Inclusion and Belonging at MCDS

Multicultural Education is a process that permeates all aspects of school practices, policies and organization as a means to ensure the highest levels of academic achievement for all students. It affirms our need to prepare students for their responsibilities in an interdependent world. It values cultural differences and affirms the pluralism that students, their communities, and teachers reflect. It helps students develop a positive self-concept by providing knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups. School curriculum must address issues of race, ethnicity, age, ability, gender, sexuality, religion and socioeconomic status.

Multicultural education advocates the belief that students and their life histories and experiences are essential and necessary elements of the teaching and learning process. As such, pedagogy should occur with a context that is both familiar to students and addresses multiple experiences and ways of thinking. In this way, teachers and students are better equipped to critically analyze their communities, society and the world.

The process of Multicultural Education is iterative, ongoing and never ending. Best supported by a school staff that is diverse across multiple dimensions, culturally competent and capable of including and embracing diverse families and experiences, multicultural education, by its fluid rather than static nature, seeks to accomplish the goals of equitable educational access and rigorous academic achievement for all students so that they can work toward social change.

Lower School faculty and administrators approach the teaching of diversity, identity, social justice and action, by weaving in the four Anti-Bias Education Goals throughout all aspects of curriculum. These four goals come from Louise Derman-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards' book, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.

The four core goals of Anti-Bias Education are:

1. Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
2. Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
3. Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
4. Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.

Identity Development: Identity development is emphasized in each grade level at MCDS. We believe working with students and families to explore and learn about topics such as race and ethnicity, gender identity, skin color, family culture, and stories of immigration contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to be culturally competent.

T.E.A. (Teaching Equity and Acceptance) is a student-initiated and -led group that engages in conversations about student-generated issues related to diversity, inclusion and social justice. Open to any Upper School student, this group meets regularly, presents at assemblies and leads events such as the Upper School Day of Silence. An adult facilitates this important Upper School group.

Learning Difference Panels are designed so that Upper School students talk to Lower School students about their experience at MCDS. They give advice on how to succeed in school and how to ask for what one needs in the classroom. There is an emphasis on exploring and learning about one’s own unique learning style which creates inclusivity through sharing personal stories.

Affinity Groups are intentionally designed to create a safe space for students, faculty/staff, or parents to discuss topics of interest, support one another, and explore one's affinity experience. All affinity groups are supported by the Head of School and the Division Heads. Student affinity groups in Upper School are optional and meet approximately once a month. Student input is used to form desired affinity spaces. 

As a school that models lifelong learning for students and parents, our faculty, staff and administrators participate in a wide array of learning opportunities around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Below is a sampling of recently attended workshops and conferences.

• Developmental Designs
• Gender & Athletics
• Gender Odyssey
• Learning and the Brain
• NAIS Diversity Institute
• Orton Gillingham Multi-Sensory Training
• People of Color Conference
• Remixed Festival
• Seed and Reseed
• Social Emotional Learning Institute
• Stanley King Counseling Institute
• White Priviilege Conference
• Wildwood Multicultural
• Wilson Fundations Workshop

The faculty/staff leadership team is charged with the task of guiding the faculty and staff in work on inclusion and belonging as well as leading the associated committee(s). The team works closely with the Division Heads, to continue to move our adult community forward in defining identity and deepening our work on cultural competency, so that our work in the classroom is meaningful, and rich. Our faculty is focused on guiding our students to understand themselves and their world through a meaningful, respectful, and compassionate lens.

The Committee's  main goal is to build community through the lenses of equity and inclusion. Additionally, the committee will be focused on deepening our faculty's skill set around cultural competency.

Fusion is an affinity group for faculty and staff of color and provides a regular safe space for members to explore their affinity experience and discuss pertinent topics with peers.

RINGS is a peer-led group open to all faculty and staff and meets monthly. These sessions promote community to address personal, institutional and community change through conversations around equity and diversity. Privilege, power and oppression are explored in safe, meaningful peer-led meetings.

Through multiple units throughout the Lower School years, parents are engaged through homework and projects to have conversations with their children about various aspects of family identity. Parents, grandparents and other family members are also encouraged and often choose to share cultural or religious traditions in classrooms and at assemblies.

Affinity Groups are intentionally designed to create a safe space for students, faculty/staff, or parents to discuss topics of interest, support one another, and explore one’s affinity experience. All affinity groups are supported by the Head of School and the Division Heads. Student affinity groups in Upper School are optional and meet approximately once a month. Student input is used to form desired affinity spaces, and it was students who chose to establish race-based affinity spaces, including affinity groups for students of color and an affinity group for white students. 

The active affinity groups for parents include the following: 

• Adoptive Family 
• Asian/Pacific Islander
• Black/African American
• Familias Unidas  
• LGBTQIA+ 
• Neurodiversity
• Solo Parent/Caregiver

These affinity groups are led by either parents and/or faculty members.

Parent Education We strive to provide quality parent education exploring various topics including, but not limited to, cultural competency, body image, gender, and learning differences. We record many of the speakers so that parents who cannot attend have access to the information. Below is a sample of past speakers:

• Tim Wise - anti-racist educator educator
• Cristen Brew -psychotherapist, educator, LGBTQ focus
• Elizabeth Scott - psychotherapist, body image focus
• Stephen Jones - consultant, Cultural Competency
• Susan Cain - author, introvert/extrovert focus
• Julie Lythcott-Haims - writer, parenting focus
• Rosetta Lee - diversity speaker, trainer, and educator