103
Volume:
2021
,
September

Starting, Restarting, or Continuing ABAR

Submitted By:
Jeremy Sandler, The Potomac School, McLean, VA

If your school is starting antibias antiracist (ABAR) work, how do you begin? What if you are already deep in the work and want to move it forward? Wherever you are in your journey, Liz Kleinrock's Start Here, Start Now is an optimal guide for adopting an ABAR lens and culture. Her personal childhood experiences, insights from her teaching, and proven strategies are accessible and inspirational. Kleinrock provides useful templates and student work as exemplars for teaching and learning. Transcribed student-teacher interactions and model conversations feature the dialogue and tools educators can use to develop a sustainable ABAR practice. She accompanies her reminder to not "reinvent the wheel" with techniques and resources. Start Here, Start Now can function as an all-faculty/staff or PLC read so colleagues can coalesce around Kleinrock's findings and then implement her ideas. Chapters about coalition-building with parents and administrators, holding space for difficult conversations, and engaging white students in ABAR work are especially salient to independent and international school educators. As a result of closely reading Kleinrock, schools and teachers will be more engaged and better prepared for the ABAR journey ahead of them.

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DEIJ
Leadership Practice
Teaching Practice