Category: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

New Year? 4 “Essentials” We Need for Education

New Year? 4 “Essentials” We Need for Education

On the last day of 2020, I am struggling to meet my goal of publishing my 200th blog post. I have 77 partial posts in the queue but it has been so hard to string my thoughts together during this year that it felt impossible to complete any one of them.  There are just so many things that I feel befuddled by and have been contemplating and processing. I know that I am not alone. We all have had to put one foot in front of the other, but wondering if we are going in the right direction with so much uncertainty. 

In the past month, here in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the courts have been arguing if education is an “essential service”, as people seek to define what education is and get approval for reopening schools. Since March of 2020, schools have been closed in our area, and to get a ruling on this is an important precedent. 

That is an interesting topic to debate: is school an “essential service” to our society? And if it is, to whom? To businesses? To our governments? To the families? To the students themselves? 

Are schools factories? Do we mean to provide nationalistic pride and values? Or are we glorified baby sitters? Or instead, are we levers and fulcrums to opening up an individual’s potential and creativity? 

What IS our “essential service”? 

My 11-year old daughter told me it is to “learn” (not to “teach”, interestingly) and I think that no matter the stakeholder, they might agree with her. But to learn WHAT (content, skills, values) is exactly where definitions would diverge and split into self-interests. 

Throughout this year, I have had 4 concepts that I have been grappling with, going right into the heart of this idea about “essential service”. 

Power and Influence

I cannot speak for every country, but it is widely accepted that the purpose of public education in America was to spread Christianity and its values. Later “progressives” recognized that education was the key to democracy and hence “standards” were created in order to provide a fairly educated mass of citizens in order to make informed decisions. However, content knowledge was curated by those in power, and morals reflected those interests so that the narrative continued to benefit those of influence. It has only really been until Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that we are opening up to new conversations around how information is shared and differing perspectives have been censored. 

White supremacy isn’t just a bunch of white-hooded men spewing hate speech, it has been a prerogative of so many power dynamics today and has hurt so many people; from the emotionally wounded parents of the Sandy Hook mass shooting massacre (because we value guns over our children) to the Chinese factory workers who live under polluted skies in order to manufacture consumer goods for the western economies. To deny that this willful greed isn’t at the heart of all this violence and environmental degradation is to deny reality itself. Thus, as educators, we cannot be merely sympathetic but actively engaged in raising our sociopolitical consciousness in order to involve our students in lively discussions about why things are the way they are and encourage students to see themselves as agents of social change and transformation. 

I believe that post-pandemic, providing learning experiences that challenge students to question structures, beliefs, and norms of power and influence is an “essential service”, in order for the history of inequity and oppression to not become our global future. 

Standards

You can’t expect standards from over 20 years ago to remain relevant and meaningful for today. We have to really be looking carefully at our national standards and be asking bigger questions. Even the Common Core standards are a decade old–think about how much has changed in this year alone!–isn’t it time to re-examine the whole concept of a “standard” and if we are trying to use these “standards” to create “widgets” or compassionate humans? I’ve written before about the Post Pandemic: “New Normals” Worth Developing and looking at what we want students to achieve at certain ages needs to go beyond simple knowledge and skills. Benchmarks need to include our hearts along with our heads ad hands.

Recently I heard Jan Mills speak at the IB Global Conference about the initiative in the PYP to reform our scope and sequence documents. As I leaned in to listen, I felt a spark of energy for this project, not only because it called attention that curriculum documents need a constant revisiting but also because she spoke about learning progressions based on the Approaches to Learning (Atls), in which knowledge alone no longer takes the center stage. 

In my mind, this is an important transition into not just focusing on what students know and can do, but to really grasp what it means to be thinking and communicating through the lens of a mathematician or writer or historian, or musician. I think this could be an exciting change in how learning happens in our classrooms.

I believe that post-pandemic, providing an expanded definition of “standards” is an “essential service”, in order for students to grow into creative thinkers and compassionate humans. 

Truth (and Media)

There was a time in which we believed that facts were facts. Information was reported and information could also be censored. However, now we talk about “disinformation”. Where did this concept come from?

During all my binge-watching on Netflix, I came across The Social Dilemma. If you haven’t seen it, you really should. In my mind, it is a call to arms to us educators. 

I have never before felt so adamant about ensuring that our students can actually understand what is real and not real information. Moreover, they have to understand the algorithms that create these personalized realities and the echo chambers that exist within them. Students need to recognize when they have limited their access to alternative viewpoints and sources of information.

I believe that post-pandemic, providing authentic and relevant digital literacy is an “essential service” in order for our digital natives to become discriminating consumers and competent with discerning information.

Technology

There is really so much I want to say about this. Over the course of my years, I have grown weary of reading books about how technology is rotting our intellect and dissipating our attention. Technology is not at fault, just like a car cannot be blamed for more accidents just because it replaced the horse and buggy. It’s always been the misuse of something, not the thing itself, that is the culprit. This is the year in which we have finally learned how to embrace it as a necessity and begin to appreciate that not all screen time can be considered equal. 

This is completely accurate when it has come to online and distance learning. Teachers who attempted to replicate their traditional methods realized how ineffective it was with boredom and student disengagement becoming so glaringly obvious, not to mention the worry of low student achievement and critical parents providing their opinions.

So any teacher who still debates whether technology should be infused into our lessons and is recalcitrant to use blended learning structures in this classroom after this pandemic, cannot remain in education. Pining for the “good ole days” of traditional teaching would be an absolute affront to all the professional development that has transpired over the last year. Moreover, we have to improve our methodology and effectiveness in order to release control of learning to our students.

I believe that post-pandemic, improving our use of technology in instruction is an “essential service”, in order to democratize our classrooms and engage digital natives at higher levels of learning. 

So, there you have it–my 4 “essentials” that I think we need to change. Although I know that my list is actually longer and will continue to grow, as I move into 2021, I wonder if this will truly be a “new year” for us in education. I pray that it’s not just another go at the ideas and approaches to learning pre-pandemic (likely circa 2000). If we, as educators, are a genuine “essential service” to our society, then let’s embrace innovation and be committed to developing the personal best, not only from our students but of our humanity. 

Bias, Prejudice, and Racism–Oh My! 2 Ways to Uncover Blind Spots in Curriculum

Bias, Prejudice, and Racism–Oh My! 2 Ways to Uncover Blind Spots in Curriculum

Every vertebrate on this planet has a blind spot. There is a break in our visual field when the optic nerves converge and exit the eye to connect into the brain. In that tiny area, there are no light-sensitive cells and thus our ability to perceive something is diminished. Would you like to test this? blind spot test.jpeg

Now wouldn’t it be so lovely if all of our blind spots were that obvious to demonstrate and discover?! However, most of us have biases and prejudice that are concealed and seemingly obscured by the busyness of our lives. We are rarely conscious of them unless someone who is wise to it and courageous enough to bring it to our attention. Although there are tests that can reveal our implicit bias, we have to take action on it if we are sincerely keen to be a better human being.

“Wait?–a better human being?! Why would I want to do that?”

Well, why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Did you know that when we are working at the highest levels of compassion, altruism, and kindness, our brain sends out signals that create shots of happy chemicals like serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine that bath our bodies (and mind) to generate well-being? So doing good is good for us. That’s why it feels so wonderful when we appeal to the better angels of our nature.  Thus when we take action to overcome racism, poverty, and injustice, it’s not just for the benefit of others, but it also has a personal physical benefit for ourselves. And, what may become a selfish motivation becomes addictive over time, with a positive feedback loop created by these neurochemicals.

bias vs principle.jpegOh and it should not just be us, the adults in the room, but we have to inspire the students in our class to do the same. If we are to do real justice to addressing societal issues then, first of all, we need to draw awareness to the “implicit” biases that serve to favor “white people” against Blacks and other people of color.  Sustainable action can only be possible when we shine a light on understanding and overcoming those biases. When we become conscious, a pathway becomes possible to shift energy away from frustrating and hurtful debates over who is or isn’t “a racist”; I think all of us can agree that this name-calling isn’t helpful in directing our efforts toward the problems we are actually trying to solve by confronting racism.

We can no longer go about pretending we do not see race, since it is a construct deeply embedded into the social conscious of (American) society. We assign it to our children at birth. We check race boxes on our applications. We select it on our identifications. We include it in our educational text and use it to tell the story of our country. More important, we recognize that disparities in education, economics, criminal justice and health exist across racial lines. Therefore, pretending we don’t see race and that racism doesn’t exist is not only socially immature; it is also irresponsible and dangerous—it ends up placing blame for racial disparities on those being marginalized rather than tracing those disparities back to a long history of oppression based on color.

Rethinking Racism, by Focus Hope

The term of Culturally Responsive Teaching has started to get attention in educator circles. So what does it mean?

In a nutshell, it describes the ways in which schools and educators recognize, respond to, and celebrate the fundamental cultures within classrooms, as well as providing equity for students from all cultures to gain access to the curriculum. It is divided into three functional dimensions: the institutional dimension, the personal dimension, and the instructional dimension.

Even though there are distinctions between them, when you think about the curriculum, you can see how all of these dimensions are connected. So what makes up our curriculum?….. The units we teach, the books and resources we use, and the ways we develop the culture of learning in our classrooms. To that end, there are  2 main areas, in my opinion, in which culture is transmitted in our school and “blind-spots” begin to develop.

#1-Supporting “The White Man’s Burden” of Curriculum Topics

Most of us have probably not read the poem by Rudyard Kipling which encouraged the Western expansion of the colonial reach of its culture to other parts of the world. It was a “burden” that white people had to bear, to civilize other non-white people, whether they be in the far places of other parts of the world, or to indoctrinate native and immigrant people into their way of living. Of course, this sentiment was prevalent long before the poet’s plea for colonial imperialism, with its basis from the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries displacing the natives’ religion,  proposing that the “white race” is morally obligated to rule the “non-white” peoples and to encourage their progress (economic, social, and cultural) through domination.

Well, many of us are not marching into neighborhoods and demanding that different cultures change and adapt a “white man’s” habits and perspectives, it’s hard to deny that there is definitely a prevalence of “whiteness” in our curriculum, whether we acknowledge it or not. We teach about the “Koren War” or “Vietnam War” when, in Korea and Vietnam, they call those wars the “American War”, which is much closer to the truth of who wanted to make the war in the first place. If we were to look at our educational standards, the depiction of history in either neutral or positive light of this “white man’s burden” perspective, instead of drawing to mind the misconceptions and malice actions that “white” people did; and furthermore, how they strained to find rationale for the atrocities they engaged in.

More often than we like to admit, very little attention is given to the history or culture of “minority groups”–the very fact that people call “non-white” people “minorities” is a hidden bias lurking in our language. Why are they called “minorities” to begin with? Is it due to population size? Well, that’s a myth that needs to be challenged because more minorities are the new majority. But in terms of which culture is favored and appreciated in our world, you’ll hardly find these “minorities” painted positively. More often than not, they are described as being less intelligent and lazy.

Needless to say, imbuing our curriculum with culturally responsive teaching practices provides not a one-off learning experience for global holidays like Chinese New Year and Martin Luther King Jr Day but opportunities to go deeper with concepts by having ongoing multicultural activities within the classroom setting in order to increase a natural awareness of cultural history, values, and contributions. When you think about cases like Henrico High School‘s Black History Month assembly that went wrong, it’s not surprising because those students and that community had never had to confront other perspectives of history in their schooling and thus got annoyed by the “white guilt” they felt as a result of it. When we provide context for some of the social issues we see today in our world, we have to keep in mind that if we only present this information once a year, then it’s going to bring up backlash. However, if we have continual conversations and design curriculum units that unpack our bias and prejudice, then dealing with conflict and controversy can have a more reasoned approached instead of feeling affronted by the truth of history.

 

#2-Bland and Myopic Libraries

Books take us through space and time like no other instrument of learning. We get into character’s heads and learn about places far away. So it’s easy to see how reading influences our thinking and understanding of others.

Now, let me ask you this if you were to “audit” your classroom library, how many books were either written from the perspective of a character of color or were written by a non-white author? Pretty slim selection, right?

And in my mind, early reading books are the worst! When you look at your guided reading/leveled reading books, whether it is Biff and Chip or I Can Read reading sets, you will see a deficient of multiculturalism.  Now there are some publishers like Reading A to Z that try to include a variety of characters of difference but rarely write about cultural issues from their perspectives. Needless to say, we don’t promote culture and difference among the youngest learners, especially in fiction.

Now I dare you to take a walk into your school’s library–what do you see? The same myopic view of the world according to “straight, white, middle-class Christians” or do you see other texts being highlighted and valued that describe the lives of others? Furthermore, do you see other languages being valued along with English?

When you think about it, it’s no wonder prejudice and bias becomes embedded so early in our learners. Their lives are embued with a bland perspective that may encourage the “love of reading” but not the “love of others”We need to stop and question this.  

As educators, we need to demand more of our children’s book publishers, and of our school libraries, for a start. Furthermore, we must take the time to pull those books off the shelves that promote other cultures, reading them aloud and discussing them in class. Exposing kids to “difference” helps them to develop compassion. And for the kids of difference in our class, how do you think it makes them feel–valued and appreciated? –Why wouldn’t we wish to provide that experience for them?!!

There are so many good things that come from this. In this article from The Schools Catalogue Information Services, they list at least 4 benefits from multicultural libraries:

  1. Promotes empathy and unit
  2. Promotes cross-cultural friendship
  3. Helps students to look critically at the world
  4. Encourages identity formation

So, with this in mind, the value of diversity in our classroom and school libraries cannot be understated. We need to examine it critically and work towards having a more culturally-aware and robust selection of literature while using these types of books in our instruction.

We can’t change the past, but we can alter the future

When you examine these 2 areas, content and resources, it is easy to see how bias and prejudice become established in the minds of our learners. The implicit bias becomes formed early in our lives and is not challenged unless we work to dismantle these blind spots. For some of us, this might take a real conscious effort on our part, but for others, it is a natural beacon call to create more peace, understanding, and justice in our world.

Everyone benefits when these blind spots are revealed and barriers to appreciating our differences are removed. We cannot change the conflicts and injustices of the past, but we can alter the future through education. And with enough love and persistence, I do believe that we can collectively, around the globe, can create a better world that works for everyone.

 

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