Anti-Racist White Affinity Group
Aug 08, 2024 9:00AM—Aug 09, 2024 2:00PM
Location
Bay School of San Francisco
Cost Early Bird Pricing for Members (Available until July 18): $1,225 members; $1,035 group-rate 3+; $1,915 non-members
Categories Equity & Inclusion, In-Person, Summer Institute
Anti-Racist White Affinity Group
SESSION 1: August 8, 2024 | 9:00am - 2:00pm
SESSION 2: August 9, 2024 | 9:00am - 2:00pm
ABOUT THIS IN-PERSON SUMMER INSTITUTE
As conflict and fear escalate around us, heightened by the media, silence confronts us. White educators have a responsibility to navigate complex classroom, colleague, and parent dynamics. And yet, we cannot engage fully in this work without supportive places to reflect, practice, and confront how white supremacy culture operates within our personal and school contexts.
This two-day, in-person program will center collective dialogue, offering White educators the opportunity to reflect on and process how they are experiencing—emotionally and somatically—this rise in global, national, and local conflict. Participants will also consider the ways that white supremacy culture prevents us from breaking our silence and stepping into conflict with curiosity and humility. Participants will learn from one another through collective wisdom and will gain concrete strategies and frameworks to support their work moving forward.
Participants will have the opportunity to continue their collective work in an optional online cohort that will meet 3 times over the course of the fall semester. This cohort will also welcome new participants who are seeking community during this time. Please stay tuned for registration for the online cohort experience.
Questions we'll explore:
- How do we build community in our classroom spaces that will allow us to respond meaningfully to conflict?
- How can we get better at supporting ourselves and our communities in times of conflict?
- How do we move forward when we feel overwhelmed by the intensity of conflict?
Our offering:
- A supportive community to process our own stories and experiences as well as strategies to explore complexities in our own communities
- Opportunities to practice breaking habits of silence.
- Frameworks for navigating conflict (somatic and dynamic strategies to help you engage your full self in complex moments of conflict)
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE
This Summer Institute is for white-identifying educators who are committed to disrupting white supremacy culture through compassion, curiosity, and community.
“There are times when personal experience keeps us from reaching the mountain top, and so we let it go because the weight of it is too heavy. And sometimes the mountaintop is difficult to reach with all our resources, factual and confessional, so we are just there, collectively grasping, feeling the limitations of knowledge, longing together, yearning for a way to reach that highest point. Even this yearning is a way to know.”
― bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy”
― bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Liza Gleason has been an educator in the Bay Area for more than 25 years. She recently completed her Educational Doctorate at Mills College, where her research focused on white women teachers. Liza has taught in both public and independent schools at the elementary and middle school levels. She is passionate about the intersection of building inclusive schools and white educator identity development. Liza uses vulnerability, care, and emergent thinking to ground her work with educators. She currently coaches individual teachers and teaching teams on curriculum and instruction and facilitates dialogue groups for white-identifying educators. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, teenage son, and two rescue dogs, Sammy and Cali.
Rob Wasielewski is an educator at Live Oak School in San Francisco and seeks to advance equity and justice through his work with students. As a middle school humanities teacher, Rob is passionate about creating antiracist curriculum and building strong, trusting classroom communities alongside his students. He lives in Oakland with his wife and their newly growing family.
HOST AND PARTNER SCHOOL
CATDC partners with member schools to host our in-person programs, providing educators the opportunity to learn with peers in diverse settings. We are thrilled to partner with The Bay School of San Francisco on this Summer Institute, welcoming the larger independent school community on their campus for two days of learning and collaboration.
Cancellation Policy
Life happens. We understand that there will be times when you cannot attend a workshop that you have registered and paid for. We strive to be as helpful and flexible as possible when things out of your control happen. Please visit our FAQ page for detailed information about our cancellation policy and answers to frequently asked questions about enrollment and membership.