Identity Affirming Classrooms Identity Affirming Classrooms
Dr. EBR
Erica Buchanan-Rivera is an educator, researcher, momma, wife, and strong advocate for identity affirming spaces. She has served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal of an international magnet school, diversity trainer, director of curriculum, adjunct professor, and chief equity officer. It is her life’s mission to ensure that schools reflect inclusive and brave spaces that value diversity.
“Students cannot afford to patiently wait for our good intentions to come to fruition in education environments. The work of improving systems and eliminating disparities requires educators to commit to just actions that reflect the voices of youth and their humanity.”
Dr. Val Brown
Principal Academic Officer at the Center for Antiracist Education
“In Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity, Dr. Erica Buchanan-Rivera draws on personal stories and student voices to bring to life what it means to learn in an environment that affirms one’s identity. This accessible text offers a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation about how to provide an equitable education to all students.”
Dr. Rosa Perez-Isiah
Director, Author, and Equity Advocate
“As a parent of color and educational leader for Equity, I believe that our classrooms, all classrooms, should be identity affirming spaces where every student is nurtured, validated, and affirmed. Dr. Buchanan-Rivera skillfully provides the reader with the knowledge and strategies that will create the spaces that “honor the humanity” of our children while growing our own awareness and consciousness.”
Cornelius Minor
Educator & author of We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to be Who our Students Need Us to Be
“For educators who are trying to live out their commitment to equitable classrooms and schools, Dr. Buchanan-Rivera is the guiding voice that our movement needs. Here, she starts with a question, and ends with a love letter. What lives between those pages is the insight, encouragement, and love that will help us to forge a nation of powerful classrooms.”