Getting Started
Creating more equitable learning spaces starts with reflecting on who you are as a teacher. This means examining how your lived experience shapes what you do in the classroom, and how these actions may or may not support the success of students who often have very different lived experiences.
Ask yourself these questions
- Which groups—race, gender, sexuality, age, social class, religion, ability, etc. —do I identify with? How do these identities shape my decisions and blind spots as a teacher? How do these identities shape how students and colleagues perceive me?
- What is my relationship with racism, colonialism, and other forms of discrimination? Am I approaching these issues from a place of lived experience? As an observer? As an ally?
- How much do I know about capabilities, resilience, and excellence within Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities? How might I educate myself, so I am better prepared to educate students? Should I look for guest speakers who can provide firsthand accounts?
- What roles—significant other, parent, sibling, child, friend, caregiver, researcher, activist, author—do I have? How do these impact my actions as a teacher?
- What type of training and work experience do I have? How have they shaped my beliefs and blind spots about what constitutes valuable knowledge and how knowledge should be communicated?
- What topics trigger strong emotional reactions in me? What specific emotions do these topics evoke – joy, delight, awe, rage, guilt, anxiety, powerlessness, etc.? Do I need to work through my feelings before discussing these topics with students?
Once you have reflected on these questions, use your responses to identify actions needed to better connect with and support students, while being kind to yourself. Teaching is hard work! It’s important to recognize and respect your limits.
You might also choose to share some of your reflections with students – as part of your introduction on the first day of class or through stories shared later in the semester. While it is important to maintain some boundaries between your personal and teaching life, sharing personal stories is a powerful way of building connections. It shows your students that you believe they can honour your stories, and it invites them to reciprocate.
Ready to Bring Equity into Your Classroom?
Creating equity-focused classrooms is not just about what you teach, it’s also about how you teach. Our pedagogy integrates five types of activities you can use to build community, promote student well-being, and cultivate the knowledge and skills students need to understand the injustices of racism and colonialism while also envisioning the possibility of a better future.
