University-Community Links: Teachers of Color

Travis Bristol with students from Teachers of Color

Travis Bristol with students from Teachers of Color

Description

The Teachers of Color (TC) (a University-Community Links (UC Links) program) is designed for undergraduates from UC Berkeley (UCB) to draw from EDUC 181 & EDUC 150 classroom material, and apply into practice in PreK-12 site placements throughout Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) after-school programs. During the semester, students focus on topics such as the Role of Race in Urban Schools, and explore - how do ethnoracial and academic identities interact for students and teachers, the experiences of Indigenous Teachers and Teachers of Color, how teachers of color support students’ social and emotional development as well as academic learning, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s unique impact on teachers of color to understand how to re-imagine schools to support these educators’ success in service of the students in their classrooms.

Additionally, students use the Handbook of Research on Indigenous Teachers and Teachers of Color as their anchor text, co-authored by Dr. Travis J.Bristol (Associate Professor at the Berkeley School of Education and PI for TC). As UCB students move into their placements they will continue to document practices that educators of color use in their after-school placements.

In their OUSD placements, UCB students will have two foci:

1.) attending to OUSD students’ social and emotional development, and

2.) on literacy development.

In participating in the TC program, UCB students will develop a deeper understanding of the school-based experiences of teachers of color, and are further prepared with professional training. This project is part of the University-Community Links (UC Links) network and builds on UC Links’ best practices by ensuring that UCB students have opportunities to connect their learning from the course materials and class discussions to a context outside of the classroom (i.e. their site placements).