Racial Immersion Experience
Remington Holt x Leadership + Design
Collaboration
“Learning by doing.”
Racial Immersion Experience
"We don't just need training. We need an immersive experience because we can't change our schools unless we are willing to change ourselves."
-Remington Holt x Leadership+Design
Leadership + Design has formed a collaboration with Remington Holt Consulting to offer a semester long experience for leadership teams ready to build anti-racist culture in their schools.
The 1.0 Experience
For Senior Leaders:
Long-term Commitment
3 Modules; 8 Sessions
24 total hours of facilitated experience
Available Remote, Hybrid, or In-Person
Each session will feature cultural immersion through the following techniques:
A unique form of engaging dialogue and helpful protocols for conversations where disagreement and emotion are central to progress.
Analysis of media through the critical lens of Race,
Expertly-facilitated critical conversations on Race,
Asynchronous homework between sessions via #Slack that includes reading, reflection and action that will require both cognitive and emotional labor.
Module 1: A Tale of Two Cultures
Module One asks participants to consider that the world they have been living in is white, and that if one is white, they are not able to fully talk about race until they unpack and understand the inherent bias that "living white" creates. Before we can act antiracist, we must first learn by immersing ourselves in our own bias. This module helps to lay the groundwork for the hard personal work ahead.
Module 2: Relationships
Module Two asks participants to examine their shadow in relation to race. Now that you are aware of whiteness as a concept, how has it unconsciously shaped who you are, how you see the world, and the relationship with yourself and others? How are you wrong, and can you admit it and move through shame, pain and hurt in service of justice?
Module 3: Changing Our Systems
Module Three asks participants to consider the "So What" of this work. How can we apply this personal transformation into systemic action? How is our school really doing, and where do we need to change in order to be antiracist? Module three also includes an opportunity to realistically assess progress, areas for growth, and set goals for the next 12-18 months.
#Slack + Homework
Between each session, participants will be given homework in the form of readings and action challenges, and they will have the opportunity to process and learn by discussing and reflecting on that work in a #Slack community devoted to this work. The #Slack environment will be moderated by a trained DEI practitioner who will provide support in the form of challenge and encouragement throughout the asynchronous experience.
The Collaboration
Ryan Burke, L+D Co-Founder and Senior Partner and Remington Holt, principal at Remington Holt Consulting, met while working together doing Strategic Planning at an independent school in Nashville, TN in 2019-20. After a long meeting, Ryan rode to the airport with Remington, and it became clear that Remington was an “L+Doer.” He has so much to teach L+D about race and the way it impacts school culture and everyone in a school community. The collaboration was born, and Remington and Ryan immediately began working on this Experience.
Due to halting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest around racial injustice in the United States, Remington and Ryan found themselves in deep, thought-provoking race-related conversations and experiences more often than not. Their experience together reinforced the need for immersive, deep and transformative work regarding race in our schools.
Remington brings to the table his passion and expertise as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion professional, 12 years of experience in the field of education, and over 30 years as a Black man living in the South. Ryan adds to the collaboration L+D’s affinity for life-long learning, substantial experience with managing critical conversations, and designing opportunities for human connection in service of learning.
Remington Holt (Remington Holt Consulting)
After 5 years in the classroom and over 10 years in Education overall, I now aspires to close the culture gap in education through high-quality instruction, culturally responsive pedagogy, and by educating teachers and school leaders about the importance of cultural responsiveness both in and out of the classroom. I believe I bring a distinct talent to school leadership through my diverse background in all 3 educational sectors: Private, Traditional Public, and Charter Public schools. My passion is teaching; my desire is school improvement; and my goal is to change the heart of America to one of love, understanding, connection, and inclusion for all.
Ryan Burke (Leadership + Design)
Ryan Burke (@RyanmBurke) is a Co-Founder and Senior Partner at Leadership + Design. After 20 years working as a Teacher, Learning Specialist, Dean of Students, and Principal/Division Head in public and independent school, Ryan has joined L+D full-time as a senior partner. With a Master's Degree in Applied Behavioral Science and experience in family therapy and systems thinking, Ryan's approach to working with school leaders and teams is unique and brings both a clinical lens as well as practical school leadership experience. Ryan is currently working with schools and organizational leaders as a coach as well as on strategic planning, schedule re-design, communication and feedback and other messy and ambiguous school challenges. Ryan has presented at NAIS, Nation Middle Level Association as well as keynoted on topics like Critical Conversations, Communication and Conflict Resolution. Ryan lives in Carmel, Indiana with his wife and three children.
This experience is NOT for you if…
This Experience is not for the administrative team that is simply “checking the race training box.” It’s far too hard for that team. This Experience is designed for a "majority white" team of educators that realizes it is time to change and dig deeper as an organization. This Experience is a lot of work. It is expensive because it requires time and energy, and it will require your entire team to go beyond the intellectual to the experiential.
We will not work with any team that is interested in a comfortable, convenient experience scheduled to ensure that everything else on their list is also equally prioritized. This Experience is impractical (3 hour meetings 2x/month), hard (homework between meetings), and uncomfortable (tackling whiteness, privilege, and fragility and fear head on), but it is also right for dealing with the disease of Racism in America.
If this sounds like a good fit for your team, we would love to chat with you further.
How much does it cost?
If you’re interested in the Racial Immersion Experience…