Fostering a community committed to eliminating oppression throughout the education ecosystem.
The Moral Imperative
The commitment to creating an antiracist and anti-oppressive community is grounded in our belief that fair, just, and equitable educational systems are essential for societal progress. By centering SOE’s work on these principles, the foundation is laid for shaping a generation of faculty, staff, students, and alumni who will actively contribute to building this aspirational world: a world characterized by equity, justice, and opportunity for all.
In declaring our vision of becoming an antiracist learning community, we define antiracism as:
Antiracism is more than simply not acting in a racist manner. It is a way of life. It is an active process that requires an everyday commitment to analyzing self, systems, mindsets, ideologies, practices, and policies to dismantle White supremacy and anti-Blackness. Antiracist beliefs and practices fundamentally point us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. It is an everyday commitment to:
- disrupt ideas / policies / practices / institutions / structures / relationships that (re)produce inequities in access, opportunity, perceived deservedness, legitimacy, safety, and life-expectancy based on race;
- actively transform institutions and ways of being / doing / thinking / celebrating / loving that honor the full flourishing and non-negotiable humanity of all people; and
- engage faculty, staff, students, and alumni around history, critical self-awareness, and community involvement.
Putting Words Into Action
Faculty, students, alumni, and staff work to actively promote antiracism each day, beyond the curriculum and classroom. Here are some examples:
Led by our Antiracism Pedagogy Scholar and our faculty, SOE offers ongoing professional learning opportunities to build faculty, staff, student, and alumni capacity to teach and lead for antiracism and other forms of equity. We have offered trainings including: Antiracism Activation Communities; a Faculty of Color Healing Community; White Faculty and Staff Antiracism Co-Conspirator Communities; a Disrupting Racism Teaching and Leadership series; 1-on-1 antiracism coaching; Teaching and Leading During Turbulent Times; and more. Check out our Teaching and Leading During Turbulent Times online workshop and handout (enable pop-up windows to view).
This collection of K-12 resources was assembled to assist K-12 leaders navigate difficult conversations in the classroom or with parents. Topics include talking to chlidren about voilence and hate; navigating bias and hate in the classroom; supporting Muslim, Jesish, and Arab students; empowring learners after a difficult event, assessing online threats, and more.
Faculty, teaching teams, and staff also have access to the Praxis Antiracism Learning Hub, built to disrupt and dismantle racism and White Supremacy in the classroom and collaboratively rebuild antiracist learning environments where all participants have full and equal access to participate and benefit from the resources available. In this hub is a wealth of resources, from articles and research papers to instructional guides and multimedia content, all curated to help integrate antiracist principles into teaching and practice.
The annual American University School of Education Summer Institute on Education Equity and Justice (SIEEJ) was developed to provide professional development opportunities for community members, particularly educators, who want to learn promising practices that lead to equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities. It takes place near the end of June and most programming is virtual to allow for the widest audience to take part.
Check out the collection of antiracist-centered educational webinars centered around antiracism in our Big Ideas in Education webinar series. "Big Ideas" were implemented by the American University School of Education in response to the ever-changing education landscape on topics such as the School's commitment to antiracism, equity in education, and the educational response to COVID-19. Experts engage with students, faculty, staff, and the larger community in conversations and projects focused on creating new, big, and innovative ways to resolve long-standing inequities in education.
70 Years Later: Critical Education Policy to Live Out the Promise of Brown v. Board of Education was a webinar examining crucial policy considerations in today's educational landscape while reflecting on the enduring legacy of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education and offer insights into the policy levers necessary to uphold the ideals set forth by the case seven decades later.
The Immigrants’ Educational Rights: Peril or Promise webinar shed light on the plight of immigrant families who have children in US schools; the recurring challenges to landmark court cases, including political battles happening around the presidential election; the obstacles threatening immigrant families' fundamental right to education; and the possibilities and promises for the future.
SOE honored Banned Books Week with the webinar How Book Bans Impact K-12 Students, an effort to create awareness around the importance and freedom to read.
The Supreme Court’s decisions around race-based admissions may have widespread impact on access to higher education. Watch the webinar The SCOTUS Decisions: What School Counselors Should Know where experts weigh in on the potential ramifications.
In Antiracist Leadership During the Backlash of Critical Race Theory, Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings Jr. shared insights into his experiences during his time serving as Superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools and how he has led with an antiracism framework at his core.
The Global Education Forms were produced by the International Training and Education Program (ITEP) in the School of Education. ITEP focuses on identifying the most pressing issues in education globally, as reported by renowned experts from academia, public policy, government and the non-profit sector across the globe. It also examines whether and how undergraduate and graduate student education and training should change in order to prepare students to address these issues.
Watch the Teaching and Leading During Turbulent Times online workshop and its accompanying handout (enable pop-up windows to view) for helpful strategies to create an affirmative space during the realities of living, teaching, and leading during local, regional, national, and globally uncertain times.
Meet the first doctoral cohort of antiracist changemakers who graduated in May 2022. Believed to be one of the first of its kind to focus on antiracism, SOE's practice-oriented doctoral program is in education policy and leadership.
A summer experiential learning trip helped 16 SOE students learn more about antiracism by studying its direct impact in Senegal. Read about the trip here.
Watch the three webinars in the Antiracist School Counselor Webinar Series by the Center for Postsecondary Readiness and Success, dedicated to partnering with school counselors, counselor educators, college advisors, and any career/college advisors to increase institutional responsibility for improving postsecondary outcomes through the use of counseling, advising, mentoring, and/or coaching. Through its efforts, the Center strives to advance antiracist school counseling and college/career advising practices, pedagogy and policies.
Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy and Dr. Annice Fisher authored the op-ed including six lessons learned in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education titled "Beyond Statements Toward Action: Maintaining the Antiracist Promise During the Anti-DEI Movement."
SOE's Teacher Pipeline Project was highlighted on the Washington, DC, affiliate to NBC, Chanel 4. The Teacher Pipeling Project works to fill the teacher void through dual enrollment, AU Teaching Fellows, and advanced degrees.
Director of SOE's Institute for Innovation in Education Danielle G. Sodani co-authored a chapter, "Figuring out my End Game: Supporting Novice ESOL Teachers' Emerging Identities as Humanizing Practitioners and Advocates through Peer Interaction," in the book A Sociopolitical Agenda for TESOL Teacher Education.
SOE Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Dr. Tomiko D. Ball, EdD '22, wrote the chapter, “Proactively Equipping Self and Community with Navigational Tools to Disrupt Othering Within Higher Education,” in the book Healing While Studying: Reflections and Strategies for Healing, Coping, and Liberation of Graduate Students of Minoritized Identities.
Inside Higher Ed published Dr. Annice E. Fisher’s advice on successfully navigating the challenges of leading social change as Black women in higher education.
Senior Professorial Lecturer and Director of the Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice Dr. Antonio L. Ellis published "Black Scholarship in a White Academy: Perseverance in the Face of Injustice" about the experience of Black scholarship and faculty in a predominantly White academic spaces.
Dr. Amaarah DeCuir shared “10 Steps to Humanize Online Classrooms” in Inside Higher Education, and Education Week published “An Urgent Message to School Leaders: Your Arab and Muslim Students Need You.”
Dr. Brian McGowan wrote in The Urban Review “Black Faculty Facilitating Difficult Dialogues in the College Classroom: A Cross‐Disciplinary Response to Racism and Racial Violence.”
Professor Dr. Jennifer L. Steele wrote an article in Fast Company about how AI may impact economic inequality.
SOE Sr. Professorial Lecturer Dr. Phelton Moss was interviewed about the importance of engaging with Black boys, even if it's over their footwear.
"The Importance of African American Studies," an opinion piece by Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy and Dr. Johnnetta Cole in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, is a call to action on the importance of teaching African American studies in K-12 classrooms.
Read about the work Professorial Lecturer Dr. Jisun Jeong does as a researcher and expert on forcibly displaced populations and her work in humanitarian and development settings as a researcher, educator, and practitioner.
Along with her AU Center for Teaching, Research & Learning (CTRL) student partners, elementary education senior Qudsia Saeed '24 co-presented "Student Feedback and Co-Creation for Equitable Teaching and Learning," which emphasized the importance of professors embracing and integrating student feedback.
Director of the EdD Program and Professorial Lecturer Dr. William N. Thomas IV, Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Samantha Cohen, and Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Dr. Cheyenne Batista (EdD '23) co-presented "Co-Teaching as an Opportunity to Enact Social Justice and Create Humanizing Communities" at the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate's 2023 Convening in Florida.
Read or listen to this EdSurge podcast where Dean Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy offered her opinion on why the time has come to reset college legacy admissions practices.
Former Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Gregory. C. Hutchings, Jr., joined the Black Agenda Radio's podcast episode, "School Safety for Black Students," to discuss a recent study reflecting that law enforcement has a more significant presence in Black and Latino schools than in white schools.
Dr. Cheyenne Batista (EdD ’22) was awarded the prestigious American Education Research Association (AERA) Division A 2023 Award for Outstanding Dissertation for her dissertation, “‘I Am Not Scary. I Am Strong. There’s a Difference.’ Disrupting Misogynoir and Transforming Interpersonal Conflict for Black Women Education Leaders: A Multiple Case Study.”
More than $1.3M was awarded from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to AU’s Dr. Shari Earnest Watkins and Dr. Brian L. McGowan, Associate Professor, as part of the Collaborative Research-Racial Equity project (CRRE) to examine undergraduate Black students’ postsecondary STEM experiences.
Meet SOE’s Antiracist Pedagogy Scholar
As the Antiracist Pedagogy Scholar, Dr. Annice Fisher focuses on building the capacity of faculty and staff to teach and lead for antiracism, equity, and justice. This work includes leading antiracism learning communities, hosting capacity-building workshops, one-on-one coaching, mediations, antiracism audits, and advisory on antiracism related matters. Fisher designed the Exercising Conscious Leadership for the inaugural doctoral program. She has more than 20 years of experience developing and leading equity and justice work across diverse sectors. From working with mayors to boards to superintendents to deans to state agencies, Fisher understands what it takes to build coalitions for change in complex systems. In 2017, She founded Developing Capacity Coaching and later, their sister non-profit GiveSankofa, Inc. Collectively, the organizations focus on creating the conditions for all people, regardless of background, thriving freely throughout this planet. Most recently, Annice is known for her Conscious Leadership for Equity™ work which is currently being integrated across a variety of sectors including judicial justice reform, government, k-12 and higher education, philanthropy, corporate, non-profits, and Hollywood.
Creating an Antiracist Teacher Workforce Report
Read the final report of the AU project entitled "Creating an Antiracist Teacher Workforce: Policy and Practice Implications."
The information and data gathered as part of the Antiracist Teacher Preparation Initiative (ATPI) reveal distinct policy and practice recommendations for enhancing the recruitment, preparation, and retention of culturally responsive and antiracist teachers. Policy changes such as requiring antiracist teacher professional development as part of state certification and incentivizing antiracist accreditation standards are just a few of the recommendations offered by experts and teachers who participated in this Initiative. This report also described an antiracist teacher professional development curriculum.
The SOE Ad-Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) aims to strengthen the mission and vision of the School of Education by focusing attention on issues of access, inclusive practices, equity, and diversity. The committee works in concert with AU’s Inclusive Excellence Plan. Special attention is given to integrating culturally responsive and anti-racist pedagogies across programs, particularly teacher and leader preparation. The committee consults with program faculty to design, implement, and evaluate formalized activities that explicitly address equity issues across all parts of the School, including admissions, clinical practice, teaching, research, and service. An overall goal of the committee is to enhance the School’s ability to be a welcoming and supportive environment where all students, staff, and faculty members thrive.
Committee Members
The following individuals serve on the SOE Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
- Mr. Jim Albright
- Dr. Corbin M. Campbell
- Dr. Samantha Cohen
- Dr. Toks Fashola
- Dr. Reuben Jacobson
- Dr. Emily Morris
- Dr. Joshua Schuschke
- Dr. Robert Simmons
- Ms. Danielle Sodani
- Dr. Tracy Spesia
Summer Institute on Education Equity and Justice
The annual American University School of Education Summer Institute on Education Equity and Justice (SIEEJ) was developed to provide professional development opportunities for community members, particularly educators, who want to learn promising practices that lead to equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities.
The Importance of African American Studies
An opinion piece by Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education published an opinion piece authored by Dr. Johnnetta Cole and Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy as a call to action on the importance of teaching African American studies in K-12 classrooms.
SOE’s Antiracism Work
Meet the first Doctoral cohort of antiracist changemakers who graduated in 2022. Believed to be one of the first of its kind to focus on antiracism, SOE's “practice-oriented” doctoral program in education policy and leadership launched in August of 2019.