Race, School Culture, and the Politics of Academic Success
Issues in Latino Education
Some of the books that I have read this year, has made me think and reflect. As a mother of two beautiful and bi-cultural children, I am concerned and aware that not all children will receive the same opportunities in life. Our job as parents is to be aware that education is a system and that we all need to be included in conversations that expresses our ideas and perspectives.
Resource. Power. Perspective. Diversity.
The politics of language:
“Schools are political domain and are linked to power and control within the dominant society. They are also agents of socialization in which formal pedagogy as well as the informal hidden curriculum reflect the beliefs of the dominant society” (Giroux, 1983).
“A common perception among public educators and the public in general is that minority students drop out of school because of personal deficiencies, language difficulties, poverty, and many other perceived culturally ingrained pathologies. Because of the concentration on the students and their families as the problem, few serious actions have been taken to investigate the schools responsibility related to the dropout phenomenon”.
“As oppressed and colonized groups, Latino populations form part of the “culture of silence”. The duality of thought and action of the oppressed to which Freiré referred is true for some Latino students. Latino and other subordinate groups have internalized and accepted as valid the negative opinions that mainstream groups hold their culture and language”.
Demographics:
“Out of 55.3 million Latinos in 2014, approximately 35.9 million were U.S. born citizens and 6.5 million were naturalized U.S. citizens. (U.S. Census Breau, 2015) THREE out of FOUR Latinos in the United States today are U.S. citizens”.
“Latino children represented 24 percent of public school enrollment and they are projected to comprise 30 percent by 2023 (NCES, 2103)”.
“According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 82.7% of Public school educators are White, while only 7.5% are Hispanic (Goldring, Gray, & Bitterman, 2013).
Bilingual Education:
"The United States Department of Education cites bilingual education and English language acquisition as two of the current high-need fields in schools serving low-income students ( U.S. Department of Education, 2015)”.
“Among these programs, bilingual two-way immersion has been found to benefit both minority-language and majority-Language students, enhancing their reading and mathematics skills to the point that they outperform their peers in transitional bilingual programs and mainstream monolingual classrooms (Marian, Shook, & Schroeder, 2013)”.
“Studies have shown that bilingualism produces increased memory generalization in children at the age of 18 months (Brito & Barr, 2012) and that the e executive function system improves as a consequence of the multitasking present in bilinguals brain (Poarch & Bialystok, 2015)”.
“Bilingual programs have been used as political tools, encouraged in wealthy school districts but dismantled in low-income neighborhood schools”.
“Many dedicated educators know that the psychological empowerment that bilingual programs offer children often become the sole reason bicultural students persevere and stay in school”.
Representation:
“Anglo teachers often decried the students lack of language skills as an obvios “deficit” or “barrier”. Hispanic teachers often mentioned language problems, but they also suggested that language might not be an insurmountable problem if students language and culture were adequately represented in the curriculum”.
“Anglo teachers saw any good teachers as capable of teaching Latino studies. Many Hispanics agreed but they also expressed a need for equal representation in the currant teaching force”.
“Latinos and African Americans generally tended to see the system and socias needing to change if Latino students are to succeed. Anglos tended to view the opposite: Latino students, their communities, and their language need to change if they are to succeed”.
“Several international studies (Cummins, 1997; Gillborn, 1997; van Zanten, 1997) have added evidence to the role of teacher racism and school-based factors in perpetuating inequalities and impeding the success of ethnic minority students in school”.
I could write more quotations of the book but I have to express that I “myself” have observed that our educational system has to change if we would like to close the achievement gap and improve graduation rates for our students of color. Advocacy is needed from parents, educators, politicians, policyholders and the community to create change.
"What teachers bring to their work as individuals-their personal backgrounds and experience-shape their approaches to and passions for teaching".
"Freire wrote extensively about the concept of solidarity. His work seems especially important for urban teacher activists in the United States where urban school teachers are often not members of the communities they serve".
"Teacher activists confront oppression by disrupting the prevailing patterns of power and privilege".
Another book that I have been reading has been; For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood and the rest of y'all too by Christopher Edmin that I had the privilege to have met this past May 2018. (Thank you to EduLeaders of Color for always hosting great networking events!)
This book is a great read and here are some of my favorite quotes:
"In urban schools, where the neoindigenous are taught to be docile and complicit in their own miseducation and then celebrated for being everything but who they are, they learn quickly that they are expected to divorce themselves from their culture in order to be academically successful".
"As long as white middle-class teachers are recruited to schools occupied by urban youth of color, without any consideration of how they affirm and reestablish power dynamics that silence students, issues that plague urban education (like achievement gaps, suspension rates, and high teacher turnover) will persist".
"Programs attract teachers to urban and rural schools by emphasizing the poor resources and low socioeconomic status of these schools rather than the assets of the community".
"Walking in our students shoes".
"How successful the teacher is in the classroom is directly related to how successful the teacher thinks the students can be. Teachers limit themselves and their students when they put caps on what their students can achieve".
Another great and amazing book is; Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain by Zaretta Hammond. I also had the pleasure on meeting the amazing author and had my book signed. I also had the other two amazing books signed by the authors :)
When I read the CRT book, I was highlighting almost every page. Powerful and authentic.
"Classroom studies document the fact that underserved English learners, poor students, and students of color routinely receive less instructions in higher order skills development than other students'.
"Every culturally responsive teacher develops a sociopolitical consciousness, an understanding that we live in a racialized society that gives unearned priviledge to some while others experience unearned disadvantage because of race, gender, class or language. They are aware of the role that schools play in both perpetuating and challenging those inequalities".
"At the core of positive relationships is trust. Caring is the way that we generate the trust that builds relationships. We have to not only care about students in a general sense but also actively care for them in a physical and emotional sense".
"Neuroscience tells us the brain feel safest and relaxed when we are connected to others we trust to treat us well. It responds to this sense of connection by secreting oxytocin, called the bonding hormones. Oxytocin makes us want to build a trusting relationship with the other person we are interacting with. Simple gestures, a smile, simple nod of the head, a pat on the back, or touch of the arm from another person stimulates the release of oxytocin in the recipient".
"Two mindsets: Fixed Mindset or Growth Mindset". -Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D
Reading these books have empowered me to realize that we are in the right direction if we get every educator to realize that equity is on the table. Believing in the ability that we need to have a growth mind-set and that every student has the capacity to learn at its fullest potential. At the same time, we all need to realize that policies, race, power and privilege plays a huge role in the educational system of the United States. By creating an awareness, we can all help each other find solutions to the problems that our students face in education.
Our work as an educator, a parent, a community leader or member is not easy but when we see students achieve, we know that we are in the right direction. Our kids are the future, we just have to show them the way to the right path and direction.
Let's work together, unite and understand that conversations about race and culture is needed to be able to create awareness and change.
Si Se Puede