The authors of Module 7 share an array of insights about what whole systems, including teacher preparation programs, must do to help teachers demonstrate the appropriate dispositions, behaviors, and strategies to make schools equitable for the most marginalized children. The readings represent the complexity and differing perspectives of the best ways to prepare and develop equity literate educators for the field, and they also share ideas for systematic reforms for larger impact. In the following, I will provide an overview of each of the readings, connect findings to my practice as a teacher educator, and raise questions that deserve further investigation.
Overview of Module 7 Readings
Two of Module 7’s readings (Gorski, 2016; Milner, 2015) focus on specific ideas and strategies that teacher education programs can use to help them prepare novice teachers to enter the system ready to mitigate the consequences of poverty. Gorski’s (2016) article communicates the importance of addressing the ideology of preservice teachers. To become equity-literate, he argues that deficit ideology and its “cousin,” grit ideology, can blind educators from seeing the conditions and consequences that affect families living in poverty. Gorski promotes the nurturing of educators’ “structural ideology,” which
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I wondered how these ideas could be implemented at my university, where we certify teachers in a four-year program that only includes three semesters of education-focused coursework and a one-year residency. What incentives and programmatic changes could we implement to provide more time for teachers to explore their beliefs and strategies to help mitigate the consequences of poverty? Also, how can we support our graduates in partnership with local schools and
Goldstein argues a problem with education policy is, “American policy makers require every public school to use the same strategy…” (261) When facing the problem of inequality in education a teacher needs to be fluid with his or her curriculum. In fact, one of the best ways to allow for fluidity is through peer-to-peer help. Goldstein states, “(teaching hospital model) allows best practices tailored to a specific school to be passed from professional to professional.” (255) Peer-to-peer help not only does this allow for constructive feedback, but also it allows teachers to learn from one another. While policy makers might not know a schools demographics and unique situation teachers in the school will. Thus, teachers can help one another on their unique problem through a collaborative process. Peer to peer help allows for the design of, “creative curriculum materials and to lead school turnaround efforts.” (232) The problems associated with inequality can be thought out and explored through teachers working
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
While differentiating instruction and being able to design lessons geared towards the needs of diverse learners are currently highly prized skills for teachers, this has not always been the case. The history of education in the United States is a history of segregation. Even today, schools and curriculum are designed to meet the needs of a core group of students, which does not include students with disabilities (Hitchcock, Meyer, Rose, & Jackson, 2002). In the past, learners who were different, out of the mainstream, or did not fit into the mold to which teachers taught (were not part of the core) learned how or lost out on learning. This is not to say that teachers of the past did not care about their students, about being effective teachers, or about student learning. However, as schools are mirrors reflecting mainstream societal norms (Chartock, 2010; Delpit, 2006)—and, given that our society has not always valued diversity in people, be it due to disability, class, culture, or race—teachers in the past have largely focused their efforts where they could earn the largest return on their investment: the average student .
Basic education is mandatory for all kids in the United States. There are laws with minimum and maximum age limits for required free education, but this does not make all education equal. The minimum age varies from four to five to begin kindergarten, while most students graduate high school by age of eighteen or nineteen. However, there are kids that begin their education much earlier. Bell Hooks’ “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Jonathan Kozol’s “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, and Barbara Ehrenreich’s “How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty” have a common topic, “poverty”. Moreover, each of these readings has a different perspective with a different agenda attached, but “poverty”
Nelson Mandela once said, "Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom” (Make Poverty History, 2005). Gwinnett county is third in the country when it comes to a high poverty rate, with 14% of the population living below poverty (Family Promise of Gwinnet County, 2013). As an educator it is important to familiarize with the county of which one is to teach in, and poverty is an issue in Gwinnett county. One must understand the affects of poverty on children's learning, how to recognize children of poverty and how to help those students, and what rights those children have to an education.
The. Landsman, Julie G., and Chance W. Lewis. White Teachers / Diverse Classrooms: Creating Inclusive Schools, Building on Students' Diversity, and Providing True Educational Equity. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2011. Print. The.
"Equal educational opportunity to all students means that teachers and schools promote the full development of students as individuals, without regard for race, ethnicity, gender, abilities, and disabilities." (Parkay & Stanford, Chapter 2) According to the article Educating/Fostering Culturally Responsive Teachers, it addresses issues of concern in the preparation of teachers, who will be expected to teach students from diverse backgrounds in a culturally responsive and educationally healthy way. The use of Standards as a framework provided specific indicators for determining the enhanced knowledge and skills those culturally responsive teachers needs in order to go forward. For example, as teachers describe the philosophy of education, understand how students learn and develop and apply that knowledge in their practice, teach students with respect for their individual and cultural characteristics, know their content area and how to teach it. Teachers facilitate, monitor and assess student learning. Teachers create and maintain a learning environment in which all students are actively engaged and contributing members. Teachers work as partners with parents, families and with the community.
The problems currently arising are “not really in the debate over instructional methodology, but rather in communicating across cultures and in addressing the more fundamental issue of power, of whose voice gets to be heard in determining what is best for poor children and children of color” (Delpit 19). Administration must be able to respectfully gather information about a student in and out of school to help understand where they need the most structure and guidance and when to let them work independely. The current educational system in place has a mold that students need to fit, and for students of lower income familys, that mold is often expects less of them so naturally, the type of schooling provided for racial minorities is [they] one that prepares them for their respective place in the job market.” (Ogbu 83). Social reproducation is not a reality that society must accept and best try to break without a complete solution, but instead one that can be broken by a refocusing and recommittment to the students that often need the most guideance and resources for them to succeed and break social
“ It's Not the Culture of Poverty, It's the Poverty of Culture: The Problem with Teacher Education” by Ladson-Billings (2006). The Self-Esteem Problem is one of the problem in American culture. Usually, preservice teachers are having narrow foundation courses in psychological aspect. The author asked preservice teachers to choose one children from their field experiences that is hard to handle while one were choosing a African American. The author critized preservice teachers that they are choosing based on their race, gender and ethnic that was different from them. Those teachers tend to blam on student’s misbehavior instead of understand their socioeconomic problems. In addition, the problem of cultural capital in America is that dominant
A longstanding national issue that continues to concern the public is the disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education. The fact is that the proportion of minority students in the population of school-age children has risen dramatically to over 35%, which is increasing the diversity of students in many public schools throughout the nation. This makes the phenomenon of disproportionality especially troubling. With a growing population of minority children comprising a greater percentage of public school students, we must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society. The overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been posed as an issue for more than 3 decades, but it is worth asking whether the efforts of legislative actions, educational reforms and legal challenges have really made improvements to this issue. More importantly, disproportionality should be examined as a correlation to underlying conditions that can pose a great effect upon not only the quality of a child’s education, but also ______.
...'s Children, is an important tool in the education of teachers to help them to see teaching is not a politic-free practice that has little to do with social justice. Through reading multicultural theorists like Delpit, teachers are better prepared to deal with the issues like injustice and "remove the blinders built of stereotypes, mono-cultural instructional methodologies, ignorance, social distance biased research and racism" in the classrooms (Delpit, 1995, pg.69).
Shor, I. (1986, November). Equality is excellence: Transforming teacher education and the learning process. Harvard Review, 36(4), 406-426.
A significant problem of practice in education is teacher bias. Teacher bias has implications around race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and socioeconomic status. Teachers must be willing to examine their beliefs, acknowledge and overcome their biases. Teachers need to evaluate their practices in relation to their ideals as well as recognize and assess the position of power they hold in their classrooms in order to be true Social Justice Educators (Cooper, 2003).
There are many challenges that teachers encounter when teaching children with learning disabilities, learners that are English language learners, or learners who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As a nation we are faced with the challenged that our schools are becoming more diverse. The majority of our schoolteachers are still predominately white females, but our student population is slowly changing. We are seeing more minority groups in our schools that are facing different challenges. The scary part of it all is that our teachers do not have the skills to accommodate those differences. “The nation’s changing school demographics are creating a demand for new teaching skills” (Utley, Obiakor, & Bakken 2011, pg. 5). Our student population
Applied theatre and specifically Theatre in Prison, is a continually adapting field, as it reacts and changes concurrent to political and social climates, and therefore discussing its history is integral to understanding it. Examined by Foucault in Discipline and Punish, Prison, like theatre, began as a form of public spectacle, moving away from physical discipline of the body to discipline creating a ‘docile body’. Prison reformer Jeremy Bentham’s proposed blueprint of the ‘panopticon’ supports this idea creating Foucault’s ‘docile’ body through threat and observation. Another major prison reformer John Howard worked to create a similar environment of self-regulation in the late 1700’s, aiming for rehabilitation through promoting labour in