The DTW Class Onboarding Experience
This class mirrors The Doing the Work (DTW) Class in its focus, goals, and content, but is taught to the entire incoming cohort of faculty and staff in the given academic year. As a cohort, new faculty and staff will engage in a shared, high-impact interactive experience together, which will help build trust, cultivate a strong community, and form a stronger bond to each other and to the school.
The Doing the Work (DTW) Class Onboarding Experience
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The Doing the Work (DTW) Class Onboarding Experience is taught either as a year-long class or as a week-long intensive, depending on the needs of the institution and their onboarding practices. The class explores issues of race and racism in America as a means of better understanding racism as a structural feature of society, connecting our personal lives to larger societal forces, and considering ways of practicing antiracism in our personal and professional lives.
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In the year-long class, participants gain confidence over time as they are encouraged to go outside of their comfort zone and commit to taking actions they can report back on to the larger group in monthly meetings. Through the structure of the class, participants are held accountable to each other as they work to enact positive changes in the communities where they live and work.
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In the week-long intensive, the focus is shifted to self-study, individual and group reflection, and action step planning which is scaffolded through discussions and journal prompts.
This class is engaging for both new and seasoned DEI learners alike. Sample topics include:
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Socio-historical grounding of race and structural racism in the U.S.
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Understanding the Black/white racial divide
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Seeing beyond Black and white through an examination of
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Asians & Asian Americans in the U.S.
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Latinx/e & Latinidad in America and globally
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Racial identities and the social psychology of racism
Staff Member,
New England Boarding School
"You don't know what you don't know. I went in thinking that I'm a very open minded and fair person so I wouldn't really have "work" to do. I've learned so much about systemic racism and bias. Even just embracing some new terminology has been enriching."
Teacher,
New England Boarding School
"All of the sessions were great. I think you worked to make everyone feel comfortable and like they had a space in the course."
Staff Member,
New England Boarding School
"...I look forward to meetings and feel amplified in the week ahead of and after!
...I feel I have created a tangible line between my experience and behavior while at [work] to how I experience and behave while I am NOT at [work] - I should be practicing the same empathy and kindness in my own time as during my work time and time with adolescent students."