“I believe that students are the best agents for change. As an educator, it is my job to help them harness their strengths and use those passions and strengths for good,” said Falicia O’Mard, a 15-year educator and founder of her former school’s diversity and inclusion team.
Falicia is one of nearly 100 educators chosen to participate in TpT’s Teach for Justice Grant Program — a $100,000 fund for educator-created resources to facilitate classroom discussions around equity and justice, challenge implicit (and explicit) biases, and create learning environments that will support every student. We’re excited to have the first of these resources now available in a new collection on TpT to help educators apply anti-racist practices and advance social justice in and out of the classroom.
“With this grant, I was able to create resources that teachers can implement even if their knowledge of anti-racism and social justice is limited,” said Falicia, whose first resource is a guide to help educators establish an anti-racist classroom for young learners, with daily lessons targeted for 2nd-4th grade students.
Additional Teach for Justice grant winners will be releasing their resources on a rolling basis through the remainder of the calendar year to support educators in this vital ongoing work. The new resources expand the collection of anti-racist, social justice materials available on TpT and cover PreK-12th grades plus professional development. Each resource is:
- Created by experienced educators: The grant winners were selected from a group of more than 500 applicants and demonstrate expertise in social justice and anti-racist education — whether that’s from their lived experience, professional training, or a combination. The grant recipients have experience teaching in public, private, charter, and independent schools across more than 20 states and territories.
- Vetted by content experts: Each resource underwent a rigorous review by a team of anti-bias, anti-racist, and social justice practioners and content experts.
- Relevant and age-appropriate: The resources are timely, age-appropriate, and can be used across subject areas to discuss race and social injustices with students today.
For this program, the following definitions were used:
- Social justice content is defined as “resources that help students reflect, understand, and act to address injustice across diverse identities and communities and empower all to create equity.”
- Anti-racist content is defined as “resources that center racial literacy and racial justice, aim to reduce prejudice, and build skills to engage in social action that leads to systemic change.”
“This program is an important step in generating accessible anti-racist and social justice content that is grounded in the firsthand experience of educators,” said Luis Versalles, Director of Pre K-12 District Partnerships at Courageous Conversation and Co-Chair of TpT’s Teach for Justice Grant program. “The diversity of expertise and depth of experience represented by applicants demonstrates the power educators have to forward the cause of racial justice and support each other in building best practices. I’m honored to be a part of the effort to get needed information into the hands of educators everywhere.”
To access the Teach for Justice resources now and throughout the school year, visit the collection here.
Providing educators with anti-racist and social justice resources is an important step in the fight for racial justice, but it’s only one of many. Systemic change in PreK-12 education will require consistent effort over the long-term. We’re committed to supporting educators every step of the way, listening carefully to understand the TpT community, and identifying new ways to provide teachers with critical resources and strategies to create inclusive learning environments to support every student.
Browse the Teach for Justice collection of anti-racist and social justice education resources on TpT.
Learn more about how you can become a changemaking educator and increase your own knowledge of identity, race, and privilege by watching the Teach for Justice speaker series.
