These resources are more effective when used in conjunction with the book.
Buy NowSpecific ideas on how to introduce race to students at predominantly white institutions who believe we are in a post-racial world and racism is no longer a real issue. Offers techniques for discussing racial issues, facilitating productive discussions and raising racial awareness in the classroom. Also explores how white teachers can model racial awareness and invite students into the process of examining their own white identity.
Black feminists explore facilitation and mediation skills for individuals and organizations focused on dealing with the inevitable struggles of life in ways that align with our values, are able to hold others without losing oneself and create change individually, interpersonally, and within our organizations.
Invites new and seasoned facilitators to be intentional about having tough group discussions and provides a framework to understand one’s own facilitation style, and continue to improve as a facilitator.
Illuminates the art and complexity of facilitation, describes multiple approaches, and discusses the necessary and ongoing reflection process, illustrated through personal narratives of challenges encountered, struggles and mistakes. Enable facilitators to go beyond superficial discussion of issues to fundamentally address structural and cultural causes of inequity, and provide students with the knowledge and skills to work for a more just society. Beyond theory, design, techniques and advice on practice, the book concludes with a section on supporting student social action.
Universal Design for Learning for Social Justice Education
Universal Design for Learning (UDL), also sometimes called Universal Instructional Design (UID), is a set of principles and practices aimed at making education accessible to people with the widest possible range of needs and abilities without the need for individual accommodations. UDL benefits all participants, not only those with disabilities. For example, people with learning and communication styles that differ from the styles usually prioritized in educational settings, people with inadequate educational preparation, and people who experience learning challenges due to cultural and/or language mismatches will all find a course/workshop more accessible when UDL practices are incorporated.
Some basic practices that can help make sessions accessible include:
Provide all information in multiple formats:
Any information provided verbally should also be provided in writing, and vice versa.
Written materials (including handouts as well as longer reading assignments) should be available in advance to provide access for students who need more than average time to read and for students who use screen readers.
Materials should be available electronically so that participants can readily use screen readers, magnification functions, etc.
Any videos shown in class should include captions. If you want to use a video that is not already captioned, get it captioned. In university settings, Disability Services offices may offer this service; otherwise, for short clips, try YouTube’s automated captioning (you may need to make some corrections) or Amara’s online captioning platform (https://amara.org/)
Images (in slide presentations, etc.) should be described verbally for the benefit of participants who cannot see the images or cannot see them clearly enough for the images to serve their instructional purpose.
No matter how well UDL is incorporated into course/workshop design and planning, individual accommodations will sometimes be needed.
Ask all participants about their physical and learning needs, not only those who have documented disabilities or formal accommodation requests. Provide ways for participants to communicate their needs to you privately (not only in front of the group) and well in advance. (Some accommodations, such as interpretation and fragrance-free requests, take time to arrange.)
If a participant needs an accommodation that is going to be apparent to the group, ask the participant whether and how they would like it acknowledged. It is perfectly appropriate and standard practice to simply make the accommodation without comment to the group; yet in some cases, a participant may prefer that facilitators acknowledge the accommodation verbally and explain to the group how making the accommodation is related to course themes like universal design and interdependence. Although such discussion can be a valuable teachable moment, it should always be up to the participant in question whether their accommodation is discussed in the group. If they do not wish it to be discussed but other participants bring it up, facilitators should remind participants of the importance of privacy for people with disabilities, and that all people deserve to have their needs met without having to justify or explain them publicly.
In general, be prepared to be creative. Most needs can be accommodated with a little problem-solving.
Some last-minute accommodations that you should be prepared to make include:
In addition to the UDL practices outlined above, general universal design practices for all events are also important. The following resources offer guidance on creating an accessible event: