Starting meaningful conversations about diversity in education settings

Now that school leaders can start to look forward to welcoming back all of their young people in September, they should be asking themselves how they can begin making positive strides towards creating a truly inclusive educational environment. For many, this means it’s time to get uncomfortable. As educators we need to be prepared to open the dialogue around diversity and inclusion with our students, arming them with knowledge and an open mind, basically equipping them with the essential tools needed to navigate the complex and diverse world around them.

A starting point would be to look at the walls within your own school building. What kind of representation can your students see? Are they faced with thought provoking ideas and questions around diversity? Are they encouraged to engage in these conversations in a meaningful way? As an example, it’s not enough to display posters with slogans such as ‘some people are gay, get over it’ if this is all you do to promote acceptance of your LGBTQ+ young people. This is a crucial time in the development of a young person’s identity, and as Marian Wright Edelman, children’s rights activist, said, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see.’

As of today, we will gradually be releasing a set of posters designed to start conversations around inclusion with secondary aged students. The ‘Let’s Talk’ series focuses on an area or aspect of marginalisation and includes suggested sensible talking points around potentially sensitive issues. These posters are purely a starting point to let young people know it is okay to have these questions and it is absolutely okay to have these conversations. It is imperative that more is done in schools to reflect the diverse communities they host. School must be a safe space in which complex topics can be explored respectfully and all students can feel part of a community that treats them with dignity.

The first 3 in the series are talking prompts for pride, discrimination and anti-racism. Go ahead: download the posters and start the conversation.

Carly