Centering Equity in Safe and Inclusive Schooling Environments

Course Introduction

The Centering Equity in Safe and Inclusive Schooling Environments course focuses on the importance of educational equity as foundational for cultivating safe and inclusive school cultures and climate free from bullying and harassment.  As an Equity Assistance Center (EAC), the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP Center) emphasizes an equity focus within each of our professional learning experiences and recognizes the critical role and responsibility educators and education stakeholders have in developing schooling environments that are both safe and inclusive for students, families/caregivers, community members, and staff. We strive to provide space and discourse which pushes individuals to analyze, challenge, and disrupt the ways in which power, privilege, and bias have been at play in the development and enactment of language, policies, and practices that have historically privileged some while keeping individuals with non-dominant identity markers on the margins.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the course modules, you will be able to:

• Describe the relationship between educational equity and creating safe and inclusive schooling environments.
• Summarize the MAP Center's definition of educational equity, including the four concepts of access, representation, meaningful participation, and high outcomes.
• Discuss essential strategies to increase awareness and advance implementation of equity constructs.