To Our RBERN Community
In this time of national and global grief, we, the members of Mid-State RBERN, reaffirm our moral imperative to our network and beyond.
We are invested in leveraging our role as educators of culturally and linguistically diverse learners to create equity in education. As such, our core values continue to guide our interactions with the communities we serve:
Our relationships have the greatest impact on our work: We resolve to examine how power and privilege impact our relationships.
Multilingualism and multiculturalism are assets that we celebrate, validate, and recognize as essential: We resolve to amplify the voices and experiences of our culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families.
Every individual has valuable strengths and perspectives that teach us new ways of thinking: We resolve to create a safe space for divergent thinking as we identify and confront our own biases.
Every individual wants to learn, grow, and direct their own learning toward becoming a world-ready citizen: We resolve to highlight the lived experiences of the members of our community who have been historically marginalized due to institutional racism and to create opportunities that provide meaningful access and participation for those members.
Accountability builds credibility: We resolve to call each other in to conversations about racism and inequity, and we commit to creating spaces for those conversations with our community.
Intentionality in our work creates pathways of accessibility which result in equitable outcomes for all: We resolve to deeply listen to our communities in order to amplify their voices and their power to speak their truth freely.
We acknowledge that these resolutions are part of our ongoing learning and teaching. Dismantling the institutional inequities within education has been and continues to be a challenging, emotional practice we engage in together as we move forward. We would like to invite you to find time for self-reflection and to join us in seeking out and supporting organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are doing the work toward educational equity to extend your positive sphere of influence.
