Over the past 3 months, a group of 18 educators from around Connecticut have come together monthly to build a Community of Practice on anti-racist education for teachers of color. Organized by Jennifer Heikkila Díaz (she/they), the Teacher of Color Community of Practice was born out of the recognition of the unique set of challenges facing teachers of color, and the importance of creating community spaces where they can be supported.  

As many teachers return from a long period of remote school, the need for this type of space is more important than ever. “Oftentimes, mandated professional development doesn’t meet teachers’ unique needs,” JHD explains. A community of practice, however, is different. “When you get teachers together and create that kind of space for them through a community of practice, they can share the context [that they are coming from], and decide how to use the time.”

In Connecticut, there is a particularly strong need to support and retain teachers of color. While CT’s student body is increasingly diverse, with BIPOC students making up more than 40% of Connecticut’s student population, only 9.6% of public school teachers are people of color. This gap means that many teachers of color are isolated within their schools.  

JDH discussed how their own 15-year experience as a teacher where they had the privilege of having a community of fellow educators of color really revealed the importance and power that community holds. In Connecticut, however, she realized that “that's just not the reality for many of our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color teachers ⸺ they don't have that kind of Community of Practice [in their schools]. Especially in a place like Connecticut, you find a lot of schools where we have teachers of color teaching in isolation and not getting to work with other teachers of color and support each other. There's a lot of ramifications and consequences to that because they take on so much additional labor that is often not acknowledged.” 

Especially when focused on anti-racist educational practices, holding space for teachers of color becomes especially important. Often, JDH notes, in “anti-racist professional development that includes white educators, there is this move towards centering whiteness.” While acknowledging there is a vast diversity of backgrounds and needs of teachers of color, having a space to focus on anti-racist education that actively does not center whiteness opens the door to a new and exciting space for anti-racist education work.