A conversation with Angela Ma Brown (she/her), district mentoring support teacher, Vancouver; Amanda Cantelon (she/them), teacher, Vancouver; and Stacey McEachern (she/her), Indigenous curriculum consultant, Vancouver
What is Crossroads?
Angela: Crossroads is an innovative anti-oppression resource that builds awareness, understanding, and empathy through interactive story-based experiential learning.
Students build their capacities to navigate complex social landscapes at the intersections of race, class, sexual orientation, and gender as they walk alongside four teenagers in this choose-your-own-adventure style visual novel.
Stacey: In the Crossroads workshops, youth facilitators engage in a range of individual, small-group, and whole-class activities designed to foster dialogue, reflection, and personal and social responsibility and transformation.
Amanda: The resource helps high school students (Grades 8–12) cultivate the skills to notice, name, and respond to discriminatory situations with the support of pop-up definitions, a glossary, reflection tools, and open-ended debrief questions.
What most stood out for you about Crossroads?
Stacey: The different storylines really bring these subjects to life in a way that’s low risk. Watching the characters go through different scenarios gives students a chance to start thinking about the impacts of different approaches without the pressure of having to speak from their own personal experience, or even speak at all—especially if they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing or seeming like they don’t know enough (at least to start with). The workshops were so engaging and interactive that most of the students came into the fold of the discussion—even some of the ones who might otherwise try to avoid participating.
Angela: I find that the experiential learning component gives students relatable oppor-tunities to reflect critically, creatively problem solve, and see the value of owning up to our mistakes and learning from them. It takes away the pressure of “perfectionism,” which often gets in the way of humility and learning.
As they observe, reflect upon, and discuss the scenarios in this interactive novel, they begin to develop active witnessing skills they can apply to real-life situations and learn how to safely intervene and respond to various forms of discrimination with appropriate words and actions.
A moment that really resonated was witnessing the debrief of a scene in which Jack’s unacknowledged anti-Indigenous sentiments surfaced in a heated conversation with his Indigenous friend Allie. One of the students said, “If Allie’s tone wasn’t so aggressive and defensive, maybe Jack would be more open to hearing her.” Another student countered that Allie had the right to feel frustrated and upset, and that dismissing her because of her tone or emotional response wasn’t fair or cool. Later, when “tone policing” popped up, the students made a connection to their earlier conversation and their own life experiences, with comments like, “Oh, that’s happened to me,” and “I actually tone police myself, but I didn’t have the language to name it.”
Amanda: The terms and vocabulary can be really validating for some of the students and really awakening for others.
Angela: I often say, “If we don’t name it, we can’t tame it.” The definitions and glossary are important aspects of the conceptual and social-emotional learning that the interactive novel supports.
Stills from the Crossroads resource, which is a “choose-your-own-adventure style visual novel.”
What was the impact of having youth facilitators leading the workshops?
Stacey: The peer-education aspect of the workshops really stood out for me. Seeing youth not only having difficult conversations, but also leading them, was really empowering.
Angela: It’s so true. There’s a unique dynamic with youth facilitators that puts students at ease and gets them more engaged. Students can see the potential in themselves when they see youth facilitating these courageous conversations. And when they witness equity-deserving peers openly and honestly sharing their lived experiences—of both being on the receiving end of various forms of discrimination, and the fumbles they have made in their own learning journeys—it mirrors how they can do the same.
There was a moment in a workshop when a youth facilitator shared her experiences of hearing the N-word at school. A student immediately commented on how frustratingly common it was for him to hear peers saying the N-word and justifying it by saying, “I’m just singing it in a song,” or “I’ve been given an N-word pass.” The student was surprised to see this ongoing occurrence addressed in a teacher resource. Both the surprise and relief he shared speaks to the importance of ensuring that curriculum reflects students’ lived and felt experiences, particularly those who are pushed to the margins in school communities. You know a resource is really landing for students when they opt to share their own stories and experiences.
How does this resource support teachers in the classroom?
Amanda: With the new curriculum and graduation requirements, teachers are always looking for resources, support, and professional development. Crossroads is all three.
I know it can be really intimidating talking about these topics—whether that’s about fear of pushback from parents or fear that we might not know enough, might “say the wrong thing,” or might not have the capacity to do the subject justice.
Angela: That gentle self-interrogation and examination of our own biases, assumptions, and prejudices is essential. It’s important to ask ourselves “What lenses are we bringing to the classroom each day? Are they responsive to students’ individual needs?”
Stacey: As educators, it’s part of our responsibility to keep learning, but it’s equally important to have the humility to recognize—and transparently admit—that we don’t know everything. We’re on a learning journey, too. Bring your students along and learn together, and Crossroads can be a part of that process.
Also, courageous conversations should not be echo chambers. I want students to feel comfortable to say, “I didn't know that,” or “What about this?” or “I disagree with you.” I want that banter, because that’s real life. Preparing them to have difficult conversations, and to express different opinions in ways that are honest and respectful are essential skills that they can take into the rest of their lives.
How does Crossroads connect to learning standards and core competencies?
Stacey: The themes Crossroads addresses align with the things we need to be talking about in classes like Social Justice 12 or any Indigenous-focused course.
Amanda: I agree, but it isn’t just courses that are explicitly about social justice or Indigenous education. Crossroads supports the language arts, socials studies, career, and some ADST curriculum too.
Angela: The Crossroads Teacher Guide, and youth-facilitated workshops, directly link to curricular learning standards, as well as the core competencies: communication; collaboration; creative and critical thinking; personal and social awareness and responsibility; and positive personal and cultural identity.
Stacey: As for assessment, this resource invites and encourages students to self-reflect. It dovetails with “new” self-reflective assessment frameworks, which aren’t really new at all. They are rooted in Indigenous pedagogy that brings forward holistic, community-focused ways of educating.
What can teachers expect from this resource and the workshops?
Amanda: Expect some introspection, lively conversations, and increased under-standing of how power and privilege play out in everyday life.
Stacey: The workshops planted lots of seeds, sparked “aha moments,” and enhanced and expanded knowledge and awareness. But it’s important to also understand that this work is vast and requires ongoing learning and unpacking beyond isolated workshops and courses. I couldn’t possibly teach students everything about social justice or Indigeneity in a four-month course.
Angela: This resource is an invitation to notice the feelings and emotions that may be elicited during such courageous conversations and to ask ourselves, “What might these emotions be inviting me to know (learn a new concept), do (change a behaviour or take action), and/or sit with (unpack and process before engaging deeper)?”
This life-long, life-wide life work begins with self. The more we put into it, the more students will get out of it. Approaching it with openness, humility, and a willingness to do the inner work required to strengthen our knowledge bases as educators will enable us to hold space for critical and courageous conversations around discrimination, oppression, equity, and social justice.
Amanda: We are all affected by centuries of colonial and white-supremacist conditioning, and we are all at different stages in our learning, unlearning, and relearning. This resource aims to aerate the compacted soil of dominant culture for new seeds to grow. Specifically, it seeds courageous conversations about racism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia—and builds the kinds of critical thinking, social, emotional, and somatic skills that will help guide us in the process. As educators, we scatter the seeds and trust that some flowers will take root.
Visit accesstomedia.org/programs/crossroads for more information.
Comments