Brown Bag Seminar: Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn

Co-sponsored by the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities

In classrooms where students feel safe and have a sense of belonging, they develop stronger attachments to school and achieve at higher levels, even in the face of significant social and economic disparities.

Teachers can use an array of strategies to create such “identity safe” classrooms — where students from diverse racial, social, economic, and linguistic groups can learn and flourish — according to Dorothy Steele and Becki Cohn-Vargas. The two are the authors of the recently published book, Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn. They will discuss their research and the classroom strategies described in their book on April 14 in a lecture and book signing as part of SCOPE’s Brown Bag Seminar series.

"Identity safe classrooms are those in which teachers strive to ensure students that their social identities are an asset rather than a barrier to success in the classroom,” Steele explains. “This, coupled with challenging opportunities to learn, can help all students begin to feel they are welcomed, supported, and valued as members of the learning community."

Student learning is dependent on positive classroom relationships coupled with challenging, meaningful curriculum. Identity safe classrooms can provide an antidote to the effects of disengagement and alienation from school by students of color who then experience disproportionately high numbers of high-stakes punishments (e.g., suspensions and expulsions).

The research on identity safe teaching practices found that students from all backgrounds learn better and are more engaged with school in identity safe classrooms than their peers in other classrooms. 

This research began in 2000 when a group of Stanford researchers joined together to explore how teachers could create challenging and inclusive classrooms free from the negative effects that occur when stereotypes about academic ability exist in the classroom. The group included Steele, Claude Steele, Hazel Rose Markus, Michael Kass, Dan Solomon, and Francie Green. The Russell Sage Foundation supported this year-long study of 84 elementary classrooms. The book describes the findings of this research and another participatory study done by Cohn-Vargas.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception follow. For more information, contact Terrance Turner: [email protected]. 

Dorothy Steele is the former executive director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She is an early childhood educator who is interested in public schools, including teaching practices that are effective for diverse classrooms, alternative assessment processes that inform teaching and learning, and strategies that build inclusive communities of learners in schools. Her work with the Stanford Integrated Schools Project was an attempt to look at these various aspects of schooling in a large urban school district. 

Becki Cohn-Vargas is currently the director of Not In Our School. She designs curriculum, coaches schools, and produces films and digital media on models for creating safe and inclusive schools, free of bullying and intolerance at a national nonprofit, the Working Group. She also is teaching online courses on bullying prevention for the University of San Diego. Cohn-Vargas worked in educational settings for more than 35 years as a teacher and administrator.