Comprehensive Study Guide: When We Know Better, We Do Better

Educational Foundations and Personal Journey

  • Background and early navigation:

    • Raised in a homogeneous town in Washington state within an educational system not designed for Black, low-income, and first-generation college-bound students.

    • Academic background includes a Bachelor's degree in political science, Spanish, and international studies, followed by a Master's degree in education.

    • Doctoral degree completed in 2022 (becoming Dr. Smith).

  • Classroom experience and passion for justice:

    • Began teaching 5th grade in Oakland, California, working with students frequently labeled by external observers as "challenging" or "urban."

    • Found students in underfunded schools and "tough" neighborhoods to be bright, creative, and hilarious.

    • Experience in underfunded schools with students abandoned by the system catalyzed a commitment to educational justice.

  • Professional trajectory and vision:

    • Core educational vision centered on three principles: focusing on relationships, maintaining an "asset" mindset, and viewing education as liberation.

    • Advanced from classroom teacher to instructional coach, administrator, and educational consultant working with schools and teachers nationwide.

    • The social justice (re)awakening of 2020 crystalized the core calling of walking alongside teachers and stakeholders through equity work.

  • Early career struggles and internal growth:

    • Initial years were marked by confusion, relying on an unorganized hodgepodge of techniques from online sources and credentialing programs.

    • Drowning in lesson planning and grading over weekends, experiencing frustration, exhaustion, and classroom chaos.

    • Building an effective teaching practice requires both concrete pedagogical tools and foundational internal work (unpacking identity, mindset, and mental health).

Systemic Challenges, Teacher Agency, and Classroom Ecosystems

  • Limitations of standard behavioral management systems:

    • Common classroom management solutions—such as classroom economies, tokens, behavioral apps, professional development (PD) sessions, and resources from Teachers Pay Teachers (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com)—frequently fail long-term.

    • Failure occurs because these technical systems lack the requisite heart work and mindset shifts required of educators.

    • Any curriculum, program, or educational approach is only as culturally responsive or asset-based as the teacher implementing it.

  • Systemic pressures on teachers:

    • Widespread retention and recruitment crises stem from low compensation, excessive workload, and scapegoating by politicians, social media, and families.

    • Teachers are held solely responsible for classroom issues rather than being consulted for systemic solutions.

    • Systemic educational inequities cannot be solved through individual self-care or classroom-level relationship building alone.

  • The "Both/And" framework and teacher agency:

    • Thriving educational environments require a "both/and" approach: systemic policy reform combined with instructional transformation within individual classrooms.

    • The classroom operates as its own ecosystem—a semi-autonomous zone where teachers retain the agency to reimagine joy, accountability, and community.

    • Exercising teacher agency and reclaiming classroom influence leads to improved student outcomes and reconnects educators to the joy of teaching.

Navigating Shame in Professional Practice and Equity Work

  • Institutional scrutiny and disrespect:

    • Teachers in the United States operate under intense public scrutiny with low societal trust and respect.

    • Multiple states have enacted laws empowering parents to contest curricula or veto lesson plans, requiring pre-submission of plans to districts to audit for "critical race theory."

    • This disrespect forces teachers and the broader profession onto the defensive.

  • Addressing personal and professional shame:

    • Learning research-based and social justice practices can trigger shame regarding past pedagogical mistakes, such as over-relying on punishments or perpetuating systemic harm.

    • Guided by Maya Angelou's principle: "when you know better, do better."

    • Structural deficits in early teaching years (absence of prep periods, substitute teachers, sick days, or administrative support) diminish teaching capacity, but educators must acknowledge agency and move past defensive shame.

  • Brené Brown's research on shame:

    • In a 2012 TED talk, researcher Brené Brown identified three ingredients required for shame to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment.

    • Dousing shame with empathy renders it unable to survive.

    • Operating from shame forces defensive behavior, blocking internal reflection, learning, and forward growth when grappling with legacies of racism, sexism, homophobia, and systemic oppression.

Culturally Responsive Teaching versus Color-Blindness

  • Critique of color-blind ideology:

    • Color-blind sentiments (e.g., "I don't care if you're black, white, or purple") erase Black students' lived experiences and identities.

    • Color-blindness ignores the 400-year legacy of structural oppression inherited by Black families.

  • Socioeconomic and logistical systemic barriers:

    • Underfunded public schools in Black neighborhoods force families to utilize fake addresses to access higher-performing schools in better-resourced areas.

    • Open-enrollment systems and charter schools outside local neighborhoods require significant resources, including reliable private or public transportation and hours of commute time.

    • Bay Area case example: Families priced out of historical Black, Brown, or working-class neighborhoods by gentrification and housing crises commute 45 minutes to an hour each way to access safe, well-resourced schools.

  • Curricular and cultural erasure:

    • Absence of Black teachers and staff leads to childhood alienation and internal conflict between cultural heritage and institutional assimilation.

    • Library collections lacking diverse representation (e.g., offering only Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Amazing Grace).

    • Educational coverage of Blackness restricted to whiteness-adjacent topics (slavery and civil rights) accompanied by false assertions that racism has ended, omitting Black excellence, history, and joy.

  • Peer interactions and microaggressions:

    • Fielding daily peer inquiries regarding physical differences (hair texture, non-traditional lunches) and behavioral stereotypes due to media exposure (Dave Chappell, music video "gangster rappers") prior to modern diverse representation (Black Disney princesses, Wakanda Forever merchandise).

    • Inability of white educators to navigate or mediate these cultural microaggressions.

  • Code-switching and cultural dissonance:

    • Linguistic definition of code-switching: Alternating between different languages or dialects within a conversation.

    • Sociological definition of code-switching: Adjusting behaviors, speech, and presentation to assimilate into a dominant culture.

    • Conflict between expressive, communal, high-energy, group-oriented home cultures and traditional classroom norms emphasizing quiet individual work, passive "sit and get" instruction, and neurotypical, able-bodied, white-centric standards (even within open Montessori frameworks).

    • Internalization of the cultural directive within Black communities to work twice as hard to get half as far.

Intent Versus Impact in Classroom and Discipline Dynamics

  • Definitions in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI):

    • Intent: An individual's underlying thoughts, feelings, goals, desires, and impetus for action.

    • Impact: The actual effect, outcome, and experience produced by an action on others.

  • Misalignment in educational advocacy:

    • Well-intentioned attempts to urge veteran colleagues toward equity work can unintentionally make them feel "called out" rather than