Entry # 28:
Reflective teaching
and social equity go hand in hand
"Making Every Voice Count," our District's third annual "All
Means All" conference was held this weekend. The conference, as always,
had an explicit focus on diversity, equity and solutions in education.
The session came at a crucial time for me, as I stand mired in questions
of when and how we can most effectively address issues of social equity.
As a member of the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), I am currently
involved in a conversation about our mission. As a coordinator of professional
development for 12 schools in Philadelphia, I am continually faced with
similar concerns about the relationship between instructional content and
equitable access for all of our students.
In the NSRF we are debating whether we should explicitly add language about
social equity to our mission statement and what it will mean concretely?
We are not interested in a picture perfect message that rings hollow. We
are examining the requisite actions a commitment to social equity would
mandate.
The danger of dilution
There's a lot of concern about the danger of our diluting our focus on collaboratively
looking at student work. Collaboration is not a given in our schools and
it has taken us years to begin to reap the benefits of our collective, reflective
practice.
Time as always is our enemy. When will we find the time for more meetings,
more responsibilities? What additional tasks would we need to address if
we commit to not only making our practice public, but also to pushing for
social equity in our schools and our society?
Just like their peers across the country, teachers here in my Cluster are
feeling overwhelmed by the specter of high stakes testing and the threat
of state takeovers. Teachers want help in their preparations for the test.
Talking about equity isn't front and center on their radar screens.
Recognizing my tendency to sometimes leap before I look, I am trying to
carefully examine the concerns of my colleagues, here and around the country.
I am looking back at my classroom work as an NSRF member for answers to
the following questions: How do you decide when it's time to address
issues of equity? and Can you seriously improve instruction or test
scores without consistently squaring with questions of racism, sexism and
class or cultural bias?
As a classroom teacher I went to lots of workshops. I was always searching
for that little something new that would help me reach those kids I couldn't
seem to get fully involved. I liked most of the sessions and I accumulated
a pretty extensive bag of tricks that I dug into with regularity.
Yet, in spite of the bells and whistles, I still had students, who weren't
really succeeding. While I had few behavior problems and plenty of classroom
activity, I wasn't getting the kind of deep understanding that I wanted
for my kids.
We have to deepen our understanding of kids as well as teaching
When I was trained as a Critical Friends Group (CFG) coach and began to
examine my work closely with colleagues, my student work was deepened, but
it still wasn't going as far as I wanted it to go. The closer scrutiny of
my teaching and my students' learning shifted my focus away from the trappings
of my lessons and onto the deeper questions of how kids make meaning.
I found that as I changed my focus, I was continually bumping into differences
between my approach and experience and that of my students. For example,
I learned early on about setting up cooperative learning groups. I worked
long and hard to establish teams that reflected racial, gender, cultural
and academic balance.
My students liked doing group work and I did see an increase in student
participation, but it wasn't until I read Beverly Daniel Tatum's book, Why
Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, that I realized
the need to incorporate more student choice and ownership into my student
groupings.
My first efforts at cooperative learning hadn't acknowledged the particular
needs of my students as adolescents of color, who are faced with the harsh
reality of racial profiling in our schools and on our streets.
Reading the book didn't mean that I scrapped cooperative learning, nor did
it mean that I abolished all efforts at mixing students of different abilities
or cultures, but it did heighten my awareness of the pieces I had overlooked
as a white teacher who never experienced what my students were facing every
day. The collaboration, the reflection without the focus on equity, fell
short of the mark.
How do we make our choices?
Along the same lines, our curriculum is set in place with standards and
benchmarks that our students are supposed to meet. These standards are generally
broad enough to allow for teacher choice about texts and activities we can
use to get the content across to our kids, but how do we make those choices?
Do we choose the materials that are in our schools, just because they are
there? Do we supplement them with texts that reflect our students' lives?
Do we teach with a critical eye and ear, encouraging our students to challenge
information and claims that their lives have taught them to question?
Here again, I think it's the consistent focus on equity coupled with a collaborative
approach that can make the difference between somewhat improved practice
or the fundamental changes we need in our classrooms.
At the conference on Friday, Dr. Jennie Spencer Green from Pacific Oaks
College, stated that "we see what's behind our eyes," in her remarks
about the power of our perceptions. She made me wonder how this might hold
true for our students and their learning as well. If our students perceive
us as "half-stepping" -- as supporting their learning in our schools,
but not beyond those four walls -- will they participate fully?
She spoke about introducing her students to the streets and characters of
Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens. She didn't speak of lowering our standards
or devaluing the "classics," she just talked about making the
connections.
Reaching for the light
Dr. Green also spoke of teaching as water, taking its shape from its surroundings
and going around, over, or through any obstacles in its way. I liked her
metaphor with its images of water and its power and ability to fit into
any shape it is given. She made me think about other images from nature
too, snapshots of plants stretching for the light, or animals adapting to
harsh, seemingly uninhabitable climates. She made me think about the power
we have to move beyond the limits of our environment.
Another speaker, a Dr. Padilla from Yale University, picked up where Dr.
Green left off when he spoke of education "not as developing competency
on some test, but as developing our humanity." He shared his story
of growing up in NY and being told he should be an auto mechanic. He told
us how he had "beaten the odds" and urged us to change the odds
for our kids.
Finally, I attended a performance of "You Don't Know Me Till You Know
Me" by Michael Fowlin. Mr. Fowlin became eight characters right before
our eyes. He was many students, male, female, elementary, middle and secondary.
He was able to capture the heart and the hurts of our children across racial
and cultural lines as well.
The performance was at times funny and at others excruciatingly painful,
but it was always real. It was always pointing out the need for acceptance
and connection that our children bring to our doors.
I didn't find specific answers to my questions about social equity and how
we can achieve it, at the conference, or in this reflection, rather, I am
even more convinced that we cannot afford to put off the conversation or
the "explicit" commitment any longer.
A final quote from our dinner speaker, Dr. Bertice Berry, sticks with me
as I wrap up this entry. She said her daughter told her that, "her
teacher was an abolitionist because she frees her mind." Dr. Berry
said she wished she could make us all buttons that proclaimed our role as
modern day abolitionists. She touched my heart with her label. My question
now is not if, but how, I/ we can fulfill the role that she has given us.
[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the
MiddleWeb listserve.]
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