1st Edition
The Brave Educator Honest Conversations about Navigating Race in the Classroom
The Brave Educator equips you with accessible and refreshingly useful tools for real conversations about race that prepare students for the world beyond the school walls. More than a toolkit, this book is a personal conversation exploring the journey from being stuck in the belief that we should already know how to lead conversations about race to learning how to actually have the conversation. It’s companionship for educators, leaders, and teachers facing overwhelming daily responsibilities and searching for open-hearted support. Inside you’ll find a flexible road map to help carve a path through difficult conversations in your classroom, plus question prompts, resource lists, and crucial tips to help you avoid common pitfalls. The grounded perspective and real-world examples in these pages will help you feel less alone as you move from tentative to prepared.
Preface
Introduction: Let's Start With Not Knowing Where to Start
Section I: Two Tips to Give You a Solid Start
Solid Start Tip 1: Let’s Try Listening to Each Other
Solid Start Tip 2: Let’s Make Room for Discovery
Section II: Your Flexible Four-Step Road Map
Step 1: Three Words to Help Keep Student Learning at the Center
Step 2: How to Decide What Really Matters in Your Classroom
Step 3: Create Boundaries that Support You and Your Students in the Classroom
Step 4: We All Have This. Pay Attention To Yours
Section III: Seven Connection Strategies to Help you Navigate Classroom Conversations About Race
Connection Strategy 1: A Quick Talk About Uncomfortable Moments in the Classroom
Connection Strategy 2: Read This if You Feel Completely Overwhelmed
Connection Strategy 3: You Have This Choice to Make When Students Start Trusting You
Connection Strategy 4: Lists for When You’re Worried Everything Will Go Wrong
Connection Strategy 5: Try This When You’re Not Sure What to do Next
Connection Strategy 6: Mini-Conversations for When Time is Tight
Connection Strategy 7: Make Tiny Tweaks in Your Classroom
Afterword: For When It Gets Tough
Where to Find Me: Want to Talk With Me Face-to-Face?
Acknowledgments
Biography
Krystle Cobran creates conversations about race that open the doors of connection. Her work helps us weave our stories together so we can connect more and fear less. Krystle draws on her Juris Doctor from The George Washington University Law School; her Master of Public Policy from the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary; her experience creating, developing, and teaching two conversation-driven undergraduate courses at the intersection of race and the law (Race & the Law and American Courts, Race, and Social Issues); her work as a speaker, consultant, and writer; and her love for human stories to transform seemingly impossible conversations about race into genuine dialogue that propels us forward. Her work begins with listening—to you. You can drop Krystle a note by visiting krystlecobran.com.
