The N-Word in Classrooms, Campuses and Communities
Monday, February 2 - Tuesday , February 4, 2025 | 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Penn State Great Valley | 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern PA 19355
Thank you for your interest in our program! Details are below.
Questions? Please contact Dena Torino.
Program Overview
This word is in every school yet very few educators and students have received any training related to the N!Word.
- Who is allowed to say the N!Word?
- What should you say when you hear/see the N!Word in schools, resident halls, media, music, and/or literature?
- How should you teach a text that has the N!Word?
- What about white teachers? Should white teachers teach the N!Word at all?
- Does it matter who wrote the book or article?
- What about the classics?
In this 2-Day Seminar, participants will examine their personal and professional histories with the N-Word. We will grapple with the various opinions about how to address the word. Participants will examine and explore how current events, social media, literature, popular music, and movies have used the word over the years and how it is brought into, and used in our homes, schools, and communities.
Using literature, historical references and news headlines throughout the seminar, we will inspire, challenge, inform, engage and equip participants with tools and skills to take action as it relates to this powerful and troublesome word. All participants will leave with more skills and courage to address the N!Word. Though this workshop will be specifically geared towards educators, it is open to all.
Key Objectives
1. Explore the everyday presence of the N!Word in homes, schools, classrooms, residence halls, and literature, along with the ongoing impact the word has on our students, teachers, parents and others, of all races.
2. Learn to address internalized racism and biases, where they arise from and how they contribute to daily interactions and school culture.
3. Leave with ideas and skills to engage and expand on more literature and develop (strengthen) inclusive language, policies and practices, especially with students and staff.
4. Explore intellectual freedom as it applies to challenged and banned books and curricular issues.
5. Set leadership plans for positive educational leadership of the entire school community.
6. Examine personal and professional histories with N!Word and how to engage in leadership around the use of the word in educational settings.
Outcomes
Participants will leave with:
1. More resources to analyze racialized systems and other systems of oppression.
2. A deepened understanding of the origin of our differences and how they can obstruct efforts to create equity.
3. More skills and increased confidence to engage in real talk and real solutions.
4. An Action Planning tool to create and follow through on tangible goals.
Day #1 Agenda
8:30 AM - Check-In and Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:45 AM - Welcome and Intros
Ayanna Hill-Gill, ADVIS President
Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. and Dr. Marguerite W. Penick
9:45-10:45 AM - Who Are You? Why Are You Here? 1st N!Word Memory?
10:45-11:15 AM - K-12 Literature and the N Word
What is the one book you always use in your classroom? Why?
11:15-11:30 AM - #SelfCare
Break and Reflect
11:30 AM-12:30 PM - K-12 Literature and the N Word
What is the one book you wish you could always use? Why?
12:30-1:00 PM - Working Lunch
1:00-1:30 PM - Feeling. Dealing. Healing.
1:30-3:00 PM - The Challenge of the N!Word in P-12 Literature
Let’s explore where the word appears in literature at multiple grade levels. How do teachers approach the word in their classroom and what are potential skills for navigating the environment?
3:00-3:15 PM - Break, Reflect & More
3:15-4:00 PM - Recap/Feedback/N!Word Policy
Day #2 Agenda
8:30 AM - Check-In and Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:15 AM - Welcome and Intros
Ayanna Hill-Gill, ADVIS President
Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. and Dr. Marguerite W. Penick
9:15-9:45 AM - Music & the Rap Name/Rap Game
This intro, warm-up activity and discussion is designed to increase the participants skills as it relates to rap music, lyrical understanding and interaction with students (kids) that want to listen and don’t understand why you disagree. This activity is challenging, creative, honest, and fun.
9:45-11:15 PM - The Door Exercise (Our Pictures)
The Images in Our Heads (N!Word) – An exercise and discussion that will challenge and help participants develop a systemic and historic analysis of the (N!Word) framework. This activity is engaging, challenging and will be used to question how we come to know the N!Word and the images/pictures that can be a permanent guide to how we do our work and navigate our society. We will explore and examine systemic inequities (white supremacy) across other oppressions (gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, etc.) as well as in various sectors (housing, healthcare, education, food/water supply, etc.)
11:15-11:30 AM - #SelfCare
Break and Reflect
11:30 AM-12:00 PM - Reflect Back
Feeling. Dealing. Healing.
12:00-12:30 PM - Working Lunch
12:30-2:00 PM The N!Word Today - The Feeling Exercise (Our Feelings)
The role of media and the evolution of the word – we will see some current examples of the use and impact of the N!Word in music, media, sports, schools, universities, parks, workplaces and Moore.
2:00-3:00 PM - Affinity Spaces
3:00-4:00 PM - Recap/Feedback/Highlights/Questions/Closing/Intersectionality
- N!Word Case Studies
- Revist N!Word Policy
About the Facilitators
Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. has pursued and achieved success in academia, business, diversity, leadership and community service. In 1996, he started to provide comprehensive diversity, privilege, leadership and #BecomingAntiRacist trainings and workshops. He is recognized as one of the nation’s top speakers and educators. He is recognized as one of the nation’s top motivational/educational speakers and practitioners. His interview with Wisconsin Public Radio won the 2015 Wisconsin Broadcasters Association's Best Interview in Medium Market Radio, 1st Place, he is featured in the film “I’m not Racist….Am I?” and in the article 5 Clear Ways to Tell Whether You'll Be a Good Leader in 2021. Dr. Moore was named one of Wisconsin's 51 Most Influential Black Leaders and in 2022 was the recipient of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law’s Honorable Bernice B. Donald Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession Award. He is also the Founder/Program Director for the global White Privilege Conference (WPC). In 2014 Dr. Moore founded The Privilege Institute (TPI), which engages people in research, education, action and leadership through workshops, conferences, publications and strategic partnerships and relationships. He is co-founder of the on-line journal Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, co-editor of Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories, The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys, The Diversity Consultant Cookbook: Preparing for the Challenge (2019), Teaching Beautiful Brilliant Black Girls (2021) and Lil’ e - The Big Misunderstanding (2020). Dr. Moore received his PhD from the University of Iowa in Education Leadership. His PhD research is on Black Football Players at Division III Schools in the Midwest.
Dr. Marguerite Penick is the Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Her work centers on issues of power, privilege and oppression in relation to issues of curriculum with a special emphasis on the incorporation of quality literature in K-12 classrooms. She appears in the movie “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible” by the World Trust Organization. Her most recent work includes a joint article on creating safe spaces for discussing white privilege with pre-service teachers and is a co-editor of Everyday White People Confronting Racial and Social Injustice:15 Stories, The SAGE Sourcebook of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys, and Teaching Beautiful Brilliant Black Girls.
Dr. Penick received her PhD from the University of Iowa in Curriculum and Instruction. She was a High School teacher in an urban school in Kansas City, KS.
Program Certificate
Program Certificate of Completion available after attending both days of the workshop.
Act 48 Credits Available
• You may request credit up to 7 days after the event.
• Per the PA Department of Education, ADVIS is required to report your successful completion of Act 48 evaluation within 30 days of the event.
• Contact Candyce Wilson for more information.
Hotel Accomodations
We have a room block reserved at Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia-Great Valley for February 2 - 4, 2025.
Booking your room is easy. Simply click here.
Reservation cut off date is Friday, January 3, 2025.
We're looking forward to seeing you in February!
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