What Is an Anti-Racist School?

This conference begins with the necessary question: what is an anti-racist school? The answers are many, spanning restorative justice, the role of unions, mental health, curriculum, language immersion, approaches to planning and facilitating lessons, and so much more. Each session approaches the vital question through a different lens, all contributing to deepening our collective work toward building anti-racist schools.

Tuesday, August 5th, 10:00-11:30 AM

“Reframing Black Student’s Historical Experience: Moving Beyond the Deficit Lens”

Presenter(s): Brian Knowles

This workshop aims to equip educators with the tools to shift away from deficit-based perspectives of Black students' historical experiences. Participants will explore strategies to highlight the resilience, brilliance, and contributions of Black communities throughout history. The session will focus on culturally affirming teaching practices, curriculum development, and fostering an inclusive classroom environment that recognizes the value and complexity of Black histories.

Power Builders Curriculum and Pedagogies, LLC

  • Brian Knowles is a dynamic speaker, writer, researcher, and educator, recognized twice by Legacy Magazine as one of South Florida’s top Black educators (2018 and 2021). With over 17 years of experience, he has taught for 9 years and led the Department of African, African American, Latino, and Holocaust Studies for the Palm Beach County School District for 8 years. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Lynn University, teaching social impact leadership. A content expert for NPR and Everfi, Brian’s research is featured in publications like the Journal of Literacy Innovation and Art & Culture of Palm Beach County Magazine. Holding a bachelor’s in history with a focus on Africana Studies and a master’s in educational leadership, he founded Power Builders Curriculum and Pedagogies, LLC, which fosters culturally affirming spaces in schools and nonprofits. Brian’s expertise includes policy development, curriculum design, research, and professional development, having created inclusive educational environments and policies that dismantle systemic barriers. His innovative courses, such as "The African American Experience in the 20th Century through Music and Visual Arts" and "Exploring Hip-Hop as Literature," showcase the contributions of African Diasporic communities.

“Rest Practices for Our Classrooms”

You are warmly invited to a space to practice, study, and plan rest together. We will explore rest for ourselves, our students, and our communities. Our session will be grounded in Tricia Hersey’s work on @thenapministry and her book, Rest Is Resistance, which frames rest as an anti-racist practice. We will ask how we can deepen rest through conversations with our colleagues and experimentation in partnership with our students. Examples of rest practices from the classroom will be shared. We will imagine roles for creativity, comfort, play, and nature in our schools. Time will be reserved to collaboratively plan for experimentation with rest with softness and solidarity. Rest must be experienced, so come ready to be cozy.

School District of Philadelphia

Presenter(s): Rabiya Kassam-Clay

  • Rabiya Kassam-Clay (she/her) has taught for two decades in Philadelphia, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. Her classes have included world history, United States history, government, composition, and literature. Rabiya earned a M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. She coached Breakthrough Collaborative teaching fellows, and founded the Flux Teacher Institute, a collective of expert teachers who provided workshops on source evaluation, sketchnoting, public spaces to over 300 participants. Rabiya is an educational advisor for organizations like Monument Lab and writes curriculum including for 1919 by Eve Ewing and There are Trans People Here by H. Melt. She was an inaugural Zinn Education Project Prentiss Charney Fellow. Rabiya is a lifelong devotee of science fiction and poetry, a native plants educator, and a proud union member. Find out what she is up to in the classroom by visiting @welcomebrilliantminds

“Restorative Justice and Violence Interruption: Lessons from NYC”

In this session we will explore Restorative Justice practices through the lens of violence prevention and intervention. We will think about the extent to which the public health approach that is used to address gun violence in many cities (including New Haven) might map on to restorative systems in schools, and to what effect. The presenter(s) will share examples, tools, and lessons from their experience in NYC public schools, and participants will have the chance to consider how to apply these in their contexts. The session will be accessible to those new to RJ as well as to seasoned RJ practitioners.

NYC Department of Education

Presenter(s): Malcolm Sacks

  • Malcolm Sacks is a public school teacher born and raised in New York City. He has 13 years of experience teaching high school Social Studies, English, and Arts, and working as a Restorative Justice Coordinator in NYC schools. Outside of paid work, Malcolm is a longtime activist and organizer in the international solidarity and education justice movements, and the parent of two young children.

“Teach Truth: Today and Tomorrow”

Since 2021, there has been an influx of bills across the country limiting the teaching of authentic history, the rights of trans students, and teachers being able to teach the truth in their classrooms. Some of these bills have resulted in the firing of teachers, banning of books, and proliferation of fear among parents and school board members. In today’s political climate, we have seen a more deliberate push to erase authentic history and to make teaching the truth even more dangerous. Zinn Education Project has been pushing back with actions and more importantly developing a community (Teaching for Black Lives Study Groups) among educators across the country to end isolation and to provide a space for strategies and solutions to be created. We know that the answer to these attacks is to develop abolitionist educators within an anti-racist framework. But what does that even look like? What lessons from the past can be applied to today? And how can we create liberatory classrooms?

Zinn Education Project National Black Lives Matter at School

Presenter(s): Tamara Della Anderson

  • Tamara is a Renaissance artist who works as an actor, producer, writer, and organizer. Her company, The Gumbo Lab, features a virtual platform for Black female identifying and Black queer solo artists and an annual BIPOC ten-minute film festival (Radical Imaginings). Her BIPOC Database and Resource Guide connects BIPOC creatives to work in the industry. She is one of the founding steering committee members of the National Black Lives Matter Week of Action at Schools, a Teach Truth organizer with Zinn Education Project, and is a member of the National Advisory Council for Teaching Artists Guild (TAG). She is a 2023 art resident/fellow at Hermitage Artist Retreat. Directed and wrote Dating Chronicles, a film short. Her writing includes Erasure of Black Women (#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College. Jan 2021), Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Philadelphia Schools (Lapiz No 6 Hacer Escuela - Inventing School - 2021), Chapter 3: From Philly with Love: Black Lives Matter at School goes National (Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice - Dec 2020), Foreword: The Systemic Cycle of Brokenness (Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor No 26 - Jan 2016), #TeachTruth: Pushing Back Attacks on CRT (Convergence Magazine - Aug 2021), Sample Street (A full length play - 2023), and Anywhere (a 10 minute play).

“Translanguaging from the Student Up: A Critical Approach to Language Use for Every Classroom”

Presenter(s): Kristin Mendoza

It’s the natural state of multilingual humans to translanguage (access and utilize all of our languages) for learning and communication. Suppressing this core aspect of who our students/we are in the classroom has detrimental effects on relationships, learning, and sense of self.

At the same time, as critical educators, we aim to equip our students with a powerful tool–Academic English. We know that this takes focus and practice.

So, what should be the role of students’ home languages in their learning? What does research say about translanguaging in the classroom?

Whether you're a multilingual or monolingual person, and regardless of your program model, grade, content area, or the number of Multilingual Learners (MLs) you work with, if you're curious about these questions, I hope you'll join us. Let’s develop our critical language awareness and a translanguaging stance together!

NHPS and NHFT Southern CT State University

  • Kristin Bengtson Mendoza is the lead teacher and instructional coach of the International Academy at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven. She's worked with multilingual learners (MLs) and their teachers across elementary, middle, and high school and across the content areas for two decades. She's also a proud mom and a doctoral candidate at Southern CT State University.

“What Are the Ingredients of an Anti-Racist School?”

Presenter(s): Adam Sanchez

This participatory session will examine multiple elements of what constitutes an anti-racist school from the pages of Rethinking Schools magazine — a 40 year old publication dedicated to promoting equity and racial justice in the classroom. After investigating and discussing these different components, we will collectively think about barriers to implementing these practices in our various locations and discuss ways to push past them.

Rethinking Schools

  • Adam Sanchez is the managing editor of Rethinking Schools magazine. He taught high school social studies for over a decade in Portland, Oregon, New York City, and Philadelphia. He is the editor of Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War and a forthcoming book about teaching Reconstruction. He is also a co-editor of Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices.