Sunday, February 3, 2019

White Male Educators

I have nothing against white male educators in general.

I am simply noticing a trend as I look for "recognizable authorities in the industry." I'm supposed to find leaders, speakers, or experts in education. I'm supposed to find a title that people will instantly recognize. I will be asking a few of them for endorsements for my next book about word choice in schools. (In fact, if you look here, you'll see the awesome white educators that endorsed Shift This.)

The first names that came to me were ALL white men.

Don't get me wrong - I have many of these on my "first" list on Twitter, meaning I don't want to miss their tweets (Paul B., Scott H., Kelly G....).

I'm simply - once again - noticing the whiteness that surrounds me.

Looking through my Twitter follows, I see white men as being the ones with the largest voices online. They're they ones that have blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, get involved in chats, share their ideas, books, other resources and thoughts voraciously.

Where is my diversity in who I follow online? I have very few connections with humans that look different from me. How can I learn more when I'm always paying attention to white voices (male and female)?

So now I'm reaching out to you.

Who do YOU recommend I follow to hear different voices from our field? Please do not simply respond in a tweet - please share those educators you respect (that are not white) in the comments below so other white educators can also learn from them. Thank you in advance!