As I drove down the long driveway to Mercy Montessori Center, I called my great-aunt from Athens, Georgia, whom we affectionately call Aunt Puddien. Aunt Puddien is like another mother to me and I trusted her wisdom. She always introduced me to a family member or family friend as teacher to which they responded with praise and affirmation. For them, loving and teaching our young people was a great honor despite the devaluation educators often experience.
As an educator, I work in and around systems designed to exclude historically marginalized communities; This is why I lead and educate through the DEI lens. My passion for DEI did not change once I transitioned from the classroom to school leadership. If anything, the more I got involved in systems change work, training, and racial equity audits, the more pronounced my passion and investment in DEI became. The opportunity to lead this work full-time in a K-12 environment seemed like a natural next step.
Last year, I interviewed with several organizations for a new position that would focus on DEI initiatives and had just finished my third interview of the day at Mercy Montessori in Cincinnati. Shortly after the interview, I had a telephone conversation with Aunt Puddien:
“Hey, Suga! “How did she do?” Aunt Puddien answered the phone. She had just participated in three interviews for a position at DEI.
“Well…” I began. “I connect more with Mercy.”
“Hmm. Why do you think that is?”
“The school seems more committed to supporting and doing the work,” I responded.
“Well, honey, you have to go where they will take it seriously,” Aunt Puddien encouraged her. “They will call you where you need to be.”
After witnessing companies and organizations renege on your commitment to DEI After the police killing of George Floyd, I promised myself that I would not work with an organization or company that treated DEI like a trend or an item on a compliance checklist.
Since becoming the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) at Mercy Montessori and leading the DEIB strategy for the school, I have found that progress can occur in the face of social opposition, political polarization, and targeted campaigns that we are experiencing in our society in general. In fact, it is in this climate of fear and misinformation that DEI is critically necessary.
Over the past nine months, I have worked diligently and collaboratively with all stakeholders in our school community to fully achieve the essential goals outlined in the school board-approved curriculum. DEIB strategic planand during these nine months, I have learned that there are more people willing to change and support DEI than I previously thought.
Goal 1: Recruit a team of committed and diverse people to achieve change
To create a more diverse population of students and staff, we must work to build and foster a culture that creates a safe and brave space for students, families, and staff who have historically been marginalized. My time as the Director of Family Engagement at a charter school in Cincinnati gave me insight into what it takes to cultivate this space and I knew I would need a team of dedicated people to help me achieve this goal and execute our DEIB strategic plan.
When I served on previous school committees, the most dominant voices in the room were often white men; I had no intention of replicating this in our DEIB committee. Our committee had to be a space where everyone's voice had merit and value, so I worked to recruit members who were diverse and inclusive of all identities, regardless of race, religion, and family structure. Ultimately, I was able to gain buy-in from 18 people who would help me achieve my vision for DEIB at Mercy.
At our monthly meetings, we begin with updates that capture our progress and challenges. We then divided into three focus groups; Each focus group is assigned a goal from the strategic plan and is tasked with monitoring and carrying out the actions and tasks associated with the goal. This framework has given each committee member ownership over the strategic plan, ensuring that all members are accountable and dedicated to achieving the intended results.
Together we have done great progress to achieve the action items outlined in our strategic plan, including establishing a DEIB dashboard, implementing a DEIB concern form for families and students, and creating a DEIB resource bank for all community members in several levels of your DEIB learning.
There were times when I looked around and saw the scene of administrators working with parents, parents working with teachers, and teachers working with students at school; all of us working collaboratively to ensure the objectives of our strategic plan are carried out.
Our committee is strengthened by our differences. We share our views and perspectives openly and respectfully, trusting each other to solve the problem and reach a solution. It is not so important that we are right but that we do it well.
Goal 2: Provide practical guidance and space for intercultural participation
I think a key part of DEIB is developing intercultural competence within an organization. As educators, we are in an increasingly diverse world and it is our obligation to provide a culturally responsive and equitable educational experience to the students and families we serve. To achieve this, we must increase our ability to understand the cultural identity of our students and equip ourselves with awareness and tools to engage across cultural differences.
Culturally empowered students are students who show up unapologetically and engaged. With this vision in mind, each teacher was instructed to develop annual classroom goals that were rooted in culturally responsive teaching strategies.
In one case, a teacher wanted to increase the diversity of her classroom library. Wearing “A tool to select diverse texts”, the teacher conducted an audit of the classroom library and determined its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities:
- Which voices are dominant and which are missing?
- What is the nature of the stories being told?
- Who decides which books go to the library?
As a result of this audit, more diverse texts are included in each classroom library. In addition to the objectives developed by the teachers, our students were now able to better assess who was left out of the class curriculum.
For example, a student in another class questioned a classroom display of inventors. “Why are they all men?” they asked. I felt this was a valid observation and encouraged the teacher to allow the students to be part of the process. In response, this student's teacher began collecting resources that would provide a more diverse representation of scientists, inventors, and philosophers.
This is both a learning and leadership opportunity for students to champion diversity and facilitate inclusion within their classrooms. Now, students can choose from a selection of books that represent their identities and allow them to interact with stories that feature cultures different from their own.
Goal 3: Communicate the importance of our work
As the leader of our DEIB strategy at Mercy, I am transparent – both about the work we are doing and the setbacks we experienced. I do this because I believe this is how we build organizational trust and buy-in from our stakeholders. Therefore, I make great efforts to provide transparency and report our progress on DEIB programming and initiatives.
I regularly report our progress to parents and families through social media and send updates in our DEIB newsletter and at school meetings. After presenting to a group of parents for one of our Parent Education Nights, many families were overwhelmed by the amount of work and progress that was made over the course of the 2023 school year and several had positive words and comments to offer:
“Wow!” one of the parents announced. “It's really fantastic to see the progress and achievements so far.”
“I wonder if you have thought about collaborating with the Mercy Montessori Family Association on some of the cultural heritage celebrations. “We would love to help.”
“What curriculum are you using to program with students?”
Through transparent communication, we build trust and inspire action. Teachers are looking for opportunities to co-present topics related to DEI at staff meetings. Parents express their desire to be part of the DEIB committee next year. Students participate in conversations and resolve conflicts. If nothing else, communicating our progress toward our DEIB goals has energized our community and created a safe space to do so.
Courage under fire
Since being the DEIB Director at Mercy Montessori, I have learned a lot about what it takes to drive a DEIB strategic plan. The biggest lesson I have received is that this work cannot and should not be done alone. Furthermore, the work cannot be done in one day.
As School DEI Programs Continue vilified and attacked, I ask all of us to consider our children and the world we wish to leave them. In this climate of fear and polarization, we must remain steadfast. Above all, we must choose courage over fear.
