Can We Talk about Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation (11 page)
Read Can We Talk about Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation Online
Authors: Beverly Tatum
I have shown how the dynamics of race—in a society in which racist ideology is still deeply embedded, though not always apparent—can affect the achievement of students of color. Cohen and Steele’s work on effective feedback, and the other research discussed above, points to the possibility of counteracting the effects of racial stereotypes. But how can we develop these and other strategies if we are not able to talk freely about the continuing effects of racism? How can we overcome the unconscious impact of internalized stereotypes if we are not able to bring them to consciousness through dialogue? This dialogue among adults is important of course not just for the academic performance of students of color, but also for the effective preparation of all of our students who will live in an increasingly multiracial, multiethnic world.
Students look to their teachers for guidance and help for living in an increasingly diverse and complex society, and educators are becoming more aware of the need to prepare their students to live in a multiracial society. Yet this is a world with which the current teaching force has limited experience. Most teachers in the United States are White teachers who were raised and educated in predominantly White communities. Their knowledge of communities of color and their cultures is typically quite limited. One way to address this deficiency in teachers’ experiences is to provide them with antiracist, multicultural education courses or programs.
The project that I will describe here briefly attempted to do just that. A two-year demonstration project, funded by the Carnegie Corporation, investigated the combined effect of interventions involving teachers, students, and parents in a small northeastern school district with an increasing school population of color (presently 24 percent).
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Although the project had three components, an after-school cultural identity group program for middle school students, a series of parent outreach workshops, and a professional development course for educators, it is the professional development initiative that will be the focus of discussion here.
The initiative consisted of a professional development course that required participants (twenty-four teachers/semester) to examine closely their own sense of racial identity and their attitudes toward other groups as well as develop effective antiracist curricula and educational practices that are affirming of student identities and that support positive achievement for all students. It was assumed that teachers must look at their own racial identity in order to be able to support the positive development of their students’ racial/ethnic identities. They must also be able to engage in racial dialogue themselves in order to facilitate student conversation.
The professional development course, Effective Anti-Racist Classroom Practices for All Students, was specifically designed to help educators recognize the personal, cultural, and institutional manifestations of racism and to become more proactive in response to racism within their school settings.
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Topics covered included an examination of the concepts of prejudice, racism, White privilege, and internalized oppression. In addition, theories of racial identity development for both Whites and people of color were discussed, along with an investigation of the historical connection between scientific racism, intelligence testing, and assumptions about the “fixed nature” of student intellectual capacity. The implications of these ideas for classroom practice were explicitly discussed. Course activities included lectures, videos, small and large group discussions, and exercises. Between class meetings, participants wrote short reflection papers in response to the assigned readings, and engaged in topical assignments such as an analysis of cultural stereotypes, omissions, and distortions in their curricular materials. They were also encouraged to actively examine their own expectations and assumptions about the academic potential of students of color. In all, eighty-three educators voluntarily participated in this demonstration project.
Eighty-five percent of the participants were White, and 15 percent were people of color (primarily Latino). Most of the Latino teachers were from a neighboring school district; they were offered slots in the course on a space-available basis. The teaching force of the district in which the project was based was 99.9 percent White. In two of the four semesters that the course was offered, the class was made up entirely of White participants. Sixty-two percent of the participants were elementary school classroom teachers or specialists, 19 percent were working with high school students, and 13 percent were working at the middle school level. Five percent of the participants were district-level administrators. A veteran group of educators, the median number of years of experience was fourteen.
As part of the course requirement, participants were asked to develop an “action plan,” as a way of applying what they learned in the course to their own school context. In order to assess the impact of the course on the teachers’ role as agents of change, the action plans produced were categorized in terms of their ability to effect change in three areas of schooling: relationships among school and community members, the curriculum, and the institution’s efforts regarding support services for students of color.
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In all, fifty-nine action plans were analyzed.
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While some plans were just that, plans that had not yet been acted on, most could be considered “works in progress”; the educators had already initiated steps in their proposed action.
Fifty-six percent of the plans involved some effort to make the curriculum more inclusive of people of color. Demonstrating a common beginning step for educators just starting to think about antiracist education, several of the plans involved developing bibliographies and purchasing multicultural books and other classroom materials. While this may seem like a rather inconsequential action, it can have significant impact. For example, one teacher’s action plan defined the problem as the “one size fits all” curriculum that was being mandated at the state level. She wrote,
The problem is the absence of multicultural book titles in themes pertaining to Massachusetts Frameworks. When a unit is studied everyone reads the same book. This is good in the beginning to explain and teach all aspects of the novel; plot, characters, setting. But once students are aware of the parts, they do not all need to read the same novel. It is important that they read novels that reflect their own sex/culture/religion based on their reading ability.
Her plan, already under way, was to “make a list of multicultural novels, with varied reading, and interest levels, for each theme in grade eight English class with Massachusetts Frameworks notation, and persuade the eighth-grade teachers to use them.” She had learned in the course about the importance of affirming the identities of her students, so that they could see themselves reflected in the classroom and feel included in the learning process rather than on the margins of it, and she was determined to put that new understanding into action, not just in her own classroom but throughout the school.
Thirty percent of the action plans highlighted antiracist educational practices at the interpersonal level, focusing on relationships between teachers and students or teachers and parents. Given that most of the course participants were classroom teachers, and the course content specifically addressed raising expectations for students of color, it was not surprising that teachers who wanted to effect change often chose to do so by focusing on particular students. Eight of the action plans specifically dealt with communicating high expectations to students of color. A powerful example of one of these plans was provided by a young White teacher who was trying to help a Puerto Rican girl who had already failed her class twice. She wrote:
I was even hesitant about calling home to her parents. I am ashamed to admit that my first year with [Ana] I made a lot of mistakes. I assumed her lower ability was due to lack of initiative. Maybe she had a terrible home life, which prevented her from getting things done outside of school. Rather than actually investigating my assumptions I spent the semester taking it easy on her. I thought I was being compassionate and caring, but in reality I was sending a negative message, that not completing her assignments was okay.
When I first started teaching I had a really difficult class with several minorities. I had discipline problems, so I discussed these issues with the principal. He gave me some suggestions, but what most stuck out was when he said, “Check with me before you call some of these kids’ parents.” For some reason I felt fear or maybe intimidation from that statement. …This semester I called home, I have never called home before. That made a big difference. She has a wonderful family, a hard-working family. Her parents are very concerned…. All of these false assumptions were based on the internalized stereotypical generalizations regarding people of color, which in fact clouded my judgment and ultimately undermined how I taught [Ana]. At the time I thought I was doing a good job, but now I realize she had been short-changed. This semester I am on her like glue to do her work.
Her student’s performance changed dramatically—from failing grades to an A- average. In addition, her developing relationship with this Latina student helped her see more clearly the way racism was operating in the school, and she began to raise these issues in her class. She wrote in her closing reflection paper:
I have also made an effort to bring up social inequities in the school by setting aside time during class to discuss these issues. I give each student air time to voice his/her opinion. Although not math related sometimes the racial comments regarding experiences in school warrant these discussions. Students need to know that these issues are real and apparent within our school and in our community. Some know all too well from firsthand experience.
Although this young teacher was brave enough to raise these issues in her math class, taking action beyond the classroom was much less common for other educators who participated in the class. Perhaps actions that challenge institutional policies and practices were less frequent than the other types because such interventions seemed beyond the average teacher’s sphere of influence and felt too risky. Despite the risks, however, two Latino teachers decided to do a comparative analysis of disciplinary actions taken against White and Latino students in their school. Their project was viewed with considerable suspicion by their principal, and in fact their results revealed a pattern of Puerto Rican students receiving longer punishments than other students. The teachers shared their findings with other Hispanic teachers in the school, but did not confront the principal. Instead they decided among themselves to develop alternate strategies for dealing with discipline problems.
We organized a meeting with the Hispanic teachers and it was a very successful one. We presented the project concerning student discipline and we came up with the idea to have the student come after school to meet with the teacher before sending them to the office.
In another school, a White teacher shared her new sense of empowerment with her students to bring about institutional change.
As I thought about racism in our society, I began to think about what I could do in my classroom. How can I help to change things? And it seemed to me that all of my students needed to feel empowered. One of the things that happened was that kids couldn’t stay for after-school activities because there was no after-school bus. So a class took on the project of lobbying for a bus. They did a survey in the school and they spoke to the school council to present their findings. The final result was that we have a bus now for two days a week. Their study has also been used to apply for a grant for next year. This class experienced a real sense of empowerment. I hope this experience will encourage them to work constructively for change… . Recently two students said to me, “I don’t understand why we don’t have a Puerto Rican festival here at [school]. I said, “Well do you want one?” And they said, “Yeah, well, of course we want one.” So I said I would help it happen. Since then, two girls started and planned a festival. It’s become a real lesson in empowerment.
While the level of commitment and degree of initiative varied greatly across the action plans, it seemed clear that most of the educators emerged from the course with a heightened sense of both their responsibility and their power to address issues of inequity in the school, to become allies to the students of color in their school, and to be antiracist role models for all students. Such awareness can only be a step in the right direction for improving student performance. Perhaps the significance of the learning is best captured in the closing quote of this educator, a woman with thirty years of experience in public education.
As I write this action plan, I have to ask myself why I did not see the need for this or other services for children of color before taking this course. The only answer that I can think of is that I was insensitive to those needs and blind to the effects of racism that were all around me. The White privilege audit that we did and the school/classroom audit helped to bring those issues into focus for me. More than any course I have ever taken, this one has helped to open my eyes and shock me into taking some positive concrete steps toward combating racist attitudes in my daily life. I intend to continue the process of becoming more sensitive to the needs of students of color. I sincerely hope that we, as a school system, can capitalize on the momentum and energy generated by this course and build a truly multicultural environment for our students.
Did this demonstration project improve student performance district-wide, enough to close the achievement gap? I can’t say that it did, because the project did not continue beyond the two years of funding, not long enough to see systemic change. We do know that
individual
students improved their performance in response to
individual
teachers’ antiracist efforts.
