“Beware of Equity traps and tropes”-Jamila Dugan
Many of the traps and Tropes resignated with me in my time
throughout the district. The big red flag for me was the “Blanket Equity”. As a
math teacher, I have gone through so many mandated scripted programs that were
created to be “culturally responsive” and equitable to my students that would
“bridge the gap” between where they are and where they should be. Unfortunately
I am not seeing an improvement in this category, and I have had to start to
shift my thinking to what is best for my students rather than what is being
required of me.
I connected deeply with the spray and pray equity and I am
entirely guilty. I take a lot of professional developments and enjoy
implementing new styles and ways of thinking into the classroom, but the
reality is that I will implement them for a period of time before I am onto the
next and focusing on something else. Not that it is an excuse, because the
excuse “there is no time” is not a valid one. As a teacher, we went into it
knowing we would never get enough time.
