On March 23, 2021 teachers, students, administrators, and parents from all over Connecticut gathered to learn best practices of teaching Black and Latinx studies from Dr. Kelly Hope in a webinar hosted by the ARTLC. 

Warren Leach of the Ungroup Society began by introducing the organization as one that addresses “quality of life issues that typical organizations don’t cover.” They created the Youth Empowerment and Social Justice Initiative which “seeks to empower youth through education, emotional support, mentorship, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and even spiritual concerns” because many students of color have needs that are unmet by typical academic institutions. He explains that education is particularly important because “If the inception point of a teacher’s lesson is not based in facts, then everything that comes after is a lie.” 

Through a partnership with the Ungroup Society, Dr. Hope created an 8-week curriculum on Black and Latinx studies to address the disconnect between students’ lived experiences and the standardardized eurocentric curriculum. Dr. Hope stressed that the curriculum must be culturally relevant, centering students’ lived experiences and prior knowledge as well as experiential, giving opportunities for students to learn something new and reflect. 

Her course, divided into 4 parts---Standing Ground, Folklore, Music, and Tradition, Family Ties and Gender Roles, and The Ties That Bind Community and Culture---begins with students brainstorming what they do, know, think, and are told. Dr. Hope explains that this is “the baseline for crafting a new story.” 

Of particular note in this curriculum is the Minefield which teaches about systemic barriers through an interactive activity where students navigate physical obstacles in the classroom with their eyes closed. Some of the obstacles include Jim Crow laws, aspects of intersectionality, and “all the isms” including but not limited to racism, sexism, ableism, and ageism. 

This activity was received particularly well by two students who had taken part in Dr. Hope’s course. Kayla and Amari, who had participated in the class in 2018, both praised the Black and Latinx curriculum for being interactive and specific. Kayla explained that she took the class because she wanted to “learn about [her] culture and where [she] came from aside from civil rights and slvaery,” while Amari discussed how in the predominantly white, Catholic schools he’d attended, teachers “reiterated the exact same topics” and “didn’t talk about the advances and influences African American people had on technology.” 

While grateful for the positive feedback, Dr. Hope noted that her course wasn’t perfect and there are gaps in the curriculum. Some of the challenges she had faced included time constraints, lack of course credit, and student burnout due to heaviness of the topics. 

As such, it is important to Dr. Hope that her course is dynamic, reflecting students’ feedback and adapting to aforementioned challenges. She encourages teachers to be more open and empower students to “do the heavy lifting” in being able to “explore, examine, question, and make decisions for themselves.” She stated that it’s imperative that students are allowed to explore systems that educators may be uncomfortable with.

Dr. Hope concluded by stating that the most important objective was to encourage students to “identify differences and areas where changes are needed.” Because this can only be done if “other experiences are provided,” Dr. Hope urges teachers to “broaden our scope and access to materials so we can provide different narratives and stories.” 

See Dr. Hope’s curriculum and download the material here.

Written by the ARTLC Team