It has been a little over a year since LaVar Charleston began his role as the inaugural associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the UW–Madison School of Education.
When he was first approached about the position, Charleston said he was excited by the opportunity to build an office focused on equity.
“Doing this work can’t just be one person’s job, it has to be everyone’s responsibility,” he said. “Building an office, committing resources to this effort, made me feel the School of Education was serious about this work.”
Charleston is an alumnus of School of Education, where he earned his master’s and PhD in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Prior to his current role, he had served since 2017 as UW–Whitewater’s assistant vice chancellor of student diversity, engagement, and success.
Charleston sat down with Learning Connections to talk about his vision and plans for the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the coming year. Following is an edited transcript:
What is your vision for the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion?
Charleston: Our vision is to make the School of Education the first choice for current and future scholars, leaders, and educators who desire to embody organizational excellence, educational excellence, and inclusive excellence in the arts, health, and education. In practice, we aim to help departments and units in the School achieve their diversity and inclusion-related goals.
The School of Education has always valued these goals, but there hasn’t been a “North Star,” a guidepost, for how we do this work and how we create inclusive working and learning environments in every corner of the School.
The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion aims to be the North Star that ensures that all of our policies and practices are aligned with what we believe, who we say we are, and what we aspire to be as relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What are your goals for the upcoming year?
Charleston: Our main goal for this year is educating each other and preparing ourselves for intercultural dialogue, so that it is productive and results in action and accountability. While dialogue is important, it has to be moving towards action.
Just last week (June 30) we started these racial affinity groups, we’re calling them REACT (Racial Ethnic Affinity Cluster Talks) groups. These groups will help enable a genuine connection among School of Education faculty and staff — we’ll be doing it with students too — while sharpening our capacity to engage in sensitive and challenging topics across race. A lot of times we don’t talk about race because we don’t know how, or we think we’re going to offend someone.
We’re trying to support our faculty, staff, and students by giving them tools to self-examine their own biases, their own prejudices, and patterns that contribute to systemic racism. Through the concept of cultural humility, we are trying to promote and embrace lifelong learning and critical self-reflection to both recognize and challenge power imbalances, facilitate true ally-ship and accountability, and also foster true equality in our School.
The School of Education has published a statement of its diversity values and commitments. Can you talk about who was involved in developing this statement, and how was it formulated? How are you using this statement to guide your work?
Charleston: The statement was formulated by faculty, staff, and students on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. We wrestled as a group with who we are and what the statement should be. Throughout the process, we really challenged each other to craft something that we could all agree on, that’s who we are and what we espouse as a School of Education. And then the statement was presented as part of our implementation plan to the dean, associate deans, department chairs, senior staff, and undergraduate and graduate student advisory committees. So though I led the effort, it was really a committee-wide, a School-wide effort to develop and approve the statement.
You can see the statement front and center on our website. There has been a push to include it in recruiting materials and position descriptions to let people know who we are. And importantly, in our initiatives, our programs, our curriculum, this statement helps us to focus in on what’s really important to us. So when we talk about the idea that we strive to provide an accessible community, enriched by identity, background, culture, and experience, we reflect that in our actions.
What is the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist? Why is it important for the School of Education to be anti-racist?
Charleston: Saying “I’m not racist” often is a self-serving sentiment. By defining ourselves as not racist, it’s saying it’s beyond our grasp, and it makes it impossible to see how our own thoughts, ideas, or actions can be racist.
So being anti-racist means moving past that non-racist defense, and instead thinking about, talking about, and embracing anti-racist views and beliefs, and most importantly, actions.
Racial identity is not shaped in a neutral environment in the United States. For people of color, our identities are formed in response to racial oppression; and conversely, white folks’ identities are formed in response to racial superiority. These dynamics play out in different attitudes and behaviors that support racist ideology. So if we want to dismantle racism, we have to understand that these dynamics are very real, particularly in institutional settings, and then come up with strategies to overcome the barriers and oppression that result.
Ibram Kendi said, “The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it, and then dismantle it.” To be anti-racist, you have to actively work against it.
Tell me more about the racial affinity, or REACT, groups and how they help people to deal with the discomfort of talking about race.
Charleston: Working in racial affinity, or REACT, groups allows same-race colleagues to learn and grow together, while building meaningful rapport with one another. For white colleagues, this means you’ll be able to deepen your understanding and awareness of the ways that white privilege and structural racism are built into the fabric of our society’s laws, policies, and practices, without shifting the burden of labor onto colleagues of color as teachers and educators.
For colleagues of color, they have their own space to process, learn, heal, and grow, while also thinking about innovative strategies, solutions, and actions the School can take to adequately support their success.
The goal of these intra-racial conversations is to prepare us for productive cross-racial dialogue that disrupts systemic racism in our School community and beyond. The aim is to move from dialogue to real action and change.
What is the responsibility of the School of Education to address or respond to racial injustice on campus, in the Madison community, and in the U.S.?
Charleston: It is our responsibility, because we’re educating the educators who are increasingly going out into diverse communities. We have to give them the tools to be successful leaders in the arts, health, and education, as well as productive citizens.
If we are going to be truly social justice oriented, then we have to address the issue of race and racism. We have to equip our students who are going to be teachers and professors with the skills and tools to understand that systemic racism exists and how to undo it to really promote equity, inclusion, and belonging.