I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alyson Lamont, a district-level instructional specialist, and Emilie Hard, a retired assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, for an interview about their new book, Reading to Belong: Identity, Perspective, and Advocacy in the Elementary Schools. Pamela Washington, an elementary principal, is also co-author of the book but was unable to attend our interview.
Reading to Belong provides tools for teachers to facilitate critical conversations with students on race and identity. The authors wrote it because as educators, they understood the importance of belonging to student success. Alyson explained how this was the central tenant of the book,
"We talk a lot about achievement data and reading scores and all that. While that is important and valid, I constantly come back to—if students don't feel that they belong in our classrooms, if they don't have a connection, if they don't feel like they're valued, we've already lost. So to me, that's just the cornerstone of everything that we do."
Through conversations with students and teachers, the authors knew that students of color were facing multiple barriers to belonging and student success. Emilie explained, "It just was heartbreaking to hear the stories of what some students were experiencing in our schools and like Aly said, if they don't feel like they belong and they're welcome, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to learn."
The authors heard a range of perspective from teachers about having critical conversations with students around race. Emilie shared,
"From some, they didn't understand why it was necessary, and from others...they were either worried that they would enter into conversations and say the wrong thing, or they were worried that they would not further the work, that they would make mistakes that would cause problems, or they were worried about parent pushback or pushback from colleagues."
The authors felt that as a collective with varying expertise, they could contribute to providing solutions rather than repeatedly having these conversations and nothing happening. They felt that providing vignettes was the most effective way to provide teachers with the support and resources they need. Emilie explained the vignettes "give examples of how teachers were having conversations, how they were answering students questions, how they were addressing concerns, and really how they could be courageous. A lot of this work is about doing the right thing and just having that courage to jump in and do it." The vignettes lead to recommended picture books around its themes to use in classrooms. In addition, the book talks a lot about representation in classrooms such as ensuring that there are books featuring People of Color characters.
We talked about why belonging was so important to the authors and their why behind the book. Alyson reflected on her own experience as a White, middle-class, cisgender, neurotypical student. She believes she thrived because she "had an identity that was valued in school." As an adult researcher in education, she became aware of privilege and inequality and the very different experiences of students with marginalized identities and felt compelled to do something. Emilie, who is also Alyson's mother, shared about her childhood experience growing up in a home that regularly hosted international students. Her mother believed that getting to know people from around the world was a way to contribute to world peace. Emilie explained,
"As simple as that sounds, I really believe it's true that a lot of people I know who are fairly closed minded—they've never traveled, they've never met people from different cultures or that have different identities or that practice different religions...the more we do that, the deeper our understanding and empathy becomes. So as a child, that shaped me."
Emilie also spoke about Pamela's experience, which Pamela shares in the introduction for Reading to Belong. As a Black woman, Pamela had parents who wanted to shield her from the realities of racism so didn't really talk to her about race. In the book, Pamela wrote, "This attempt of shielding and protection resulted in growing up with my head in the sand, assimilating to the dominant culture of Whiteness while unknowingly unaware of my own identity." After becoming pregnant with her son and witnessing civil unrest, Pamela wrote how her "ignorance fell from my eyes." She hopes that this book provides tools for "educators looking to cultivate identity-affirming experiences and learning spaces for all students."
The authors are well aware that many teachers feel anxious about having these conversations. Alyson understands this feeling and explained,
"Those concerns and fears are totally valid, especially in this political context...At the same time, there's such urgency in this. We have students in our classroom who this really matters for. Know that it's not going to be perfect but even just taking those initial steps can make a huge difference for those kids. Because if teachers never take those steps, then we continue to lose and potentially harm students...It's that tension of you want to do the right thing but there are sometimes consequences for speaking out. But at the same time, as educators, we have to do right by our students."
In order to address some of these fears, Pamela and Emilie provide resources in the book from an administrator's lens. They share how teachers can build support from their administrators and staff and how to handle pushback from parents. They include a chapter titled "When Things Don't Go as Planned." Alyson reminds teachers that "at the end of the day, the work just feels too urgent to not move forward." Emilie added,
"We've talked a lot about students who have faced racism and barriers. The book and this work is also important for students who haven't experienced any bias or systemic barriers, because what we want is children to learn about differences, develop empathy, and feel a sense of agency within themselves to make a difference in the world. So ultimately, what we want is to influence children to grow up and make this world a better place. If we don't start when they're young, it's more difficult."
While Reading to Belong was written for teachers and classrooms, the authors share that this book is also a great resource for parents. The scenarios they provide are ones that come up at home too—they're the same kind of conversations, questions, topics, and concerns and the strategies are ones parents can also use.
You can pick up a copy of Reading to Belong on their publisher's website, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.
The authors will be presenting a session at the Washington Educational Research Association conference in December.