Addressing Hate

Understanding the fear and vulnerability caused by hate and racism, the aim of these resources are two-fold. We encourage all to explore and deepen their understanding of global and local acts of hate. These resources have also been developed to support educators to focus on key questions as they engage in lessons and conversations regarding understanding and addressing hate-fuelled ideologies and representations. Central to any instructional programming within the classroom is educator professional judgement. Educator professional judgement is to be exercised when selecting resources that build upon students’ understanding. Our resources are working lists; they are continuously being cultivated.

In order for educators to be responsive to students’ questions and challenges, educators should:

• Deepen their understanding of students’ identities and lived experiences;
• Build their critical consciousness prior to supporting students in building their own critical consciousness;
• Establish classroom conditions to facilitate courageous and challenging conversations about systemic inequities, injustices, race, and racism (e.g. classroom agreements, brave spaces for dialogue, school climate scan, etc.);
• Provide opportunities to examine the historical and present-day manifestations of oppressive beliefs, practices, and structures tied to the specific issue/topic being addressed;
• Engage with and build partnerships and relationships with the communities impacted by the specific issue/topic being addressed; and
• Consider what opportunities and spaces can be provided for students and educators to process the learning experience both individually and collectively in order to support further learning.

Classroom conditions as well as educator/student critical consciousness need to be built in order to ensure that resources are explored meaningfully. When conditions are not set and educator critical consciousness is not built, even the greatest resources have the potential to cause trauma and harm. For example, when curating learning experiences about injustices, it is important for deep understanding and context to be set prior to engaging in conversations that highlight the experiences of injustice.