Justin Barney (Señor Barney as he is known to his students) has been an educator for 14 years and a member of Team DPS for 4 years. In addition to teaching seventh-grade Spanish, he serves as a partner on Denver Green School Northfield’s partnership-leadership team and was a founding faculty member of the school. From Missouri, Arizona, Central Mexico and Costa Rica, Justin credits his wife Brittany (who is also a DPS educator) for encouraging him to join Team DPS, where he now brings his travel experiences to the classroom and gets his students excited to explore the world and its different cultures through language.

“Through the practice of another language, students can think about what exists outside of their own bubble. With language class and especially with Spanish, I just really love shining a light on other cultures to expand students’ minds and get them thinking more globally,” Justin said.

While Justin is a Spanish teacher first, he also takes his role as a social-justice advocate seriously knowing that his students look up to him as a role model.

“Teacher as activist is something I’m becoming more comfortable with because DPS holds a space for us to talk about colonization, white supremacy and how these things still exist in our institutions today. For example, I was just teaching virtually and we gave students space to reflect on the Derek Chauvin verdict. We were able to talk about it openly.”

Understanding the heaviness of these conversations and the importance of guiding students through them, Señor Barney leans on resources like Multilingual Education (MLE) professional development -- led by Connie Navarro and Diana Noonan -- and the World Language Team. He and a group of other teacher leaders across DPS also meet once a month to talk about how to bring innovation into the classroom to get students thinking critically.

“Right now we’re going through this book called ‘Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice.’ [In the group] we talk about how to bring this into our classrooms. Like for example, how do we talk about exploitation through the lens of Spanish, French or Mandarin -- and how to draw the bridge from classroom to action.”

Justin shared that he is grateful to work at DPS because he feels social justice has become part of DPS’ identity. He feels empowered knowing that he can bring topics of social justice into his classroom that not only teach his kids valuable concepts, but also encourage them to continue applying language and explore principles of equity that go beyond language.

As we continue to focus on social justice and equity in DPS, Justin calls on Team DPS to elevate more Black and Brown voices in their work.

“We need to teach kids what equity really is, and that everybody at the table has an equal voice. DPS has the opportunity to be education leaders [in this space] not only in the state of Colorado, but nationally,” he said. “I feel like the work we’re doing here is important.”

To learn more about Justin, check out his April Honoree feature in Honored.