Race Still Matters and Why We Must Explore the Skin We’re In.

In this presentation, Dr. Hines uses awareness and exploration to engage participants in critical, challenging, and honest conversations about race. Specifically, Dr. Hines engages participants in activities that show how race continues to influence our positioning in society and perceptions and approaches to working with students. As a result, participants gain critical awareness of the extent to which their instructional practices and mannerisms are influenced by their positions as racial beings. In addition, participants develop an understanding of the importance of not classifying students of color as “others”-a classification that explicitly and implicitly shortchanges the school experiences of minority students. Instead, by affirming the racial identity of these students, participants can be better prepared to meet students’ academic, behavioral, and relational needs.