The Power of Representation
When 7th grader Omar Ahmed stood in front of the assembly of elected officials and dignitaries as one of only ten students statewide to win “Letters About Literature” and go to the Massachusetts State House to read his letter addressed to acclaimed author of All American Boys, Jason Reynolds, he was brimming with confidence.
“I’ve taken speech and debate for two years, but that’s not why I felt so bold on that stage,” he said.
Omar described the unique place where he learns, surrounded by a supportive, inclusive community and where he is encouraged to explore diverse authors and artists whose life experiences are relatable to his own.
“When I go to school, I can just be myself. I don’t have to pretend,” he said.
Fully knowing that who he is as a whole person is more than enough is an infinite source of confidence for Omar. It’s the kind of confidence every parent hopes to have for their child, including Omar’s mother, Shima Khan, who is a high school language arts teacher at Wellesley High.
Omar attended Wellesley Public Schools until his family made the decision to transfer him to Al-Hamra Academy, New England’s first full-time accredited STEM Islamic School.
“I am a huge proponent of public education,” Khan said, adding that Wellesley is an excellent school district. “But eventually I was persuaded by some trusted friends to try Al-Hamra, and I am so glad I did.”
One of those trusted friends was Dr. Noor Ali – a professor at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Education in the College of Professional Studies as well as principal at Al-Hamra Academy. Ali’s academic research and personal passion centers on equity and is embedded in the leadership she brings to both her administrative role as principal and her role at Northeastern teaching and mentoring future educators.
To ensure that work is guided by well-researched pedagogy and organizational infrastructure, Ali developed what she calls the ‘Equity-Informed Framework.’
“Teachers armed with this framework are able to create classroom spaces and environments where critical thinking is not looked down upon, where brave spaces for inquiry and truth-telling are intentional, and where inclusivity makes it more difficult for one-sided histories and perspectives to be centered,” Ali explained.
“Essentially, an equity framework validates the belief that education is more than just transferring information. It’s about critical thinking and the formation of well-informed perspectives that can be harnessed to have an impact in our communities.”
-Noor Ali
“Essentially, an equity framework validates the belief that education is more than just transferring information. It’s about critical thinking and the formation of well-informed perspectives that can be harnessed to have an impact in our communities.”
Defining an Equity-Informed Framework
The Equity-Informed Framework is integrated into the Master of Teaching Program where Ali teaches and can be summarized into two core elements: Continual Reflective Practice; and, Action-Oriented Technical & Adaptive Work.
Within these core elements, there are practical approaches that are recommended to help embed equity in classroom environments.
A Continual Reflective Practice, according to Ali, should have elements in it that propel teachers in training towards continual reflection in three places:
- Personal: Authentic self-examination from a teacher’s own identities and personalities.
- Student-centered: Recognize the lived experiences of students, checking for implicit bias and stereotypes that are centered around assumptions.
- System-centered: Explore systemic and historical inequities that limit equitable access and opportunity for students.
“Only with reflective practice can we build awareness that is necessary for dismantling inequities,” Ali added.
The second part of the equity framework, Action Oriented Technical and Adaptive work, is grounded in well-tested critical pedagogy and strives to seek out and remedy potential blind spots in curriculum. It asks: who is NOT being represented or MIS-represented in our histories? Do we study the American Revolution without acknowledging the Black soldiers who fought? Are all the authors we teach of European descent?
There is a third component to this practice, and according to Ali it is arguably the most important.
Discourse.
How do teachers engage in conversations that will cause discomfort? Many times, well-intentioned teachers are afraid of engaging on hard topics because it may be seen as offensive.
Sometimes opportunities for discourse show up in small but powerful moments. Maybe a Black student’s hair is touched without their permission. Does a teacher ignore it or think of it as an opportunity to introduce a conversation about Hair Love?
Sometimes opportunities for discourse sit on a global or national stage. For example, following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Ali recognized that countless teachers would be looking for lesson plans to help them appropriately discuss it in their classroom. Using an equity framework, she crafted an example of a lesson plan and posted it online.
The plan went viral.
Reaching thousands, it was shared by PBS among others as countless teachers responded with gratitude.
One more component of this equity framework is the need for educators to get over what Ali describes as our society’s “monolithic assumptions about students” and what discipline looks like.
According to Yale School of Medicine, Black children are more likely to be diagnosed with disruptive disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder, while white children are more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This can lead to Black children being labeled as troublemakers, while white children are treated for a recognized medical condition.
As a result, there is a discrepancy in how students receive discipline in classrooms. Black boys are nearly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school as white boys, who receive merely warnings, for the same behaviors.
“It’s obviously not because there is something wrong with Black boys,” Ali said. “There’s something wrong with the system that continues to punish them.”
“Only with reflective practice can we build awareness that is necessary for dismantling inequities.”
Framing Impact
Ultimately, Ali’s equity framework provides educators with a toolkit they can use to recognize the systemic barriers that make it harder for students to succeed, so that more students like Omar can find their confidence.
Lauren Thompson, who is finalizing her Master of Teaching degree while teaching sixth-grade ELA at Excel Academy, a Charter School in East Boston, reflects on Ali’s course that introduces this framework.
“I was just an undergraduate sophomore, majoring in English at the time, when I took Professor Ali’s 5503 Culture, Equity, Power and Influence* course,” she said. “That was the most impactful course I took in college, even though it was one of the first. I think everyone at Northeastern should be required to take that course.”
Thompson, a native of Texas who came to Boston to study, always knew she wanted to be a teacher. But when she took Ali’s class, it awakened a new perspective in her that has transformed how she engages with her students and the world at-large.
“Coming from Texas, we never had the kind of conversations we were having in Professor Ali’s class,” she said. “It feels weird to think back to not knowing those topics or ideas, but it was such a new thing to me then. It’s so incredibly important to have the kinds of conversations that happen when you are framing your perspective with an equity mindset, not just in classrooms but in all spaces.”
Those spaces include the state Capitol.
Following Omar’s remarks, a number of elected officials took time to pull him aside and congratulate him. Most of them also wanted him to run for office someday.
Asking if he might have interest in taking them up on that suggestion in the future, Omar simply replied with a tone of confidence, humility, and hope.
“Who knows, anything is possible.”
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*Ali also teaches a sister version of this course in the Graduate School of Education: EDU 6051
