Giving Compass' Take:

• A teacher from the Kipp Team Academy in Newark, NJ provides insight into his program called 'Siwaju' which empowers students to talk about topics closest to them, participate in community service, and help them instill power in their identities. 

• Can teachers work to expand how they relate to children who do not look like them? Or can schools expand their hiring process to be more intentional about representing their student population within their faculty and staff? 

• There is already research showing the positive effects on students when they have teachers who look like them. Read about why African-American male teachers, specifically are important. 

Having teachers who look like you is powerful. A recent study found that when students see themselves in their teachers — both in race and gender — the students felt more cared for, more interested and more confident that their teachers had their backs.

What we haven’t spent enough time exploring is how powerful it can be to have a teacher who empowers you to be who you are, in every sense, in other identities, beyond race and gender.

At my school, KIPP TEAM Academy in Newark, I developed a program called “Siwaju,” which is aimed at empowering students and instilling in them a sense of pride in their identities. The program is named after the Yoruba word that means “forward” or “moving ahead.” Siwaju is a seminar-style program that gives students a platform to discuss various topics that influence their own lives.  Really, at its core, Siwaju was created to serve as a catalyst to motivate and honor our most resilient eighth-graders, and ensure they move on with a strong sense of pride in who they are.

This course helps students take ownership of who they are, which is ultimately what I believe a teacher’s goal should be.  A teacher helps students question what they know to be true, and encourages them to develop a healthy amount of skepticism about the world they inhabit. A teacher seeks to understand the social, economic and emotional spaces in which their students live.

Because, ultimately, a teacher’s job is to make absolutely certain that their kids know they are powerful, important, capable and loved.

Read the full article about teacher demographics by Bilal Walker at The Hechinger Report