October 2024: BC’s Action Plan and Teacher Guidelines on Antiracism

Co-facilitated by Meike Wernicke, Harini Rajagopal, Serikbolsyn Tastanbek, and Anastasia Zhuravleva

Introduction to the ARCs: goals, format, procedures

Topic: BC’s Action Plan and Teacher Guidelines on Antiracism

In this meeting of the LLED Antiracist Caucuses we consider the K-12 Anti-racism Action Plan and the Anti-Racism: A Guide for Teachers created by the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care in 2023.

Our focus on these policy and pedagogical documents will be on practical and conceptual perspectives, in particular with a view to our roles, experiences, and associations with teacher education. The main idea here is to gain some familiarity with BC policy on antiracism, specifically how it features in education.

The overarching question is: What is your take on BC’s antiracism policy based on this short exploration?

Stimulus texts: 

  1. In the K-12 Anti-racism Action Plan or Plan d’action contre le racisme de la maternelle à la 12e année please read the Foundational Understandings on page 9 (in French version – page 10).
  1. In the Anti-Racism: A Guide for Teachers or L’antiracisme: Guide à l’intention des enseignants, please have a look at:
    1. the first page of the Introduction (p. 4) which explains how the Guide is to be understood;
    2. the overview of the Reminder Posters created by the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network (p. 16) and one of the posters presented on the subsequent pages.

Optional:

  1. the Summary of Resources (mentioned on p. 6)
  2. the connections to the Core Competencies and Curricular Competencies of the BC school curriculum (pp. 8-14)

 

The following are optional readings that help situate the antiracism plan and guide above.

For a quick overview of the K-12 Anti-racism Action Plan goals and launch, see the following press release:

A podcast episode from Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools, hosted by Dale Burgos, in which students Sophia Toye and Zack Silvey talk about their participation in the BC K-12 Anti-racism Summit:

Discussion questions: 

  1. The foundational understandings of the K-12 Antiracism Action Plan (p. 9) lay out the key rationale for this policy. In your view, how do these understandings capture the conceptual tenets of antiracism?
    1. To what extent do they align with your own understandings of antiracism?
    2. Do you see issues of race, racialization, and racism in systemic, structural, and ideological aspects of K-12 schooling feature in this document?
  2. Which aspects of the Guide for Teachers resonate with you? What opportunities for research does the guide signal?
  3. In considering the Poster Reminders, which one do you find especially effective? Why or why not?
    1. What might be another reminder that you see as important to include?
    2. What might be important to consider regarding instructional resources in connection with the posters?