Becoming a Proactive Anti-Racist School: Building Racial Literacy for Meaningful Change

Teachers, school leaders, and wellbeing staff across primary and secondary settings

This webinar invites educators and school leaders to move beyond symbolic gestures of “diversity” or “harmony” toward a sustained, reflective practice of anti-racism. It challenges participants to recognise how racism manifests not only through overt acts but also through everyday school structures, language, and habits of thought that often go unnoticed.

Dr Yassir Morsi introduces the concept of racial literacy in schools, which is the ability to identify, interpret, and respond to the racial dynamics shaping classrooms and school cultures. Participants will examine how racism can appear in well-meaning policies that reproduce exclusion, in the dismissal of alternative perspectives and knowledges, in microaggressions that pass unacknowledged, and in colourblind approaches that erase student experiences.

The webinar also explores what it means to be an anti-racist educator, moving beyond interpersonal understandings of racism to consider how systems, curriculum, and classroom practices may unintentionally perpetuate inequality. It encourages educators to create space for students to share their experiences safely, to teach honestly about the legacies of colonialism, and to prioritise care, respect, and dignity through restorative rather than punitive approaches.

By developing racial literacy, participants will gain both the language and confidence to address racism proactively, question how curriculum and policy shape student belonging, and contribute to a school culture that values justice over harmony.

Dr Yassir Morsi is an author,​​​​ provisional psychologist and political theorist whose work bridges psychology, philosophy, and postcolonial thought. He lectures in Aboriginal Studies at La Trobe University and works as a school counsellor at a Secondary school in Melbourne. His research explores how power, race, and religion shape emotional life, combining political theory with clinical insight in what he calls Politics as Therapy.

Keep up the fantastic PD opportunities! Very  professional and well-researched workshops and conferences.

I love the fantastic variety of workshops and conferences on offer. Always look forward to Critical Agendas PD’s.

The best P.D. I have attended in living memory!” I loved every minute of this engaging, interesting and informative PD. And I have been teaching for 40+ years!

Inspirational Speakers –  the knowledge gained will be so beneficial in my classrooms

Just a big Thank you for giving us the opportunity to attend the Critical Agenda Workshop yesterday.  David presented a great program, lots of handy strategies and he was very engaging and supportive. Highly recommended.  I was very happy we did not have to do any Role play’s.

Loved the honesty in the sharing of information and strategies

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Passionate &  Authentic Speakers – Mea