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Navigating Staff Cultural Divides with Markus Townsend, Director of Culture at Sela PCS
Culture is important and it's complicated. Our identities and lived experiences shape who we are, but these differences can also create divides when they go unexamined. And for educators, there often isn't the time, space, or communication skills necessary to meaningfully address cultural divides when they arise during the school day.
For this, we spoke with Markus Townsend, the Director of Culture and Students at Sela Public Charter School in Washington, DC. Sela is a Hebrew dual-language elementary school in Northeast DC. Many of their staff members come to teach from Israel, and many others are native-born Washingtonians, and this creates a truly unique cultural dynamic.
EmpowerEd worked with Sela from 2021 to 2023 to help them address their cultural divides. After a little trial and error, we finally landed on an educator-led task force model. These working groups were organized around three central themes we kept hearing about from staff (the Hebrew/English divide, staff-led professional development, and creating a culture of professional accountability). They met regularly for small group discussion, and began leading professional development sessions for their colleagues. These groups uplifted staff voice and empowered educators to have difficult and inspiring conversations about culture, race, and identity at their school.
We share more about our work in this conversation and also discuss:
- The benefits of and potential conflicts that arise in a school that is so devoted to exploring culture.
- How the current geo-political dynamics since October 7th have affected their staff.
- Why human-centric leadership is so important to help staff members grow and heal during challenging moments.
- And much more.
We highly recommend this podcast to everyone, but especially hope school leaders can listen and reflect on how to meaningfully address staff cultural divides and help promote a culture of open diversity in their schools.
As always, we want to hear from you! If you enjoyed today's episode please rate us five stars and let us know your feedback. Thank you for listening and enjoy the show!
Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]
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By EmpowerEdCulture is important and it's complicated. Our identities and lived experiences shape who we are, but these differences can also create divides when they go unexamined. And for educators, there often isn't the time, space, or communication skills necessary to meaningfully address cultural divides when they arise during the school day.
For this, we spoke with Markus Townsend, the Director of Culture and Students at Sela Public Charter School in Washington, DC. Sela is a Hebrew dual-language elementary school in Northeast DC. Many of their staff members come to teach from Israel, and many others are native-born Washingtonians, and this creates a truly unique cultural dynamic.
EmpowerEd worked with Sela from 2021 to 2023 to help them address their cultural divides. After a little trial and error, we finally landed on an educator-led task force model. These working groups were organized around three central themes we kept hearing about from staff (the Hebrew/English divide, staff-led professional development, and creating a culture of professional accountability). They met regularly for small group discussion, and began leading professional development sessions for their colleagues. These groups uplifted staff voice and empowered educators to have difficult and inspiring conversations about culture, race, and identity at their school.
We share more about our work in this conversation and also discuss:
- The benefits of and potential conflicts that arise in a school that is so devoted to exploring culture.
- How the current geo-political dynamics since October 7th have affected their staff.
- Why human-centric leadership is so important to help staff members grow and heal during challenging moments.
- And much more.
We highly recommend this podcast to everyone, but especially hope school leaders can listen and reflect on how to meaningfully address staff cultural divides and help promote a culture of open diversity in their schools.
As always, we want to hear from you! If you enjoyed today's episode please rate us five stars and let us know your feedback. Thank you for listening and enjoy the show!
Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]