Curriculum Revitalization Through an Equity Lens with Marceline DuBose

Curriculum Revitalization through an equity lens with Marceline DuBose   

Ways to revitalize and diversify curriculum 

• Apply a good filter; watch for what explicit and implicit messaging in the content

•  Include a broad array of perspectives

•  Don’t sugar-coat hard things

•  Make sure students can students see themselves in the curriculum

•  Teach larger concepts of justice, democracy, human growth, and development using all kinds of people that have contributed to these concepts  

• Identify and include absent narratives

What gets in the way of revitalizing and diversifying our curriculum? 

•  Tradition, or personal affection or nostalgia for a certain topic 

•  Assumption of what students should learn: the cannon, college ready, standards and testing 

•  Educators feeling like they don’t have the knowledge or time to make changes 

•  Parents critiquing changes in the curriculum

•  Assuming students are too young to talk about difficult things or current events 

An example of revitalized curriculum: MLKJ 

•  Learn about his values and think about how would he apply it to current topics?

•  Give a full and accurate representation of who he was; not just dreamy 

•  Include MLKJ and other BIPOC leaders in the curriculum all year long

Dos or Don’ts for Black History Month

•  Do add stories of whimsy, love, friendship, and creativity; Don’t limit your discussion to stories of trauma, oppression, or overcoming adversity 

•  Do involve you students by making stories relevant to their lives

•  Do expand complexity and context, not just history but current events as well; Don’t limit yourself to single heroes – what are the stories of the people, the area, the geography?

•  Do expand the context where these stories live (math, science, tech); Don’t limit it to the humanities

•  Do balance our stories so they aren’t all victim-focused; who is the focus on? 

Resources & References 

Connect with Marceline: www.dueast.org; @dueeast

•  Unit or Lesson planning template 

•  Collective Knowledge Creation

•  Educational Equity Curriculum and Instruction Compass

•  No Stone Unturned Journal 

•  List of websites for curriculum 

•  Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Classroom Texts 

•  Diversity in Children’s Books 2018 Infographic 

•  Danger of a Single Story TedTalk

•  Absent Narratives Resource Collection from MN Humanities Center

Find more educational resources by topic at https://www.mn.sourcewell.org/education/podcast

Learn more about upcoming trainings and events for educators at www.mn.sourcewell.org/education