Transcript Chapter 6 PowerPoint

Chapter Six
Creating
Classrooms that
Address Race
and Ethnicity
Roots of Racial and Ethnic
Conflict in American Society
 Causes may be political, economic,
religious, linguistic, cultural, or racial.
 Conflict is usually due to a sense of
injustice in the distribution of material,
social, or cultural resources.
 A knowledge of the sources and
dimensions of conflict is necessary for
understanding.
We Have Been Different from
the Beginning
 Columbus introduced European culture in
the 1490s.
 The Spanish, the French, the
Portuguese, and the English colonized
the Americas.
 The English emerged as dominant, in
part due to English immigrants’ desires
for religious freedom.
Religious Tolerance ShortLived
 White, English-born Protestants were
dominant by the turn of the 19th century.
 Fear and persecution of “different” kinds
of immigrants became prevalent,
particularly with respect to
Roman Catholics
The Irish
The Civil War Era
 Race in education became an issue after the
Civil War.
 Freedmen’s Schools were developed to
educate the children of freed slaves.
 Public education for black children was most
often segregated, more often in the south than
the north, but in the north as well.
 Violence often characterized the development
of black schools.
Legislative and Judicial
Landmarks
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – “Separate
but equal” facilities for the races in
schools and elsewhere is constitutional.
 Brown v. Board of Education (1954) –
“Separate but equal” doctrine is
inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
The Civil Rights Movement
and the Schools
 The Equal Pay Act (1963)
 The Voting Rights Act (1963)
 The Civil Rights Act (1964)
 The Bilingual Education Act (1968)
 Title IX, Educational Amendments (1972)
 Education of All Handicapped Children Act
(1975)
Characteristics of Classrooms
that Address Race and
Ethnicity
 Pedagogies: Old and New
Teachers do not shy away from the deepseated influence that race plays in people’s
lives.
Teachers understand the historical
significance of race.
Teachers are aware that majority children
may not understand the role race plays in
their lives.
Roles: Old and New
 Teachers understand their roles as
active agents of change.
 Teachers reach out to individuals and
community groups that represent
various ethnic and racial groups.
 Students interact with community
groups working to change the status
quo.
 Place of Content Knowledge: Old and
New
 The history of diversity in the U.S. is a
critical element.
 The concept of “race” is often used
incorrectly.
 Genotype—shared genetic material
 Phenotype—visible traits, e.g. skin color
 Textbooks are often inaccurate and
dated.
 Content materials are often biased
(intentionally or unintentionally).
Assessment: Old and New
Assessment instruments may be
developed and normed with only one
race or ethnic group in mind.
Assessments should consider the
sociocultural context of the learner.
Biases and stereotypes
Prior experience of the learner
 Assessments should be varied.
Curriculum Transformation: the
Case of Prejudice
 It is human nature to surround oneself with
others who provide social acceptance and
help in times of need.
 Individuals begin to think that the familiar
behaviors of their group are good and natural.
 It follows, then, that others may be perceived
as “less good” and “less natural.”
 These judgments may become harsh,
discriminatory, and involve rejection.
The Functions of Prejudice
(Katz)
 Adjustment: prejudicial attitudes that aid in
adjusting to a complex world will be maintained
 Ego-defensive: prejudicial attitudes that protect
self-concepts
 Value-expressive: prejudicial attitudes that
demonstrate one’s own virtues
 Knowledge: prejudicial attitudes that offer
decision-making criteria about members of
outgroups
Prejudice Formation
Three components of prejudice:
Cognitive component: the process of
categorization
Affective component: the feelings that
accompany one’s thoughts about
members of outgroups
Behavioral component: discriminatory
practices towards members of
outgroups
Continued…
How Children Learn Prejudice
 Observation of respected elders:
socialization
 Group membership: desire to mimic
ingroup attitudes in order to belong
 The media: reinforcement of
stereotypes
 Religious fundamentalism: belief that
one holds the “truth,” that others are
at best wrong, and at worst,
dangerous
Extreme Cases of Prejudice
Hate groups: any organized body
that denigrates select groups of people
based on their ethnicity, race, religion,
or sexual orientation and/or advocates
the use of violence against such
groups
Continued…
White privilege: what occurs when
members of the dominant group (in the
U.S., whites) are taught that racism is
something that puts others at a
disadvantage, but are not taught to see
the corresponding advantage their color
brings to them
Racial Profiling: law enforcement
practice of targeting someone for
investigation in public spaces on the basis
of a statistical profile of his or her race,
ethnicity, or national origin
Prejudice Reduction
 Critical to reducing prejudice and
establishing an interculturally sensitive
classroom is the teacher’s understanding
of, and ability to integrate, intercultural
awareness and prejudice reduction
activities into the curriculum.
 Intercultural sensitivity is not “natural”—
cross-cultural contact has historically
been accompanied by bloodshed,
oppression, or genocide.
Educational Strategies to
Reduce Prejudice
 Improving social contact and intergroup
relations
Equal status contact: when those who are
brought together perceive they are of
equal status
Superordinate goals: when the purpose of
bringing people together cannot be
accomplished without the participation of
all
Continued…
Encouragement of intergroup
interaction: should become a positive
school norm
Personal familiarity: people must have
the opportunity to get to “know” the
other person in ways that render the
stereotypic image clearly inaccurate
or inappropriate
Some Cautions in Applying the
Contact Hypothesis
 Many schools are monocultural,
providing little opportunity for intergroup
contact to occur; in such cases it is best
to stress the diversity that is present,
e.g., socioeconomic or gender diversity.
 Equal status contact within the school
may conflict with that which occurs
outside the school.
The Importance of Critical
Thought
Increasing Cognitive Sophistication
 Improving students’ critical thinking
skills
Questioning
Analyzing
Suspending judgment until all available
information is collected and studied
Ten Criteria in the
Development of Critical
Thought
 Intellectual Curiosity
 Intellectual honesty
 Objectivity; reliance
on evidence
 Ability to be
systematic
 Open-mindedness
 Persistence
 Flexibility in thinking
 Intellectual
skepticism
 Ability to be decisive
 Attentiveness to
other points of view
Elements of Classrooms that
Encourage Critical Thought
Students feel respected and safe.
The classroom is a “community of
inquiry.”
There is a balance between teacher-talk
and student-talk.
Students are taught to think about their
own thinking.
Improving Self-Confidence and
Self-Acceptance
A sense of self-worth and self-confidence
supports the reduction of prejudice.
Students feel secure and accepted.
Student participation is valued.
Students know the boundaries and limits
of behavior.
Increasing Empathy for and
Understanding of Others
Long-term gains in prejudice reduction
require educational activity that actively
engages the emotions.
Writing stories or acting out dramatizations of
cross-cultural situations
Any activity that enables students to “step
into the shoes” of another
Classroom simulations that generate “culture
shock”
Something to Think About
…let’s think about the consequences of
silence. I think about Hitler. He got into
power by people around him being silent
and not challenging him. When you are
silent, you are giving tacit approval of the
messages you hear around you…your
simple comments can go quite far in
making change.
--John Gray