Marissa Wallace & Christopher Thomas
Introduction
Tangible Equity: A Guide for Leveraging Student Identity, Culture, and Power to Unlock Excellence in and Beyond the Classroom by Colin Seale is a handbook for equity that both preservice and in-service teachers should read to better their praxis. Any practitioner in the field would benefit from Seale’s redesign of the discussion on equity and equity practices within schools. Seale masterfully weaves a narrative of anecdotes and experiences that is both compelling and engaging to fully conceptualize a new dynamic to thinking about how educators approach equity in their classrooms. Seale paints a new picture of what equity should look like in our school system by taking recognizable and understood definitions of equity and then flipping them to discuss opportunity and achievement critically.
Tangible Equity is one of those texts that should become foundational in teacher preparation programs and all equity-focused professional development. Seale’s profound comprehension and fervor shine through as he skillfully intertwines his personal experiences with deeply entrenched systemic problems. Through this approach, he tackles genuine issues of opportunity within our system and highlights how even the most equity-minded teachers focused on equity can unintentionally perpetuate systems of inequality. Tangible Equity zeros in on the fact that option is related to race and location and challenges the premise that current equity practices do not do enough to address this. Seale ends his four-part discussion with step-by-step ways that classroom teachers can address opportunities in their classes. The real draw to this book is the concepts’ practicality and the practices addressed.
Summary
Seale organizes this text in a way that highlights the practicality of the ideas. Part one develops a new working definition of equity and reframes the conversation from equality to justice. Part two begins to develop the practicality of shifting perspectives to tangible equity. As readers transition to part three of the text, Seale imparts a specific priority that guides the section – this priority focuses on mindset shifts that encourage educators to be “disruptive on purpose and disruptive with purpose” (p.105). These mindset shifts are all classroom level and include pushing beyond relationships, the top 10% rule, moving from closing the achievement gap to shattering achievement ceilings, and low floor, high ceiling. In the final part of this literature, Seale connects specific designs and teaching strategies to the necessary mindset shifts discussed in part three. These four parts create a practical guidebook for educators who desire to address equity in their contexts but struggle to connect the theory to the practice.
Part One
Part one introduces the core concept of Tangible Equity, the movement beyond internal understandings of equity into a more practical, external one. Seale defines equity as “reducing the predictive power of demographics and zip codes to determine the success of young people inside and outside the classroom to zero (2022, p. 11).” Tangible equity moves beyond this definition and focuses on the individual student rather than entire groups. He asks us to reframe our current understanding of equity by challenging the terminology primarily used in professional development. Rejecting “implicit bias,” Seale acknowledges the actual impact bias plays in systematic oppression and how overt it has been throughout history (Seale, 2022). Why use implicit? Perhaps to make us feel better about this systematic issue, Seale challenges us to be true to what historic actions have indeed been, in his own words, “raw, in-your-face, explicit bias (2022, p. 5).”
Part one sets the stage for the remainder of the book by providing readers with a lay out of the historical oppression that has plagued our social system throughout the years. In this historical analysis, we are provided with the “why” for tangible equity. To enact simple change in our system, it is essential to recognize how rooted inequity truly is (Seale, 2022). However, Seale also acknowledges how important it is for those passionate about equity work to avoid extreme pessimism and extreme optimism. He urges us to be realists in our ability to enact change but not to let either stop us from pursuing equity (Seale, 2022).
Part Two
How can we leverage our power as practitioners to enact change within our contexts? This is the question part two grapples with. Seale offers a piece often missing from equity training in part two, tangible strategies for practitioners to make a change in their classrooms. Of the strategies discussed, identifying the six “P”s offers significant insight into how practitioners can work in their settings: Who has the Power? What are your Priorities? What information can you Probe? What Privilege can you leverage? What People do you need? What Problems do you need to overcome (Seale, 2022)? These six “P”s provide a practical guide for practitioners to utilize in the setting. Of these questions, Seale spends time asking the reader to acknowledge their power. He often states that teachers feel as though we are insignificant in our school setting to make changes truly, but he reminds us that we have explicit power in our classrooms and when interacting with students (Seale, 2022). Through these interactions, we can challenge explicit biases that our students face in their everyday lives.
Part Three
This part focuses on four mindset shifts necessary for achieving tangible equity. The first mindset shift unpacks relationships. Research is shared on the impact of learning depending on “liking” teachers and the types of student-teacher relationships that exist. Seale claims, “Relationships matter, but the learning relationship is what really matters” (p. 109). Seale provides a learning relationship triangle as a necessary shift. This triangle includes relationship to content, relationship to in-classroom community, and relationship to out-of-classroom community. In this triangle, Seale places students as thinkers at the center. When educators implement this triangle, they maximize student learning, and students experience high levels of cognitive demand.
The next three mindset shifts focus on changing perspective. First, Seale introduces “the top 10% rule,” which suggests that educators must ensure that all students have access to rigorous, grade-level content (Seale, 2022). Seale uncovers how this can be done using his definition of differentiation, which incorporates drama, funk[CT8] , controversy, and conflict, which he explains in depth in part four. This shift has educators planning and providing instruction with the top 10% in mind to give students “tools to lead, innovate, and break the things that must be broken” (Seale, 2022, p. 118). The next shift demands that educators go from closing the achievement gaps to shattering achievement ceilings. This builds on the top 10% rule and recommends that teachers should teach through the lens of a gifted and talented program. This section discusses how gifted programs are missing and eliminated from many schools and who can access them when they exist. Lastly, the concept of “low floor, high ceiling” suggests that, as educators, we need to engage our students in the most challenging levels of critical thinking and extend their learning beyond their current capacity (Seale, 2022). A core concept for this mindset shift includes finding the productive struggle.
Part Four
So many times, educators leave professional developments and meetings on equity-based initiatives, feeling inspired to do the work but needing more tools to apply the heady concepts presented. Their toolboxes remain empty, and the agendas get recycled or placed on a pile of papers, never to be seen again. Seale delivers on his word and ends his book with concrete examples of implementing instruction to make equity tangible inside your classroom. He provides a ten-step critical thinking checklist aligned to his “low floor, high ceiling” construct. These ten steps include finding the funk, identifying key concepts, vocabulary, and algorithms, anticipating likely mistakes, making personal connections, creating probing questions, scaffolding the challenge, building lively discussions, grappling with “good” mistakes in real time, and prioritizing the learning goal (Seale, 2022). Seale describes these steps with real-life examples and resources throughout this last section. This culmination effectively aligns with the other three parts and leaves readers with the tools necessary to transform their classrooms.
Reflection and Final Thoughts
The tone and style of Colin Seale’s writing make this a quick and engaging read. Seale infuses many inspiring one-liners that should be committed to memory. One of my favorites, “It can no longer be a privilege for students to be able to laugh and learn at the same time” (Seale, 2022, p. 163), is found at the end of his book in the section on mandating joy. The combination of explanations and explicit charts/models benefit the reader by providing palpable ways to apply his recommendations in natural life settings. Seale built trust in his writing by supporting his assertions with references and lived experiences.
With critical thinking as the backbone of much of Seale’s work, readers flex their critical thinking skills throughout the text. Much of the everyday discourse on equity and education, in general, is brought into question throughout this book. The stance and recommendations that Seale makes will push boundaries for many educators. We found ourselves reflecting and questioning our indoctrinated thinking throughout most of the book’s second half. Seale’s stance on differentiation and the process of “low floor, high ceiling” really opened our eyes to mistakes we have made in the past that added to the cycle of inequity within our own classroom walls. With that said, approach this book with a malleable mind. Don’t expect the generic equity-based lingo or discourse. Be prepared to be reflexive, uncomfortable, and stretched. In the wise words of Colin Seale, “This is heart work” (p. 161).
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References
Seale, C. (2022). Tangible equity : a guide for leveraging student identity, culture, and power to unlock excellence in and beyond the classroom. Routledge.
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