Countering Pushout

Drawing from the documentary Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls, these professional development modules feature interactive animated video scenarios along with guidance from  experts in the fields of social justice, gender equality, and educational equity. These seasoned educators give context to common disruptions experienced in schools and provide a roadmap for how to provide a positive, rather than punitive, response to student behaviors that are often misunderstood and misrepresented.

Black girls experience often enhanced school discipline for a host of reasons — many of them associated with the increasingly punitive responses to student behavior and the absence of alternatives to exclusionary discipline in schools. Using social-behavorial research, as well as before- and after- scenarios, these modules will help teachers increase their capacity to create a positive environment where all students can feel safe and cared for. These self-paced learning videos will assist teachers as they master skills and concepts that can be incorporated into their individuals practices.

The videos and the accompanying guidebooks are designed for teachers of all subjects in grades 6 through 12. The sessions are intended to help increase self-awareness, gain insights into engaging directly and appropriately with students, master skills for enacting positive change and providing Black girls with the best possible experiences so that classrooms are not only places of learning but also places of healing and understanding.

Countering Pushout includes these four modules:

Pod 1: A Different Approach gives educators tools to better engage students, recognize signs of trauma and disruption outside of the classroom, understand and discourage micro-aggressions, and create culturally-specific curricula that speaks to their particular student bodies.

Pod 2: De-Escalating Conflict discourages the common practice of "adultifying" students, and recognizes the roles that developing minds and cultural differences play in interpersonal conflicts, which every educator will experience.

Pod 3: Technology and Tardiness looks at one of the most common sources of classroom disruption, exacerbating int he wake of remote learning during the Coronavirus pandemic, and empathetic addressing those disruptions, rather than dismissing or addressing them punitively.

Pod 4: Why Girls Bully looks at the root causes of belittling behavior and explores restorative justice practices, and how to best implement so that that they can be of benefit to all students.

Featured speakers include:

 - Dr. Monique Couvson (formerly Monique W. Morris) - author of Pushout: the Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

 - Dr. Venus Evans-Winters - author of Teaching Black Girls

 - Stephanie L. Patton - principal leadership coach

 - Dr. Tyffani Monford Dent - psychologist and author of Black Girl: Unapologetically

 - Thalia González - senior scholar, Georgetown University of Law