Online Promote success for every learner by fostering principles of equity and excellence.
Overview
In the United States, race permeates conversations that we have about our students, our beliefs about and expectations for our students, the ways that we feel about ourselves, and what we think we bring to the world. Race is implicit in our decisions about the law, about educational policy, and the strategies that we employ. In Leading for Excellence and Equity, you will learn the skills you need to commit your system to racial equity. Schools that are genuinely inclusive and that promote excellence for all learners require leaders who understand the intersection of race, identity, power, and privilege in society and in the classroom.
Your learning will start with yourself, as you embark on a journey of self-examination about your mindset and your beliefs about different students and their achievement. You will examine your blind-spots related to race and privilege, as you learn to have courageous conversations about differences.
Next, you'll apply your learning to your system, as you take a close look at a leadership practice that you perceive is perpetuating the very inequities that compelled you to take this module. You will determine some of the causes that allow these inequities to persist while exploring strategies, policies, and/or behaviors that may help to end them. The module culminates with a personal leadership project through which you’ll be synthesizing and operationalizing your learning by addressing a system-wide Problem of Practice involving inequity.
Throughout, leading for excellence and equity will require “navigating the discomfort of not knowing the ‘answer’; working through emotions of your own oppression and privilege… and supporting others to do the same; creating safe spaces that honor cognition and emotion; and finding the courage to interrupt and transform inequitable systems into places of opportunity for young people and adults,” (National Equity Project).
While this course specifically focuses on race in the United States, learners from around the world have reported that they use the tools and practices taught in the course to address issues of equity in their contexts related to ethnicity, religion, nation of origin, immigration status, mother language, and more.
Program Details
Leading for Excellence and Equity takes place over 12 weeks, moving through a cycle of learning, application, performance, and demonstration. Throughout, you will engage in a range of activities online, plus exercises carried out in your professional context. The experience is designed to be both rigorous and flexible. The activities are asynchronous, meaning you can choose when within a given week you do them. Each week will require five to seven hours of work, with more guided, paced work during the “learning” weeks (weeks 2, 3, 4, and 8) and more job-associated practice and application during the other weeks of the module (weeks 5-7 and 9-12).
Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Initiate a process of self-examination about your mindset and beliefs about issues of equity in education
- Learn to have courageous conversations about difference
- Gain a deeper understanding about blind spots we all have and how they affect teaching and learning
- Develop leadership strategies that build the capacity of teachers, principals, and other leaders to recognize the potential and ability in all children and to promote their success at high levels.
