Ally Interview Reflection

For my Teacher as Ally Badge, I was asked to conduct an interview to get a better understand of what a Teacher Ally was and in what ways allies had an impact on their students. For this interview, I prepared 4 questions and asked them to my Aunt (a veteran teacher with numerous awards to her name), a current teacher at my high school, and a friend if mine. The questions were:

1. What does it mean to be a teacher ally? OR In what ways have teachers been an ally in your own life?
2. What impact did being an ally have on your students? OR How did your teacher ally influence you?
3. What are some traits that you need to be a teacher ally? OR What traits did your teacher ally have that allowed you to succeed?
4. If there was piece of advice that you would give to teacher allies? OR Is there advice that you would want teacher allies to know?

The most common traits I found during these interviews that Teacher Allies had were empathy, compassion, and kindness. To be an ally, as my former English teacher declares, “you need to create an environment where all students feel VALIDATED” and “you need to ally yourself WITH students, not speak FOR them.” This allowed me to really get a sense of the duties and characteristics of a Teacher Ally. I must think of myself as a collective achieving goals WITH students, not advocating FOR them. To understand what I must be an ally for, I must understand and empathize with the struggles and histories of my students. To do this, I must engage with them and be receptive to their needs.