Diversity Statement

Learning and Unlearning

As children, learning comes to us naturally. Our brains are wired to notice new stimuli, and we spend time
most of our time adding content and creating a giant structure of understanding about ourselves and the
world we live in. Our brains are primed to continuously adopt beliefs about ourselves and the world. We pick
up self-talk, mindsets, religious values, and gender stereotypes, patterns of thought, habits, and behaviors
from our parents and the environments in which we are raised.

As we mature into adults, sometimes we add to our structures of understanding, and other times we have to
demolish old ideas and reconstruct new patterns of thought. In fact, some of adult learning can only be
classified as unlearning. We must learn to think critically, challenging the ways in which our underlying, long-
held beliefs color our perception. It can be difficult and painful to explore some of our deep-seated beliefs, but
this process can free us from misunderstanding. Through constant re-evaluation, we learn to recognize bias
and flaws in their own thinking, and are able to free ourselves from our own distorted ideas and outdated
beliefs.

As a teacher, it is my job to cultivate understanding, acceptance, and appreciation for diversity. Whether I am
working with children or adults, I strive to create inclusive classroom communities and design curriculum that
is culturally balanced and responsive. Over time, I’ve adopted teaching techniques that engage learners from
a diverse range of backgrounds.

Making Progress in 3rd & 4th Grade Classrooms

As a first-year teacher at Edu-prize Charter School, I worked to foster a classroom community that focused on
collaboration rather than competition. During the first week of school, the children and I sat together to
create our class rules built upon mutual respect. We cultivated an inclusive classroom environment and place
of belonging where it was okay to be yourself. My students knew they would be supported by classmates who
would not tolerate bullying or “othering” in our spaces.

To celebrate our differences, I used to read The Animal School

by George Reavis to my students at the start of the year. To
summarize the story- a school full of animals (duck, rabbit,
squirrel, eagle, and eel) are all evaluated on the same subjects:
running, climbing, swimming, and flying. The animals struggle
with the activities that seem unnatural to them and each has
to suppress his or her own innate abilities. After reading, my
kids and I would all take a multiple intelligences survey and talk
about the different ways of being smart. This set the tone for
the entire rest of the year as we built a supportive and
cooperative classroom community.

When working with students, I encourage individual strengths

and develop plans to meet individual needs. I am patient with
children who struggle with disabilities or language barriers, and
I work with parents and school specialists to find the
modifications and accommodations they need. Each student
in my class will experience growth and success, no matter
where they begin.
After my second year, our Superintendent hired me to create a new science/social studies unit based upon the
Age of Exploration. As I researched the time period I felt compelled to make the content more honest and
historically accurate. My primary goal was to portray a variety of cultural perspectives, especially the
viewpoints of indigenous groups. I did not want to shield my students from violence and oppression, because I
wanted them to make connections between exploration and exploitation. They needed to know that the slave
trade was a direct result of this time in history. I wanted them to discuss how this period played a role in
shaping our country, leading into the Civil War and later the Civil Rights Movement. I wanted them to realize
that the fight for equality is ongoing and that we are all responsible for the construction of a more just and
sustainable world. In order for us to move forward, we have to start by telling the whole truth.

Teaching English
While living in Italy, I had the opportunity to work with students whose backgrounds were very different from
mine. The Anglo-Italian Montessori School serves a diverse group of students from NATO countries. I started
the Language Skills Lab for a group of first graders from Turkey, France, Italy, Germany, and the Czech
Republic. I found that some of my students were unbearably shy when asked to speak in English. We focused
on the simple repetition of phrases as a method for building confidence, singing songs and playing games to
practice speaking skills. I incorporated plenty of play, and I remember giggling together as we made fun of
quirks in the English language: “Today I buy a lollipop, and I will buy one tomorrow, but yesterday I bought
one?!?! Isn’t English hilarious?”

My students with more advanced English skills acted

as translators and coaches for their friends, and they
often worked together in teams. I would also pull
each child individually to practice reading fluency and
comprehension. Eventually, I expanded the program
to up through sixth grade, creating job aids with the
common errors made when learning English. With a
bit of experimentation, I learned what works when
trying to bridge cultural and linguistic gaps with kids.
By the end of the year, even the shyest of students
could confidently introduce herself, shake hands,
make eye contact, talk about her home country,
family, likes and dislikes, and most importantly ask for
help in English. These skills helped them to be more
successful in their homerooms when learning new
subject matter.

As a military spouse who moves frequently, I’ve

attempted to learn Spanish, Italian, and Japanese with
varying levels of success. I know how frustrating it can
be when you’re lacking the ability to express complex
ideas. It was a particularly humbling experience to
move to Japan and find that I could not read anything
at all. When I talked, I sounded like a kindergartener,
but with practice I was usually able to get the point
across. These experiences taught me to have more
patience with those who are still learning new skills-
especially my own children.
Contributions to Higher Education
College is the place where students gain exposure to a
wider array of cultures. In my course on Multicultural
Art and Children’s Literature we begin by exploring this
concept: What exactly is culture? During the first class
session, I like to introduce a parable about a professor
who visited a Zen master for tea. The professor had
come to learn, but then he spent more time talking than
listening. The Zen master began pouring the professor’s
tea until the cup began to overflow, while calmly asking,
“How can I teach unless you first empty your cup?” The
professor was so full of his own preconceptions that it
blocked new learning.

The “beginner’s mindset” can be helpful at times, but I disagree that our cups must be completely empty to
learn something new, because we all learn by relating to our previous experiences. In fact, I look forward to
the ways in which individual student experiences enrich the learning that takes place in our class. I think the
essence of this parable is to keep the mind open, curious, and ready to mix new experiences with prior
knowledge. And as we learn more about the world, we realize that our cups only grow bigger as we begin to
understand different cultural perspectives. In this way, our cups become so big that we can hold “two truths”
at the same time, holding a space for ideas and perspectives that are different without having to be “right”.
It’s about accepting the tension that occurs when we are able to simultaneously validate contradicting cultural
viewpoints. This larger, multi-dimensional space is the place we need to be in as educators- where we can
listen, appreciate, and celebrate the multitude of individual, family, societal, and global cultures that we
encounter in our students.

Top Ten Teaching Strategies

The following techniques help me to meet the needs of students with various learning styles, levels of
experience, and diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds:

1. Establish a classroom community where respectful listening and dialogue are expected. My class is a
place where all students belong and are accepted.
2. Include perspectives that are often left out of the curriculum, especially the voices of female theorists
and underrepresented minorities who excel in the field.
3. Employ active learning strategies that allow for a variety of grouping arrangements: individual, partner,
team, and small group work. Encourage them to learn from one another’s unique points of view.
4. Use peer-to-peer teaching to create a sense of ownership of the material. Ask the students to become
experts on selected topics and teach the class. Project sharing engages students and makes them feel
accountable.
5. Share rubrics and objectives with students in advance as blueprints. A clear outline is beneficial for
first-generation and nontraditional students in particular, but I find that this helps everyone.
6. Utilize mixed assessment methods (writing, speaking, art, technology-based, etc.) so that students can
showcase innate talents that would not appear on a multiple-choice test.
7. Include some informal, nonthreatening assignments. Ungraded pre or post class quizzes and other
low-stakes assignments encourage participation and help students build confidence. When I use
ungraded minute-papers or anonymous exit tickets at the end of class, it gives students time to
pinpoint parts they don’t understand or ask questions. I can later review these and look for patterns of
misunderstanding and tailor my next session to clarify.
8. With formal assessments, look for unintentional bias in quiz questions and vary the format of exam
items. I also give students opportunities to make test corrections and retake exams to improve scores.
 9. Break major projects down into smaller assignments. I can use rough drafts as a tool to keep student
on track or stagger the due dates of various components to set students up for success. Adult learners
may feel intimidated by the material or workload, especially those who are learning English, first
generation, or non-traditional students coming back to the classroom after many years away. This
approach helps to ease the anxiety and mitigates procrastination.
10. Hold office hours both in-person and online accommodate and support individual students.
Socioeconomic background matters, as low-income students may have the added stress of working
part-time or full-time or maintaining scholarship requirements. Other students may have families or
other responsibilities that will affect performance. I take the time listen carefully, ask questions, and
get to know more about the lives of my students. This way, we can work together to make
arrangements and plan for success.

Professional Development Plans

My future plans for promoting diversity and inclusion as a teaching professor include the following:

Teaching:

 Delivering culturally responsive curriculum that validates the experiences of our underserved and
underprivileged students, using the teaching methods described above.
 Providing equal mentoring opportunities, supporting students as they shape their own teacher
identities.
 Finding seasoned professors as my own mentors, inviting them to my classes to observe, gathering
perspectives on any latent biases, and leveraging their input to improve my teaching.
 Continuing involvement with organizations that promote inclusion and diversity: Association for the
Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD),
Arizona Education Association (ADA), and Save our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ).
 Participating in the Prescott LGBTQ+ CommUNITY and other alliance organizations to build a
supportive community on campus.
 Using Twitter as a tool to follow leading voices in my field, but also learning from marginalized ones.
 Listening to and amplifying the voices of people who are experiencing intersectional oppression, not
only in my community but all over the world.

Research:

 Expanding and publishing my recent literature review: Linking the Teacher Exodus to Systemic Racism,
Socioeconomic Inequality, and Barriers to Higher Education
 Exploring “grow your own” and other pathway programs to attract community leaders who can
leverage cultural resilience as a tool for supporting students.
 Studying strategies to recruit and retain a diverse faculty that includes male, minority, and LGBTQ+
teachers.
 Advocating for economically disadvantaged candidates who cannot afford student teaching, by pushing
for more scholarships, tuition reimbursement, and the development of paid residencies.
 Exploring the teacher pay gap as a feminist issue, whereas the balance of power is not equitable when
a female majority of teachers are managed by a disproportionate number of male administrators and
policymakers.
 Developing better methods for tracking teacher preparation program outcomes post-graduation by
closely monitoring: enrollment, completion, placement, licensure, salary, and retention.
 Collecting evidence for best teaching and learning practices at the collegiate level that will result in
high impact K-12 classrooms.
Service:

 Arranging outreach visits to local schools, meeting with administrators, counselors, and teachers to
support their needs based upon the research and strengthening ties between four-year institutions,
community colleges, and K-12 schools.
 Starting an outreach or EDUCamp program to attract high school students from diverse backgrounds,
especially at-risk, minority, and low-income students who would benefit from extra support.
 Protecting public education funding from for-profit, outside interests through activism with the non-
profit organization Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ).
 Working toward changes in public policy to eliminate the discrepancies in funding that have
systematically oppressed our low-income and minority students in the state of Arizona.

Designing a Brighter Future

The culturally inclusive and responsive practices I implement are thoughtfully and intentionally designed to
engage students in higher order thinking, which stimulates moral thinking about social values, issues, and
injustices. Through our work together, students come to understand the value of diversity, which contributes
to a more empathetic mindset. These concepts and values are necessary in the construction of a more
sustainable world. It is everyone’s responsibility to dismantle oppressive systems and challenge our society to
pursue racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice. My goal is to contribute to these causes in all of
my various roles: as a parent, classroom teacher, professor, and mentor and to cultivate the same reverence
for diversity within all the students I teach.