Anatomy of an Ally

The journal, “Teaching Tolerance” dedicated an entire issue to the question: what is a Teacher Ally and what does that look like? While going through and reading some of the material, I came across two articles that struck me as interesting.

The first article that really stood out to me was “Language Does Not Have to Be a Barrier.” This article describes how Anne Marie Batista advocates for ELL students in the classroom. She does this through understanding the connotations and challenges of ELL students, communicates with the families of the students, and coordinates/advocates processes and teachings that promote the ELL students in her classroom and from around her district. One of the last pieces of advice that really stand out to me is for teachers to ask for help. I am still surprised how much teachers learn from their students, even as they teach.

The article that lends its title to the issue, “Anatomy of an Ally,” was also incredibly helpful. This article breaks down the how’s and why’s of being a teacher advocate and what that looks like in the classroom. More specifically, it suggests that we need to not just see and understand oppression, how it works, and how we contribute to oppression, but it gives advice for how we change the system of education to combat oppression classroom by classroom. One thing that is important to note (that the article states under “Allyship in the Classroom”) is that allies aren’t ALWAYS center stage when it comes to eliminating oppression. Much of the time, allies stand in the back and give the marginalized groups time to convey their thoughts and feeling, as well. This is one of the big difference between and advocate and an ally. An advocate voices for, an ally voice with.