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The Yankee Express

Covering Racial Issues in a White Classroom

Douglas resident and author, Dr. Jackie Boivin. Courtesy photo

By Patty Roy

Teaching, even at the elementary school level, is a complex subject these days. Not only do you have to instill the three R’s, but you may find yourself addressing a fourth one: Race.
How to do that with empathy when you’re a white teacher in a classroom full of white students can be tough to manage. Dr. Jackie Boivin, a Douglas resident and assistant professor of elementary Education at Bridgewater State University, has written what she calls a “field guide” for grade school teachers in predominantly white environments to address this challenge, “Unpacking Privilege in the Elementary Classroom: A Guide to Race and Inequity for White Teachers.”
In the years before her professorship, Boivin taught fifth grade in predominantly white classrooms. 
“I was really awestruck by elementary students not really having a conceptualization of race. Fifth graders coming into my classroom not even knowing there were enslaved people. That was shocking to me,” she said.
It was the inspiration for her doctoral research: how to support teachers in having these conversations when everyone is white.
Heading off to Smith College was the first time Boivin interacted with persons of color in significant numbers. It was a learning curve, she said, and moved her towards writing a book that to ehlp teachers in white classrooms feel like they can open up these conversations to euiqyup their students to meet enter the world in a society that’s increasingly diverse.
In her book, Boivin suggests different avenues of approach. To begin with, a teacher needs to address their biases on a personal level. Once that journey gets underway, they can bring their understanding to their professional work.
As far as classroom practices go, it can mean taking different academic disciplines to open up a conversation.
“For example, we have a gateway academic area - Social Studies - in which we’re looking through an historical lens of bringing in the truthful narratives of the past and not sheltering students from knowing what has occurred in our nation,” she said, adding that the accurate narratives include white travesties against indigenous people and slavery. 
“It’s important for students to understand that these actions are in the past and there is an opportunity for growth. It’s not a way of casting guilt or shame on white students; it should be a statement about moving forward to change this narrative,” Boivin said.
Text books cover the civil rights movement but it’s more in the manner of an action was taken and it fixed the problem, she continued.
“As adults we know the true rhetoric is ‘of course, it didn’t. There’s much more to be done.’”
With Social Studies being just one avenue, other subjects like English Language Arts can incorporate texts that talk about differences through the lens of sexual orientation, or gender identity. These are all the different identities that make our students who they are, she said.
The class can then work on any biases that they have because biases form very early, Boivin said. “Kids are often open minded because biases haven’t been solidified in their perspective yet. That’s why they’re a great canvas for working with.”
Teachers should take the opportunity to have these conversations because they are taking place already on the playground and the school bus, she said. In the classroom teachers can thoughtfully direct the conversation.
Boivin explained that an area that often gets overlooked is social/emotional learning, a program that helps students develop skills to manage emotions, set goals and build relationships with others.
Her BSU colleague Kevin McGowen and co-chair of the committee that is dedicated to culturally responsive teaching classes for educator preparation wrote the book’s forward. He is an associate professor and a scholar of color who did a sensitivity read for every chapter of her book to assure that as a white person, she took stock of her perspective.
She hopes to approach school systems with the book when it comes out in December. She hopes to provide some professional development.  She is very passionate about supporting the rural, mostly white school systems in Worcester County.
Anything I can do to bring this to schools, I’m all for it, particularly since this is where I live.
 “I hope it inspires policy reform and I do a call for action in the book.”
The work needs to be structured and not a band aid approach, she said, adding that Massachusetts is lucky in terms of having policy making its way into practice. Not every state is on that path.
“I try to give some insight in how to get on that pathway if you are an educator in Florida, for example. It could mean staring small. Take a look at the books in your library, for instance. Do they have lots of different races?” 
Other supports can come from administrators who provide funding to substantiate your curriculum, as well as guidance or adjustment counselors. It can be as simple as  professional development or administrators  saying it’s ok to tweak your curriculum to adjust to these topics, she said.
The book outlines step by step ways to implement change and gives starting guidelines.
“It’s going to take you a year to evaluate where you can start and there is no endpoint. Ask,is my curriculum culturally responsive? It’s starting a journey that’s never going to end.”