Faculty Learn Tools to Facilitate Deeper Conversations with Boys

Browning employees experienced their first professional development workshop of the new school year, Beyond Diversity, on August 22 and 23. Facilitated by the Pacific Education Group, Beyond Diversity is a two-day course that gives its participants the tools to discuss unconscious bias, systemic racism, and other difficult issues surrounding race.

Faculty members described the experience as “eye-opening and motivational,” noting that the strategies they learned could be used to have conversations with people of the same race and across races. Given a protocol for handling race-based conversations, faculty members were able to dissect their own encounters with race and better understand their colleagues’ experience, using respect and common knowledge to bridge gaps in understanding.   

The school-wide training is among many professional development programs that will allow faculty to deepen their understanding of issues of identity and bias. This training will support student conversations as we seek to embrace the lived experience of every child and create a community that honors the dignity of every individual and “fosters intellectual, social and emotional growth for all.” 

Lauren Stewart, the new Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as well as the EDI team of Murielle Louis (All-School Liaison), Sankara Iwelu (Upper School), Richard Symons (Middle School) and Noelle Kennedy-White (Lower School) will work with other community members on admissions and hiring processes as well as develop curricula that reflect New York City and the communities within it. Pacific Education Group will be back at Browning for more advanced training sessions later in the school year.