Accomplice Academy for Teachers

Join us in building an intentional community of white folks committed to being change agents for racial justice.

 This 8-month course is designed for white teachers seeking to deepen their learning, reflection, and anti-racist teaching practices in the classroom. Accepting our whiteness means acknowledging that white people systemically hold privilege and power over all people of color, contemporarily and historically. When we say we care about, respect, and love our students, we believe those are empty claims unless we are committed to crumbling the interpersonal and systemic systems that cause harm to them and their communities. Any “love” without action and dedication to change is not authentic love. The work of liberating ourselves from oppression is freeing for everyone and is essential if we want a world in which our young people are free and safe. This deeply personal work is often uncomfortable, scary, and discouraging. We believe it is essential to do this work together, not in isolation, in order to better build our consciousness and fortitude to continue on the path towards becoming liberatory educators. 

This course is designed for a range of white educators seeking to learn and transform how we have internalized white supremacy and enact it as teachers, in spite of our best intentions. We welcome teachers who are new to learning about anti-racism and those who have been in the game for a long time but are seeking a community of teachers to do this work together. Ideally, you’ll have at least one year of teaching under your belt, but it is not a requirement.

You’ll walk away with:

• Community to hold you accountable, refine your pedagogy, and build liberatory futures with

• Support with creating curriculum and classroom practices that decenter whiteness, challenge power, and center youth wellness

• Deepened courage to confront racist practices in your classroom and school community, coupled with the analyses on solidarity/organizing/something

What’s the commitment?

We know teachers are very busy (uh…. understatement of a lifetime), but this work is essential and it will never be easy or convenient. The course was designed to build a reasonable level of commitment that will allow for depth but also honors teachers' capacity. We are asking for the following commitment:

• Meet monthly in-person as a group for 3 hours (Second Saturday from 11am-2pm, in the East Bay)

• Meet monthly (virtual or in-person) with a partner for 1 hour

• Optional: 2 private 1-1 coaching calls with Mira or Sara throughout the 8-month course

• Optional: course reading assignments (less than an hour a month)

Dates: 

Saturdays 11am-2pm: October 23, November 13, December 11, January 8, February 12, March 12, April 9, May 14.

Cost:

The actual cost of the course, which includes facilitation, preparation, coaching, and reparations (given to the Black Teacher Project) is $4,500 per participant. We are offering the course on a sliding scale of $600-$1,000. We encourage teachers to seek professional development funding from their schools and districts. If you are able to secure institutional funds, please pay on the higher end of the scale. 

Hosted By:

Sara Tiras, a white, Jewish, educator, activist, and teacher coach. She has lived in Oakland, CA for the past 15 years and has worked as a youth organizer, high school teacher, and instructional coach. She graduated from UCSC with a B.A. in American Studies and earned her teaching credential at Mills College. 

Mira Stern, a queer white Jew born and raised in San Francisco. Mira consults with tech companies, organizations and school systems to develop equity strategies for long term impact, rooted in racial justice and community building. She is a life-long educator and advocate for justice, focusing on developing white antiracist consciousness and capacity for change. Mira recently finished her Master’s work in Education & Social Justice at USF, creating a 9-part workshop series on whiteness and antiracism for white educators. She is a plant witch and committed to earth-based practices as a central component of our movements for collective liberation. 

Join the waitlist!