Troy High English Teachers Receive DIJE Award/Grant

The Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity (dije) subcommittee has awarded Troy High teachers Jodie Duda, Erin Fischer-Ballew, Annie Gallagher, Christina Rick, and Valerie Valentino of Troy High School a $150 dije professional development grant. The teachers have created a program of reading and learning that supports their commitment to “disrupting stock stories, stereotypes, and westernized narratives” and will be using the grant to purchase the following texts, in order to learn more about themselves, their students, and how they can together pursue justice and activism:

• Black Appetite. White Food: Issues of Race, Voice and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom, by Jamila Lyiscott;
• We Got This.: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be, by Cornelius Miner;
• The Anti Racist Teacher: Reading Instruction Workbook, by Lorena German;
• Educating Activist Allies: Social Justice Pedagogy with the Suburban and Urban Elite by Katy Swalwell; and
• Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, by April Baker-Bell.

Their intention is to use the concepts and practice presented in their readings to plan learning for their students to build community and engage in rich activist lives. Said Naitnaphit Limlamai, Chair, diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity (dije): “I am excited to hear about what Jodie, Erin, Annie, Christina, and Val learn from their studies and how they engage their students and themselves in the work of activism, and look forward to the presentations of their work so that they may share their knowledge with the community of Michigan English teachers and teacher educators.”