The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (NYU Metro Center) recently partnered with NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning to conduct a Curriculum and Resource Fair. This Curriculum and Resource Fair was held as part of Black Lives Matter at Schools: Week of Action, a national movement to reclaim public school classrooms “...as incubators for inclusivity, equity, and justice”.
This movement initially started in Seattle, Washington in the fall of 2016 when thousands of educators, along with students and families members, wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to school to express solidarity in raising awareness of racism and violence against Black communities. News of this justice campaign to affirm the lives of Black students, teachers, and families would spread across the United States and take hold at schools in 20+ cities. This campaign would ultimately evolve to become a coordinated national coalition for racial justice in education.
Held during the first week of February, Black Lives Matter at School: Week of Action helps to create a safe space to hold discussions on race, Black History, structural racism, intersectional Black identities, and anti-racist movements. For NYU Metro Center and Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning, the 2023 Black Lives Matter at Schools: Week of Action-Curriculum and Resource Fair serves a resumption of a longstanding in-person event after several years of online convening due to Covid-19 precautions.
The Curriculum and Resource Fair is a unique opportunity for future and emerging teachers to learn about Black students, and connect to the values and guiding principles of Black Lives Matters at School, inclusive of nurturing a restorative justice movement that vigorously fights for freedom, “‘...Black people and, by extension, all people.”
Despite the happenstance of America’s “Racial Reckoning” a mere three years ago, the purpose Black Lives Matter at School stands to be just as relevant as it was when protesters across the globe collectively recognized the malfeasance and systematic racism in the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Choosing to facilitate a curriculum and resource fair was very timely and relevant in as much as anti equity efforts across the country have markedly impacted teachers, the classrooms in which they teach, and the quality of education that students receive. The nation’s educators contend with 18 different states enacting laws that restrict classroom instruction concerning race or anything deemed “Critical Race Theory,” in addition to book bans and curriculum censorship which prohibit the honest, accurate teaching of American History. The decision to host this Black Lives Matter at School event now was pertinent and on-point.
NYU Metro Center and Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning, along with student groups, academic programs, NYC Schools, and community organizations shared useful materials and strategies at the Curriculum and Resource Fair to empower teachers to push back against these extreme right wing initiatives. Attendees of this Black Lives Matter at School event were able to explore, learn, and dialogue around the urgent topics of social justice and anti-racism.
The Curriculum and Resource Fair aimed to empower educators to create nurturing learning environments where Black and Brown children would be ensured to see themselves in the school lesson plans that they encounter in their respective classrooms. As the lead organizers of the Curriculum and Resource Fair, both Dr. Fabienne Doucet and Dr. Heather Woodley, sought to construct a space for instructive and useful resources to be shared amongst in-service, emerging teachers, and pre-service teachers. The two NYU Steinhardt Professors accomplished this goal by inviting a wide array of participating organizations together to “celebrate the lives and experiences of Black students.”
In addition to a vast book station, the Curriculum and Resource Fair also featured resource tables hosted by the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC) at NYU Metro Center, and Urban Word NYC. EJ-ROC shared new research on the importance of diversity in school textbooks, as well as sharing its renowned Culturally Responsive Scorecard Toolkit, which helps parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools’ curricula are culturally responsive. As one of the nation’s leading youth development and engagement organizations, Urban Word NYC offered best practices creating responsive Out-of-School-Time (OST) Programs and recommendations for youth-serving adults.
This Black Lives Matter at School: Week of Action-Curriculum and Resource fair deepened the attendees appreciation of African American culture by featuring visual artists creating original paintings during the event, as well as powerful spoken word performances by Urban Word NYC poets. In addition, this beautiful creative space also included an art station where decorative bags and pins were created for Curriculum and Resource Fair participants. The connection between the art and the purpose of the event was not missed by its organizers. Professors Fabienne Doucet and Heather Woodley found the spoken word performances to be incredibly powerful and impactful for attendees, particularly one of the poems performed by an African American high school student in attendance at the Curriculum and Resource fair. The young poet’s amazing artistry truly brought home the significance of what it means to care and teach for Black students.
The success of the NYU Metro Center and the Department of Teaching and Learning’s Curriculum and Resource Fair was the numerous practices and tools made available to in-service, emerging, and pre-service teachers to better recognize the strength, joy, and beauty of Black lives. As a result, the resources the fair provided allowed educators to acknowledge and encourage their students to use the skills and knowledge from their own experiences. It authorized and modeled actions that a host of participating educators could take into their own classrooms to facilitate equitable access and outcomes for all students. An additional outcome of the fair opposed accepting institutional racism by resisting a deficit lens to view their Black and Brown students.
The NYU Metro Center and the Department of Teaching and Learning’s Black Lives Matter at School: Week of Action-Curriculum and Resource Fair proved to be a warm, community-focused evening celebrating art, literature, youth voice, and professional learning amongst educators–an event with far-reaching impact for all involved.