back and look at the history, then how do we know how to make it, make it different, right?

And so, I don't know. I don't know. What do you think about that? I mean, I'm curious  

I. 

Kind of a struggle, kind of frustrating for me in our current climate. Especially I'm a history teacher, so that has been interesting over the last two or three years. Something that really frustrates me in some of these examples of like trying to hide these stories and limit what teachers can talk about in the classroom and kind of limit you know, specific groups of people being talked about.

Something that really frustrates me is I look at my classroom.  And I'm like, but this story applies to maybe 75% of the students in here. So it's just very frustrating when we're choosing what we can teach versus what we can't. But there's students in the classroom that like, but that is their history.

But that does apply to them. But that is what like their past is about. So why is one group of students. Allowed to hear a story that relates to them and another group of students isn't. I just don't, I don't particularly understand. And ob obviously, that argument is oftentimes coming from people not in a classroom.

But I, I don't under, I don't understand how we do the mental gymnastics to make that decision, so I dunno.

You are never going to bring every single thing in. So you really need to look at your student population and what is going to drive, like their inquiry and their engagement. And I find nine times out of 10 that when I make the choice, Of, okay, like this lesson, I'm gonna make sure that I talk about women led slave roles.

Those are always the lessons that hit it out of the park because my students immediately attach to that and immediately want to know more. So I have never, ever, ever regretted being like, all right, I guess I'm gonna put writing a paragraph on the back burner for this one day, and we're gonna talk about this specific topic instead.

I have never regretted that. I just think especially young teachers like it is gonna feel overwhelming. And it is gonna feel like you're expected to do everything. You also have some choice though, and I always think that going for the d e I approach always works. 

 Amazing work, Kelly. I am so excited to let you all know that we're going to be doing a followup episode with Kelly coming up in 2024. Um, in this episode, she was talking about her plans. For her students in this dual credit class. And so we're going to follow up with her and find out how it actually played out, reflections on what she's done and what she might recommend for you all in the future. 

So really excited about that. Um, so I just really want to thank all of my podcast guests this past year in 2023, uh, the podcast wouldn't exist without you. You guys are amazing and of course wouldn't exist without you. The listeners, I'm very excited and in the process of planning for 2024. And so if you're an educator listening to this and you are engaging with equity work, I would love to have an opportunity to chat with you. Please reach out on the link in my bio to contact me. 

Um, we'd love to have you in a few future episode and educators and friends of the podcast. If you know an educator. K-12 or higher ed that is doing some amazing things with equity, please reach out and connect us. I would love to. Uh, have them on the podcast. I am looking to celebrate all things. Equity. That our educators and my educator colleagues are doing out in the world and in the space. 

And to let you know that you are not alone and there's someone else trying to work through and move through this process, just like you. Uh, please reach out with questions. You may have. I'm looking to put together an episode where I literally address the questions you have around equity and education. 

So thank you so much for a fabulous 20, 23. Looking forward to continuing to engage with you all with some new and exciting content and resources and tools for you in 2024. So.  Remember. To use your voice and think about how are you using your voice today? Thank you so much.