October 26, 2020
Racial equity professional development for higher education coaches
October SSCN Coaching Program Convening
Throughout this next year, CCRI will be facilitating a virtual professional development training series on racial equity. While these training sessions are specifically for the Student Success Center Network, we want to share about what we are developing. If you would like to learn more, please let us know! (ccri@uw.edu)
Earlier this month it was our privilege to lead the first two sessions during the SSCN Coaching Convening – Coaching through Uncertainty and Finding Community. Our two sessions included Racial Equity Conversations on Campus and Equity and Coaching. At the end of the convening, the coaches were invited to share their impressions and takeaways. A prevailing theme was an appreciation of what they learned from the sessions and each other. The virtual environment actually generated more connection and a sense of community for some coaches. Starting and facilitating dialogues on racial equity can be uncomfortable. While feeling discomfort and pressing forward may seem counterintuitive, many agreed that feeling uncomfortable is necessary to learn and grow and to achieve the transformation we envision. Read on for descriptions of the sessions with relevant resources embedded throughout.
Session 1 | Racial Equity Conversations on Campus
Learning objective: Improve the ability of coaches to discuss and facilitate conversation around racial equity.
The session centered on a discussion about why and how higher education coaches have racial equity conversations on campuses with our special guest, Dr. Michael Baston, president of Rockland Community College. We discussed why we need to have racial equity conversations while acknowledging our current realities of a racial reckoning, a pandemic, and a looming economic crisis. This led to a conversation about what it means to be an equity-minded coach in this new context for higher education institutions.
We also shared what we learned from hosting a Twitter chat on racial equity to describe what people and institutions are doing to move equity work forward in their new contexts. During the chat, we heard a wide range of perspectives from coaches, administrators, faculty, students, staff, and other experts in our field. The rich dialogue gave us much to share. (Read more)
Part of the role of an equity-minded coach is to “shed light” on inequities. President and coach Dr. Michael Baston guided us through ways in which coaches can facilitate these tough conversations and what they and campus leadership can do to promote racial equity. He shared elements of good coaching, led us through the institutional stages of learning (from denial in unconscious incompetence around racial equity to integration into conscious competence), and described how coaches can support colleges through these stages. We also learned about the concept of inclusive excellence and how colleges can develop a commitment to it.
As we wrapped up, the coaches shared with us their overall impressions and questions they had at this point. We heard a desire to expand their use of appropriate terminology and to be authentic in their work. Additionally, coaches expressed a desire for online tools that help them do the work of advancing racial equity.
Session 2 | Equity and Coaching
Learning objectives: Understand the concept of equity-minded coaching. Understand why it is every coach’s role to look for, make visible, and discuss policies and practices that perpetuate racial inequity.
In this next session, we shared the definition of equity-mindedness, a concept from the Center for Urban Education (CUE) that is foundational to our work, and explored what it means to be an equity-minded coach and support institutional change through this lens. We invited the coaches to pre-read our brief Coaching for More Equitable Student Outcomes and discussed the key concepts. We also introduced our equity tools and our equity-minded tool guide that describes what they are as well as their purpose and intended audience. These CCRI racial equity resources were created for coaches, colleges, and Student Success Center leadership to provide strategies that help to move equity work forward.
Providing opportunities for coaches to share their equity work in group discussions was an important part of this session. Coaches discussed how to overcome resistance to racial equity concerns, what a coach’s role is in shedding light on inequities, and how a coach can prepare for racial equity discussions.
As we completed this second session, we asked the coaches about their takeaways and they shared a wide range of impressions. Coaches acknowledged how starting racial equity conversations with campus leadership- whether with a mid-level administrator or above- is often uncomfortable and that it’s important for all to lean into the awkwardness. They felt a coach can lead by setting the tone and even calling out the uncomfortable feelings. And acknowledging that is not only okay to struggle with this discomfort, but it should be expected because it is a healthy and necessary part of this dialogue. This work calls for a cultural change and this change takes time, patience, and persistence and a coach can help colleges understand this. Overall the group experienced inspiration and excitement from learning together. Looking ahead to the next session in the series, the focal area will be to learn equity-minded coaching techniques and practices.
Recommended resources from the sessions:
CCRI resources: Equity-minded tool guide for coaches, racial equity brief: Coaching for More Equitable Student Outcomes, Equity-minded coaching tools
Center for Urban Education’s (CUE) racial equity tools
Shaun Harper video series on practical ways to advance equity and DEI at work: Race in the Workplace
NCII resources: Advancing Equity through Guided Pathways Series, Institutional Self-Assessment for Equity
Completion by Design Loss/ Momentum framework
Resources that coaches have found helpful for advancing their racial equity work:
35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say by Maura Cullen
100 ways to Indigenize and decolonize academic programs and courses by Dr. Shauneen Pete
A Different Mirror by Takaki
Caste – The Origin of Our Discomfort by Isabel Wilkerson
Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Privileged Poor by Dr Anthony Jack
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks
White Guys on Campus by Nolan Cabrera
Podcasts: Seeing White, Pod Save the People, Nice White Parents, 1619 project, NPR’s Code Switch