Educators: mark your calendars! The National Association of Schools’ People of Color Conference is coming up soon. The conference includes workshops on equity, inclusion and belonging, from the administrative level to the classroom. This year, it will take place in St. Louis, Missouri, from November 29th through December 2nd, and a number of BSM faculty and staff will be in attendance.
Among these attendees is Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Dennis Draughn. From his perspective, the professional development available at each conference allows educators to to learn from each other. “[The conference] is [going to] be amazing because it allows [an] opportunity for all the teachers to learn from different perspectives, from other schools across the nation, and gain the professional development they need to grow their capacity as it relates to understanding, equity and inclusion,” Draughn said.
I brought back some pretty interesting community building exercises and ideas.”
— Keanan Faruq
Last year, only three educators attended the conference. This year, the number has grown to thirteen, including Draughn. He explains that more educators are volunteering to attend primarily due to increased interest. “The biggest reason [educators at BSM] are going is because they want to grow their capacity as it relates to equity, inclusion, and belonging and help support their fellow colleagues… with doing this work,” Draughn said.
English teacher Keanan Faruq is another returning attendee. Last year, he decided to attend the conference for the opportunity to both network with other educators and attend workshops. For him, the experience was very positive.“I brought back some pretty interesting community building exercises and ideas,” Faruq said.
This year, he’s looking forward to the community aspect of the conference. “[I’m looking forward to] just being around like-minded educators, because especially in Minnesota, there are just not a lot of teachers of color, especially black male teachers. [The] statistics really show that and so it’s just nice to be amongst other educators of color, and share experiences, share frustrations and share accomplishments as well,” Faruq said.
The conference is made available to BSM educators through the National Association of Independent Schools, an organization that BSM is a part of. “It’s open every year to educators and we use professional development dollars in order to do it,” Draughn said.