Equity Resource Kit

Protocols and structures for facilitative leadership to build the habits we need for talking about equity:
Collected by Nancy Mohr
National School Reform Faculty-New York, 2002

Essential Ingredients (don’t skip these):

Norms: Even if the group already has been long-standing, explicit attention to norms for shared conversations should be discussed. “We are going to be going deeper into some topics which can be difficult to maneuver without a set of parameters which will help create the safe space we need”: Some suggested norms include — Encourage one another to take risks; respect confidentiality; speak up if your feelings are hurt, but do it in a very respectful way, appreciate that discomfort and ambiguity are goals and their presence indicates that learning is taking place, allow each other the opportunity to make many “mistakes” (or maybe there just are no “mistakes.”)

Reflections: Whatever activity you do, the reflection can be explicitly about equity.
How does this promote equity?
What does this have to do with equity?
What does this mean in terms of equity?

Protocols and Activities (choose among these):

1. Reflection on a word/phrase (The Prospect Institute) Everyone has a couple of minutes to write first and then reflects in a go-around on a word or phrase, for example: “equity.” After the go around there is no attempt to come to a conclusion, the point is to see the variety of perspectives which reside in the group and appreciate that there are multiple points of view and that that is not only ok but is desirable.

2. Dyads — Julian Weissglass’s structure in which two people each get a set amount of time (2 minutes-2 hours) each to talk about or reflect on a given topic. When one speaks, the other listens. There is no dialog. Participants are encouraged to smile/nod while listening. This can be used to start a topic/meeting, end one, reflect on a particular activity, talk about something which has come up and needs debriefing, etc. See attached Possible Prompts.

3. (Resolving Conflict Creatively) Equity Microlab Questions for use with Microlabs — similar to dyads — participants are in three’s or four’s and have a series of questions/prompts which they respond to, in turn, with no dialog or interruptions. The purpose of this activity is to structure the questions in order to achieve a purpose; to get at feelings about a topic, to answer some unanswered questions in a meeting, to talk about concerns which might not come up in a large group, etc. Generally there is about five minutes per group — participants learn how to adjust themselves within that time. “If you were cut off, you get to go first.” is a good instruction to remember. See attached Possible Prompts

4. Text-Based Protocols with appropriate readings. The protocols — The Final Word, Save the Last Word for me, Text-Based Seminar, allow difficult topics to be addressed within structures which build in safety.

5. The Equitable School Walk — Victor Cary introduced this to us and many people have used it, again, as an excellent entry point for school groups to vision what equity would look like in their school.

6. Video — The Color of Fear; A Tale of O (sorry, not the pornographic version) Goodmeasure, Memphis Drive, Cambridge MA 02142; A Class Divided, PBS Core Vision, 1-800-537-3130; True Colors, 20/20, Coronet MTI Film and Video 1-800-321-3106. Used as text with structured protocols.

7. Personal Experience Panels — where three or so people each get a set amount of time (5-10 minutes) to talk about their personal experience, there is no q&a from the audience, but the audience can then reflect on what they’ve heard using various means—writing, structured conversations, etc. The personal experiences can range from an early childhood experience to a recent teaching challenge.

8. The Paseo — This activity, developed by Deb Laidley and others at our Houston meeting in 2001 has been a winner for many people who have tried it. It gets people thinking about their various identities and then gets deeper into what they mean.

9. Diversity Rounds — This activity is great for large groups, for openers, and can be used on various “levels” ranging from non-threatening to scary.

10. The Equity Protocol (for looking at teacher and student work) — What became clear in devising this protocol is that the important question is what about teacher work will result in equitable outcomes. And so while this does look at student work eventually, it begins with teacher work.

11. Provocative Prompts for Equity — This set of quotations taken from various sources can be used in a variety of ways — each of which is described following the list of prompts.

12. North, South, East, West — This “tried and true” activity lends itself to variations and this one is good for use with any team.

13. All your tried and true activities, but with an equity focus for example, doing a Critical Incidents protocol or a Consultancy or Synectics or most structures—using equity/diversity/democracy as the subject. Being sure that the REFLECTION is about equity/diversity/democracy.

14. Annotated Bibliography

Full NSRF Equity Resources

National School Reform Faculty/New York @ NYU
Supported by the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation
Contact NSRF/NY @ NYU
last modified: