Educating Dominique: The Power of Belief and Expectations

Remember the one student that changed the way you teach? The student who disrupted the teaching practices you were certain would work? The student who forced you to grapple with biases you might not have been aware of and made you a better teacher as a result?

In this emotional keynote address from our Winter 2018 Standards Institute, Lacey Robinson tells a story that demonstrates how beliefs and expectations shape us and, in turn, shape the lives of our students. She urged us to examine our practices to identify bias so we can make adaptive changes to better serve all of our students.

This keynote addresses:

• Inequities and disproportionalities in the ways we discipline students of color and the effect those practices have on student performance.
• The biases that innately live in all of us and how they are reinforced in and outside of education.
• The role of low academic expectations in creating self-fulfilling prophecies of low achievement in students, teachers, and school leaders.
• The truth about education and its role in preventing our students from languishing in “dark and narrow walls of ignorance.”

Lacey Robinson has more than 20 years in education as an educator, principal, and staff development specialist with a focus on literacy, equity, and school leadership. As UnboundEd’s chief engagement officer, Lacey supports the development and execution of strategy, content, product, and management of the engagement team.

Watch Educating Dominique

Ask Yourself

“Where does my belief gap begin, and how have my expectations expanded it?”

Find Additional Resources

Watch Lacey’s first keynote, “Educating Mitchell: A Tale of Undoing Bias and a Charge for Change,” as she and Kristen Ehlman discuss how our biases affect the way we perceive one another. When you are done, download the Bias Toolkit .