Equality 101

This is the first post in a series about the social contexts of education specifically addressing the issue of race. These are my thoughts, opinions, and research as I currently take a class on the very subject.

I’ve always thought of teaching as more than just a technical task—it’s like an art. You must mold your surroundings in order for children to learn; after all, they are not computers who learn and think the same way. Each child has a different background and a unique context. But the overwhelming majority of teachers in the U.S. are white, middle to upper-class women, myself included.

Every day our classrooms are getting more and more diverse. It is important for myself as a teacher to learn how to modify the curriculum in my classroom to best fit the needs and culture of the students. This week, I will address the issue of race in the classroom.

First of all, race is not a made-up concept as some people might believe. Yes, it’s sociologically constructed, but affects us in bigger ways many of us are not consciously aware of. To understand more about white privilege, read Peggy McIntosh’s article called “White Privilege.”

Once this issue of white privilege is addressed, teachers are more aware of how powerful the dominant white culture is, and how it affects other people, such as the students who I am teaching. But teaching a racially diverse classroom involves much more.

This past week, I read a few articles that might suggest how to address race in the classroom: author Gloria Ladson-Billings continually emphasizes in her book The Dreamkeepers about the importance of a teacher’s transformation in order to become more culturally relevant. Ladson-Billings proves that there is no way for a teacher to be culturally relevant unless she first strips down her values to her core of what is right and wrong. This is a big step in moving towards a culturally relevant classroom where, if all needs are met, then all cultures can be included in the active learning process of the students.

It is known, however, that teachers and students cannot thrive without community support. For instance, a teacher who chooses to become culturally relevant in her teaching practices but is not supported by the school and/or its community is not as effective as the teacher using culturally relevant teaching practices who is supported by the school and its community. How then, can school administrators, communities, and people in education policy come together to encourage teachers to use culturally relevant practices? And if the school, community, and education policy in the States do not support the teacher, how can a teacher successfully and effectively use culturally relevant practices in their teaching? While Ladson-Billings proposes a great idea, I don’t find a real solution in her theories.

It is important to discuss these issues about community and education, because ultimately children cannot learn without the support of their parents, family, school, and community (at local, state, and national levels). I read some works by Stacey Lee (specifically, Beyond the model-minority stereotype), Sonia Nieto (specifically, The Light in Their Eyes) and Lisa Delpit(specifically, The Silenced Dialogue) who offer up ideas about how to address racism, ethnicity, and culture in the classroom.

Two authors in particular, by Lee and Nieto respectively, do not discuss specifics of how to deal with racism outside of the classroom but directly related to the school—such as, for instance, in the “Non-Asian” case in the Lee reading. The author speaks of an incident in which a teacher called one of the an Asian kids “Non-Asian” (Lee 425). Therefore, teachers don’t just have to address racism amongst students and themselves in the classroom—it must be addressed among other teachers, other students, parents, and family. In fact, many stereotypes are reinforced by the family themselves. How can we, as teachers, address racism (such as the model-minority stereotype of Asians) with the children’s families in addition to other teachers, students outside of the classroom, and school administrators?

Ultimately, teachers cannot change a family’s viewpoint or more so a culture’s viewpoint. But, there could be ways in which teachers can fight racial and ethnic stereotypes in the school’s community.

What are your thoughts in how to address race in a classroom?