DEIB in Program & Curriculum

Westside uses the Learning for Justice Anchor Standards in our entire program from early learning to middle school. The Social Justice Standards are a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K–12 instruction. Comprised of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes, the Standards provide a common language and organizational structure educators can use to guide curriculum development and make schools more just and equitable.

 

 

Creating a Safe Community using Pronouns

Sharing and using correct pronouns is one way to build an inclusive and safe space for all Westside community members. Some ways we model this at Westside are: 

• Including pronouns in email signature.
• Wearing pronoun pins on school ID lanyards.
• Having pronoun pins accessible for students.
• Stating pronouns in introductions (My name is____and my pronouns are____.) 
• Using they/them or the name until correct pronouns are made clear. 
• Respecting that not all students or community members may be comfortable sharing their pronouns or may only share their pronouns in confidence. 

People of Color Conference (POCC)

Each year, Westside sends a team of teachers and staff to participate in the People of Color Conference through NAIS. The PoCC is the flagship of NAIS’s commitment to equity and justice in teaching, learning, and organizational development. The mission of the conference is to provide a safe space for leadership and professional development for people of color, and networking for people of color and allies of all backgrounds in independent schools. Westside is committed to sending educators to PoCC to not only advance our institutions' learning and growth but more importantly to uplift, sustain, and affirm educators from the Global Majority.

PoCC equips educators at every level, from teachers to trustees, with knowledge and skills to improve the interracial, interethnic, and intercultural climate in their schools, as well as the attending academic, social-emotional, and workplace performance outcomes for students and adults alike.

"Most professional development trainings for teachers are content-focused and led by white educators. This lens is limiting - it's often colorblind, which means it gives us only a handful of ways to access and understand what is being taught. PoCC prioritizes presenters of color, and it is about issues facing People of Color. The conference theme, inherently, puts more effort toward acknowledging the many ways our racial identities influence our experiences as educators.” ~ Kalei Sabaratnam, MS Ethics & Equity Teacher

 

As our children begin their learning journey at Westside, the goal of our Early Learning teachers is to nurture our students towards empathy, inquiry, collaboration, and activism.

Through play, storybooks, classroom conversations, and observations teachers guide children’s understanding of the ways that people are different and the ways in which they are the same. Our purpose is to honor and learn about the identities, cultures, and traditions of the students in our classroom communities as well as the diversity of the world we live in.

We strive to create a learning environment that teaches children to understand, appreciate and respect different identities, beliefs, and cultures; and to have the confidence to speak and stand up to inequity and injustice. We believe that the early development of these skills lay the building blocks for the DEIB and Social Justice learning that is continued in our Lower and Middle Schools.

Lower School teachers promote age and developmentally appropriate content to stimulate learning in the areas of identity, diversity, justice, and action.

We believe that children thrive when they are given opportunities to see themselves reflected in the literature they read, the projects they create, and the problems they solve. Additionally, children increase their capacity for empathy and collaboration when they are offered a diversity of perspectives and ideas. As educators, we focus not just on exposing students to multiple perspectives but also on raising students’ awareness of their role as change-makers. Moving from compassion to action happens on the playground, in classroom projects, and in spontaneous teachable moments.

As our children mature and move to Middle School, one of the goals is to cultivate empathy and interpersonal responsibility in each child.

In Middle School we challenge one another to examine the dynamics of diversity from a global and multicultural perspective so that we can become responsible citizens dedicated to social justice.

Our curriculum and community honor a variety of traditions, value a diversity of cultures, and respect the contributions of all people. We make space for our students to develop skills, such as how to constructively conduct discourse on race, social justice, and oppression, in both historical and current events. These skills enhance our students’ abilities to engage in their study of systematic oppression by providing a means of analyzing and interpreting events and figures from multiple perspectives. By exploring the dynamics of our diverse world and nation we believe our students will be responsible citizens long after leaving Westside.

"Affinity spaces are designed for students to develop and strengthen their own lived identity. Affinity groups provide safe spaces for peers to explore and build a healthy identity formation." ~ Westside Alumni Student  

A Place of Belonging with Affinity Groups

At Westside, community is one of our greatest strengths. We believe in intentionally fostering a diverse and inclusive environment to provide all students with a sense of belonging within the Westside community.

Affinity groups are groups of individuals that share a common identity. While this definition is very broad, in our context, we are focusing on creating spaces for groups that are underrepresented and under-voiced within the Westside community.

Affinity groups provide brave spaces where students and adults can explore their shared identity and experience. Affinity groups encourage students to embrace the different parts of their identity and to feel confident and proud about themselves rather than silently suppressing aspects of that identity. Affinity groups affirm emotional and intellectual responses to being part of a distinct subset of the larger Westside community. These groups are an important tool for reducing the sense of isolation, discomfort, and marginalization many children can feel, even in the most progressive school communities. These group meetings help students to feel more visible and more included in our community, and in doing so, they enhance our commitment to inclusiveness.

Affinity Groups:

• Promote a sense of belonging.
• Allow students to explore their shared identity and experiences.
• Encourage students to embrace different parts of themselves.
• Build community.
• Allow students to feel confident and proud in who they are.

Westside's Middle School has created Affinity Groups in response to student requests for their need to explore their identity with individuals who have the same social identifiers as themselves. Affinity Groups are facilitated by trained faculty members who reflect the same named affinity as the group.

"Affinity spaces are designed for students to develop and strengthen their own lived identity. Affinity groups provide safe spaces for peers to explore and build a healthy identity formation." ~ Westside Alumni Student  

Student Diversity Leadership Retreat

Westside is proud to partner with other member schools to design and attend the Student Diversity Leadership Retreat. Modeled after the NAIS SDLR Conference, the NWAIS Student Diversity Leadership Retreat (SDLR) is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of middle and upper school student leaders (grades 6-12) from across the Northwest Association of Independent Schools. SDLR is annual, but rotates among middle and upper school student years. Westside sends Middle School students and teachers when SDLR serves the MS population. Westside’s Middle School Director is proud to serve yearly on the planning committee. SDLR focuses on self-reflection, forming allies, and building community. Led by a diverse team of adult and peer educators, participating students develop cross-cultural communication skills, design effective strategies for social justice practice through dialogue and the arts, and learn the foundations of allyship and networking principles. In addition to large group sessions, SDLC “family groups" and "affinity groups" allow for dialogue and sharing in smaller, more intimate settings.