{"id":66539,"date":"2021-11-21T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&p=66539"},"modified":"2023-08-10T22:50:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T02:50:43","slug":"inspiration-for-change","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2021\/inspiration-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration for Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInspiration for Change\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Advice from Kenann McKenzie, director of the Aspire Institute, a BU Wheelock\u2013based professional development nonprofit, on building community, supporting teacher well-being, and tackling racism<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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November 21, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Kenann McKenzie was seven years old when she immigrated to the United States from Guyana. She enjoyed learning. So did her mother, who was working toward an undergraduate degree. But when McKenzie tried to enroll in a New York City public school, she was told she\u2019d be held back a grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had nothing to do with how smart she was, how eager she was to learn. McKenzie was a Caribbean immigrant and, she was told, those were just the rules for people like her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing from what people call a third world country, coming out of a situation where we materially didn\u2019t have a lot, people make assumptions about what you have and what you\u2019re capable of,\u201d says McKenzie, whose mother ended up enrolling her in a private school for her first years in the States\u2014a \u201ctelling sacrifice\u201d\u2014to ensure she was treated with fairness. \u201cI just loved school and that continued throughout my life. Even when I started to encounter racism that was blatant as I was older, it didn\u2019t shake my feeling about who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kenann McKenzie, a longtime K\u201312 and higher education administrator and researcher, leads the Aspire Institute, a BU Wheelock\u2013based nonprofit that provides professional development for teachers and administrators; project and training support for schools, districts, and states; and access to mentors for newly qualified teachers.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She calls that early school experience her \u201cbiggest why\u201d\u2014the reason she became an educator. It\u2019s also why she\u2019s so focused on giving others the resources and training they need to ensure \u201call children are cherished and encouraged to be the best they could be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKenzie is director of the Aspire Institute, a BU Wheelock\u2013based nonprofit that provides professional development for teachers and administrators, project and training support for schools, districts, and states, and access to mentors for newly qualified teachers. A longtime K\u201312 and higher education administrator and researcher, McKenzie was formerly executive director of the National Board of Education Sciences. \u201cI want to help disabuse people of this idea that they can look at somebody and write them off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2007 as part of the former Wheelock College, the Aspire Institute has a mission \u201cto advance knowledge and solutions in response to social and educational challenges.\u201d Recent projects have included hosting monthly self-care groups for educators, seminars on school reopenings and equity, and a forum on trauma and resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the institute\u2019s work, which is funded by grants, philanthropic support, and project revenues, is centered on Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in an interplay of support with our community,\u201d says McKenzie. \u201cAt BU Wheelock, we\u2019re collectively looking at how to make education a transformative space, and I do not think you can do that unless you\u2019re in the community itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Aspire Institute acts as a venue for sharing BU expertise with the city, it also serves as a conduit for local knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m spending time with principals, in schools, and with teachers, there\u2019s so much that I am learning,\u201d says McKenzie, an adjunct assistant professor. \u201cWe need the input to know what really matters to people around us\u2014what do they know, what do they have to teach us? We can\u2019t know that if we\u2019re in a bubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m teaching my students, I\u2019m giving them real-world examples that are timely, current, and place-based. I can say, \u2018I\u2019m in schools, this is what I\u2019m seeing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past year, many of the requests to the institute for support have been tied to the pandemic and social and political events: about building community, fighting racism, and promoting student and teacher well-being. BU Wheelock<\/em> asked McKenzie to share some Aspire Institute\u2013inspired lessons and advice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Get to know your community<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Like many other educators, McKenzie always believed that schools had a role in fostering community\u2014within their walls and beyond\u2014but she says the pandemic underlined its importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we have learned about our places of learning is that they are a community for children, and we know children value connecting with other adults and children,\u201d she says. \u201cBuilding a sense of community is urgent and necessary\u2014something to really spend time on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she admits it\u2019s difficult to start engaging in that work if staff are already overloaded or if a school doesn\u2019t fully understand the needs and issues of its children and neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany schools make a good effort, but it\u2019s not just about your effort, it\u2019s about knowing the right strategies for your school community,\u201d says McKenzie. \u201cAnd that takes getting to know the community, building relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says formal surveys and informal conversations with residents can be a good way to figure out local interests and needs\u2014and ways the school might be able to help. At one high school she worked at, McKenzie and other administrators opened a food pantry on parent-teacher conference days in response to neighborhood food scarcity. \u201cEngaging families on-site,\u201d she says, \u201calso helps to better understand the context within which students are seeking to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Partner with families<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

According to multiple studies, involving parents in their kids\u2019 education has a cascading effect beyond building community: children do better at school and at home, teacher morale goes up, school academic and social ratings improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in a 2020 survey of teachers and parents, the Center for American Progress found that while many schools do a good job of working with parents, the connection often drops during middle school. Many families also said schools weren\u2019t communicating frequently or consistently enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKenzie recommends not only personalizing messages, communicating in languages parents speak, and showing how feedback has led to changes, but also thinking beyond the standard emails and newsletters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to be creative about how we reach out to families,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her time teaching in Washington, D.C., McKenzie prompted family engagement in important events by mixing in student-led displays and entertainment. \u201cWhenever we had students centered in the activity, parents showed up.\u201d A community forum on equity, for example, featured the marching band and cheerleading squad. \u201cWe had a full gym. Part of that is just understanding what parents value. You can incorporate other things they need to know within that setting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Have a North Star<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Everyone has a bad day\u2014perhaps more than one or two in the last year or so. To counteract the tough moments, McKenzie recommends teachers \u201cfind the North Star that wakes them up every day, that helps them refocus their attention on why they went into the profession.\u201d She says journaling can be a way to affirm that: marking the positive interactions, the inspirational lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although educators worry about the mental health of their students, McKenzie says too few take care of their own well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we practice that for ourselves and model it, then we are able to be better at sharing it with other people,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need as much encouragement and reinforcement of positive things. And it always helps to reflect on whether there\u2019s something you\u2019re going to do differently tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Check your biases<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHad somebody shared the demographics of my birth,\u201d says McKenzie, \u201cthe predictors would have been all negative\u2014they would have said all sorts of things weren\u2019t going to be possible. We need to work toward a future where your zip code or skin color or language should not be such a great predictor of your life chances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the murder of George Floyd, many institutions have stepped up their efforts to tackle racism and make themselves more equitable\u2014and plenty have turned to the Aspire Institute for help finding their blind spots or building inclusive policies. While McKenzie lauds those schools that have started antiracism work alone, she says bringing in outside experts can allow for deeper\u2014and more necessarily critical\u2014conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cHad somebody shared the demographics of my birth, the predictors would have been all negative\u2014they would have said all sorts of things weren\u2019t going to be possible. We need to work toward a future where your zip code or skin color or language should not be such a great predictor of your life chances.\u201d\u2014Kenann McKenzie<\/div>