Promoting High Achievement
through Teacher Collaboration using
Critical Race Theory and Harro’s Cycle of
Liberation
Capitol Region Education Council &
Hartford Public Schools
Hartford, Connecticut
Getting to Know Who’s in the Room
Sasha Douglas, Principal , Metropolitan Learning Center for Global & International
Studies
 Lisa Sepe, Instruction and Climate Support Specialist, Hartford Public Schools


Roles: K-12 Teacher, School Administrator, Central Office Administrator, Student,
Community Partner, Higher Education representative

School, District: Rural, Suburban, Urban, Mixed (Regional)
Workshop Objectives
Participants will explore how teacher collaboration can be
used to enhance learning opportunities for diverse learners.
By engaging in this session, participants will gain a better
understanding of the analytical frameworks of Critical Race
Theory and the Cycle of Liberation. They will develop a
plan to support effective collaborative practices/ structures
to support the academic achievement of diverse students.
Introduction to Critical Race Theory
CRT is a framework used to examine and challenge the ways race and
racism implicitly and explicitly shape social structures, practices, and
discourses. CRT scholars begin with the premise that race is a social
construct and that racism is permanent in U.S. society. Rather than
focus on explicit acts or incidents of racism, CRT scholars instead focus
on the subtle, hidden, and insidious forms that operate at a deeper,
more systemic level. By focusing on the hidden and everyday forms of
racism, CRT posits that racism has never waned; it has merely assumed
a normality, and thus an invisibility, in our daily lives."
(p. 9, López & López, 2010)
Introduction to Critical Race Theory
CRT is a framework used to examine and challenge the ways race and
racism and explicitly shape social structures, practices, and
discourses. CRT scholars begin with the premise that race is a social
construct and that racism is permanent in U.S. society. Rather than
focus on explicit acts or incidents of racism, CRT scholars instead focus on
the subtle, hidden, and insidious forms that operate at a deeper,
more systemic level. By focusing on the hidden and everyday forms of
racism, CRT posits that racism has never waned; it has merely
assumed a normality, and thus an invisibility, in our daily
lives.”
(p. 9, López & López, 2010)
Video: TheUnequal Opportunity Race
How do racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of subordination shape
the experiences of students in the U.S? (Lopez & Lopez, 2010)
4th Grade
Math
4th Grade
Reading
8Th Grade
Math
8Th Grade
Reading
Overall
26 of 50
6th best
20 of 50
4th best
Low-income
4th worst
31 of 50
3rd worst
17 of 50
Black/
African
American
10th worst
21 of 41
27 of 39
11 of 42
Hispanic/
Latino
6th worst
18 of 47
2nd worst
23 of 46
English
Language
Learners
22 of 41
19 of 42
2nd worst
10th worst
Where do
Connecticut’s
scores rank
nationally?
How do racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of subordination
shape the experiences of students in the U.S? (Lopez & Lopez, 2010)
Gap Between
4th Grade
Math
4th Grade
Reading
8th Grade
Math
8th Grade
Reading
Low-income and
Non-Lowincome
3rd worst
7th worst
Worst
10th worst
Black/ African
American and
White
6th worst
3rd worst
5th worst
3rd worst
2nd worst
6th worst
Worst
4th worst
20 of 41
23 of 42
2nd worst
5th worst
Hispanic/ Latino
and White
English
Language (ELL)
and Non-ELL
Where does
Connecticut’s
achievement
gap rank
nationally?
Changing the Structure
“If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must
be changed.”
(Paulo Freire, 1972)
Cycle of Liberation
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
Developing a Liberatory Consciousness
(Love, 2000)
What are the collaborative practices/structures that support
the academic achievement of diverse learners?
Conceptual Connections
How might Critical Race
Theory and the Cycle of
Liberation impact these
collaborative practices to
support the academic
achievement of diverse
learners?
Coalescing & Action Planning
Critical Race Theory
A method of critically analyzing and examine how race (gender, immigration
status, ethnicity, disability, SES, intersectionality) shapes social structures in
order to dismantle the system
Developing a Liberatory Consciousness
Multi-phase process of building awareness of self, and others and using this
awareness to develop collaborative partnerships to create change
Cycle of Liberation
An ongoing process that can be used to implement practices to break free of
oppressive social structures
Next Steps & Reflection
Contact Information
Sasha Moseley-Douglas
[email protected]
Lisa Sepe
[email protected]
Works Cited
2015 NAEP Analysis: National and State Results. (2015, November 2). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from
http://www.conncan.org/Community/blog/2015-11-conncan-provides-in-depth-analysis-of-2015naep-resu
Harro, B. (2013). The cycle of liberation. In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Casteneda, C., Hackman, H. W., Peters,
M. L. , Zúñiga, X., (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York: Routledge.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? In
Taylor, E., Gilborn, D., & Ladson-Billings, G. (Eds.) Foundations of critical race theory in education. New
York: Routledge.
López, M.P. & López, G. R. (2010). Persistent inequality: Contemporary realities in the education of undocumented
latina/o . New York: Routledge.
Love, B. J. (2000). Developing a liberatory consciousness. In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Hackman, H. W., Zúñiga,
X., Peters, M. L. (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, anti-semitism,
sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism. New York: Routledge.