Transcript Slide 1

Approaches To Teaching a Diverse Student Body
1. RESISTENCE THEORY E-RESERVES KOHL, H. “I Wont Learn
from You” pages 1-32. (New York: The New Press, 1994).
**2. CULTURALLY RELEVANT TEACHING E-RESERVES
LADSON-BILLING, G. Preface, Chapter 1 “A Dream Deferred“, and
excerpts from Chapter 3: pages ix-xvi, 1-14, and 31-33 in
Dreamkeepers Successful Teachers of African American Children (San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
**3. CUTLURALLY RELEVANT TEACHING TOZER, SENESE,
VIOLAS Chapter 13 “Diversity and Equity Today” pages 430-432
(details on Ladson-Billings’ Culturally Relevant Teaching).
REREAD ANYON, J excerpts from “Social Class and the Hidden
Curriculum of Work”. Journal of Education, 162, 1, 1980. See
Tozer’s reference to Anyon’s research in Chapter 13 pages 422-423.
4. ANTI-RACIST TEACHING E-RESERVES TENORIO, K. An
interview with Enid Lee “Taking Multicultural, Anti-racist Education
Seriously” pages 19-23. Rethinking our Classrooms: Teaching for
Equity and Social Justice (Rethinking Schools, 1994).
What are the causes of poverty?
Poverty is a function of the
political economy
– wages, jobs, social supports
In Finland, single parents who work are not
poor.
Right now, in many schools
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Socioeconomic status is a powerful predictor
of student achievement in school—
in the absence of good instruction.
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Adam Urbanski, AFT, Rochester, NY
(in Tozer, 464)
How is poverty likely to
impact life chances?
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School Performance: K-8, 9-12
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School Outcomes: Dropping out, post secondary participation
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Economic Prospects: Jobs
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Family Structures in Adult Life
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Adult Life
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Health: Status
How does poverty affect children’s
economic prospects? Explains the chart.
Why are poor children’s economic prospects so
limited? Research shows that, all else being equal:
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Low-income kids start to fall behind in cognitive
development at a young age and have difficulty
catching up.
They fall further behind when they attend lowerquality public schools.
Consequently, they are more likely to drop out of high
school in their teens, and less likely to get a college
degree.
They thus enter adulthood with lower levels of
education as well as achievement.
Why are poor children’s economic
prospects so limited?
Research shows that, all else being equal:
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Their health also suffers—gaps in wellness appear
early in poor children’s lives and only widen over
time.
Lower education and worse health, among other
factors such as discrimination and weaker labormarket contacts result in lower levels of employment
and earnings over their working lives.
At least some of those with the lowest levels of
employment are more likely to become single parents
or engage in crime and become incarcerated.
What are the costs of poverty?
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All this adds up to: lower
productivity, less tax revenues
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and larger health care and criminal
justice costs.
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The grand total: Child poverty costs
us at least $500 billion a year and the
cost is going up due to increased
hardship facing children and young
adults in the Great Recession.
“What Teachers Need to Know About Poverty”
Sue Books
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What ethnic group has the highest number of people
living in poverty? ____white____
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What percent of all children live in poverty?
____13%_________
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What percent of children under the age of twelve live in
poverty? ___30%_______
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What percent of children in minority families live in
poverty? ____40%______
Main Problems with
Cultural Deficit Theory
OUTCOME:
NEGATIVE APPROACH TO DIFFERENCES
--Cultural deficit approach was not effective, many students
never “caught up”
--No recognition of cultural differences
--Did not examine school structure or teaching approaches
EDUCATORS KNOW THAT POVERTY does have an
IMPACT on school readiness (lack of preschool, good health
care, stable housing, food, safety in the neighborhood, etc.).
Schools do need to address some of the effects of poverty.
Exactly how should society address
the issue of poverty?
How does poverty impact schooling?
The Essential Supports for School
Improvement (Tozer, pages 439-442)
The Essential Supports for School
Improvement (Tozer, pages 439-442)
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Sebring, Allensworth, Bryk, Easton, Luppescu
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Excerpt from a 2006 report, Consortium on Chicago
School Research at the University of Chicago
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Research on Chicago Elementary Schools 1990-1996
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Framework needed to raise achievement in low
income elementary schools, natural experiments
took place with local control of schools.
Why did some schools make progress and
other schools stagnate? 5 Essentials are
interconnected (all need to be in place)
1. Leadership, new reform minded principals (instruction
and organization)
2. Parent-community ties (reinforce learning, volunteer,
participate in decision making at school)
3. Professional capacity of teachers (ongoing learning)
4. Student centered learning climate (climate and safety)
5. Ambitious instruction (coordinated across grades)
Findings:
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Contextual Resources
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In some schools, the cumulative stresses of poverty,
crime, and other social problems make school
improvement efforts especially daunting.
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The study finds that social resources in the
community, churches and voluntary organizations
help to build a social foundation that facilitates
stronger ties between school and community
Findings looking at essential supports and
community life in low performing schools.
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Schools with essential supports were 10 times more
likely than weak schools to show improvement in
learning (gains in reading and math scores).
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Research on urban areas examine the social
relationships in the community and how these
relationships influence the quality of everyday life
and shape the collective capacity to solve social
problems. These relationships are called “social
capital”.
What defined school community
social capital?
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Children with documented abuse or neglect
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In Chicago, 15% of students in CPS
In low performing schools 25%
Crime rates in the community
Volunteer organizations, churches, collective efficacy
(solve local problems)
All 5 essential supports needed to be in place in schools
for these communities with low social capital.
Study finds that:
Schools in communities with low social
capital, were less likely to have 5
essentials in place because teachers and
administrators in these schools focused
on children and their social needs, so
there were few resources remaining to
focus on the core processes of school
improvement.
Finding: SCHOOLS WORK IN
INTERACTION WITH THE
COMMUNITY
Theories of Social Inequality
Summary of Theories in Chapter 13
Does social inequality necessarily determine
educational outcomes?
What theories have been used to explain group differences in achievement?
Genetic Inferiority Theory (1920s-1960s, now discredited) —individuals are
the problem—groups were bound by inheritance (we now know that
individuals vary, and there are multiple intelligences)
Cultural Deficit Theory (1960s-still operates today, but discredited) --individuals are the problem—the poor and minority groups are limited
by their culture, blames student and family or neighborhood for a
deficient culture (total lack of usable skills, language patterns,
behaviors).
Critical Theory (1980s-today)—examines the uneven POWER
relationships between different groups in society, examines
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES that privilege some students over
others. This category includes Cultural Difference Theory (1990s)-cultures are different, one is not better than another, all cultures
contain skills and behaviors that are assets, recognizes the
multicultural aspect of American culture.
Teaching for social justice.
Small acts make a difference.
Some schools in Chicago have no libraries . We could expand
the in-class libraries in one school.
Last week, many in our class indicated they were willing to
donate books.
Good quality used or new books could be donated if the class is
interested. I will collect donated books for one elementary
school until the end of finals. I will contact Greg about a
target school. Critically analyze this act!
APPYING THEORIES OF SOCIAL
INEQUALITY in CHAPTER 13 TOZER with
READINGS FROM THE PAST 2 WEEKS
1. CULTURAL DEFICIT THEORY TOZER Chapter 13 and the views toward
capacity to learn in school, SOME GROUPS ARE INFERIOR.
POVERTY BOOKS Article on Poverty
CLASS ANYON “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”
ETHNICITY BILLINGS Readings
2. HUMANIST APPROACH TO DIFFERENCE AND DISCRIMINATION
(Tolerance, Elliot. 1960s)
3. CRITICAL THEORY 1980s (INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES, POWER)
a. CULTURALLY DIFFERENCE THEORY LEADS TO CULTURALLY
RELEVANT TEACHING LADSON-BILLING, G. EXCERPTS in Dreamkeepers
Successful Teachers of African American Children, and see TOZER Chapter 13
“Diversity and Equity Today” (pages 430-432 (details on Ladson-Billings’
Culturally Relevant Teaching).
b. ANTI-RACIST TEACHING E-RESERVES TENORIO, K. An interview
with Enid Lee “Taking Multicultural, Anti-racist Education Seriously” pages 1923.
c. RESISTANCE THEORY CULTURAL SUBORINATION LEADS TO
RESISTENCE THEORY KOHL, H. “I Wont Learn from You”.
Ladson-Billings believes that teachers should not
treat EQUALITY as SAMENESS.
What does Ladson Billings mean by
“dysconsciousness”?
Dysconsciousness means, as teachers, we recognize the privilege
of some children and the disadvantage for other children, but
we fail to challenge the status quo, or accept PRIVILEGES
FOR SOME AS A GIVEN OR INEVITABLE (LadsonBillings, 32).
ENID LEE suggests challenging the status quo in schools:
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Curriculum changes that study the SOURCES of
discrimination
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Involving students in social change in their neighborhoods
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Giving minority parents more voice in school decisions
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Examining who is hired at a school
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Equipping students and parents to combat racism and ethnic
discrimination.
Multicultural Approaches to Teaching
Enid Lee suggests that Anti-Racist,
Multicultural Education means to
examine the biases of our own
education,
Examine what is considered “normal”
(Is normal excluding some people?).
Ask: Who benefits from the status
quo? How can more people benefit
from social institutions?
Enid Lee suggests how to implement a more
multicultural, anti-racist education.
Implement in stages:
Surface stage—more expressions of culture within the school and
begin to transform the curriculum
Transitional stage—create units of instruction on that address
different cultural groups
Structural changes—integrate units on different cultures into the
regular curriculum
Social change—create a curriculum that helps to lead changes
outside the school (Such as media literacy studies-- how does
the media portray different people? Study health conditions of
a neighborhood)
Critical Theorists believe that:
Many people experience institutions differently based
on group membership.
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Cultural Subordination Theory helps us to examine
inequalities structured in the social system,
differences in power between superior and inferior
and what it means in schools.
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What social processes lead to the lower status of
certain groups?
Pluralist Approach to Curriculum for All Students
Example of recent changes in how history is taught. More inclusive of
diverse experiences, but still room for improvement.
Critical
Theorists
Seek
Pluralism
For ALL
CULTURE AS NORMS It determines the meaning of:
rituals, success, manners, behaviors, language, social
status, ethnicity, gender --all meaning…
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Definition: You are part of mainstream
American culture if you:
Can teachers build a
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bridge between cultures?
Can students respect the
mainstream and their own
culture?
Act [and PERCIEVED] like a
member
Have income for the lifestyle
Internalize its core values
Have ready access to participate in
institutions
Speak English
Accept a mainstream identity
History contains blatant racism, sexism, classism, disable-ism…
Today, there are both visible and invisible (so very subtle)
differences in treatment in society and in schools.
Visible—when disability is not accommodated in schools, when
anti-Catholic stories are in textbooks, when no minority
students are taking honor classes, when no women or
minority authors are read in literature classes…… (if authors
are absent the assumption is that no good literature is
produced by that group)
??Invisible--
OK, so it is not really invisible just hard to see,
HIDDEN CURRICULUM (so embedded) unless you
are looking, using a critical eye.
Authoritarian teaching approaches for some students,
how rules are enforced, who has the best teachers
and most motivating classes
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How much cultural uniformity is needed to be
successful in mainstream culture?
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How much respect is given to cultural difference
today?
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In Schools: Can students learn in an environment
where they have to reject their home culture? Or if
their culture or identity is disrespected?
Chapter 13 Teacher Jane Elliot 414-416
What conditions spurred Elliot’s idea?
What did the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
mean to her 3rd grade students in Riceville Iowa?
Two documentaries were made on Jane
Elliot’s Eye Discrimination Experiment
Chapter 13 Teacher Jane Elliot 414-416
What happened during the two-day experiment?
SUPERIOR
INFERIOR
Jane Elliot’s Eye Discrimination Day
You can view Eye of the Storm
and A Class Divided on YouTube –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-QAvekTpU Part 3 6:10
What assumptions operated in Jane Elliot’s class?
One group was inferior to the other.
One group had power over the other.
Negative impact of blatant discrimination.
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Superior group was:
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Entitled to special privileges
Given positive encouragement for learning
A group that was assigned positive attributes
Individual members’ behavior was attributed to group
membership
Could students in the bottom group ever change their
lower status?
MEMBERS OF MAINSTREAM
GENERALLY HAVE…..a free pass in many civic,
social, political, economic, educational activities-and ideology is kind and generous to members.
“But I have
worked hard to
get where I am
today.”
How are groups perceived in society?
How do perceptions influence teachers?
Social perception comes in part from our membership in
groups….--American, New Englander, IrishAmerican, women, working class, teacher…
GROUPS DO SHARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS
Generalizations are limited.
BUT SOCIAL STEREOTYPES OF GROUPS ARE
LIMITING When stereotyped, a person takes on all
attributes of a group, there is no individualism, and no
personal knowledge is considered.
Humanist Approach: Individuals
Critical Theory: Change Racist Structures
Define Colorblind: Can be thought of several ways.
As a positive, Human Relations Approach: What are the main
goals of Jane Elliot’s approach to discrimination?
Students learn about discrimination, become tolerant.
The experience changes some individuals
“Not to be prejudiced. Not to see color as a negative status. Not to
see white as superior. Not to treat students any differently
because of their color.”
(like Jane Elliot for her students, see
Tozer, 431)
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As an absolute: Everyone is just the same, no differences.
What occurred in Elliot’s class? Teacher as Wicked Witch of the East?
--She was a mean individual?
OR, as a teacher with power and authority in school is she adopting the
prejudices of the larger society?
Her aim –TO TEACH TOLERANCE TO INDIVIDUALS
Are changes to minds or structures more important to effect real long-term
changes in society? What would critical theorist say?
Compare Approaches to Discrimination
1. Human Relations (Tozer, 431) Jane Elliot
2. Critical Theory (Tozer, 419-424, Ladson-Billings, Enid
Lee (Tenorio article), and Kohl
.
What are the main goals of critical educators like Lee or Ladson-Billings?
Show how cultural differences matter in teaching and learning.
Create a more inclusive, multicultural curriculum.
Examine and change discriminatory school structures.
Equip students to combat discrimination.
Provide a high level of education and social awareness.
Change school structures.
Change institutions and power relations.
Resistance Theory (Tozer, 424 and Kohl)
Students reject negative environments and reject
opportunities in schools in order to preserve their
identity and cultural connections.
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When students experience discriminatory practices,
some students retreat into a posture of resistance, a
conscious refusal to learn.
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Cooperation in schools means capitulating to an alien
culture.
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Resistance in school is “self-destructive” at one level--a
foregoing an education; but it preserves the integrity of
subordinate cultural identity.
According to Kohl what is meant by:
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Failing to learn?
 Tried and failed for different reasons—teaching approaches,
materials, readiness skills.
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Not learning?
 Willfully choosing not to learn because of a challenge to selfrespect, self-identity, cultural integrity, or loyalty to family or
group.
Kohl acknowledges the essential role of free will in learning.
Resistance by many students is a response
to subordinate status in society and school.
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Deciding to actively not-learn something involves closing off
part of oneself and limiting one’s experiences (Kohl, 106).
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As a teacher, Kohl assumes that there are complex factors
behind apparent failure to learn, which could be used to
transform the situation into positive learning (Kohl, 107).
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Kohl concludes that–teachers need to understand why “notlearning” occurs, and education needs to be built on the hard
truth of the experiences of our students in society (Kohl, 120)
Teachers should seek ways to address discrimination and
racism as it connects to the students’ lives, as it functions in
schools and operates throughout the curriculum.
An example in Kohl showing why some
students resist school (26).
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Kohl was consulting for a school in San Antonio that had a
large Mexican American population with a high failure rate.
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Few Latino teachers, no Latino administrators.
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He observes in a History Class—a Lesson on “The first people
to settle Texas” (arrived from New England and the South…)
Kohl challenged the textbook’s assumptions, and then
engaged students in conversation about racism within the
textbooks and the school.