Teaching Black and Latinx Studies Communities of Practice Recap and Resources

About the Project

This fall, dozens of high schools across Connecticut will begin offering an elective course in Black and Latinx Studies. All high schools will be required to offer the course by the 2022-23 school year, which was mandated by the 2019 passage of Public Act 19-12 in June 2019. (“An Act concerning the inclusion of Black and Latino Studies in the Public School Curriculum”). Youth-led organizing groups across the state lobbied for the legislation, and have closely followed its implementation.

For many schools, the legislation presents both an opportunity to engage histories and experiences long excluded in the dominant curriculum. But implementing the course presents its own challenges, especially for those teaching such material for the first time, and because the state has announced that any professional development training it might offer will take place later in the summer.

The Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective (ARTLC) organized three cohorts of Communities of Practice (CoP) for teachers who will be teaching this new course. These CoP’s provided space for teachers from a variety of backgrounds and experience levels across the state to share stories, resources, questions, and ideas. Ultimately, the Communities of Practice provided a network in which teachers could build collective wisdom in preparation for teaching the Black/Latinx Studies course in the fall.

Each of the three Communities of Practice had approximately 15 members and was facilitated by a local CT teacher with experience in this field – Ruth-Terry Walden of Stamford Public Schools, Daisha Brabham of Norwalk Public Schools, and Nataliya Braginsky of New Haven Public Schools. At the end of the four sessions, Nataliya reflected on the experience, saying, “It was also a powerful reminder of how teachers can and must support one another as we develop and improve our curriculum and pedagogy.” She also noted the particular power of the Black and Latinx History class, saying “[This] course is presenting us with a much-needed opportunity to build together in our struggle for racial justice.”

In July, we will host two meetings — one in person and one virtual — to review the materials that the State Education Resource Center (SERC) plans to release related to the course and to discuss next steps. The virtual session will be facilitated by Nataliya Braginsky on Wednesday, July 7 from 12-1:30 pm and the in-person session will be facilitated by Ruth-Terry Walden and Daisha Brabham on Thursday, July 15 from 1 pm - 2:30 pm (with the exact New Haven location to be determined). If you would like to attend one of these sessions, please sign up via this form.

If you have any questions, please contact info@antiracistteaching.org.

Resources for Teaching Black and Latinx Studies

From the Communities of Practice, teachers in the groups generated this list of resources to share with fellow educators teaching this class or other related classes. Resources include lesson plans, syllabi, books, webinars, multimedia sources, primary sources, and many more. If you have any questions, please contact info@antiracistteaching.org.