Social Studies

Promoting Equity and Diversity in the Classroom

Kaylene Stevens and Jerry Whitmore, Jr., tackle tough issues facing educational leaders today in a conversation with Dean David Chard

School- and university-based initiatives designed to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have faced increased scrutiny and outright hostility over the past several years. Across the United States, laws restricting teachers’ freedom to discuss issues like race, gender identity, or sexuality, book banning efforts that disproportionately remove books representing the experiences of individuals from marginalized and underrepresented groups, and regulations that defund EDI offices on university campuses have placed EDI initiatives under greater scrutiny.

Despite this turn against these initiatives, however, many scholars are fighting back by using civic education to foster equity and diversity in school systems. In the third webinar in the Conversations with the Dean series, clinical assistant professor Kaylene Stevens and assistant professor Jerry Whitmore, Jr., joined BU Wheelock Dean David Chard to discuss how educators can promote civic awareness and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and beyond—and support teachers’ academic freedom to broach topics like race, gender, and sexuality in age-appropriate ways.

Highlights from the Conversation

Learning about the opportunity gap firsthand

When I was getting ready to graduate [from] college, I had a central question, which was why am I graduating and my friends were not graduating. It was about eight or 10 of us who started school together, and I was the only one to walk across the stage. I wanted to know, and then I started investigating the particular programs the institution had, and trying to figure out what was going on with the D/F rate for students of color, primarily Black students. That kind of started my trajectory.

Jerry Whitmore, Jr.

Discussing controversial topics in the K–12 classroom

There’s a lot of fear. Teachers will be nervous to teach for justice. I’ve had to rewrite grants without the words “social justice” in them or the word “equity.” I think teachers are sometimes afraid to even talk about race or gender or social class or sexual orientation or neurodivergence—any of the “isms” in their classrooms.

I think this idea of a cancel culture is actually hurtful to doing this work, because I think we need to have space and grace for people to grow, unlearn things, and change.

Kaylene Stevens

Using civics to promote equity in schools

I identify as a public school teacher, and I really want to think about how we can bring equity work to classrooms and one avenue to do that is civics—but teaching civics differently, not just memorizing the branches of government, but actually empowering students to use the levers of democracy to make changes they care about.

Kaylene Stevens

Preparing the next generation of leaders

[Y]oung scholars and professionals are oftentimes looking at me to give them answers to the problems that we’re dealing with in the world. And I would like to say one of the biggest roles that I occupy is to give them information for them to make informed decisions of their own.

Jerry Whitmore, Jr.

Conversations with the Dean are a series of webinars hosted by Dean Chard that explore some of the most pressing topics in education. Learn more about Conversations with the Dean.