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Courageous Educator is a social justice educational consulting company with over 43 years of experience in the field of education.
Biography
Lavette Coney, owner of Courageous Educator, is an African American woman from Roxbury, MA, a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood of Boston created by redlining, “urban renewal,” and economic divesting. It is currently being gentrified by racially institutionalized practices. As the neighborhood association president, she recognizes how the trauma of Black people continues through living with hazardous contaminants, gentrification after decades of decay, and political disenfranchisement. She and the community activist who she is in solidarity with, are pushing against forces that are trying to push them out. Lavette has been a co-facilitator since 2016 and is the current leader of WPCR (White People Challenging Racism: From Talk to Action), a five week workshop that shares knowledge, skills and resources needed to stand up to racism. After years of anti-racist work in and outside of the field of TESOL, she recognizes that racism is a White problem and a burden on our society. Ms. Coney has given numerous presentations, workshops, and lectures and her writing can be found in a number of scholarly journals and books. Her chapter is featured in Social Justice in English Language Teaching, 2016 is on TESOL Press, an article about critical race pedagogy for TESOL Quarterly, and her most recent collaboration is featured in Paul Gorski’s edited book with Teachers College Press.
Personal Reflection
My cultural competency journey began as a high school student in a diverse pilot school on Newbury Street in Copley Square where I took anthropology courses at the University of Massachusetts. My eight years in Japan as a teacher and writer in various Japanese publications initiated her research on race and social justice. Since then, I have developed many workshops and presented at various conferences and conventions on the topic of teacher self-reflection and implicit bias. My presentation “The 21st Century Missing Link: Teacher Education and Professional Development” this summer’s KOLIEC (Kingswood Oxford Leadership Institute for Educators of Color) and my keynote presentation at the Fayerweather School in Cambridge were well received. My research on teacher self-reflection and implicit bias are featured in an anthology on social justice entitled, Social Justice in English Language Teaching.
I am an ardent educator who has extensive and lived experience in the world of education as a person of Color. A part of my life has been given to the independent/private school world since 2001 at The Fessenden School of West Newton, MA where I continue to serve as the ELL Co-Chair, teach English and U. S. history, and initiated an affinity group for boys of African descent and an ethnic and gender-based focus group for upper schoolboys. I also spent those years lecturing and presenting for the Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE), the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and other organizations in various workshops and conferences on diversity and inclusion for students and teachers. Prior to joining the Fessenden community, I taught at various educational institutions, nationally and internationally.
I am always interested in opportunities to provide teacher education around the topics of Whiteness, stereotype threat, and aversive racism. I believe it is an important part of teacher education to reflect on what the teacher personally brings to the students' learning environment by doing the internal work necessary to bring about social justice and equity.
"Black women's bodies, intellectual property, expertise and emotional capital have always been seen as commodities to be bought and sold without appropriate or equitable compensation." Elizabeth Leiba
The more I do this work in supporting and collaborating with those who seek my advice, I unapologetically require a means of recognizing my intellectual capital, time, lived experiences, and energy.
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