Tis the Season’ for advocacy, belonging, and culturally responsive teaching.

I recently had an interesting experience while doing professional development with a group of educators. As I entered the zoom platform, the group was talking about their holiday traditions and many of them had on different holiday attire. As always, in my opening remarks to a group, I like to connect with the (virtual) crowd. I jumped into the conversation and acknowledged some of the Christmas traditions mentioned as well as the decorations and attire that people were wearing, largely those who had on green and red.

This equity session just happened to be about identity. In leading sessions about race and culture, I often introduce an identity wheel as a tool for working with new audiences. I use examples of some dominant mainstream understandings that exist in America (Liberty, freedom, individualism, capitalism also more arguably dominant, inequality) to serve as a starting point for how our society operates. I also talked about how certain identities have greater privilege and alignment with those dominant mainstream understandings. I highlighted examples of heterosexuality and LGBTQ+, able-bodied and disabled, male and female, and I concluded with race and what is normalized in America. Lastly, I elevated the idea that when something is not perceived as “normal” it is therefore subconsciously abnormal…