New podcast features Education Minnesota’s Facing Inequities and Racism in Education program
For more information, contact:
Chris Williams
651-292-4816 (work)
651-247-5539 (cell)
Nathaniel Bozarth
Host, Wide Ruled
913-907-8908 (cell)
ST. PAUL, Minn. Aug. 15, 2017 – Education Minnesota’s innovative training program, Facing Inequities and Racism in Education, or F.I.R.E., will be featured Wednesday on the “Wide Ruled” podcast, which examines issues of equity in education.
In the podcast, Education Minnesota President Denise Specht and organizers of the program tell the story of how a curriculum-writing initiative became an examination into the hidden biases and stereotypes everyone carries. Only after educators take a hard look at themselves, F.I.R.E. organizers say, can they make real change in their schools.
Host Nathaniel Bozarth and his guests from Education Minnesota discuss how educational policies, standardized testing and educators’ own unconscious biases affect racial inequalities in schools. The episode was recorded in July at the bi-annual TEACH conference hosted by the American Federation of Teachers.
The podcast will be available on Soundcloud, iTunes, other podcast sites and www.brainroot.tv/wideruledpodcast.
For more information about F.I.R.E. and how it relates to other Education Minnesota programs, see Specht’s most recent column in The Minnesota Educator magazine, “Improving by Facing our Unconscious Assumptions."
“I’ve learned through my own training on these issues that it’s frighteningly easy to accept stereotypes and systems that hurt students on the margins,” Specht wrote. “As a child, you don’t even know when it’s happening. Unwinding those unconscious beliefs takes a conscious effort. It helps to have a trained guide, believe me. That’s where the F.I.R.E. program comes in.”
“Wide Ruled” is a story-based podcast on the past and present of equality in education. The podcast highlights stories of teachers innovating in their classrooms while contextualizing these stories in the wider education system, past and present. Wide Ruled is a production of Brainroot Light and Sound.
About Education Minnesota
Education Minnesota is the voice for professional educators and students. Education Minnesota’s members include teachers and education support professionals in Minnesota’s public school districts, faculty members at Minnesota’s community and technical colleges and University of Minnesota campuses in Duluth and Crookston, retired educators and student teachers. Education Minnesota is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.