Making Space: Creating a Positive School Climate for Students with Marginalized Identities
2023–2024 ECP Distinguished Speaker Series
Making Space: Creating a Positive School Climate for Students with Marginalized Identities
Thursday, November 16, 2023  |  1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
McGill Education Building, 3700 McTavish, Learning Commons 1st Floor
This talk will focus on the impact of school climate on student outcomes, particularly for students with marginalized identities, and discuss how to engage in culturally relevant and affirming practices. The spaces that students traverse are integral to their identities, who they are, and who they might become (Dimitriadis, 2001).
To create an educational environment equipped to support the overlapping but also unique needs of students with minorities and marginalized identities, educators must be committed to understanding themselves as well as their students both inside and outside of the classroom.
This discussion will focus on steps to advance equity and improve school climate using multi-tiered framework.
Dr. Tamika La Salle-Finley
Associate Professor at Georgia State University
Director of the Center of Research on School Climate
Dr. LaSalle-Finley is an associate professor Georgia State University and the Director of the Center of Research on School Climate. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of School & Educational Psychology.
Dr. LaSalle-Finley’s research focuses on the intersection of cultural factors and student perceptions of school climate and interventions and supports to improve educational outcomes for students with marginalized identities. She recently published the edited book, Creating an Inclusive School Climate: A School Psychology Model for Supporting Marginalized Students.
