Navigating Discussions

I want and need every single student in our college’s teacher development program to read Peter Stiepleman’s “Navigating Discussions of Race and Class” (April 2022). Words such as equity are so abstract until they see a leader work in and throughout the community to bring this work—the hard, but necessary work of equity and inclusion—to life in our local school district. 

In my role as a teaching professor and director of elementary education at University of Missouri’s College of Education and Human Development, I, quite simply, teach aspiring teachers. Yet as my colleagues and peers in higher and K-12 education know, nothing is simple about teaching issues of race and class. 

Undoubtedly, incredible books and resources and media clips (both social and traditional) are available to spark critical thinking and dialogue among our pre-service teachers. However, it can be difficult to make those resources feel relevant, to feel immediately useful as our students enter our local school district as early career pre-service teachers. 

Enter Stiepleman’s voice as a visible, local, perfectly imperfect leader. His head and heart are fully on display in his critical thought-piece that is part rule book, part play book, and part post-game film — all bound together by his commitment to his teachers, students and families, and the greater community he serves. 

Through his self-reflections, our students can see a servant leader navigating such a complex landscape in real time. They can grab on to the Human-Centered School Transformation Model and track how each “trailhead” influenced Stiepleman’s decisions and lessons learned. We use terms like empathy and growth mindset and connectedness all of the time in our teacher education program. But what do those words look like in action? What do those works sound like in a district with leadership committed to inclusion and belongingness? What do they feel like to the students and families and teachers who will flourish in a community that gets it right? I’m grateful Stiepleman introduced us to such a powerful leadership model to explore those questions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I want and need every single student in our college’s teacher development program to read his “Navigating Discussions of Race and Class” article in your magazine. Words such as equity are so abstract until they see a leader work in and throughout the community to bring this work— the hard, but necessary work of equity and inclusion — to life in our local district. 

It is through Stiepleman’s words and examples that we (i.e., teachers who teach teachers) can transform the abstract to the concrete—an experience that will better prepare pre-services teachers to contribute to their host schools as future educators and informed citizens. 

LEIGH NEIER
PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION,
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI,
COLUMBIA, MO.