Celebrating Diverse Identities is Everyone’s Work

Preparing students academically is critically important-- and so is teaching them about their identities, fostering that self-love and awareness of other cultures.

- Shawna Mitchell, Elementary Assistant Principal

At Springfield Prep, we believe that celebrating diverse identities is everyone’s responsibility and that a joyful observation of cultural heritage months like Black History Month and Latinx Heritage Month is one of many ways that schools can honor our students’ backgrounds and our school community.  

As a school, we’ve evolved over time in how we approach planning for cultural heritage months.  In this post, Shawna Mitchell, our Elementary Assistant Principal, will share about our current approach.  We also include links to planning tools and templates that other educators can implement to support collaboration and ownership in this realm.

What was your experience with Cultural Heritage Months as a student yourself and how does that inform your work planning for these times at SPCS? 

As a student, one of my greatest memories was when I learned that I was African American and what that meant.  I got to see teachers who looked like me and teachers who didn’t look like me all celebrate my identity.  I remember being inspired at the contributions of African Americans and it has inspired me to teach our kids all about African Americans and the other cultures represented in our school community.  I still get excited.  Even this year I remember going into the staff room and sharing with other Black educators, “Happy Black History Month”! 

What are some of the pitfalls that can come up when it comes to celebrating cultural heritage months in schools?  What lessons have we learned as a school when it comes to this type of work?

There are limitations given the time period-- when the month falls it can be quickly dismissed with other important things that are going on and there is the limiting idea that, for example, Black History should only be taught within the constraints of a month.  As for the lessons we’ve learned as a school, when we first started this a lot of the burden fell on BIPOC educators and staff because I think other educators who didn’t share those identities didn’t have the same knowledge to bring to these celebrations or they felt like it wasn’t their moment, and they didn’t want to desecrate the space in a way or say the wrong thing.  The impact of that was that our BIPOC teachers felt the weight of planning these celebrations or suggesting classroom extensions. Ultimately there was a call to action and some learning and unlearning about what it means to celebrate all cultures.

In your own words, can you describe our approach now and how it has evolved?

This is everyone’s job-- there isn’t room to opt-out.   This work of celebrating our students’ identities is integral to what we do every day and it’s an extension of culturally responsive teaching.  When you take the time to learn and honor different cultures it strengthens the community and children’s outlooks on themselves.  

But it’s not enough to just say this is everybody’s work.  We have structures to facilitate this. Every staff member signs up for at least one committee for the months we celebrate.  (Currently, our school celebrates Latinx Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and LGBTQIA+ Pride Month).  

Each committee meets 4-6 weeks in advance because it’s important to have time to learn and plan because the last thing you want is a sloppy presentation about someone’s culture-- that actually could create harm.   

The committee provides a theme to center our planning (often drawn from the national theme from various organizations-- easy to google and often a great jumping-off point) and prepares resources for teachers according to grade bands.  Now that we’ve been doing this for a few years, we are trying to build on the work of previous years and make sure that students explore new issues or learn about different important figures in each grade.  In addition to this, the committee plans multiple community moments to celebrate as a school-- for example, speakers from the community are often spotlighted and invited to visit, while certain grade levels might do a deep dive into arts, culture, and any major part of the heritage and share that research with the school community through presentations or performances.  

To make it work, you have to understand that kids only get one school experience and as the adults who run the school, who teach them, who get them on the bus each day, we have to do what we can for their experience.  Preparing students academically is critically important-- and so is teaching them about their identities, fostering that self-love and awareness of other cultures. There is this notion that in order to educate someone well, you have to know them well, this push for learning about and celebrating cultures supports the relational component of education.  The fact that this idea is often unspoken in schools is historically racist.

For the people who feel overwhelmed and don’t feel like they have the time, I encourage them to make the time.  And the committee approach really lends itself to making this sustainable for busy people, because as a school, we’re not asking any teacher or staff member to do this on their own.  Our current committees are now made up of 10-12 bright, creative, committed people who can divide into sub-committees and do high-quality work without it taking a whole lot of time.

Ms. Jones’ dance team performs for Black History Month

I know it’s hard to pick favorites, but what are some of the most meaningful memories from past celebrations?

Our dance teacher, Ms. Jones put on a Black History Month dance performance that brought me to tears mainly because it’s made up of students who might lean towards the shy side and dance is their way of expressing who they are and they performed with so much passion.  It was clear that the fact that this was a  Black History Month performance meant a lot to them. I just want to name that many of our kids share a Latinx or Afro-Latina heritage and so this is a part of themselves that they are still getting to know or they want to be allies to their friends, and this is a way to do that.  I also remember when two of our Nepali students felt really inspired about AAPI month and they felt really inspired to talk about their culture and community, and having the chance to share helped them feel more accepted within our school.

What advice would you give to other school leaders or educators who want to introduce a more collaborative, structured approach to planning for Cultural Heritage Months?

• Don’t make excuses. Your kids deserve this.  We are the people who help them learn. 

• Incorporate everyone, from the operations team to the culture team, school counselors, involve everyone in this work.  This can actually strengthen the staff culture because they get to collaborate with folks from other teams who share a passion. 

• Honestly, as a leader, delegate for someone to boomerang/schedule-send email reminders to keep this work on folks’ radars and avoid the last-minute rush. 

• Modeling is always helpful. Latinx Heritage month falls from September 15 - October 15 so it’s a perfect month for members of the Leadership Team to model making this planning a priority during a very busy time.

Shawna Mitchell is the Elementary School Principal at Springfield Prep. Prior to moving into this role, she taught Kindergarten, worked as an Academic Dean, and an Assistant Elementary School Principal with us. She is a Brooklyn native and in her “spare” time she is a Worship Leader and Vocal Coach at Crossroads Community Cathedral in East Hartford, CT.