Who this page is for
This course was designed for the actual teaching workforce in Minnesota — which is predominantly white women teaching classrooms that are majority students of color. If that describes you, this page is worth reading carefully before you begin your first unit.
If you are a teacher of color teaching communities you belong to, this page still applies — positionality is not only a white teacher's issue. But the challenges look different, and some of what follows will feel more relevant than other parts.
What positionality means
Positionality refers to how your social location — your race, class, gender, background, first language — shapes what you know, what you assume, and how you are perceived in the classroom. It is not a confession or an apology. It is a recognition that you bring a particular vantage point into the room, and that vantage point affects the work.
“Teaching ethnic studies as a white educator does not disqualify you. It does require you to be honest with yourself and your students about what you know and don't know.”
Positionality is not static. It shifts depending on the content, the community being studied, and the students in the room. A teacher who shares an ethnic background with students studying one unit may be an outsider in the next. That movement is worth naming — to yourself, and sometimes to students.
What this looks like in practice
These are not abstract principles. They translate into specific practices you can use starting with your first lesson:
You don't have to be an expert
Your job is to facilitate rigorous thinking, not to perform cultural authority you don't have. VTS is designed precisely for this — the protocol enables rigorous analysis without requiring the teacher to be the content authority.
Name what you don't know
If a student corrects you, that is a success, not a failure. Saying "I'm not sure about that — can you tell me more?" models intellectual humility and signals that student knowledge is valued in this room.
Don't center your own discomfort
Discussions about race and power may make you uncomfortable. That discomfort is worth reflecting on privately — in a journal, with a colleague, in professional development. It is not the center of the lesson.
Use the framework
VTS, SIOP, and the LESMC principles are the structure that makes it possible to do this work across lines of difference. They are not a crutch — they are the professional craft of ethnic studies teaching. Trust them.
Use the framework
One of the most important things a white teacher — or any teacher teaching outside their own community — can do is let the framework carry the weight. You do not have to generate cultural authority from scratch. The protocols, the community partners, the primary sources, and the LESMC principles create the structure within which rigorous ethnic studies teaching happens.
What the framework does for you
When a student challenges the content — or you — the framework gives you a principled place to stand. “The protocol says we look first and interpret after. What do you see?” is a more productive response than defending your authority. Let the intellectual structure do its work.
A note on mistakes
You will make mistakes. You will mispronounce a name, oversimplify a community's history, or miss a nuance that a student catches. The standard is not perfection — it is accountability.
When you make a mistake, name it, correct it, and move on. Do not spend five minutes apologizing — that makes the mistake about your feelings rather than the content. A simple “I got that wrong — here is the accurate information” is the right response. Students are watching how you handle being wrong as much as they are watching what you teach.
Watch for this
The most damaging positionality mistake is not making errors — it is refusing to be corrected, or becoming defensive when students push back on content. Defensiveness signals that your comfort matters more than accuracy. It closes down the intellectual space ethnic studies requires.