Teaching & Learning

Tackling Tough Conversations in the Classroom

Thoughtful approaches to talking about race and identity can build students’ sense of belonging

For educators, having honest conversations about race and identity can be challenging to navigate. But these critical conversations can have many positive outcomes, including strengthening students’ sense of belonging and civic engagement.

For this Conversations with the Dean, Dean Penny Bishop is joined by BU Wheelock’s Christina Dobbs, an associate professor of English education, and Tina Durand, a clinical associate professor of applied human development. Together, they explore practical strategies for educators navigating the crucial work of antiracist teaching.

Highlights from the Conversation

Talking about race and identity can be unifying

At the end of the study, we talked with kids who on both surveys and in interviews reported in huge numbers that it made them feel closer to their classmates, and feel safer in their schools, and more belonging in the sense of their community to have had these conversations which were not . . . always easy but were supported and intentional and developmentally appropriate.

Christina Dobbs

The cost of not understanding

That tension around talking about race, that’s part of our socialization and the silencing, and that’s a cost for all of us. And that’s part of what’s dividing us, that’s contributing to the division, right? . . . Not understanding ourselves, others, and not understanding inequitable systems, that’s what’s dividing us and not bringing us closer together.

Tina Durand

There are reasons to be hopeful

We fear that naming that we’re not uniform means we can’t be unified. But I find again and again that not to be the truth. And that the more we talk about what it would mean to be unified, the easier it is to feel hopeful about that.

Christina Dobbs

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