How to Do A Mirrors and Windows Review

What is a Mirrors and Windows review?

A Mirrors and Windows review involves one or more students, parents, or educators reviewing a classroom library or curriculum, ensuring that the instructional materials are age appropriate and that diverse stories are celebrated. The review offers the teacher both appreciation and recommendations. 

A successful Mirrors and Windows review will have three outcomes:

• Every student will see books that reflect them and their family, as in a mirror, and every student will see books that give them a window into the lives of people different from themselves. 
• Every parent or guardian will know that their child is seen and respected in the classroom library or curriculum.
• Teachers will have a shield against harassment in the form of book bans and censorship requests because their curriculum or library has already been reviewed and approved by a group of parents. 

Steps in the Mirrors and Windows review

There are four steps in a Mirrors and Windows review: Planning, Review, Appreciations and Recommendations, and Follow-up. 

This can be very simple: A student taking a class can email their teacher about what they like in the curriculum and what they think is missing, meet with the teacher to offer recommendations for particular books to add, and then follow up with the teacher a few weeks later. 

For those interested in a larger scale review of an entire classroom, grade level, school, or district, we provide some additional guidance on each step.

1. Planning

Who’s doing the review? Students, parents, educators? One, a few, or a whole group like a committee of the PTO or PTA? For a large scale review, the more different perspectives are involved in the process, the more nuanced your review can be. Note: to have legitimate access to information about the curriculum, at least one person should be a student, legal guardian, or educator in that classroom.

What are you reviewing? Are you looking at one class, one classroom, one grade level, or an entire school? Which subject areas? Are you reviewing the curriculum (materials that are taught to students) or the classroom library (materials that are available to students), or both? There is no one right answer here; it depends upon your goals and your volunteers’ capacity. (More information on the curriculum vs library distinction can be found below.)

What mirrors and windows are you looking for? We recommend reviewing a curriculum or library for representation of LGBTQ+ people and people of color, at a minimum, as these are the books that are most frequently banned and censored. We also recommend looking at different racial, cultural and ethnic identities rather than treating ‘people of color’ as a monolithic group. Books about non-Christian faiths and books that explore learning differences and neurodiversity are also often under-represented. You can create your own criteria, or use an existing classroom library questionnaire. Having clear, shared criteria from the start will help your review team stay focused on your common goals.

Meet with the teacher. Mirrors and Windows works best when it is relationship-based, and a decade of book bans and teacher harassment has made many educators wary about parental reviews. Spend the time on strengthening relationships! Sit down and talk with every teacher whose curriculum or library is being reviewed. If you are reviewing an entire school or grade level, meet with the principal first. Explain the review process you have planned, and how it will benefit students, families, and educators alike. Ask the teacher for their own assessment of their classroom library or curriculum: are they aware of areas that need strengthening, and would they like your recommendations? If reviewing the curriculum, be sure to ask how much control the teacher has over those materials (sometimes they are assigned a curriculum to teach rather than designing their own). Also, be sure to ask how you can make the process as much of a help and as little a burden to the teacher as possible.

2. Review

Carry out the review of the library or curriculum that you have planned. Remember that while book bans focus on individual titles, a Mirrors and Windows review looks at the materials in the library or curriculum taken as a whole: whose stories are told, and whose stories are silenced? Whose perspectives are over-represented, and whose perspectives are overlooked?

Diversity cannot be reduced to a checkbox. While it may be helpful to use lists or spreadsheets to catalog and categorize learning materials on the way to developing your recommendations, it is generally counterproductive to turn the review into a system of quotas and percentages. This type of ‘checkbox diversity’ reduces people to a single label and erases our full and complicated humanity. 

Keep the focus on ‘mirrors and windows.’ Instead of checking boxes, look at the big picture. You can do this by considering groups of students (particularly groups that have been historically marginalized, such as ‘LGBTQ+ students’ or ‘students of color’) and asking, where does this group see themselves mirrored in the curriculum? Because there are many different LGBTQ+ identities and many different racial and cultural identities included in ‘students of color’, there should also be a wide variety of ‘mirrors and windows’ represented. You can also ‘zoom in’ on one hypothetical student in all their identities (Black, Muslim, bisexual, working class, divorced parents… Ojibwe, two-spirit, dyslexic, raised by grandmother…etc.) and be curious about the mirrors they might find. 

Different subject areas may require different types of review. Language arts and history/social studies are the easiest subjects to review for diverse representations, but any subject area can be explored. See below for more suggestions.

Over-representation, under-representation, mis-representation, and invisibility are all indicators of bias. Both over-representation and under-representation of certain identities in a curriculum or library can have the effect of giving students a distorted perception of their place in the world. Mis-representation perpetuates stereotypes, assumptions, and bias. The total lack of representation can leave students feeling like they don’t matter or don’t belong at school. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether the bias is deliberate or unintentional, it simply matters that it gets addressed. 

Compile your research and develop your assessment. When all the volunteers have completed their reviews, compile their findings and prepare your assessment. Don’t shy away from disagreements and differing opinions– explore them instead, and use them to develop a more robust set of recommendations.

3. Application and Recommendations

When the review is complete, share your assessment with the teacher. Be sure to include both appreciations and recommendations. 

Appreciations recognize the strengths of the curriculum or the classroom library as it is now. Celebrate the teachers who have held onto diverse representations in the face of political pressure. Since every curriculum and library includes some mirrors and windows, every teacher has some strengths to recognize and build upon. Children don’t respond or learn well when all they get is criticism; the same is true for adults. 

Recommendations highlight the areas where growth is needed. If you find areas for improvement, we encourage you to make specific recommendations for age-appropriate books and materials that the teacher might add. You can also share links to online guides to age-appropriate books on various topics so the teacher can make their own selections (see our resource guide for more information). Remember that strong working relationships are essential for a healthy classroom, so focus on the learning materials, and avoid labels and judgments of the teacher as a person. 

Meet with the teacher again to discuss your appreciations and recommendations and explore next steps. The three most important questions for this conversation are: To what degree is the teacher willing to make changes? What kind of support do they need for those changes to happen? How much are those changes within the teacher’s control? The answers to these questions will determine what follow-up will be most useful. 

4. Follow Up

Support the teacher, as needed, in following your recommendations. This might include actually providing some copies of the books (since few schools have much of a book budget any more). You may also provide the teacher with a written certification that the materials in their classroom library or curriculum have been reviewed, approved, and requested by parents, which can help shield them against complaints and book bans. 

Teacher training or education may be useful, since diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training has been so severely limited, and most teachers have never gotten training on working with gender diverse or racially diverse students. Even if DEI trainings aren’t permitted by the school, there’s nothing to keep a teacher from learning from parents and families. Teachers can’t teach what they don’t know.

Advocate with the principal, superintendent, or school board. This may be needed so the teacher doesn’t get reprimanded for including more LGBTQ+ or people of color stories and authors. This may also be necessary when the curriculum isn’t designed by the teacher, but chosen by the school. Target your change efforts at the level where changes can be made!

Seek additional resources. Some organizations provide grants or free books to schools; others are available to support advocacy for freedom of expression and the freedom to read. The PTO or PTA may organize a book drive or fundraiser. You could seek donations from local bookstores or form a partnership with the local library system. Our resource guide contains a number of links to resources, but your local community is probably your first and best resource!

Filing a complaint is a last resort. In cases where a teacher is hostile or resistant to a more diverse curriculum, it may be necessary to meet with the principal or to file a complaint. In cases where the teacher doesn’t control the curriculum, the complaint may need to be filed against the school, the principal, or the superintendent. If internal complaints are not successful, there are other options available, including public pressure campaigns, media or social media campaigns, or even a lawsuit. 

Beyond the Basics

Curriculum vs. Library: What’s the difference?

Materials in the curriculum are TAUGHT to students. Materials in the library are AVAILABLE to students. The distinction between these is important, both practically and legally. 

Curriculum Review: There is simply not enough time, in any class, to teach everything about a topic. The choices about what to prioritize are made at several levels. First, states set high-level guidance called educational standards. Then, school districts provide additional guidance and review available resources. Schools or grade levels may provide their own additional guides or requirements. Finally, within all of those constraints, the teacher decides what learning materials will be part of their class curriculum. In some cases, the school purchases a curriculum from an outside source to ensure continuity for all students; in these cases, the teacher has little control over the curriculum. In other cases, the teacher may have more flexibility. As you review a curriculum, it’s important to know the people and forces that are shaping it.

Curriculum materials are subject to a stronger level of review and oversight, because these are the materials that are being presented to students as true, relevant, and important. Ideological bias in the curriculum is a concern because that bias is actively being taught to students as part of their required instruction.

When reviewing and making recommendations, keep the teachers’ constraints in mind. If you see a lack of representation of certain people or topics, get curious: Is that the teacher’s choice, or is that imposed on them by the school, the district, or the state? (Your change strategy will have to be targeted at the appropriate level to be effective.)

Library material review: Since library materials are only available to students, not taught to them, there is a lighter level of review and oversight. The default position is that books should be included, unless there is a reason to exclude them. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that books cannot be removed from a school library for ideological reasons or because decision-makers dislike the ideas being presented, but only if the books are “pervasively vulgar” or “educationally unsuitable” for students of a certain age. Attorneys for right-wing groups are very aware of the language of these court rulings, which is why even very innocent children’s books with LGBTQ+ characters are nearly always labeled as ‘pornography’ and ‘age inappropriate’ by right wing groups trying to ban them.

For more information on relevant laws and legal precedents, visit our Mirrors and Windows Know Your Rights page.

Recommendations for Reviewing Different Educational Subjects

It’s easiest to review diversity of representation in language arts, social studies, or history classes, and you may choose to focus your Mirrors and Windows review in that way. Mirrors and Windows can apply to any subject area, however, and the points below may help guide your review.

Language arts / Literature 

• Review the curriculum for diverse representation in authors, lead characters, content, and themes.
• Are the representations accurate or do they perpetuate myths and stereotypes?
• Are the representations varied or monotone? (ie, all the books featuring Indigenous people are about pre-colonial times; all the books with Black characters are about the Civil Rights Movement, etc.)
• Taken as a whole, do the representations of people in the curriculum present certain groups of people as ‘normal,’ ‘proper’, or ‘superior’, and other groups of people as ‘other’, as ‘inferior’, or simply as invisible?

Social Studies / History / Civics

• What cultures are explored in social studies classes? Which cultures are presented as ‘normal’ and which are ‘other’ or ‘exotic’? 
• What faiths or religions are explored in social studies classes? Which are presented as ‘normal’ and which are presented as ‘other’? 
• Are students simply learning about world religions, or does the curriculum cross the line into proselytizing or evangelizing for one faith or denomination?
• What historical events–local, national, and global–are included in the curriculum? What historical events are glossed over or ignored entirely?
• Whose perspective(s) on history are shared? The best practice is to teach multiple perspectives on history, which encourages students to develop critical thinking skills and form their own opinions. For example: The westward expansion of the American colonies, for a white settler, was ‘manifest destiny;’ for a Lakota elder, it was an invasion from the east. There is no neutral perspective on history; the best we can do is to offer multiple perspectives and be transparent about those choices. 

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)

• Science and mathematics may exist outside the realm of human social constructs like race and gender, but the people who do science and math do not. What representations of scientists and mathematicians are offered? Can students of every race, gender, and other identity see themselves as scientists, engineers, or mathematicians? 
• Look at word problems, case studies, and descriptions of experiments. Do the names used suggest a range of cultural identities? Are the ‘real life’ examples relatable to your students’ class and cultural experiences?
• How is the history of science or mathematics taught, and who is featured? A curriculum that only features ‘great European men’ misses the fact that there have been scientific and mathematical advances from every culture in every historical era. 

Music and the arts

• What artists and musicians are featured in the curriculum? Which are left out?
• What artistic, musical and cultural movements are explored, and which are left out?
• What styles of music and art are featured, and how much time is spent on each? What is left out entirely?
• Are all students encouraged to see themselves as artists and musicians, and is each student given an opportunity to explore their own interests, gifts and talents?

Special note: Health education and sex education

Health education presents a special opportunity for students to advocate for an improved curriculum. Adults who are supportive of LGBTQ+ youth are often labeled as ‘groomers’ by censorship groups, which makes it more difficult for adults to advocate for inclusive health and sex education. 

Students, however, don’t face the same challenge, and they are also the best available experts on what students need to know. Many youth-serving organizations have inclusive health education materials available online, and a group of students can use these to advocate for an in-school health curriculum that recognizes and celebrates all types of body, all genders and all sexual orientations.