What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently
In an article that appeared in “The Atlantic,” Pirette McKamey illustrated the many ways anti-racist teachers make black students central to the success of their own teaching. “This is a paradigm shift: Instead of only asking black students who are not doing well in class to start identifying with school, we also ask teachers whose black students are not doing well in their classes to start identifying with those students,” said McKamey.
McKamey is the first black principal of Mission High School in San Francisco, and has taught high-school English and history for 26 years. From 2005 to 2016, she co-founded and co-led the anti-racist teaching committee at Mission High. In the article, she offers a firsthand account of students’ level of success when their academic strengths are overlooked and marginalized by educators who do not respect the intellectual contributions of black students versus those who do.
Tags: Race Matters
