Power, Privilege and Education: Pedagogy, Curriculum and Student Outcomes (Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World)

EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD

POWER, PRIVILEGE AND EDUCATION PEDAGOGY, CURRICULUM AND STUDENT OUTCOMES No part of this digital document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means. The publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this digital document, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained herein. This digital document is sold with the clear understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, medical or any other professional services.

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EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD

POWER, PRIVILEGE AND EDUCATION PEDAGOGY, CURRICULUM AND STUDENT OUTCOMES

GREG WIGGAN EDITOR

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Copyright © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers‘ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works. Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Power, privilege, and education : pedagogy, curriculum, and student outcomes / editor, Greg Wiggan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61942-246-9 (eBook) 1. Multicultural education--United States. 2. Educational equalization--United States. 3. Academic achievement--United States. 4. Education--Curricula--Social aspects--United States. 5. Critical pedagogy. I. Wiggan, Greg A., 1976LB1570.P653 2011 370.1170973--dc22 2011003556

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

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Treatises into the Life of Paulo Freire: Critical Pedagogy for the Oppressed Greg Wiggan

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Starting with Young Learners: Using Critical Literacy to Contest Power and Privilege in Educational Settings Crystal Glover and Katie Stover

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Outsiders in the Middle: African American Students and Culturally Responsive Middle Schools Tarra D. Ellis

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Mapping Social Relations in Special Education Classrooms: Power, Pedagogy, and Ruling Relations Paul Bennett

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Successful Charter Schools: A Pathway to Closing the Student Treatment Gap Perpetuated by Traditional School Failures Cedric L. Stone

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vi Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Contents Preparing Tomorrow‘s Teachers: The Components of a Culturally Responsive Educational Approach Lindsay Sheronick Yearta Recruiting and Retaining Female and Minority Engineering Students: A Critical Social Feminist and Race Perspective Patricia Tolley ―Turn in Something that you‘re Proud of‖ — Pedagogical Scripts and the Re-Education of U.S. Educated English Learners Spencer Salas Some Urban Parents‘ Responses to White Power and Privilege in Edmonton‘s K-12 Education Structures: Self-Actualization Outcomes of Some Caribbean-Canadian Blacks Jean Walrond

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About the Authors

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Index

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my very first teacher, Mrs. Lyons, the renowned educator in Sav-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica, and my last teacher, Dr. Asa Hilliard. I owe my deepest gratitude to these two educators who have had an enormous impact on my growth and development. I also wish to thank my good friend Chief Elder Noel Robinson, my mother, Norma Wiggan, and my father, Austin Wiggan, peace and blessings. And to the seven ancestors be venerated; to the ‗Vicker,‘ elder ancestor Errol Peynado, and the queen mothers, Mama Scott and Mama ―P,‖ blessed love.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Introduction

POWER, PRIVILEGE AND THE SOCIOCULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATION Greg Wiggan UNCC, College of Education, Charlotte, NC, USA

In a truly democratic society, the tenants of justice, liberty and equality echo in the minds and heartbeats of citizens, and public policies are created to protect and deliver on those freedoms. For indeed, in the United States the Declaration of Independence states: ―We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.‖ However, for too many citizens the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness has been a dream deferred. In the history of the U.S., slaves were not allowed to learn to read or write or to think for themselves because, since they were not considered to be fully humans, such behavior would warrant punishment, reprisal and at times even death. Slaves, women and many poor white immigrants (e.g. Irish and Italians) were prohibited from engaging in civic activities such as voting and attending schools. The power elites who ruled the country protected their privilege and influence by controlling access to knowledge and opportunity, which led to institutionalized forms of gatekeeping and legitimations regarding inequalities and discrimination. In the Jim Crow era, those who were left from the Native American population were sent to reservations and special schools to teach them how to acculturate to the dominant white culture. From the Plessy v.

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Ferguson case of 1896, which stated that ―separate but equal‖ accommodations for blacks and whites were supposed to be the legal norm, the social boundaries were clear and those who dared to cross the color line would be punished severely, even by lynching. Later, the Brown v. Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education case of 1954, overturned the ―separate but equal‖ doctrine of the Plessy case. The legal regulation of human freedom and opportunities to pursue equality and to participate in the opportunity structure were blocked by local and federal legislation, because the laws themselves also reflected the interest of the group in power. Even in the court of law, African Americans were asked to swear-in on separate Bibles than their white counterparts. As a result of these legacies, the 1960s and 1970s became periods of social unrest, protest and activism, as citizens became weary of oppression and discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement aimed to correct much of the discrimination against African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos/Latinas, women and sexual minorities. While there have been great strides towards improving the democratic process and protecting the rights of all people to pursue ―Life, Liberty and Happiness,‖ there remains a need for greater social progress, as there is still much work that needs to be accomplished. Those who have fought on the side of social justice and progress can feel proud knowing that they have helped elect President Barack Obama, the first African American president of the U.S., which is no small step for a country that is embedded in repressive racial and ethnic relations. While there is reason to pause and celebrate this progress, we must still march forward because having the responsibility of justice and freedom requires us to continue to make the promise of ―Life, Liberty and Happiness‖ true for all people.

SOCIAL SEGREGATION AND THE OTHER Even in the twenty-first century, in the U.S., Sunday is still the most racially segregated day of the week, where the deity is made to take on the appearance and image of the group in power, and legitimates their authority, and where the Bible belt maintains some of the most oppressive racial and ethnic relations. In these segregated services, some social groups give thanks and praises for power and social privileges that they receive because of historical processes and group domination, while others use the space as a coping mechanism to deal with structural and systemic social challenges that disproportionately affect racial minorities (e.g. high unemployment,

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underemployment, home foreclosure, homelessness, incarceration, poor school quality, lack of health care and chronic illness, crime and homicides, police brutality, etc.), where they receive social support and encouragement from members and through inspirational songs and messages. Across the nation, but more specifically in the South, which is regarded as a religious fountainhead, social illiteracy, religious intolerance and racism in-and-outside of religious and educational institutions are still the social norm. Today, public schools continue to be one of the most embattled sites of institutional progress. Throughout the nation, our schools continue to underserve poor and minority student populations. For these students, the promise of a quality education is as daunting as trying to catch the wind. Through no fault of their own, some children were born into low socio-economic status and others are non-white, and because of that, they pay the price by receiving limited access to high quality schools, which negatively impacts their life chances. However, many teachers are seeing high levels of school performance and social outcomes in poor and minority students when they are given an opportunity to benefit from high quality instruction, school enrichments, and culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy. This book presents a collection of works that examine the intersections of power and privilege in education, as well as their social consequences and outcomes.

POWER AND GROUP MARGINALIZATION In the context of this book, power is defined as the possibly or likelihood that the desires of a person or group will be carried out or obeyed, even when faced by opposition by other groups and individuals. Power is even more salient when those who are the subjects of marginalization and mistreatment, comply with the wishes of dominant groups based on the perceived benefit towards their own self-interest, or because of habit or fear of punishment and reprisal. In this way, powerful groups create consensus and agreement through systems of legitimation that reinforce their authority and position of power at the expense of others. They also create loyalty while socially controlling the behaviors of those who are their subjects -- less powerful groups and individuals.

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SOCIAL PRIVILEGE AND ENTITLEMENT Related to power is the issue of privilege, and more specifically, white privilege and male privilege. Having privilege confers dominance and opportunities that are invisible and unearned and which are enjoyed at the expense of disadvantaged groups. Peggy McIntosh (1995) explains that white privilege is the direct and indirect acquiescence of years of slavery and racial discrimination that benefits the white race. McIntosh (2002) states: I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions which were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. (p. 100)

Similarly, America (2000) poses that whites possess an ―unacknowledged inheritance‖ that they receive from four hundred years of practices and decision making, which today benefits their education, social class status and social mobility. Elaborating on the issue, Paula Rothenberg (2002) states: For people whose class position or gender or both place them at a disadvantage, the deprivations and inequities imposed by class and/or male privilege may be so overwhelming that they mask the privileges some of us receive simply by virtue of being white. (p. 3)

At the societal level, social and educational systems that are based on power and privilege stratify individuals along the intersecting axis of social class, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexuality. People‘s experiences with marginalization and discrimination form a continuum, where to be poor and non-white often has the greatest consequences. One example of power and privilege can be easily found in public institutions of higher learning where in many colleges and universities that have sixty-to-one hundred years of history, some departments have never had a tenured or full-time black or Latino/Latina faculty member, which is not a concern or a problem to the white colleagues that run the institutions. For them, it is business as usual. Or for example, in most public K-12 schools, students who attend for twelve or thirteen precious years of their lives may never learn anything of substance about any other social group other than white‘s contributions to civilizations and modern society, because the curriculum and the entire educational system are premised

Power, Privilege and the Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Education xiii on the experience of one group. And unless students master the dominant group‘s ways of thinking, they are considered failures. In this way, many public institutions of higher education and K-12 schools, reify race and repressive racial and ethnic relations in that they take public taxpayer dollars at the local, state and federal levels, to promote institutional practices that exclude minorities, or marginalize them through hegemonic hiring and promoting practices, and through school curricula and educational programming that subjugates less powerful groups. While this phenomenon is extremely visible to minority group members, those with power and privilege are often offended at the very suggestion that there is something wrong with this, and they might even use their power to punish those who might argue that this is problematic. However, the irony of this phenomenon is that the hope and potential for change and inclusion lies simultaneously in the hand of the groups that are negatively affected by exclusion and powerlessness, as well as those who benefit the most from power and privilege. I can remember attending a presentation by a colleague in an institution of higher education, who was presenting recent findings from a trip to east Africa where she visited Kenya. I attended this presentation with a great deal of excitement and anticipation, wanting to hear about the trip and this research. During the presentation, the presenter talked about the ‗strange beliefs (spirituality) of the Masai,‘ and how ‗they don‘t bathe often.‘ As she recalled, when a few of the Masais accompanied her and her colleagues on the bus to direct them to the next town, they joked that ‗they couldn‘t wait to reach their destination because their (Masai) body odor was ―intolerable.‖ In a majority white audience of people who were supposedly interested in Africa, everyone smiled and failed to see a problem with this European view and dehumanization of the Masais. In fact, after the presentation they praised the work and the fact that the presenter did research on Africans, essentially using their privilege to anoint this culturally incompetent person as an expert on the Masais. Another example of this kind of misguided use of privilege was a black history month celebration that I learned of a few years ago. For black history month, the panel discussing the life and experiences of African Americans did not include one black person as part of the discussion or presentation. Here, these people felt that they were doing African Americas a favor by doing something for black history month, and they would present their research about the black experience, but they did not see a problem with excluding that very group. And any minorities who dare to question this false benevolence are generally considered to be a problem, and the dominant group might even

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try to invert its racism, by calling these people racists. Both of these examples are cases of intellectual racism, where dominant groups benefit from the suppression of the other, and from being able to pose as experts on their experiences. This kind of privilege and entitlement is exacted when those with power use that power to speak for every other group. Privileged researchers often make the mistake of building their careers on the experiences of people they read about and conduct studies on, and claim to be experts on, while never unpacking racism and white privilege. They may even study a minority group, but live in segregated neighborhoods, attend segregated services, send their children to segregated schools, and may only interact with the other when it is time to conduct research or for professional opportunities. They often legitimate themselves by keeping professional ties with minorities, or connecting with a minority person who is known in the field. Nevertheless, while it is impossible to remove racial privilege, it is best to learn how to use it correctly to help rather than to suppress minority groups. In this book, while each author applies the concepts of power and privilege to different educational issues, the above definitions capture their general use throughout the works. The authors acknowledge that we live in the intersections of power, privilege and inequality, and that these dynamics influence our life chances. Power and privilege often make inequalities appear natural because of prevailing ideology that suggests that the society is meritocratic, and that the poor and needy are in their particular circumstance because they are lazy or because they lack moral fortitude or intellectual capacity. Those who are privileged enough to live in a wealthy major-developed country may never fully understand and appreciate what it is to have fresh running water every day, to have access to food, access to schools, public housing, and roads for supply and delivery trucks to drive on. This book uncovers the taken- for granted aspects of power and privilege, and provides teachers and researchers with critical analyses and practical solutions for improving the education of poor and minority students.

THE BOOK In chapter one, I examine the life of Paulo Freire and the emergence of critical pedagogy as a transformative approach to teaching for conscientization and liberation. I discuss the implications of Freire‘s work for educators. In chapter two, Crystal Glover and Katie Stover extend the discussion on critical

Power, Privilege and the Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Education xv pedagogy and literacy. They explore the use of critical literacy as an alternative instructional model to neoliberal market approaches to education. Instead of a stratified education system where accountability and surveillance persist through the form of high stakes assessments and scripted curriculum, they argue that critical literacy can create greater agency and access for groups who are marginalized because of their race and or social class. During a child‘s development, adolescence can be one of the most challenging times, both academically and socially. Generally, public schools struggle to effectively educate minority students during this crucial stage of life. In chapter three, Tarra Ellis describes how the structure of middle schools can influence the academic achievement of African American students, both positively and negatively. Ellis describes three shared principles of the middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education: relevance, rigor, and relationships. This chapter provides a new perspective by viewing middle schools serving African Americans through the lens of middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education. In the next chapter [four], Paul Bennett continues the examination of middle school education, using institutional ethnography (IE) to analyze the power relations within special education classrooms at the middle school level. A primary debate within special education today focuses on the setting that is best for special needs students, inclusion or non-inclusion (also known as pull-out) classroom environments. Bennett observed two types of non-inclusion special education classrooms with different levels of student ability and performance: the resource room and the exceptional children‘s class. He maps three primary ruling relations at Madisonville Middle School – all of which maintain an unequal education: (1) Children with disabilities are often inappropriately placed into different levels of special education; (2) Two types of curriculum exists in non-inclusion special education classrooms—an official curriculum focused on standardized testing and a hidden curriculum defined by constant discipline and punishment for minority students; and (3) Special education teachers have extra burdens which limit their ability to adequately deliver effective instruction. Paralleling the middle school experience, in the U.S., the fight for social and educational equality is embodied in the experiential struggle of African Americans for equal rights and opportunities. While public schools fail in educating African American students, some charter schools are experiencing great success. In chapter five, Cedric Stone investigates the history and development of charter schools and their impact on African Americans‘ education. His research focuses on the autonomy given to charter schools,

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which allows these institutions to use best practices to teach using culturally responsive pedagogical strategies. One outcome of successful charter schools is that they have higher numbers of students who matriculate to colleges and universities. In chapter six, Lindsey Yearta explores the higher education challenges of minority students and explains the aspects of a culturally responsive approach to education in institutions of higher learning as a prescriptive measure for mediating cultural hegemony in the academy and in teacher education programs. Despite attempts by government, industry, university, and philanthropic organizations to resolve the gender and ethnic disparities in student graduation rates, and in college engineering programs, little progress has been made. In chapter seven, Patricia Tolley discusses how the structure of K-12 education in the U.S., as well as socio-cultural influences, the absence of female and minority role models in academia and industry, and the continuing struggle for power have resulted in challenges that are systemic and complex, and which create barriers to fueling the engineering pipeline with underrepresented student populations. Tolley provides solutions aimed at increasing and retaining the number of women and minority students in the field of engineering. Extending the discussion on higher education, Spenser Salas (chapter eight) draws on classroom observation data and interview transcripts to discuss the power dynamics of an English class in a major university. Salas argues that while the teacher‘s expressed pedagogical goal was to establish a supportive climate whereby English as a Second Language writers might be proud of their progress over the course of a semester, the teacher and her students were increasingly aware that only their individual achievement on the standardized testing at the end of the class would matter. Salas provides a discussion on the often exclusive understandings of what constitutes ―college-readiness,‖ how that construct is measured, and the complexity of teacher advocacy for U.S. educated ethnic minorities in developmental postsecondary coursework. In the final chapter [nine], Jean Walrond compares the educational experiences of adults in Canada to the Caribbean and the U.S. She explores the question: ―As parents, what are your experiences with education in the Caribbean and with formal K–12 education in Edmonton‘s public schools?‖ Walrond uses cultural studies perspectives and connects student achievement and outcomes to immigrant identity development and school processes. She relates her findings to minority educational issues in the U.S. as she argues for cultural heritage education and culturally responsive teaching.

Power, Privilege and the Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Education xvii In sum, throughout this body of work the authors provide meaningful perspectives on the dynamics of power and privilege in education. The authors offer recommendations and policy considerations that are aimed at increasing social justice in education and improving student performance and outcomes. I am grateful for the many wonderful students whom I have had the opportunity to teach, to share with, and to learn from. To you I say the last 12 years have been dynamic. I thank my current and former students for contributing to this work.

REFERENCES America, R. (2000). The last word: Reparations higher education. Black Issues in Higher Education, 16(23), 104. McIntosh, P. (1995). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women‘s studies. In M. L. Andersen and P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, and gender: An anthology (2nd ed., pp. 76-87). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. McIntosh, P. (2002). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In P. S. Rothenberg (Ed.), White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism (pp. 97-101). New York: Worth Publishers. Rothenberg, P. S. (Ed.). (2002). White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism. New York: Worth Publishers.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

TREATISES INTO THE LIFE OF PAULO FREIRE: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY FOR THE OPPRESSED Greg Wiggan During the early twentieth century, social scientists grew weary with the limitations and power dynamics of the social, economic and political systems, and they sought new ways of explaining social phenomenon and global inequalities and domination, which led to the formulization of critical theory. Although the origins of critical theory extends far back to the works of Karl Marx and Georg Hegel, the term was actually coined by Max Horkheimer, who was a leading member of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research in Germany during the early and mid-twentieth century. Despite being influenced by Karl Marx, the Frankfurt School was critical of Marx because he failed to effectively acknowledge and address the influences of non-economic forces in the perpetuation of inequality and oppression (Freire, 1991; McLaren, 1992/1993; Saha & Zubrzycki, 1997). The Frankfurt School was concerned with injustice and inequality, as well as the transformation of oppressive social conditions (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1995). Harnessing the idea of social justice, critical theory is a theoretical framework that seeks to explain and mediate the sources of oppression in society (Ritzer, 2000). It is concerned with the project of human emancipation through emancipatory knowledge and the nurturing of a transformative consciousness in citizens. Critical theory is premised on a kind of rationalism in that it maintains that the sources of knowledge and the basis of the human

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experience rest on the fact that we have the potential to be rational beings. Therefore, a rational society is one in which each member participates equally in exposing false ideology for the purpose of eliminating oppression. Critical theory emphasizes the human project of emancipation from domination and enslavement, which requires individuals to engage in self-and-societal reflections. Although their concerns are more specific than those that were raised by the Frankfurt School, educational theorists like Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Michelle Fine, and Michael Apple have applied a similar kind of critical analysis to American education (McLaren, 1992/1993). During the 1970s, critical theory became a popular conceptual framework for understanding and explaining the ways in which schools work (Ritzer, 2000). Critical theorists of education argue that there are opposing forces that are inherent in the social organizations and social institutions of a society. They propose that schools are the sites of power struggles, and critical theorists attempt to examine how dominant groups maintain power over subordinate groups. In addition, they advocate for teaching practices that allow teachers and students to resist oppression and inequality to gain liberation. Over the past four decades, the work of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian philosopher and educator, has been influential in the development of current critical analyses and pedagogy of education. The purpose of this chapter is to present a concise examination of the life and contributions of Freire. The chapter discusses Freire‘s childhood and development, and then focuses more precisely on his notions of active dialogue, conscientizing education, praxis, and a problem posing rather than a banking system of education.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FREIRE Born in Brazil on September 19th of 1921, Paulo Freire grew up poor in the northern region of the country, yet he later became an influential educator and social thinker who was internationally known (Paulo Freire Institute, 2010). In his work, he attempted to respond to the needs of the oppressed, largely the poor indigenous population of Brazil, by creating an effective method for teaching them critical literacy, which he chronicles in his classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire believed that literacy among oppressed groups could be increased by leading them to a critical awareness of their social conditions and cultural realities (Hilliard, 1997). Towards this end, he emphasized that learners needed to understand the nature of their

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oppressors in order to resist oppression. Freire‘s method of teaching reading and critical literacy achieved considerable success among the poor people of northeastern Brazil, one of the most suppressed regions under Portuguese colonial rule. Freire‘s work in Brazil increased the politicization of the poor, which the government perceived as being a threat to the prevailing social and economic system. For this, the Brazilian government targeted Freire and he was eventually forced into exile (Ballantine, 1989). Freire grew up in a very humble environment. He recalls that his family was challenged by severe needs and that he was often hungry as a child (Freire, 1991). He was influenced by his mother, a deeply religious woman who cherished the possibility of her son becoming a priest (Araujo Freire, 2001). In Chronicles of Love: My Life with Paulo Freire, Ana Maria Araujo Freire (Nita), Freire‘s second wife, provides readers with a close and intimate account of life with her husband. In her book, she presents a sense of the intimacy that was shared between her and Freire. She describes him as a powerful intellectual, but also as an amateur chef who made ―green beef liver‖ recipes (Araujo Freire, 2001). Freire‘s first wife, Elza, died suddenly in 1986. He was moved by the loss and his friends and family became very concerned because they felt in him a loss of desire to live. After marrying his second wife, Nita, he states that ―she not only made me rediscover the joy of life but she also taught me a great lesson that I intellectually knew, but somehow I emotionally could no longer remember to always view and accept history as possibility. It is always possible to love again‖ (Araujo Freire, 2001, p. 4). He recalls, ―Nita made me rediscover myself‖ (Araujo Freire, 2001, p. 6). Freire knew Nita from their childhood days. Nita‘s father, Aluisio Araujo, was instrumental in helping Freire to continue his education when his family could not afford to pay for his schooling (Freire, 1991). After graduating from Araujo‘s high school, Freire became a member of the faculty where he later taught Nita Portuguese. In 1988, Ana Maria Araujo (Nita) and Freire, who were both widowed, decided to marry. Freire attributes much of the success of his work to the keen understanding and intellectual abilities of Nita. After living a long meaningful life, Freire died of a heart failure on May 2nd, 1997 (Freire, 1970, 1998). He is considered to be one of the most important educators in the last 60 years (Kohl, 1997).

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CRITICAL DIALOGUE IN TEACHER PEDAGOGY Freire was instrumental in the development and conceptualization of a critical approach to education. One of the themes that is central to his work is the art of asking questions. According to Freire, education should be filled with dialogue and questioning, which awakens a critical consciousness in teachers and students. Critical dialogue is essential for a ―conscientizing‖ education, which creates critical awareness. Freire argues that dialogue among the oppressed is necessary for authentic revolution to occur (Freire, 1970, 1998). Therefore, if social transformation is to take place, teachers must engage students in a dialogue that awakens their critical understanding of oppression. Conscientization is gained through dialogue and reflection, as one develops a critical awareness of his or her role as an agent of social change. Freire argues that ideas concerning a dialogical education should be expressed in the form of dialogue itself. Therefore, the ideal teacher is dialogical, a problem-posing teacher.

PROBLEM-POSING EDUCATION Freire argues that a problem-posing education helps students to understand their struggles and their relationships to historical processes, as well as to current social, economic and political systems. A conscientizing education creates knowledge regarding the sources of oppression and the prospects for changes. For Freire, one of the problems in schools is the tendency for authoritarian educators to repress students‘ natural tendencies to inquire and ask questions. Therefore, the starting point in training educators is to have them adopt a liberating democratic approach to teaching. In this way, classrooms become places of open and critical dialogue. Freire argues that educators should use conversation to help students gain a social consciousness that leads to change. He poses that the new model of education should be based on a process of self-transformation, and that students and teachers should be prepared to be the driving force of social change.

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FREIRIAN CURRICULUM For Freire, the curricular content of education should not be an imposition of bits of information that is to be deposited into students. He opposes a banking or transmission approach to schooling. In the banking approach, students are viewed as objects into which teachers pour prescribed knowledge. In this way, students have no autonomy but are charged with the task of recalling descriptive knowledge through rote memorization (Freire, 1970). Freire opposes this view, and he argues that the goal of education should be to create critical awareness for praxis. Praxis is reflection and action in the world for transformation (Freire, 1991, 1998). Freire posits that the idea of praxis can be divided into a prior stage of reflection and a subsequent stage of action. Thus, action and reflection engage simultaneously to create a critical analysis of reality. Critical reflection and transformation are actions that lead to change (Freire, 1985). Freire argues for intellectual work as a joint activity between the teacher and students, rather than the teacher imposing information on students. Furthermore, he emphasizes the idea that the starting point for a political-pedagogical project must be precisely at the level of the students‘ aspirations and dreams, their understanding of reality and their forms of action and struggle (Freire & Faundez, 1989).

TEACHER EDUCATION According to Freire, education is not simply about technical training for the purpose of employment; rather, it has to do with existence. Therefore, teacher preparation should not be reduced to technical skills training. Instead, teacher preparation should be ―rooted in the ethical formation both of selves and of history‖ (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 23). The role of the educator is to teach content and critical thinking, which he otherwise calls ―correct thinking‖ (Freire, 1998). By correct thinking, Freire means thinking that is conscious and critical and aimed at engaging social change and progress. Teachers should teach ―correct thinking‖ in order to engage students in the struggle against the exploitation of labor and the ideological manipulation of human life. Furthermore, teachers should reflect critically on the relationship between theory and practice. The aim of theory should be for the practice of change;

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that is, the changing of oppressive conditions. In addition, teachers should be open to dialogue and using students‘ experiences to teach critical reflection.

FREIRE’S IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The field of education has benefited immensely from Freire‘s critical approach to teaching. His work continues to be one of the most inspiring and widely read contributions in the field. While Freire‘s work has had an enormous impact on education, there are still enduring challenges and concerns within the field. Central to Freire‘s work is the idea of using pedagogy to create social change and mediate oppression. However, Freire delivers a great charge to teachers to teach for social transformation. He tends to instill in teachers the idea that it is their duty to teach students to reflect critically on society and to transform it. Therefore, schools are to be devoted to an agenda of social and political progress, as well as students‘ growth and development. Freire argues that teachers are to be democratic in their views, but at the same time, they are to be proponents of critical and transformative views of education. He makes a valid argument for change, and teachers should not view this as a burden, but an opportunity to expose oppression and social inequalities for the purpose of creating a more democratic society. While it is important to fight against oppression, it is equally important to correctly identify those sources of oppression. If the means by which we fight against oppression is burdensome, then we may create additional oppression in the name of liberation. In light of the promise of change that can be initiated by students and teachers, Freire‘s emphasis on social awareness and equality are valuable. This is especially crucial in the current climate of cultural hegemony and oppression, where there is a need for more critical dialogue in schools. Both the privileged and the oppressed must engage together in the struggle for change to gain a better understanding of their existence, if they are to create greater equality in schools and society.

REFERENCES Araujo Freire, A. M. (2001). Chronicles of love: My life with Paulo Freire. Washington, D.C.: Peter Lang.

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Ballantine, N. H. (1989). The sociology of education: A systematic analysis. 2nd edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. DeMarrais, K., &, LeCompte, M. (1995). The way schools work: A sociological analysis of education. White Plains, New York: Longman. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Freire, P. (1985). The politics of education: Culture, power, and liberation. Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey. Freire, P. (1991). Letters to Cristina: Reflections on my life and work. New York: Routledge. Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Freire, P., &, Faundez, A. (1989). Learning to question: Pedagogy of liberation. New York: Continuum. Freire, P., &, Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey. Hilliard, A. (1997). The structure of valid staff development. Journal of Staff Development, 18(2), 28-33. Kohl, H. (May 26, 1997). Paulo Freire: Liberation pedagogy. The Nation, 26, 7. McLaren, P. (October 1992/February 1993). Critical literacy and postcolonial praxis. College Literature, 19/20(3/1), 7-27. Paulo Freire Institute. (2010). Paulo Freire Institute: University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved May 5th, 2009 from http://www. paulofreireinstitute.org/. Ritzer, G. (2000). Modern sociological theory. New York: Mc Graw Hill. Saha, L. J., &, Zubrzycki, J. (1997). Classical sociological theories of education. In L. J. Saha‘s (Ed.) International encyclopedia of the sociology of education (pp. 11-20). Canberra, Australia: Pergamon.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

STARTING WITH YOUNG LEARNERS: USING CRITICAL LITERACY TO CONTEST POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS Crystal Glover and Katie Stover After more than 50 years since the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case, disparities in American education are still prevalent. Neoliberal education policies such as privatization of schools and a market-based education focused on commercialism perpetuate inequalities between the power elite and the less powerful lower class (Wiggan & Hutchison, 2009). Historically, African Americans and Latinos/Latinas in America have encountered disparities in education due to issues of racism, classism, and oppression. Self-serving business and political agenda have long shaped the educational policies in America‘s public schools. Business-driven interests have encouraged widespread privatization for the wealthy, while poor African American and Latino/Latina students regularly contend with scripted school reform programs, inexperienced teachers, overcrowded school buildings, high drop-out rates, and an overemphasis on test taking skills (Lipman, 2004). Across America, school districts that have the highest numbers of disadvantaged students have the fewest academic resources (Schott Foundation, 2010). Furthermore, statistical trends reveal low levels of academic achievement for minority students. Less than half of all black males graduate from high school. Black males are disproportionately placed in special education and are largely underrepresented in advanced and college preparatory classes (Schott Foundation, 2010). According to the 2009 National

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Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trends report, the gap in the reading proficiency scores of 17 year-old black and white students is more than 28 points. In 2009, eighth grade students who qualified for free or reduced lunch scored more than 23 points lower on reading proficiency tests than students who did not qualify for the national school lunch program. These statistics demonstrate continued racial inequities that ultimately limit the career opportunities available to students from low income families. Thus, a well-established culture of power and privilege legitimizes the social and racial chasm that exists in the American education system, leaving those in poverty to systematically decline while white, middle-class students flourish and excel. This chapter examines the role of power and privilege in education and presents critical literacy as a tool for encouraging and empowering marginalized students. The inequities that result from systematic power and privilege in educational settings closely mirror the imbalance of wealth and poverty in the larger society. We describe how power and privilege in society influence hegemonic educational policies that limit the quality of education for children from low income, minority families. Furthermore, this chapter explores the use of critical literacy as an alternative instructional model to neoliberal market approaches to education. The chapter includes researchbased studies that illustrate the benefits of using critical literacy with children in poverty, and encourages educators to include a more critical approach to teaching reading and social literacy. Instead of a stratified education system where accountability and surveillance prevail through the form of high stakes assessments and scripted curriculum, critical literacy can develop agency and access among groups who are historically marginalized because of their race or social class. This chapter begins with a discussion on power and privilege in society. The next section addresses how power and privilege in society is mirrored in educational settings. The final section explores the use of critical literacy as a way for young learners to contest the injustices that characterize the role of power and privilege in education.

POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN SOCIETY The concepts of power and privilege in American society date back to colonialization and slavery. Modern globalization manifests much of the same inequities that have plagued America throughout its history. According to

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Wiggan and Hutchison, ―globalization is defined as a social and economic process that is characterized by growing levels of financial and technological integrations and interconnections in the world system‖ (2009, p. 2). With deindustrialization and a movement towards more technology and globalization, many jobs have been eliminated or moved overseas leaving those with low skills and low educational attainment little room for mobility. Globalization creates a polarized society in which members of the dominant culture and middle and upper class status have access to wealth, high-paying jobs, real estate, and education. Marginalized groups have limited opportunities leaving the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few. According to Wiggan, "globalization involves the rapid spread of social, cultural, and economic practices of dominant groups‖ (2009, p. 25). Political and economic policies favor the advancement of the power elite and serve to further marginalize low income minorities. Thus, disparities in society are established and cultivated through globalization and capitalism. Contradictions in wealth are visible in the development of global cities. Lipman (2004) illustrates how Chicago's global economic agenda creates a labor force that attracts businesses to a region offering knowledge and economic opportunity. The concentration of powerful professionals creates a hegemonic class that requires low-wage workers to support their elite lifestyles. Hegemony refers to the dominant group‘s knowledge and interests that shape societal norms and that gives them an unequal advantage over members of the oppressed lower class. Service jobs needed for high-end elites create a ceiling of opportunity for a low-paid, low-skilled labor force. Inequities between social class and race became more prominent in America during the 1950s. During this period of time, ―white flight‖ occurred in which large numbers of white, middle-class families moved from urban cities to the suburbs. Black middle-class flight has also affected urban communities, leaving them with a lower tax base and few working professionals. This form of racial segregation widened the gap between the middle-class and poor blacks. The cultural politics of race continued to be an issue in the 1990s when economic investment and gentrification of urban areas became increasingly prevalent. Selective reinvestment in urban areas aimed at developing upscale living and recreational amenities for highly paid professionals created a "dual city" representing wealth and poverty, and power and oppression (Lipman, 2004). Increased growth in urban areas results in the demolition of low-income housing and increased property taxes, which force minorities to seek housing in more depressed areas of the city. The gentrification of urban cities leaves

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many working-class families without homes, jobs, or access to healthcare, public transportation, and retail. Stromquist (2002) contends that the ideologies of globalization and neoliberalism seek to minimize cultural relevancy; deny the inequity between low and high income earners; prevent social transformation through collective action and combat the power of national and international organizations that regulate the flow of wealth. The consequences of globalization result in segregation, racism, and oppression. Due to their powerlessness and lack of privilege, young children living in poverty face a myriad of social, economic and academic challenges. From an early age, minority children and children of poverty are forced to confront issues of racism, classism, oppression, and power. Today's tough economic conditions have left millions of American families in despair. Over 19 percent of American children live in families whose income falls below the federal poverty line. Children living in low-income families constitute 41 percent of all American children (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2008). From an early age, children in poverty experience disadvantages that escape their privileged, middle-class counterparts. Many poor children suffer from lead poisoning, low birth weights, and high number of birth defects that affect cognition. An example of this can be seen in the city of East St. Louis, Illinois where 98 percent of the population is black and 75 percent of blacks are on welfare. The town is surrounded by a chemical plant that releases toxic fumes in the air resulting in the highest asthma rates of children in the United States (Kozol, 1991). Lack of sufficient healthcare, poor nutrition and ineffective preschool education prevent many poor children from matching the academic achievement levels of students from higher socioeconomic status (SES) (Kozol, 2005). In a society where over ten million children go without healthcare, academic performance can be impacted due to health problems. For example, children may have high absenteeism due to illness or may have impaired vision which can affect their reading ability and test scores. To summarize, issues of power and privilege both overtly and covertly regulate society. The decisions of those in power significantly affect the lives of the poor and working-class. Many of the issues facing low-income families such as housing, healthcare, and unemployment are influenced by the actions of the power elite. These self-regulating stakeholders participate in bureaucratic practices that benefit their social and political agenda and perpetuate the existence of hegemonic forces.

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POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN EDUCATION Politics and Education Not surprisingly, the effects of power and privilege in society have permeated American public schools and infiltrated the inherent nature of schools. Societal issues of poverty, racism, classism, and discrimination are subtly reflected in the policies and practices of American schools. In the current and traditional American school system, the power elite exercise control over the economic, political, and education policy that significantly impacts the lives of the poor and working-class (Lipman, 2004). It is typical for public school policy to be aligned with the city‘s economic and political agenda. According to Lipman, ―School policy is part of the regulation, containment, and eviction of marginalized ‗others‘ from the city‖ (2004, p.60). The development of global cities promotes a universal, homogenous education curriculum that reflects market ideas (Stromquist, 2002). Cost effective programs such as scripted curriculum and standardization allow education to profit as a market. The use of scripted curriculum programs, along with an emphasis on high stakes testing, results in a basic skills curriculum that fulfills the top-down agenda of the wealthy. In turn, this produces a stratified labor force by teaching students to adopt working-class identities (Lipman, 2004). A focus on accountability and test preparation creates a system of control and surveillance that prepares minorities for lowskilled, low-wage jobs. This phenomenon promotes a sense of power for the dominant culture, and shapes racial and social inequities. Wiggan posits that ―corporate hegemony in the privatization of markets and schools has led to the decline of not only local markets and small businesses, but through neoliberal education, it has also diminished the quality of what students are learning in schools‖ (2009, p. 31). With business agendas driving what goes on in schools, poor and minority children will continue to receive an inferior education. Children from middle-class families are afforded privileges based on the relative power their parents‘ possess. Parental social class is the number one predictor of student achievement level on standardized assessments. Even starting at a very young age, a paradoxical situation is created in the American social class system, where the students from high socioeconomic backgrounds have opportunities to attend better schools than students from urban communities. These children are more likely to attend schools that have quality teachers, newer facilities, and greater access to technology (Kozol,

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2005). In contrast, children in poverty must contend with limited educational resources, scripted curriculum, tracking, inexperienced teachers, and the pressures of high stakes testing (Kozol, 2005). As a result, poor students are less likely than their middle-class peers to graduate from high school and attend college (Kunjufu, 2002). By the age of 9, these children have already fallen three grade levels behind their middle-class, white counterparts (Kopp, 2008). Furthermore, minority students have higher retention and suspension rates and are disproportionately placed in special education when compared to whites. Students in urban schools regularly fail to meet national and state academic standards (Kozol, 1995). Urban schools are densely populated with low income minority students and receive relatively low per-pupil expenditures (Kozol, 1995; Kunjufu, 2002). Further, these schools experience high teacher turnover and are primarily staffed by inexperienced teachers (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2004). While over 90% of students in urban schools are African American or Hispanic, the population of teachers serving these schools remains largely young, white, middle-class females (National Center for Education Information, 2005).

Historical Implications Prior to the historic Brown case of 1954, much of American society was plagued by prejudice and discrimination against African Americans. When the American federal court system conceded that these blatant ills of society were unconstitutional and would no longer be tolerated in schools, the power elite resisted mandates to initiate equitable funding and educational opportunities for racial minorities in public schools. In fact, many white Americans with public influence took measures to ensure the continuation of ―business as usual.‖ For several years following the Brown decision, school districts across America chose to ignore the ruling and maintain segregated schools. It was not until the Johnson Administration passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act that significant attempts at desegregation began (McNeal, 2009). Serving as a catalyst for change, the Civil Rights Act prompted lawsuits and denied federal funding of noncompliant school districts. As a result, large gains in the number of integrated schools surfaced from 1964 to 1988 (McNeal, 2009). The shortlived success of the Civil Rights Act was halted by the introduction of several key cases which ultimately resulted in less-rigid standards for segregation. Over 50 years after the Brown decision, physical, sociocultural, and academic inequities continue to characterize the disparities between poor and

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affluent schools. In addition to ineffective academic practices, physical conditions of poor, urban schools prevent many students from reaching their potential. Kozol (2005) posits that middle-class suburban schools benefit from higher per pupil funding; greater access to resources; and more experienced teachers while poor schools with high minority populations continue to deteriorate physically, subjecting students to deplorable conditions. He suggests that political and educational leaders, both purposely and unknowingly, present deceptive information and provide false hope to the public regarding the trends in education. While minority parents, students, and community members are keenly aware of the unfortunate state of poor schools, many of their affluent counterparts rest securely on the notion that ―separate‖ can indeed mean equal. These differences reflect the urgent need to overhaul the ineffective policies and practices that afflict public schools today. Kozol (2005) contends that lackadaisical efforts to enforce the fundamental principles outlined in Brown (1954) have resulted in hypersegregated schools whose physical conditions rival those of segregated schools that existed prior to the landmark case. In fact, American schools are more segregated now than they were prior to Brown (Kozol, 2005). Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee (2004) call this regression ―continuous resegregation.‖ The schools most greatly impacted by continuous resegregation are urban, minority schools. These schools are almost exclusively attended by students from low socioeconomic status with poor academic achievement records and high dropout rates (Steinberg & Kincheole, 2004). Most importantly, many segregated urban schools receive lower per-pupil funding than their more affluent suburban counterparts (Kozol, 2005; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2009).

Academic Inadequacies Academic inadequacies frequently surface among students attending poor, urban schools. According to Kozol (2005), the academic neglect of urban youth commences as needy three and four year-old students are denied access to quality preschool education. The trend continues as students in urban elementary schools are overwhelmingly subjected to scripted school reform programs that feature highly regimented curricula (Kozol, 2005). These programs overemphasize skills-based instruction and provide few opportunities for problem solving and critical thinking. Further, as poor, minority students enter middle and high school they are often prevented from

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enrolling in college preparatory classes and encouraged to participate in school-to-work programs that promote courses such as hair styling, sewing, and manufacturing (Kozol, 2005). Minority students in urban schools are disproportionately taught by less experienced teachers. According to Steinberg and Kincheole, ―urban schools experience higher student, teacher, and administrator mobility‖ (2004, p. 7). Yet all students are held to the same standards regardless of whether they come to school with several years of additional schooling or a better education, as compared to students from poverty. This is an example of the unjust practice of power and privilege in our public school system. Students from low socioeconomic status (SES) and high SES cannot be compared to each other on the same level due to inadequate and inequitable treatment or educational experiences. This can be observed when students are ability grouped based on their standardized test scores. The struggling learners tend to be grouped together in a lower track class where they receive basic skills and little to no higher-level critical thinking and rigorous instruction. Ability grouping promotes tracking (Mickelson, 2001); it leads to classification of students, and is a constant reminder to struggling learners of their insufficiencies and failures. These disparities reflect the prevalence of power and privilege in education today. Without the knowledge, experience, and resources to combat the inequities in public schools, minority students and parents are forced to submit to the will of those in power. This ―David vs. Goliath‖ scenario results in disproportionate distribution of funding and access to resources for the powerless, the poor and working-class. Meanwhile those in power flourish and thrive on practices designed to sustain their elevated status. We contend that critical literacy can be used to empower oppressed students to acknowledge and address the unjust practices that plague public schools and ultimately lead to the marginalization of poor, minority students.

USING CRITICAL LITERACY TO CONTEST POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN EDUCATION Despite vast inequities in the educational opportunities of the rich and poor, there is evidence to support the benefits of using critical literacy to contest the disparities in the American public education system. Public schools are failing to meet the academic needs of poor children (Kozol, 2005; Steinberg & Kincheole, 2004). Achievement rates for poor, minority students

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consistently fall significantly below those of middle-class white students (Steinberg & Kincheole, 2004). The typical Eurocentric curriculum lacks cultural relevance for minorities and students living in poverty (Wiggan, 2008). Not surprisingly, poor children grow up to become adults who are unprepared to combat the inequalities that exist along class, racial, and ethnic lines in America. These social inequalities lead to a system of unbalanced wealth and poverty (Friere, 1970). Thus, it is imperative that educators create literary environments in which students are taught to question the content, perspective, language, and author‘s intent of written, oral, and digital literacy. This objective can be easily achieved through the use of critical literacy. Critical Literacy allows teachers to validate the cultural capital that students bring to the classroom (Wiggan, 2008). Critical literacy has been well documented as a vehicle for encouraging students to move beyond the literal meaning of texts and to develop an understanding of the issues and perspectives that authors use to situate their work (McLaughlin & Devoogd, 2004). Critical literacy requires readers to question the author‘s stance and view texts through a critical lens. A growing body of research supports the use of critical literacy with young children (Bourke, 2008; Delpit, 1995; Hefferman & Lewison, 2003; O‘Brien, 2001; Tropp Laman, 2006; Vasquez, 2004; Wiggan, 2008).

Critical Literacy McLaughlin and DeVoogd (2004) define critical literacy as a way of thinking and being that challenges texts and life as we know it. Critical literacy emphasizes issues of power and advocates reflection, transformation, and action (Freire, 1970). Using critical literacy, readers assume an active role of questioning, challenging and disputing texts (Molden, 2007; Rosenblatt, 1978). Traditional children‘s literature reflects Eurocentric ideals that silence or ignore minority viewpoints. Critical literacy allows readers to investigate the social, racial, gender, and religious inequities present in various text forms. Paulo Freire‘s (1970) beliefs on education, literacy, and oppression create the foundation for the development of critical literacy. Freire argues that traditional educational systems fail to provide equal access for all people. He suggests that poor, oppressed citizens become victims of unjust political, societal, and academic institutions. He cites the need for people in poverty to initiate the process of overcoming oppression (1970). Likewise, Freire notes the importance of literacy in the transformation of the oppressed. According to

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Freire, reading is a complex process which involves both conscious and unconscious interaction between the reader and the text. He recommends that rather than simply absorb information from the text, readers should carefully investigate the author‘s purpose in creating the text. Freire contends that authors often construct text which typify the ideals of mainstream society and ignore the plight of the oppressed. The key components of Freire‘s argument are evident in contemporary definitions of critical literacy. For example, Van Sluys (2003) describes critical literacy as ―the assembly, manipulation and constant renegotiation of practice that encourage(s) people to become active participants that question how the world is and work toward more just images of what it might be‖(p. 401). Van Sluys definition of critical literacy closely parallels Freire‘s critical pedagogy. Reading critically requires more than simply decoding texts. Social constructivists emphasize the need for the learner to interact with text as they construct meaning and make sense of the world (Cambourne, 2002; Durkin, 1978-79; Vygotsky, 1978). Similarly, Rosenblatt‘s (1978) transactional theory suggests that readers bring unique perspectives and background experiences to the text they read. The relationship between the reader and the text becomes a ―two-way transaction‖ that ―takes place only in the reader‘s mind‖ (Jewett, 2007, p. 152)). Using critical literacy, readers are able to modify their personal reactions and examine ways in which they have been oppressed by society (Luke, Comber, & O‘Brien, 1966). Thus, critical literacy allows people to overcome the constraints of societal injustices (Gee, 1999). McLaughlin & Devoogd (2004) describe four principles of critical literacy that detail the power relationship between the reader and author. 



Principle #1 Critical literacy focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, transformation and action. Principle one refers to the significant role that power plays in the transformation process. This principle invites readers to not only recognize the power that authors employ in creating texts, but to utilize their own powers in reflecting on issues of importance and taking action to alleviate the ills that result from unfair policy and practice (Cummins & Sayers, 1995). Principle #2 Critical literacy focuses on the problem and its complexity. Principle two supports the idea of problematizing (McLaughlin & Devoogd, 2004, p. 15). Critical readers do not accept the circumstances of oppression; they challenge the status

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quo and search for solutions to the problems they encounter (McLaughlin & Devoogd, 2004). Principle # 3 Critical literacy strategies are dynamic and adapt to the contexts in which they are used. Effective use of critical literacy requires close examination of the subjects and context. Critical literacy strategies must be adapted to reflect the participants and their respective communities. The context in which any critical literacy strategy is implemented will greatly impact the manner and style of presentation. In the words of Freire, ―it is impossible to export pedagogical practices without reinventing them‖ (1998, p. xi). Principle #4 Critical literacy disrupts the commonplace by examining it from multiple perspectives. This principle suggests the importance of acknowledging alternative perspectives to issues addressed through text. When applying this principle, readers consider how the text may be changed based on alternative perspectives. Readers address missing or underrepresented voices that authors frequently ignore (McLaughlin, 2001).

Teacher Resistance to using Critical Literacy with Young Children Children‘s literature offers teachers a vast array of rich, in-depth resources to explore multiple topics, concepts, theories, and issues. While all children‘s books reflect specific sociocultural perspectives, most of the literature used in elementary school classrooms portrays mainstream, middle-class, American values (Bacon, 1988; Jewett, 2007; Kopp, 2008; Luke, Cooke, & Luke, 1986). Teachers regularly label books that feature other cultures as multicultural while books written from a Eurocentric stance are considered the norm (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998). Often, teachers fail to recognize the underlying perspective of a book when that perspective is closely aligned with their own (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998). Furthermore, teachers often reject the use of children‘s books that cover controversial topics because they fear backlash from parents, community members, and administrators (Bargiel, Beck, Koblitz, O‘Connor, Mitchell Pierce, & Wolf, 1997). These teachers are unwilling to confront the ideologies that support and sustain power and

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privilege in education. Likewise, many teachers are reluctant to adopt the practice of critical literacy for similar reasons. In her study on teacher rejection of children‘s literature, Wollman-Bonilla found that the criteria used by teachers for rejecting certain books fell into three main categories. First, teachers rejected books that they felt might frighten or corrupt children by introducing them to topics they believed were inappropriate for young learners. After rejecting Eve Bunting‘s Fly Away Home (1991), one teacher in the study commented, ―Why do we have to introduce them to homelessness? I want to protect them from topics like that. I‘d never read this to children.‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 290) Another teacher agreed stating, ―Maybe for inner-city kids this would be okay, but why should other children have to think about homelessness?‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 290). Yet another teacher posited, ―This book will frighten children. They might be afraid they‘ll become homeless‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 290). The second category for rejection of children‘s literature by teachers was books which failed to represent dominant social values. Teachers‘ justification for the rejection was their fear of supporting opposition to the widely accepted views of mainstream American culture. Teachers‘ responses to Hoffman‘s Amazing Grace (1991) demonstrated their unwillingness to embrace nontraditional families whose cultures differ from those of western civilization. Comments such as ―I wouldn‘t read this book because it models improper English. This book will reinforce stereotypes because it‘s about a broken family and the grandmother speaks nonstandard English…. if it‘s in a book, that makes it seem okay‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 291). Interestingly, these same teachers were satisfied with the content of books such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lorax which make it seem okay to have meatballs fall from the sky and fictional characters popping out of trees (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998). Finally, teachers in Wollman-Bonilla‘s study rejected children‘s books on the basis that the texts identified racism and sexism. Teachers were clearly uncomfortable with introducing these controversial topics that continue to impact thousands of Americans despite countless struggles to overcome such issues. ―I would never use this book if I had black students in my class. We should treat everyone the same,‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 291). This comment was recorded after the speaker rejected the popular children‘s book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor, 1976), which portrays racism as a pertinent social issue. Another teacher‘s response to the book was, ―If I had to

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use this book, I would change some of the words to make it less racist‖ (Wollman-Bonilla, 1998, p. 291). Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, and Vasquez (1999) observed mixed reactions to a critical textbook set they created for teachers to use with young students as part of a study. The books were carefully selected to represent a framework for the introduction of critical literacy. After introducing Voices in the Park (Browne, 1998), a book from the critical text set, the researchers noted varying opinions from teachers involved in the study. While some teachers saw value in using the text to represent different perspectives, others found the book to be ―too sad for children‖ (Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, & Vasquez, 1999, p. 71). The book portrays a wealthy mother who does not want her child to interact with a seemingly poor child at the park. One teacher in the study who is also a mother commented, ―My daughter doesn‘t have ideas like this and I don‘t want someone putting them into her head. We don‘t talk about stuff like that at home‖ (Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, & Vasquez, 1999, p. 71). Another teacher shared similar beliefs responding, ―We don‘t have problems like this at our school. Everyone in my class plays with everyone else, older or younger, boys or girls,‖ (Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, & Vasquez, 1999, p. 71). When challenged, this teacher later relented, ―there might be isolated problems, but those are the exceptions‖ (Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, & Vasquez, 1999, p. 71). Jonda McNair (2002) conducted a similar study with preservice teachers enrolled in her Language Arts methods course. McNair presented several examples of children‘s literature all of which represented some form of discrimination. Five Chinese Brothers (Bishop & Wiese, 1938) is a seemingly humorous tale, which depicts five identical Asian brothers who avoid punishment by posing as the same brother. The book reinforces the stereotype that Asians are all similar in appearance. McNair‘s students were appalled and offended by the notion that the book contained racist ideals. One student commented, ―The Five Chinese Brothers was one of my favorite books when I was young. I didn‘t think about Chinese people looking alike at all-I just thought the story was clever. I think its fine for young kids‖ (McNair, 2002, p. 16). Another student replied, ―I do not feel that The Five Chinese Brothers is a stereotype of book. One reason is that the book, in my opinion, does not state anything that would make me think of a Chinese person. If the book was just titled, The Five Brothers, besides the pictures, I would have no idea that it was about Chinese people or not‖ (McNair, 2002, p. 9). Overall, McNair found that her students‘ criticisms of the books fell into three categories: 1) cynicism and the perception that children will not notice such things; 2) reluctance to do

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critical self-reflection in regard to racial issues; and 3) positive feelings toward a book may inhibit critical examination of it. The findings in all three studies indicate that some teachers consistently forgo the use of valuable children‘s literature as a means to facilitate the principles of critical literacy. Teachers‘ resistance to controversial texts signifies their acceptance of the hegemonic societal beliefs and ultimately denies children exposure to thought-provoking literature and meaningful discussions. Thus, teachers miss-out on opportunities to strengthen children‘s understanding of the inequities of society and reduce the likelihood of perpetuating the stereotypes that lead to unjustified racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution.

Strategies for using Critical Literacy with Young Children in Poverty It has been argued that young children are not capable of processing complex issues commonly addressed through critical literacy (Leland, Harste, Ociepka, Lewison, & Vasquez, 1999; McNair, 2002; Wollman-Bonilla, 1998). Many feel that exposing children to themes of racism, discrimination, gender bias, and religious persecution will taint the minds of innocent youth. However, no documentation exists to support these claims (Swindler-Boutte, 2002). Nonetheless, millions of children experience the perils of poverty first hand. Fortunately, savvy classroom teachers are garnering success with implementing critical literacy strategies with young children from poor families. In this section, we will outline several successful studies that involve the use of critical literacy with young children from poverty. Ryan Bourke (2008) and his first grade students explored the gaps and silences of popular children‘s fairy tales. Using strategies which encouraged students to put themselves in the shoes of the characters, Bourke was able to help his students view traditional fairy tales from multiple perspectives. Characters such as the troll in The Three Billy Goats Gruff no longer became villains in the children‘s eyes. Children were able to empathize with characters that the author intended to portray as evil. Similarly, first graders in Hauver and McVay‘s (2009) study analyzed the story of the first Thanksgiving. Specifically, students studied what the pilgrims and Native Americans really ate during that infamous celebration. This experience helped her students discover how the evolution of Thanksgiving has altered the reality of the actual event. Students were amazed when their

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research revealed that the meals they currently eat for Thanksgiving dinner stand in stark contrast to the meal that was eaten by the two opposing groups on that notorious day. Despite their young age, the children were accepting of the idea that the materials they read have a singular view point and often neglect to include the voices of the poor or oppressed. Another study done by Tropp Laman (2006) shadowed 23 first, second, and third grade students in a multi-age classroom. The students participated in a multi-year critical inquiry that tackled issues of power and segregation. After reading books like Freedom Summer, (Wiles, 2004) which contain themes of racism and bigotry, students engaged in reflective activities that prompted months of discussions. The children began asking thought-provoking questions in an attempt to re-envision the world as a fair and just place. One specific strategy that was used to help children uncover bias was to closely examine the roles that the characters played in the books they read. The teacher, Ms. Brice, asked students to ―consider the roles characters play in texts by identifying them as allies, bystanders, targets, and perpetrators‖ (Tropp Laman, 2006, p 206). The researcher recorded information in regards to the ―cultural model‖ (Gee, 1999) that students used to guide their reactions. Interestingly, many of the students in the class represented a cultural model that allowed them to empathize with many of the characters from the story. Most of the students were from working-class families and were accustomed to the power relationships that existed in the stories. Critical discussions helped students recognize the unfair practices and policies that accompany employee/employer relations for many working-class citizens. Chafel, Flint, Hammel & Pomeroy (2007) developed a curriculum centered around critical literacy for children living in an emergency shelter. Most of the children that Pomeroy taught were facing poor economic situations and were knowledgeable about the effects of poverty. Noticing the smell of spoiled food in the classroom, teachers discovered that one of the sixyear old students was hiding food behind books and toys, in case the shelter ran out of food stamps. This prompted a problem-posing instructional format that resulted in a trip to the food pantry and ultimately ended with students writing thank-you notes to the donors of food for the shelter. This first-hand experience allowed students to engage in conversations about what it is like to be hungry and not have food, or to need clothes, shoes, and shelter. Many of the discussions reflected the realities of the children‘s daily lives. Rather than accept the dismal situations they faced as acceptable, students learned to recognize the unjust social and political covenants that perpetuated their lifestyles of poverty.

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Other studies of significance in regards to using critical literacy with young children include: Vasquez‘s Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children (2004), Hefferman & Lewison‘s (2003) study on Reconstructing Kid Culture in the Writer’s Workshop, and O‘Brien‘s (2001) Children Reading Critically: A Local History. In her study, Vasquez described the critical literacy curriculum she infused in her classroom comprised of three-to-five year old students. Vasquez (2004) and her students used children‘s literature and everyday issues to confront inequitable societal rules. Hefferman and Lewison (2003) studied the critical literacy practices being used in a third grade writer‘s workshop. Students used a critical literacy lens to investigate the inequities in their school lives. O‘Brien (2001) utilized Mother‘s Day catalogs to help children study gender bias and persuasive techniques used by retailers. All of the studies reinforced the notion that young children are capable of engaging in critical literacy activities that foster awareness and appreciation for people experiencing persecution.

SUMMARY Critical literacy is the quintessential tool for opening young eyes to the world around them. Using familiar literacy forms, teachers can help transition young children who live in poverty into knowledgeable, capable and productive citizens. Exploring themes of power while engaging in reflection, transformation, and action can foster the critical thinking skills required to navigate the roads of despair that many students in poverty are forced to travel. Rather than being shaped by the world around them, these brave young revolutionists learn to shape the world into a more just and equitable place.

REFERENCES Bacon, B. (Ed) (1988). How much truth do we tell the children? The politics of children’s literature. Minneapolis, MN: Marxist Educational Press. Bargiel, S., Beck, C. Koblitz, D., O‘Connor, A., Mitchell, K., Wolf, S. (1997). Talking about books: Bringing life‘s issues into classrooms. Language Arts, 74(6), 482-490. Bishop, C. H., & Wiese, K. (1938). The five Chinese brothers. New York: Coward-McCann.

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Bourke, R. T. (2008). First graders and fairy tales: One teacher‘s action research of critical literacy. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 304-312. Browne, A. (1998). Voices in the park. New York: DK Pub. Bunting, E., & Himler, R. (1991). Fly away home. New York: Clarion Books. Chafel, J., Flint, A., Hammel, J. & Pomeroy, K. (2007). Young children, social issues, and critical literacy: Stories of teachers and researchers. Young Children, 62(1), 73-81. Cambourne, B. (2002). The conditions of learning: Is learning natural? Reading Teacher, 55(8), 758-762. Cummins, J., & Sayers, D. (1995). Brave new schools: Challenging cultural illiteracy through global learning networks. New York: St Martin‘s Press. Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. NY: New York Press. Durkin, D. (1978). What classroom observations reveal about reading comprehension instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 14(4), 481-533. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Continuum International Publishing. Freire, P. (1998). Teachers as cultural letters: Letters to those who dare to teach. Boulder, CO: Westview. Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. New York: Routledge. Hauver, J. H., & McVay, M. (2009). Critical literacy for young citizens: First graders investigate the first thanksgiving. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(4), 347-354. Heffernan, L., & Lewison, M. (2003). Social narrative writing: (Re) constructing kid culture in the writer‘s workshop. Language Arts, 80, 435443. Hoffman, M., & Binch, C. (1991). Amazing grace. Reading rainbow book. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. Jewett, P. (2007). Reading knee deep. Reading Psychology, 28, 149-162. Kopp, W. (2008). Building the movement to end educational inequity. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(10), 734-736. Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. New York: Crown. Kozol, J. (2005). Shame of the nation: Apartheid schooling in America. NY: Random House. Kunjufu, J. (2002). Black students. Middle class teachers. Chicago: African American Images.

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Leland, C., Harste, J., Ociepka, A., Lewison, M., & Vasquez, V. (1999). Exploring critical literacy: You can hear a pin drop. Language Arts, 77(1), 70-77. Lipman, P. (2004). High stakes education: Inequality, globalization, and urban school reform. New York: Routledge Luke, A., Comber, B., & O‘Brien, J. (1996). Critical literacies and cultural studies. In G. Bull & J. Anstey (Eds.), The literacy lexicon (pp. 31-46). Sydney: Prentice Hall. Luke, A., Cooke, J., & Luke, C. (1986). The selective tradition in action: Gender bias in student teachers‘ selections of children‘s literature. English Education, 18, 209-218. Mickelson, R. A. (2001). Subverting swann: First- and second-generation segregation in the charlotte-mecklenburg schools. American Educational Research Journal, 38(2), 215-252. McLaughlin, M. (2001). Sociocultural influences on content literacy teachers’ beliefs and innovative practices. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference, San Antonio, TX. McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G. (Eds.). (2004). Critical literacy. New York: Scholastic, Inc. McNair, J. (2002) But that‘s not one of my favorite books: Conducting sociopolitical critiques of children‘s literature with preservice teachers. Journal of Children’s Literature, 29(1), 46-54. McNeal, L. (2009). The Resegregation of public education now and after the end of Brown v. the Board of Education. Education and Urban Society, 41(5), 562-574. Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: Strategies to move beyond comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, 44(1), 50-56. National Assessment of Educational Progress. ( 2009). The nation's report card: Trends in academic progress in reading and mathematics 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2010 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo. asp? pubid=2009479. National Center for Children In Poverty. (2008). Low income children in the United States. Retrieved May 14, 2009 from: http://www.nccp.org/ publications/pdf/text_907.pdf National Center for Education Information. (2005). Profile of teachers in the U.S. 2005. Retrieved July 14, 2009 from http://www.ncei.com/ POT05PRESSREL3.htm

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O‘Brien, J. (2001). Children reading critically: A local history. In B. Comber & A. Simpson (Eds.), Negotiating critical literacies in classrooms (pp. 3754). Manwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Orfield, G., & Lee, C. (2004). "Brown" at 50: King's dream or "plessy's" nightmare? Harvard Education Publishing Group, 8 Story Street, 1st Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. Rosenblatt, L.M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Schott Foundation for Public Education. (2010). Yes we can: The schott foundation 50 state report on black males and education. Retrieved August 17, 2010 from:http://www.blackboysreport.org/ Steinberg, S. R., & Kincheloe, J. L. (2004). 19 urban questions: Teaching in the city. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Stromquist, N. (2002). Education in a globalized world: The connectivity of economic power, technology, and knowledge. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Swindler Boutte, G. (2002). The critical literacy process. Childhood Education, 78(3), 147-152. Taylor, M. D. (1976). Roll of thunder, hear my cry. New York: Dial Press. Tropp Laman, T. (2006). Changing our minds/changing the world: The power of a question. Language Arts, 83(3), 203-214. Van Sluys, K. (2003). Engaging in critical literacy practices in a multiliteracies classroom. In J. Worthy, B. Maloch, J. Hoffman, D. Schallert, C. Fairbanks (Eds.), Fifty-third Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 400-417). Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference. Vasquez, V. M. (2004). Negotiating critical literacies with young children. Manwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Vygotsky, L. S., & Cole, M. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wiggan, G. (2008). From opposition to engagement: Lessons from high achieving African American students. The Urban Review, 40(4), 317-349. Wiggan, G. (2009). Paying the price, globalization in education: Economic, policies, school practices and student outcomes. In Wiggan, G., & Hutchison, C. (Eds.). Global issues in education: Pedagogy, policy, practice and the minority experience (pp. 21-34). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.

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Wiggan, G. & Hutchison, C. (Eds.) (2009). Global issues in education: Pedagogy, policy, practice and the minority experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Wiles, D., & Lagarrigue, J. (2004) Freedom summer. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. Wollman-Bonilla, J. (1998). Outrageous viewpoints: Teachers criteria for rejecting works of children‘s literature. Language Arts, 75(4), 287-295.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 3

OUTSIDERS IN THE MIDDLE: AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE MIDDLE SCHOOLS Tarra D. Ellis The crucial period of identity development in adolescence is a time of great potential—for triumph or failure. Physically, emotionally, morally, socially, culturally, and intellectually, these youth are facing many changes and life-altering decisions (Gay & Hanley, 1999). Their desire for independence often conflicts with their need for structure, guidance, and nurturing. During this stage of life that is so ―critical to the healthy development‖ of adolescents, underserved middle school students ―stand to gain more and to lose more, depending on the quality of their school experience‖ (Shann, 1999, p. 393). In addition to this already challenging period, many African American students deal with higher instances of poverty and racism and their accompanying effects than their white counterparts (Anyon, 2005; Sirin, 2005; The Civil Rights Project, 2006). Black students‘ unique social location results in a different schooling experience for these students (King, 2005; Kozol, 2005; Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003). This chapter explores how the structure of middle schools may positively or negatively influence the academic achievement of African American students by either addressing or exacerbating issues of power and privilege. In particular, three shared principles of the middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education are emphasized: relevance, rigor, and relationships. The chapter begins with a description of how minority students

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are pushed to the margins of the classroom and society and then explains, within the framework of critical race theory, how culturally responsive middle schools may address this crisis.

THE MAKING OF THE OUTSIDERS From elementary school to high school, large segments of American student populations have essentially turned away from schools (Dillon & Grout, 1976). These marginalized learners are typically those of lower socioeconomic status who are disproportionately racial minorities and have increased chances of dropping out of school before graduating (Bryk & Thum, 1976; Fine, 1991; Rumberger, 1995; Sirin, 2005). For them, the experience of schooling is one in which the ideology of educating all students for success is far from reality. Although American schools cannot be cited as the sole source of the alienation of underprivileged children, their structure is certainly a contributing factor. The academic and social organization of schools has helped students of lower socioeconomic status to become estranged from school, as indicated by their self-reported feelings of alienation, levels of absenteeism, and dropout rates (Bernstein, 1975; Coleman, 1988; Dillon & Grout, 1976; Ferguson, 2000; Fine, 1991; McLeod, 1995; Willis, 1977). Implicated structural features include the formal curriculum, academic tracking and grade retention, the hidden curriculum, teacher-student relationships, disciplinary practices, and student-student relationships. Contrary to popular portrayals, black students and their families do value education and express its importance in their communities (Mickelson, 1990; Perry, Steele, & Hilliard III, 2003). Nevertheless, despite gains made over the past several decades, there remain significant gaps in the educational outcomes of black and white students (Bernard, 2003; Ferguson, 1998; Mickelson, 1990; National Center for Education Statistics, 2009; Norman et al., 2001; Norman et al. 2006; Paik, 2004; The Civil Rights Project, 2006). According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] (2009), in 2007, white students had average scores at least 26 points higher than black students in both reading and math at grades four and eight. In addition, although the racial gaps in SAT scores are not as large as they used to be, they are growing (Mickelson, 2006). Blacks still trail whites in standardized test scores, graduation rates, college attendance, and, consequently, career opportunities, advancement, and success. Claims that African Americans simply do not value education do not explain these disparities.

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Relevance Students generally have little to no input into the school‘s formal curriculum. What and how they will learn is decided by teachers, administrators, and educational policy makers. The approved knowledge promotes middle-class traits, values, and skills, which are sometimes foreign to poor and working-class students (Bernstein, 1975; Lareau, 2003; MacLeod, 1995). The largely Eurocentric curricula often have minimal relevance for the lives of underprivileged students and effectively silence their critical voices (Fine, 1991; Giroux, 1996; Lemons-Smith, 2008). The formal curriculum ―ignores skills picked up on the street‖ and ―denies and violates‖ the identities of these students (MacLeod, 1995, p. 208). The goal-centered learning prevalent in most schools is wholly designed by school officials and has been strongly linked to feelings of alienation among students (Dillon & Grout, 1976). It has been criticized for inhibiting the natural curiosity of students and encouraging authoritarian practices by teachers (p. 482). Curricula that do not account for the interests, backgrounds, or strengths of students contribute to the alienation of underprivileged students from school. This lack of meaningful learning has the effect of further distancing these students from educational institutions. Embedded within the academic and social structures of schools is the hidden curriculum. This informal curriculum involves issues of power and privilege. In short, middle-class students have access to capital that is not readily accessible by the poor and working-classes. The cultural capital of middle-class parents and their children is encouraged and rewarded by schools, while the ways of being and knowing of poor and working-class parents and their children are devalued and penalized (Bernstein, 1975; Bourdieu, 1986; Bryk & Thum, 1989; Coleman, 1988; Lee & Burkam, 2003; Lareau, 2003; MacLeod, 1995; Rumberger, 1995; Smith, 2008). Students of lower socioeconomic status are often marked as ―inferior, linguistically inadequate, and dangerous‖ (Giroux, 1996, p. 8). Any deviation from standardized English and the dominant culture‘s styles of dress and expression is criticized. When the experiences of racial minority students are not properly acknowledged or respected in classes, these students are essentially silenced (Gere, Buehler, Dallavis, & Haviland, 2009; Smith, 2008). The marginalization and penalization of underprivileged students‘ ways of being and knowing can only serve to further alienate them from school. Moreover, students‘ cultural differences increase their chances of getting into trouble in school because of their mannerisms of communication, styles of

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dress, and ways of expressing themselves (Ferguson, 2000). Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, especially racial minorities, are the most likely to be labeled as troublemakers in the schools (Ferguson, 2000; Fine, 1991; Giroux, 1996; MacLeod, 1995). What is considered normal, preadolescent behavior for other students is adultified and hyper sexualized for underprivileged students, particularly black males (Ferguson, 2000). This, in turn, justifies harsher punishments for them for breaking school rules, alienating them even more. There is a frequent clash between the unquestioning obedience to authority demanded in schools and the earning of respect required in many students‘ neighborhoods (MacLeod, 1995). Consequently, some students form countercultures to maintain their selfrespect, rejecting the school‘s achievement ideology, subverting the authority of school officials, and disrupting classes (Ferguson, 2000; MacLeod, 1995). The price of conformity to school rules is sometimes too great, so these students either leave school before graduating or ―at least minimize their involvement with it‖ (MacLeod, 1995, p. 107).

Rigor Compounding the disparities in the treatment of students is the fact that they are increasingly attending more racially segregated schools. In many school districts across the United States, second generation segregation, or academic tracking, is rampant (Kozol, 2005; Rumberger, 1995; The Civil Rights Project, 2006). Racial minorities are disproportionately represented in remedial and lower tracks and grossly underrepresented in gifted and higher academic tracks (Ferguson, 2000; Mickelson, 2006; The Civil Rights Project, 2006). Poor and working-class children are not exposed to the types of knowledge and skills required to do well on standardized tests and are placed into tracks which only prepare them for low-status jobs or for failure in diverse workplaces (MacLeod, 1995; Mickelson, 2006; The Civil Rights Project, 2006; Willis, 1977). Schools with academic tracking (i.e., grouping students in classes based on academic ability and achievement) have relatively higher absenteeism and dropout rates than truly integrated schools where students are not racially separated within the school by tracks (Bryk & Thum, 1989; Fine, 1991). Conversely, not only are absenteeism and dropout rates lower in schools where there is less differentiation in academic programs, but students learn more and learning is distributed more equitably across socioeconomic and racial groups (Bryk & Thum, 1989; Lee & Burkam, 2003). Routine

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academic tracking is another culprit in the alienation of underprivileged students from school. Many schools are serving as instruments of social reproduction to allow privileged groups to maintain their status, while denying marginalized populations opportunities for advancement. It would follow that a lack of academic success only frustrates and discourages black students. In fact, schools with academic tracking have relatively higher absenteeism and dropout rates than truly integrated schools (Bryk & Thum, 1989; Fine, 1991). One of the strongest predictors for dropping out of school before graduation is being below grade level in reading and math (Fine, 1991). Further, students who have been retained in a grade are up to six times more likely to drop out (Rumberger, 1995). Thus, schools with rigid retention policies have relatively high dropout rates (Fine, 1991). Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are the most likely to be below grade level in reading and math and to be retained in a grade. Being exposed to minimal knowledge and skills, disadvantaged students who are performing below grade level and/or who are retained become even more disengaged with formal education.

Relationships Teachers‘ relationships with students are a central part of the school experience. Students‘ feelings of alienation have been shown to be related to the way a teacher‘s role is defined and patterns of school authority (Dillon & Grout, 1976). Schools are generally organized in such a way that encourages neutral, authoritarian teaching styles (Bidwell, 1965; Dillon & Grout, 1976). Additionally, the social class disconnection between underprivileged students and their middle-class teachers can lead to a ―subtle class antagonism‖ that exacerbates conduct problems and absenteeism (MacLeod, 1995, p. 108). Moreover, the disempowerment of teachers correlates with their negative attitudes towards their students who are also disempowered and may frequently drop out of urban schools (Fine, 1991). Likewise, dropout rates are relatively higher in schools where there is a lack of faculty interest, and students who leave school before graduating often indicate unconnected and uncaring teachers as a reason for doing so (Fine, 1991; Lee & Burkam, 2003). On the contrary, when faculty are interested and engaged with students, absenteeism and dropout rates are lower (Bryk & Thum, 1989; Lee & Burkam, 2003). Caring, respectful, and inclusive teacher behaviors tend to have the added results of higher student engagement and academic achievement

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(Bidwell, 1965; Wiggan, 2008). Schools that strip teachers of power and expect them to do their jobs without objection, contribute to the alienation of their underprivileged students from school. With silenced voices and no real economic or political power, students create their own social structures within schools and social status groups (Bidwell, 1965; Dillon & Grout, 1976; Fine, 1991; Giroux, 1996; Milner, 2004). Within students‘ peer groups, social structures stress conforming to the expectations of the group, which usually involves resistance to the norms and authority of adults who have created and control the school‘s formal structure (Bidwell, 1965; Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; MacLeod, 1995; Milner, 2004; Wiggan, 2008). These social status groups reward students who have access to the latest status symbols in fashion, technology, and the like. Students of lower socioeconomic status are the least likely to be able to afford the latest styles and gadgets, and the most likely to find themselves at the lowest ends of the student social hierarchy. They sometimes feel compelled to take on part-time jobs to keep up with their peers, and they are typically the ones who cannot academically afford to lose this valuable study time or to come to school tired. Marginalized in the peer groups, some students begin to psychologically and/or physically withdraw from school (Bidwell, 1965).

MIDDLE SCHOOLS IN LIGHT OF A CRITICAL RACE THEORY OF EDUCATION Arising out of the modern era, critical theory provides an analysis aimed at critiquing and changing society as a whole. It is concerned with ―deconstructing hidden assumptions that govern society—especially those about the legitimacy of power relationships‖ (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999, p. 27). Critical theorists scrutinize society in which dominant socioeconomic groups oppress other social groups. Gramsci‘s notion of cultural hegemony identifies complex systems of domination evident in everyday practices and beliefs that allow the ruling group or class to maintain their place of privilege (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999; Lemert, 2004). Despite the vast influence of oppressive social structures, critical theorists view human agency as the major catalyst for change. Critical theorists assert that ―schools are sites where power struggles between dominant and subordinate groups take place‖ (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999, p. 31). The school is one of the everyday locations where the

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dominant group uses the permeation of its worldview and ideology to legitimate its authority. Thus, critical theorists identify the art and practice of teaching as being crucial to halting the impact of the dominant ideology prevailing in schools. Critical theorists such as Paulo Freire view teachers and students as key agents in changing a society that is characterized by oppressive state hegemony. Giroux argues that teachers are called to be ―transformative intellectuals,‖ armed with knowledge, self-awareness, and the courage to question social structure (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999, p. 190). In turn, they will be able to engage their students and foster critical thinking and social activism in them as well. To better explain, analyze, and understand educational disparities, many educators have adopted and adapted the ideas of critical race theory, an offshoot of critical theory that arose in the mid-1970s. With New York University law professor Derrick Bell as one of its champions, the progressive legal scholars questioned the conventional strategies and underlying assumptions of human rights espoused by the then lagging Civil Rights Movement (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Critical race theory built upon the work of Ida B. Wells, Carter G. Woodson, and W. E. B. Dubois, who identified race as a key construct to understanding social inequity (LadsonBillings & Tate, 1995; Lemert, 2004). Critical race theory quickly spread to numerous other disciplines and is organized around three basic premises: 1) Racism is a normal, everyday part of society and the experiences of people of color; 2) Maintaining racism (i.e., white supremacy) serves the psychological and financial interests of whites; 3) Race is socially constructed (p. 7-8). Critical race theory assumes ―that racism is so ingrained in our nation‘s social and institutional structures as to be almost invisible, that the experiences of whites should not be accepted as normative, and that racism affects every aspect of education‖ (Gere, Buehler, Dallavis, & Haviland, 2009, p. 818). Critical race theorists not only analyze and critique the status quo, but also seek to transform it. Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) apply the principles of critical race theory to explain inequity in schools. Building upon the foundations of social reproduction theory and critical race theory, they posit that race is still a substantial factor influencing inequity in the U.S., that property rights (and not human rights) are foundational to American society, and that the intersection of the two, race and property rights, provide a revealing way to analyze school inequity. Critical race theory in education also recognizes the ingrained racism in American society. It challenges the prevailing notions of neutrality, objectivity, color-blindness, and meritocracy. Treating whiteness as property,

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the scholars explain its accompanying rights of disposition, rights to use and enjoyment, reputation and status property, and absolute right to exclude. First, critical race scholars argue that the rights of disposition are at work when students are rewarded for acting according to white middle-class norms and penalized for behaving otherwise. This, in turn, influences relationships between teachers and students as well as among students. It also has bearing on the relevance of the curriculum and school in general for students. Second, proponents of critical race theory in education relate the rights to use and enjoyment to the disparities in resources, facilities, and curricula between majority white and majority black schools. The effects of these rights or lack thereof can be detected in the level of academic rigor in the schools. Third, these same schools gain or lose reputation and status depending on which student population is in the majority. Fourth, Ladson-Billings and Tate identify academic tracking as the manifestation of the absolute right to exclude. As previously noted, racial minorities reap the most detrimental consequences of tracking, severely limiting the rigor of their educational experiences. Examining the potential effects of the shared principles of the middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education on African American middle school students through the lens of a critical race theory of education, is most appropriate considering the unique social location with respect to class and race of many black students. The structure of the middle schools that they attend may indeed cause them to be sites of social reproduction that preserve the status quo or they may be organized in such a developmentally and culturally responsive way that promotes academic excellence and social equity. Specifically, the emphasis of this chapter is on the rights of disposition that reward behavior and values consistent with the dominant ideology and penalize norms in the African American community. The chapter also focuses on how the rights to use and the absolute right to exclude, are exemplified by the lack of rigorous curricula in predominantly black schools and the academic placement of black students into lower tracks. The implicated policies, procedures, and practices are at odds with the middle school concept and culturally responsive education.

MIDDLE SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY A middle school is ―one that is specifically structured to meet the developmental needs of young adolescents ages 10 to 15‖ (Powell, 2005, p. 3).

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The middle school concept emphasizes a child-centered curriculum that allows students to discover and explore their interests. The earlier focus on competition and individual accomplishment in junior high schools is replaced with a push for collaboration (Bandlow, 2001; Bunting, 2005). A shift is made to a developmentally sensitive, diverse, and relevant approach to academics, as opposed to uniform, rigid standards for all. Interdisciplinary teams, heterogeneous groups, advisory, cooperative learning, intramurals, and inquiry are the norm. Lee and Smith (1993) determined that the following elements needed to be present in a middle school for it to be considered restructured in a way that was faithful to the original concept: reduced or eliminated departmental structure, heterogeneously grouped instruction, and team teaching. The middle school becomes a place where students are allowed to be adolescents and can reflect on what that really means. In spite of the critique that ―Middle schoolism is based on pseudo-scientific theories and downplays academic achievement,‖ middle school philosophy emphasizes relevance and relationships as integral parts of the rigor that leads to increased academic achievement (Yecke, 2005, p. ii). Increased academic achievement and other favorable effects associated with schools that implement key elements of the middle school concept have been well-documented (Arhar, 1990; Arhar, Johnston, & Markle, 1989; Backes, Ralston, & Ingwalson, 1999; Dickinson & Erb, 1997; Felner, 1997 et al.; Lee & Smith, 1993; Mertens & Flowers, 2006). Lee and Smith (1993) found modest increases in academic achievement, student engagement, and greater equity of student outcomes in middle schools that utilize teaming, decreased departmentalization, and heterogeneous grouping. Felner et al. (1997) concluded that students in middle schools that implemented major components of middle school philosophy, such as interdisciplinary teaming, advisory, and consistent teacher norms, outperformed students in all subject areas in schools with low or partial implementation. High implementation schools also had lower levels of behavior problems than partial or low implementation schools. Backes, Ralston, and Ingwalson (1999) found that middle schools employing the Turning Points recommendations have higher academic achievement (Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1989). Those same benefits applied to high-poverty middle schools as well (Picucci et al., 2004). Likewise, achievement scores are higher for students in schools that engage in teaming with more common planning time, particularly in schools with higher numbers of students receiving free and reduced lunch (Mertens & Flowers, 2006; Mertens, Flowers, & Mulhall, 1998). Lee, Smith, Perry, & Smylie (1999) used survey and achievement data to determine that sixth and

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eighth grade students in middle schools identified as having high social support reported the greatest gains in reading and math. Other studies have found that middle grades certified teachers empowered with decision-making, positively impact student achievement (Mertens, Flowers, & Mulhall, 2002; Sweetland & Hoy, 2000). In sum, the aforementioned research indicates that middle schools that are structured according to the components of the middle school concept are more conducive to the rigor associated with high academic achievement. This in turn ensures that the rights to use and enjoyment (i.e., disparities in resources/facilities/curricula) and the absolute right to exclude (i.e., academic tracking) are not in operation to the detriment of black students‘ academic achievement.

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATION Culturally responsive education recognizes, respects, and uses students' identities and backgrounds as meaningful sources for creating optimal learning environments (Nieto & Bode, 2008). It involves every aspect of the school, not simply the culturally relevant pedagogy of individual teachers. Culturally responsive schools contextualize instruction and schooling practices while maintaining academic rigor (Burns, Keyes, & Kusimo, 2005). They exhibit the following traits (NCREL, 2004):   

 

The curriculum content is inclusive, meaning it reflects the cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity of society and the world. Instructional and assessment practices build on the students' prior knowledge, culture, and language. School wide beliefs and practices foster understanding and respect for cultural diversity, and celebrate the contributions of diverse groups. Classroom practices stimulate students to construct knowledge, make meaning, and examine cultural biases and assumptions. School programs and instructional practices draw from and integrate community and family language and culture, and help families and communities to support the students' academic success.

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The context in which teaching and learning occur has a powerful impact on students‘ learning (Cotton, 1995; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Nutgall, 2005). This context would include ―the procedures, routines, and protocols a school uses to support and implement its instructional program and interact with students, family members, and the community‖ (Burns, Keyes, & Kusimo, 2005, p. 4). Elements of the context become so routine that they are often invisible to those who employ them. There is a void in the literature specifically pertaining to the implementation of culturally responsive education in schools as a whole; however, the practices of schools that have proven to be successful with low-income minority students have been fairly well documented. Schools such as 90/90/90, Comer Process, and Effective Schools have demonstrated success with all students, regardless of racial or socioeconomic background (Cotton, 1995; Joyner, Ben-Avie, & Comer, 2004; Reeves, 2003). These successful models are also organized around relevance, rigor, and relationships. First, students have choices in the curriculum based on their interests, needs, and strengths (Joyner, Ben-Avie, & Comer, 2004; Reeves, 2003). Teachers build on the prior knowledge, cultural, and experiential backgrounds of students. Second, there is a strong emphasis on achievement (Cotton, 1995; Reeves, 2003). 90/90/90 schools have 90% of students on free or reduced lunch, 90% minority, and 90% at or above grade level on standardized tests (Reeves, 2003). Exemplary test scores are preceded by frequent assessments and opportunities to demonstrate growth and mastery (Cotton, 1995; Reeves, 2003). School faculty members are committed to ensuring educational equity for all students. Third, these effective models are characterized by positive relationships (Cotton, 1995; Joyner, Ben-Avie, & Comer, 2004). Faculty cooperate to set clear goals and efficiently use planning time together. Enhancing relationships with students, as well as with parents and community members, is a priority.

SHARED PRINCIPLES OF MIDDLE SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATION RELEVANCE Relevance The need to nurture positive identity development is intensified in middle schools with large African American populations. Gay and Hanley (1999)

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assert that civic, personal, and social progress can be made by embracing one‘s race, culture, ethnicity, and gender. They further define multicultural empowerment as a strategy that involves ethnically diverse students exercising genuine control over their own learning processes; incorporating personal experiences into their formal learning; critiquing current society for social injustices; and imagining and constructing a more just society‖ (p. 364). Racial trust is edified and stereotype threat is diminished in these types of school climates (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003). Middle schools that implement such middle school concepts as advisory, interdisciplinary teaming, heterogeneous grouping, community collaboration, self-expression, exploration, and personalized, relevant pedagogy may advance their efforts to engage African American students in learning and promote their healthy identity development. Capitalizing on black students‘ cultural and experiential knowledge and allowing them to grow in their personal and cultural identities, enables them to reclaim the rights to dispositions usually rewarded solely for mainstream norms and values.

Relationships Moreover, multicultural empowerment should also help to enhance community-building efforts and a culture of caring in middle schools. Theresa Perry contends that African American students, in particular, thrive within environments with a strong sense of group membership in which there is an explicit and regularly communicated expectation that everyone achieve (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003, p. 107). Minority students, in particular, need to feel valued by and connected to their teachers and their peers in school (Wiggan, 2008). Middle schools that implement the principles of teaming, advisory, collaboration, and community building with integrity, can provide a caring atmosphere, increase African American students‘ sense of belonging, and may combat the lure of negative influences. Again, the relationships formed and nurtured across cultural boundaries empowers black students with the rights of disposition typically given for exemplifying what is deemed to be white middle-class behavior and beliefs.

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Rigor Furthermore, establishing a true culture of caring and belonging should set the stage for good teaching and high academic achievement (Shann, 1999). An examination of what quality, effective teaching might entail in a diverse middle school is necessary. First, instruction has to take the developmental and cultural needs of young adolescents into account. Classrooms that allow and provide opportunities for movement and interaction are particularly complementary to the learning and social styles of African American boys (Delpit, 2006; Wiggan, 2008). This becomes even more important during the sometimes uncomfortable physical changes brought on by puberty. Also, lessons that include the necessary skills and practical application of problemsolving and decision-making are essential (Bowers, 2000; Gay & Hanley, 1999). To be sure, the demand for these skills is increased during the early adolescent years, and cooperative group settings provide optimal conditions in which to hone them. In addition, lessons should be practical, culturally relevant, and validate students‘ prior knowledge, languages, and experiences (Bowers, 2000; Delpit, 2006; Gay & Hanley, 1999; Lemons-Smith, 2008). Fieldtrips and community involvement are also part of the regular curriculum (Bowers, 2000; Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2004). This type of teaching requires a keen awareness of self, individual relationships with students, deep content knowledge, and creativity. Middle schools that encourage, expect, and reward collaborative, culturally relevant, personalized, and developmentally sensitive teaching communicate high expectations for all and reverse the effects of the differential rights to use and enjoyment, and the absolute right to exclude bestowed upon middle-class whites.

SPOTLIGHT: SCHOOLS TO WATCH The Schools to Watch criteria to recognize exemplary middle schools is an initiative of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. Schools may nominate themselves to be evaluated on four standards (Schools to Watch, 2010): 1) Academic Excellence (The school is academically excellent. It challenges all students to use their minds well.) 2) Developmental Responsiveness (The school is sensitive to the unique developmental challenges of early adolescence.)

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Schools receive a score from 1-4 on each descriptor under the four standards. Middle schools awarded with this distinction are featured in state and national publications, participate in professional development, and serve as models for other schools. Thus far, 18 states have chosen to participate in the Schools to Watch initiative. Only 200 U.S. schools have been dubbed Schools to Watch. A recent study compared Kentucky Schools to Watch scores on the Kentucky Core Content Test with those of other, non-designated Kentucky middle schools (Cook, Faulkner, & Kinne, 2009). This study also examined levels of middle school implementation as indicated by certified teachers in those schools. Teachers reported a slightly higher perceived level of implementation of key components of the middle school concept in Kentucky‘s Schools to Watch, and test scores revealed overall higher levels of academic achievement in those schools. Another study currently underway is seeking to determine whether there is a significant difference in the academic achievement of African American students in middle schools that implement the shared principles of middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education. An additional intent is to describe in detail, via a case study, how those shared principles are actualized in one exemplary middle school in North Carolina designated as a School to Watch. Data on 8th grade reading and math End-of-Grade (EOG) test results for African American students is being obtained. In particular, percentages of these students performing at or above grade level (level 3 or 4) will be examined. Reading and math have been chosen because one of the strongest predictors for dropping out of school before graduation is being below grade level in those two content areas (Fine, 1991). Table 1 includes the 29 North Carolina Schools to Watch from 2008-2010. With the exception of three schools, Alexander Graham, Carrington, and Flat Rock, percentages of African American students passing both the reading and math EOG tests are higher at these schools than in their districts. With the exception of four

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schools, Alexander Graham, Carrington, Chowan, and William Lenoir, the Schools to Watch also surpass the state percentages of African American students passing both tests. These schools are located in rural, urban, and suburban areas throughout the state. Other facets of the study in progress, such as Schools to Watch application and evaluation data, case study data, and surveys being used to gather similar data from non-designated middle schools in the state will help determine what can be concluded from differences in test scores, and how much of the difference might be attributed to implementation levels of the middle school philosophy and culturally responsive education. In the meantime, all indications are that high execution levels of middle school philosophy are clearly not detrimental to the academic achievement of African American students. During times when African American students are feeling increasingly powerless and underprivileged, true middle schools could be the antithesis to the foreign formal curriculum, academic tracking and grade retention, the hidden curriculum, hostile teacher-student relationships, differential disciplinary practices, and strained student-student relationships that have marginalized these students over the years. Concerning relevance, middle schools that implement such middle school concepts as advisory, teaming, heterogeneous grouping, community collaboration, self-expression, exploration, and personalized, relevant pedagogy seek to promote healthy identity development in their students. Relative to rigor, true-to-form middle schools that encourage, expect, and reward collaborative, culturally relevant, personalized, and developmentally sensitive teaching in heterogeneously grouped classes set their sights on greater student engagement and higher academic achievement. Regarding relationships, middle schools that implement the middle school principles of teaming, advisory, collaboration, and community-building aim to provide a caring atmosphere, increase students‘ sense of belonging, and combat the lure of gang involvement, divisive cliques, and other negative peer and mass media temptations. Further quantitative exploration is needed to determine if there is a significant difference in the academic achievement of black students who attend culturally responsive middle schools that emphasize relevance, relationships, and rigor and those who do not attend such middle schools. Moreover, qualitative investigations are necessary to describe those aspects of middle schools that help to foster the engagement and academic success of African American students.

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Table 1. Percentages of Black Students Passing Both Reading and Math End-Of-Grade Tests In N.C. “Schools to Watch”

NC Schools to Watch 2008-2010

% Black Students Passing Both 20082009 Reading and Math EOG Tests

Alexander Graham Apple Valley Ashe County Broad Creek Carmel Carrington Chowan Crestdale Durant Road East Lincoln East Wilkes East Yancey Flat Rock Hendersonville Jay M. Robinson Jefferson John Griffin Kernersville Mint Hill Pine Forest Reid-Ross Classical Rogers-Herr Rugby Seventy-First Classical Shepard South Charlotte Southeast West Pine William Lenoir

42.5 79.2 N/A 60.0 50.5 39.0 41.4 61.6 51.8 46.7 50.0 N/A 53.3 62.8 75.8 59.5 55.3 50.0 67.4 48.5 61.3 58.2 78.6 78.6 49.3 81.7 48.8 50.0 43.0

District % Black Students Passing Both 2008-2009 Reading and Math EOG Tests 47.9 60.3 60.0 54.4 47.9 39.1 36.4 47.9 45.2 46.0 49.5 N/A 60.3 60.3 47.9 42.5 45.3 42.5 47.9 45.3 45.3 39.1 60.3 45.3 39.1 47.9 42.5 42.3 42.6

State % Black Students Passing Both 2008-2009 Reading and Math EOG Tests 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6 43.6

North Carolina Public Schools. (2009). NC school report cards.

REFERENCES Anyon, J. (2005). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement. New York: Routledge. Arhar, J. (1990). Interdisciplinary teaming as a school intervention to increase the social bonding of middle level students. Research in Middle Level

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Education: Selected Studies 1990. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association. Arhar, J., Johnston, J. H., & Markle, G. C. (1989). The effects of teaming on students. Middle School Journal, 20(3), 21-27. Backes, J., Ralston, A., & Ingwalson, G. (1999). Middle level reform: The impact on student achievement. Research in Middle Level Education Quarterly, 22(3), 43-57. Bandlow, R. J. (2001). The misdirection of middle school reform: Is a childcentered approach incompatible with achievement in math and science? Clearing House, 75(2), 69-73. Bernard, B. (2003). Turnaround teachers and schools. In Belinda Williams (Ed.), Closing the achievement gap: A vision for changing beliefs and practices (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Bernstein, B. (1975). Class and pedagogies: Visible and invisible. In Halsey, A.H., Lauder, H., Brown, P., & Wells, A.S. (Eds.). Education: Culture, economy, society (pp. 59-79). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Bidwell, C. E. (1965). The school as a formal organization. In March, J. G. (Ed.). Handbook of organizations (pp. 972-1022). Chicago, IL: Rand McNally. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In Halsey, A.H., Lauder, H., Brown, P., & Wells, A.S. (Eds.). Education: Culture, economy, society. (pp. 4658). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Bowers, R. S. (2000). A pedagogy of success: Meeting the challenges of urban middle schools. Clearing House, 73(4), 235-238. Bryk, A. S. & Thum, Y. M. (1989). The effects of high school organization on dropping out: An exploratory investigation. American Educational Research Journal, 26(3), 353-383. Bunting, C. E. (2005). Middle school: Lessons from the rand report. Clearing House, 78(3), 132. Burns, R., Keyes, M., & Kusimo, P. (2005). Closing achievement gaps by creating culturally responsive schools. Charleston, SC: Advantia, Inc. Carnegie Corporation of New York. (1989). Turning points: Preparing American youth for the 21st century. Washington, DC: Author. Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. In Halsey, A.H., Lauder, H., Brown, P., & Wells, A.S. (Eds.). Education: Culture, economy, society. (pp. 80-95). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Cotton, K. (1995). Effective schooling practices: A research synthesis, 1995 update. Retrieved from http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/esp/esp95toc.html Cook, C.M., Faulkner, S. A., & Kinne, L. J. (2009). Indicators of middle school implementation: How do Kentucky‘s Schools to Watch measure up? Research in Middle Level Education Online, 32(6), 1-10. Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press. Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: New York Press. DeMarrais, K. B. and LeCompte, M. D. (1999). The way schools work: A sociological analysis of education. White Plains, NJ: Longman. Dickinson, T. S., & Erb, T. O. (1997). We gain more than we give: Teaming in middle schools. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association. Dillon, S. V., & Grout, J. A. (1976). Schools and alienation. Elementary School Journal, 76(8), 481-489. Felner, R. D., Jackson, A. W., Kasak, D., Mulhall, P., Brand, S., & Flowers, N. (1997). The impact of school reform for the middle years: Longitudinal study of a network engaged in Turning Points-based comprehensive school transformation. Phi Delta Kappan, 78(7), 528-532, 541-550. Ferguson, R. (1998). Teachers‘ perceptions and expectations and the blackwhite test score gap. In C. Jencks & M. Phillips (Eds.), The black-white test score gap (pp. 273-317). Washington, D.C.: Brookings. Ferguson, A. (2000). Bad boys: Public schools in the making of black masculinity. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Fine, M. (1991). Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of an urban public high school. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. U. (1986). Black students' school success: Coping with the burden of "acting white." The Urban Review, 18, 176-206. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Gay, G., & Hanley, M. S. (1999). Multicultural empowerment in middle school social studies through drama pedagogy. Clearing House, 72(6), 364-370. Gere, A. R., Buehler, J., Dallavis, C., & Haviland, V. S. (2009). A visibility project: Learning to see how preservice teachers take up culturally responsive pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 46(3), 816-852. Giroux, H. (1996). Fugitive cultures: Race, violence, and youth. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Joyner, E., Ben-Avie, M., & Comer, J. (2004). The field guide to Comer schools in action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. King, J. E. (2005). Black education: A transformative research and action agenda for the new century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Kozol, J. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491. Retrieved from www.csa.com Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate IV, W. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97, 47-68. Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2003). Dropping out of high school: The role of school organization and structure. American Educational Research Journal, 40(2), 353-393. Lee, V., & Smith, J. (1993). Effects of school restructuring on the achievement and engagement of middle-grades students. Sociology of Education, 66 (3), 164-187. Lee, V., Smith, J., Perry, T. E., & Smylie, M. A. (1999). Social support, academic press, and student achievement: A view from the middle grades in Chicago. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Lemert, C. (2004). Social Theory: The multicultural and classic readings. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Lemons-Smith, S. (2008). Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III: Trumpeter for the academic and cultural excellence of African American children. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 908-920. MacLeod, J. (1995). Ain’t no makin’ it: Aspirations and attainment in a lowincome neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc. Mertens, S. B., & Flowers, N. (2006). Middle start's impact on comprehensive middle school reform. Middle Grades Research Journal, 1(1), 1-26. Mertens, S. B., Flowers, N., & Mulhall, P. (1998). The Middle Start Initiative, phase I: A longitudinal analysis of Michigan middle-level schools. Champaign, IL: Center for Prevention Research and Development, University of Illinois. Mickelson, R. A. (1990). The attitude-achievement paradox among black adolescents. Sociology of Education, 63(1), 44-61.

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Mickelson, R. A. (2006). Segregation and the SAT. Ohio State Law Journal, 67, 157-199. Milner, M. (2004). Freaks, geeks, and cool kids: American teenagers, schools, and the culture of consumption. New York, NY: Routledge. National Assessment of Educational Progress. ( 2009). The nation's report card: Trends in academic progress in reading and mathematics 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2010 from: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009479. National Center for Education Statistics (2009). Achievement gaps: How black and white students in public schools perform in mathematics and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.asp National Central Regional Educational Laboratory (2004). Culturally responsive education. Retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/ issues/students/learning/lr1cre.htm National Middle School Association. (2010). This we believe: Keys to educating young adolescents. Westerville, OH: Author. Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2008). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (5th ed.). New York, NY: Pierson. North Carolina Public Schools. (2009). NC school report cards. Retrieved October 20, 2010 from http://www.ncreportcards.org/src Norman, O., Ault, C., Bentz, B., & Meskimen, L. (2001). The black-white achievement gap as a perennial challenge of urban science education: A socio-cultural and historical overview with implications for research and practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(10), 1101-1114. Norman, O., Crunk, S., Butler, B., & Pinder, P. (2006). Do black adolescents value education less than white peers? An empirical and conceptual attempt at putting a thorny question in perspective. Paper presented at the April 2006 American Educational Research Association Conference. Nuthall, G. (2005). The cultural myths and realities of classroom teaching and learning: A personal journey. Teachers College Record, 107(5), 895-934. Paik, S.J. (2004). Korean and U.S. families, schools, and learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 41, 71-90. Perry, T., Steele, C., & Hilliard, A., III (2003). Young gifted and black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Picucci, A. C., Brownson, A., Kahlert, R., & Sobel, A. (2004). Middle school concept helps high-poverty schools become high-performing schools. Middle School Journal, 36(1), 4-11. Retrieved from http://www.nmsa.

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org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/Articles/September2004/tabid/130/ Default.aspx Powell, S. D. (2005). Introduction to middle school. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Reeves, D. (2003). High performance in high poverty schools: 90/90/90 and beyond. Englewood, CO: Center for Performance Assessment. Rumberger, R. W. (1995). Dropping out of middle school: A multilevel analysis of students and schools. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 583-625. Schools to Watch (2010). Schools to watch criteria rating sheet. Retrieved from http://schoolstowatch.org/Portals/2/STWDocs/STWCriteriaRating Sheet.pdf Shann, M. H. (1999). Academics and a culture of caring: The relationship between school achievement and prosocial and antisocial behaviors in four urban middle schools. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 10(4), 390-413. Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A metaanalytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 417453. Smith, D. C. (2008). The words unspoken: The hidden power of language. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Steinberg, S. R. & Kincheloe, J. L. (2004). 19 urban questions: Teaching in the city. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Sweetland, S. R., & Hoy, W. K. (2000). School characteristics and educational outcomes: Toward an organization model of student achievement in middle schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 36(5), 703-729. The Civil Rights Project. (2006). Brief of 553 social scientists as amici curiae in support of respondents. Retrieved from www.civilrightsproject.ucla. edu/research/deseg/amicus_parents_v_seatle.pdf Wiggan, G. (2008). From opposition to engagement: Lessons from high achieving African American students. Urban Review, 40(4), 317-349. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor. Aldershot, UK: Gower. Yecke, C. (2005). Mayhem in the middle: How middle schools have failed America—and how to make them work. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

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APPENDIX A This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents Executive Summary

Major Goals of Middle Level Educators To become a fully functioning, self-actualized person, each young adolescent should: 

 

 



 

 

Become actively aware of the larger world, asking significant and relevant questions about that world and wrestling with big ideas and questions for which there may not be one right answer. Be able to think rationally and critically and express thoughts clearly. Read deeply to independently gather, assess, and interpret information from a variety of sources and read avidly for enjoyment and lifelong learning. Use digital tools to explore, communicate, and collaborate with the world and learn from the rich and varied resources available. Be a good steward of the earth and its resources and a wise and intelligent consumer of the wide array of goods and services available. Understand and use the major concepts, skills, and tools of inquiry in the areas of health and physical education, language arts, world languages, mathematics, natural and physical sciences, and the social sciences. Explore music, art, and careers, and recognize their importance to personal growth and learning. Develop his or her strengths, particular skills, talents, or interests and have an emerging understanding of his or her potential contributions to society and to personal fulfillment. Recognize, articulate, and make responsible, ethical decisions concerning his or her own health and wellness needs. Respect and value the diverse ways people look, speak, think, and act within the immediate community and around the world.

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Develop the interpersonal and social skills needed to learn, work, and play with others harmoniously and confidently. Assume responsibility for his or her own actions and be cognizant of and ready to accept obligations for the welfare of others. Understand local, national, and global civic responsibilities and demonstrate active citizenship through participation in endeavors that serve and benefit those larger communities.

Essential Attributes To guide and support students in their quest to achieve these goals, National Middle School Association affirms that educational programs for young adolescents must be: 

 



Developmentally responsive: using the distinctive nature of young adolescents as the foundation upon which all decisions about school organization, policies, curriculum, instruction, and assessment are made. Challenging: ensuring that every student learns and every member of the learning community is held to high expectations. Empowering: providing all students with the knowledge and skills they need to take responsibility for their lives, to address life‘s challenges, to function successfully at all levels of society, and to be creators of knowledge. Equitable: advocating for and ensuring every student‘s right to learn and providing appropriately challenging and relevant learning opportunities for every student.

These four essential attributes of successful middle level education can be realized and achieved best through programs and practices that are in line with the following 16 characteristics. These characteristics or qualities, while identified independently, are interdependent and need to be implemented in concert.

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Characteristics To comprehend their breadth and focus, the characteristics are grouped in three general categories: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Characteristics     

Educators value young adolescents and are prepared to teach them. Students and teachers are engaged in active, purposeful learning. Curriculum is challenging, exploratory, integrative, and relevant. Educators use multiple learning and teaching approaches. Varied and ongoing assessments advance learning as well as measure it.

Leadership and Organization Characteristics     

A shared vision developed by all stakeholders guides every decision. Leaders are committed to and knowledgeable about this age group, educational research, and best practices. Leaders demonstrate courage and collaboration. Ongoing professional development reflects best educational practices. Organizational structures foster purposeful learning and meaningful relationships.

Culture and Community Characteristics     

The school environment is inviting, safe, inclusive, and supportive of all. Every student‘s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate. Comprehensive guidance and support services meet the needs of young adolescents. Health and wellness are supported in curricula, school-wide programs, and related policies. The school actively involves families in the education of their children.

Outsiders in the Middle  

The school includes community and business partners. Note. (NMSA, 2010)

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In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 4

MAPPING SOCIAL RELATIONS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS: POWER, PEDAGOGY, AND RULING RELATIONS Paul Bennett Special education policy has evolved from exclusion to inclusion in order to provide the most effective education possible for students classified with learning disabilities (Altshuler & Kopels, 2003; Esteves & Rao, 2008; Gable, Bullock, & Evans, 2006; Richards, Pavri, Golez, Canges, Murphy, 2007). There are two primary policy debates in special education today: inclusion versus non-inclusion and content-focused versus behavior-focused school curricula. Both debates focus on what is the most equitable and the most effective approach to teaching children with disabilities (Fore, Hagan-Burke, Burke, Boon, Smith, 2008; Gibb, Tunbridge, Chua, Frederickson, 2007; Kauffman, Bantz, & McCullough, 2002; Simmons & Bayliss, 2007). With approximately 6.7 million students receiving some kind of special education services (Levine & Wagner, 2005), America has an interest in ensuring that special education effectively prepares our youth for future success. The argument for inclusive special education focuses on the issue of equity and fairness. Hocutt (1996) describes inclusion as a policy where children with disabilities are educated in the general educational classroom for a majority of the school day. Many parents, educators, administrators, and educational experts advocate for placing students with disabilities in general education (GE) with a special education teacher working directly with a regular education teacher to provide in-class support (Klingner & Vaughn,

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2002). As Ford, Davern, and Schnorr (2001) point out, a growing consensus exists among experts that students with severe disabilities attain useful educational results when they are also an important member of the school society. However, Kauffman, Bantz, McCullough (2002) assert that arguments ―for inclusion are based on moral values, not research data showing that one model is superior to another in outcomes. Inclusion is motivated by the observation that an equitable society demands equal access—including the equal access of children with disabilities to schools, classrooms, and curricula‖ (p. 150). While the debate continues, it has become a popular belief that inclusion classrooms are more equitable than non-inclusive classrooms. Critics of non-inclusive special education classrooms (also known as pull out) assert that the separation of special needs children from the general education population is tantamount to the racial segregation of black from white students in schools (Kauffman, Bantz, McCullough, 2002; Kliewer, Biklen & Kasa-Hendrickson, 2006). The non-inclusion special education classroom is thought to be ―defective‖ because this form of special education is separate and only confers subpar services and ―inferior status‖ to children with disabilities, as Kauffman, Bantz, & McCullough (2002) suggest (p. 150). The physical separation of students with learning disabilities from the general school population, Harry & Klingner (2006) argue, ―speaks directly to one of the disadvantages of the either-‗normal‘-or-‗disabled‘ construction of special education‖ (p. 14). Implicitly, the non-inclusion position on what should happen and what should not happen in special education classrooms centers on the issue of educational equality and access to resources. Such strong interest in special education—inclusion versus noninclusion—also reflects expert concern for both in-school (i.e., content focused versus behavior-focused curricula) and post-school outcomes for children with learning disabilities (Wood & Cronin, 1999). For example, Bouck (2004) suggests that the educational system must respond to the low numbers of students with ―mild mental impairment‖ entering college by reassessing whether job and life skills are less valuable than a heavily academic curriculum (p. 367). Many schools have altered their curriculum from a heavy emphasis on functional life skills towards social skills curriculum in the inclusion classrooms (Billingsley & Albertson, 1999; Bhagat, 2007; Browder, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Flowers, Algozzine, Karvonen, 2004; Cartledge, 2005). Okolo and Sitlington (1986), however, argue that students with disabilities must have vocational classes available for their transition from school to the workforce. In many ways, as one scholar has concluded, the loss of vocational skills curricula could be the loss of the ―mildly mentally

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retarded‖ group of learning disabled students who, in inclusion classrooms, are asked to do the same work as their peers who are labeled normal (Weintraub, 2005, p. 99). For example, students with more severe disabilities previously took alternate assessments instead of nationalized tests, but the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (IDEA) mandated that youth who could not take general educational assessments be given a version of the national assessment as a means of inclusion in national standards (Towles-Reeves, Kearns, Kleinert & Kleinert, 2009). These national assessments, which are uniform achievement tests based on national curriculum, have forced many teachers to ―teach to the tests‖ rather than to teach to students‘ highest potential and greatest needs. As Deshler, Schumaker, Bui, and Vernon (2005) explain, these national assessments play a vital role in ensuring that teachers and administrators are held accountable for the type of education they instill in students with disabilities. Under this new accountability structure, the scores on the test indicate teacher effectiveness. Therefore, teachers only focus on information pertinent to the tests and exclude most other information such as vocational and social living skills—information that could greatly benefit a student‘s quality of life. This book chapter seeks to question some of the beliefs about inclusion versus non-inclusion and content-focused versus behavior-focused curricula in special education classrooms. After a discussion of the field site and the methods that I used, the results compel us to rethink many of the debates in special education over ―this versus that.‖ Instead, I argue that special education authorities must consider the ways in which ―power‖ is used within schools and within special education classrooms, where our best efforts are adopted, undermined or challenged by students, parents, and teachers who feel marginalized and alienated by school structures and policies.

FIELD SITE Madisonville Middle School is located in a suburb of a large southern city.1 During the 2007-2008 academic school year, I observed special 1

As a student conducting research in this school, I received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to conduct this institutional ethnography. IRB approval stipulates that a researcher cannot include data and information that might disclose the population or location of the field site or the students to protect the confidentiality of those involved. ―Madisonville Middle School‖ is a pseudonym as are all other participant labels/names.

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education classrooms at Madisonville. The middle school was originally built to hold 900 students, but as the population of the city and the outer suburbs grew, the school population exploded. Today, there are nearly 1,500 students, and only four years ago there were approximately 1,000. This rapid growth has been met with larger class sizes and mobile classrooms. Racially, approximately 50% of the school is Black, 27% White, 10% Hispanic and 13% is classified as other. Nearly 40% of the student population is classified as economically disadvantaged, and 10% of the population consists of students with disabilities. After my initial observations, I attained a working relationship with three teachers. The teacher information is listed in Appendix B. These teachers, such as Mr. Slate or Mrs. Ronald, would then write what amounted to a referral note so I could observe other classrooms as well. As a result of my initial observations, I concentrated on the ruling relations and organization in Mr. Slate and Mrs. Ruth‘s EC classroom, Mrs. Ronald‘s language arts classroom, and Ms. Tanner‘s math classroom. Mrs. Ruth was an opinionated and helpful teaching assistant. She proved vital to my understanding of special education because she would tell me detailed and confidential information about the students and the teachers. For example, after an incident on any given day, she would take me aside and provide me with a perspective on the incident that I otherwise would not have known. Appendix B. Teacher Characteristics.

Participant Teacher

Age

Ethnicity

Gender

Time in District

Mrs. Ronald Mr. Slate Ms. Tanner

Subject Taught

Placement Level

42

Black

Female

35

White

Male

4 Years

LA

Resource

1 Year

Math/LA

EC

27

White

Female

3 Years

Math

Resource

This study encountered many different types of disabilities in the student population, as shown in the chart of student participants in Appendix A. The majority of teachers had added responsibilities for Individualized Education Plan (IEP) assessment and case management. ―Case management‖ involves the daily record keeping of children with disabilities in a particular school. I was told quickly that the special education teachers were also the case managers for around 10 students they taught and 10 students they did not

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teach. Thus, many teachers claimed that they were unable to provide appropriate oversight. Appendix A. Student Characteristics.

Participant

Age

Ethnicity

Gender

Disability

Georgia Charlie Harry James

13 12 12 12

Black White Black Black

Female Male Male Male

Jeffery

12

Black

Male

Lamont Adam Amelia Amy Anthony Brian Lucas Marvin Mikey

12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

Black Black White White Latino Black Black White White

Male Female Female Female Male Male Male Male Male

EBD LD/ADHD ADHD ADHD Dyslexia/ ADD LD/ ADHD ADD/SLD DS SLD ADHD/SLD ADD/SLD EBD TBI ADD/SLD

Placement Level

Grade Level

Resource Resource Resource Resource

7 7 7 7

Resource

7

Resource EC Resource Resource EC EC EC EC EC

7 6 7 7 6 6 6 6 6

Disability Abbreviation ADD: Attention Deficit Disorder ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder DS: Down‘s Syndrome EBD: Emotional/Behavioral Disorder EC: Exceptional Children classroom LD: Learning Disability Resource: Resource classroom TBI: Traumatic Brain Injury

Special education at Madisonville Middle School was organized into three separate units. Exceptional children (EC) was the label that Madisonville uses for ―students with disabilities‖ and ―gifted and talented‖ children. Even though they were officially combined, not once during my time at Madisonville did I interact with the gifted and talented program as it was a separate entity. I found that teachers and administrators used the label exceptional children solely as the label for students with disabilities. Under the ―students with disabilities‖ heading, however, I found three tiers of exceptional children based on cognitive ability (Hayling et al., 2007): The highest tier was inclusion, the second highest tier was non-inclusion-resource, and the third

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highest was non-inclusion-exceptional children. As I suggested earlier, this study dealt mainly with non-inclusive classrooms even though I observed a few inclusion classrooms for comparison. I chose instead to focus my research on Resource and EC classrooms after initial observations (and teacher confirmation) that these students struggled with multiple disabilities and have variant intelligence levels. Immediately, I became interested in how well these students were being served in classrooms that were segregated but filled with much diversity. When I observed a classroom, I was careful to interact with the children only when absolutely necessary. Most of the students did not care or notice that I was in the room. But some took an interest in me, such as Amelia, who taught me her secret handshake. Many students whom I observed were not in a given tier for all of their classes. Some of them did alternate in-between different tiers, depending on the subject area. But for the overall population of students with disabilities, they normally stayed within one tier while I observed them. I observed the seventh grade resource classrooms and the sixth grade EC classrooms. Hostility and outright violence occurred frequently within the classrooms I observed, especially when the classroom contained children classified with emotional behavioral disorder (EBD). The teachers I observed often characterized one group of students, EBD students, as violent, antisocial, and instigators of constant disruptions in the classroom. Because of the nature of some of the attacks that occurred at Madisonville, many of the teachers wanted stronger rules to immediately expel students who acted violently. However, the landmark Supreme Court education rights case Goss v. Lopez (1975), prohibited immediate expulsion, and the Court declared that violent students do ―not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door and the Fourteenth Amendment forbids such arbitrary deprivations of liberty as unilateral suspensions of up to 10 days without notice and hearing. ―Rudimentary due process [is] required to ensure fairness in disciplinary truthseeking determinations‖ (p. 565). Even with the established principle of due process in schools, the expulsion of special education students continues in America‘s classrooms at much higher rates than for the nondisabled population. Suspensions of emotional and behavioral students at Madisonville occurred at similarly high rates and indicated a lack of acceptance of these students.

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METHOD The research study employs institutional ethnography (IE), which is a method for investigating how an organization, system, or group works by identifying linkages between different parts of the institution. The institutional ethnographer takes the position of subordinates within an organization, system, or group, and asks: how does their subordination happen? (Campbell & Gregor, 2004, p. 7). This process is often labeled ―mapping‖ by the researcher, and I utilized a mapping technique to extract the most accurate understanding of the qualities and attributes of special education (DeVault, 2006b). Special education policy has been extensively researched, but I wanted more insight into the structure of power relations within special education classrooms. Institutional ethnography demanded that I try to view non-inclusive special education classrooms from the standpoint of ―students with disabilities‖ and to explore how the structures and policies (ruling relations) in schools shape their lives. The organization of these relations ―constitute a complex field of coordination and control‖ that Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith labeled as the ―ruling relations‖ (DeVault & McCoy, 2006, p. 15). In this institutional ethnography, the ruling relations are the levels of non-inclusion education (resource and EC) classrooms and the complex relationship between teachers, students, parents, and administrators. I learned about Madisonville Middle School as a possible field site from local informants. I contacted the school, explained my interests, and was approved to observe several special education classrooms. With no knowledge of how special education was organized at Madisonville, I did not enter into an observation area with preconceived notions about what I might find. Instead, I gathered data (documents, secondary sources, and interviews) in a process called triangulation, which involves gathering and comparing data from different sources to gain a fuller understanding of the role a person or actor has in the overall structure of the organization (Campbell & Gregor, 2004). My triangulation of data sources included gaining printed and online materials from school officials and resources, gathering other academic data from publications, and conducting informal interviews with participants. The documents I gathered included handouts on classroom rules, photocopied homework assignments, parental information, and any other documents that I came across while at the field site. For the second part of triangulation, I collected scholarly research through online sources such as JSTOR, ERIC, and

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EBSCO. Finally, I observed and recorded students in two levels of special education to identify how theory and practice interacted in the classroom. In this way, within the classroom I observed, IE offered me the best opportunity to gain an understanding of special education practices. My methodological goal in this study was not to impose external categorizations on the informants. Instead, I adopted the names, labels and phrases that my informants used in interviews and observations (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995). I walked into Madisonville without foundational knowledge about how the system worked. One of the basic assumptions of IE is that informants are experts at their jobs and, therefore, we must rely on them for systemic understanding (Campbell & Gregor, 2004). The primary limitation of the study, perhaps, is that I could not formulate a hypothesis and then test my hypothesis, as a researcher would do with other methodologies. My method precluded testing variables over a given time period or conducting a series of longitudinal surveys: My data only comes from one location. In this study during the 2007-2008 academic year, through observations of teachers and students in action, I map out how a policy or practice works, such as student placement, standard curriculum, hidden curriculum, and teachers‘ work in the lives of students with disabilities.

RULING RELATIONS Student Placement Many problems develop when lower functioning children are misplaced into higher functioning classrooms. I define high functioning students as individuals who are capable of learning the general education curriculum in a school without severe learning difficulties. Lower functioning students have academic or behavioral difficulties and struggle with regular classrooms demands. Their disabilities most often require a slower and less rigorous curriculum in order for these students to succeed. Behavioral problems in the form of students ―acting out‖ can often occur when students struggle with content-focused curriculum (Trout, Nordness, Pierce, & Epstein, 2003). At Madisonville, problem behaviors affect the academic environment and the academic environment affects problem behaviors. Student behavior—not academics—often determined the special education setting for a child, which negatively impacted the entire classroom. For example, EBD populations are increasingly taught in inclusive settings that may be inappropriate for their

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behavior and academic abilities (Kauffman, Bantz, & McCullough, 2002). Evidence suggests that many students with EBD suffer academic problems and ―it has been shown that problem behavior has a negative influence on academic achievement and that underachievement produces consequences that foster inappropriate behavior‖ (Trout, Nordness, Pierce, & Epstein, 2003, p. 198). When students with disabilities are misplaced into a higher-level classroom than is appropriate for their ability, they tend to struggle with academics and their behavior. In my study of children in different levels of special education, I found that many students are not given the greatest opportunity to succeed in the classroom because when students misbehave, they are removed from the classroom. For example, one day Mrs. Ronald yelled at Lamont (classified Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder/Learning Disabled or ADHD/LD): ―Lamont, open your mouth one more time on something not related to the assignment and I‘m going to bounce you to ISS [In-school suspension].‖ According to Mr. Slate and Mrs. Ronald, Lamont had a ―placement [that] is too high.‖ Lamont has low cognitive abilities, and the result of being in too high a placement was, according to Mr. Slate, that ―he acts like a fool when he doesn‘t understand what‘s going on or doesn‘t get the material as a coping strategy.‖ Lamont spent much of his classroom time attempting to disrupt the class and often appeared disengaged with the academic material. Lamont, as his teachers suggested, was a child who could function well with the correct academic placement. In another example, Amelia (a student with Down‘s Syndrome) is correctly placed into the resource classroom and would not benefit from placement in the EC classroom because her academic and cognitive abilities are too advanced for the lower level. However, she would have struggled to keep up in an inclusion classroom where she would most likely not receive the type of interventions she needed to succeed. Her current placement provided her a slower pace that allowed her to absorb more information. She did not exhibit many of the behavior problems of other students in the classroom. Unlike Amelia, Lamont would retain and benefit far more in Mr. Slate‘s EC classroom than continuing to struggle in Mrs. Ronald‘s classroom. Charlie, a student with ADHD, presented the opposite problem in special education: placing students in lower functioning classrooms when their cognitive abilities are far superior to the other students in the class. During my observations, Charlie never appeared to struggle on exams or in doing his work, but because he continued to ―disrupt‖ the class, he was often the primary person punished in the classroom. He lacked an ability to control his

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outbursts and to stay focused on his tasks, so his teachers viewed him as a negative force. This occurred even though he was, by far, the most academically successful student. This interesting interaction occurred between Charlie and me:      

PB: ―What do you like in school?‖ Charlie: ―I slept through third grade. I can‘t do math, but I love science, like planets and space and stuff.‖ PB: ―So you like astronomy?‖ Charlie: ―I guess…if…that‘s what it‘s called.‖ PB: ―Do you like any other subjects?‖ Charlie: ―I like history, but I don‘t know a lot of subjects in history. But when I go home, I want to relax, but I need to study, but I don‘t cause I wanna relax.‖

Charlie had the skills to do well academically, but neither his behavior nor his attitude was conducive to the ―regular‖ classroom. Charlie knew he did not have a strong background in his two favorite subjects: astronomy and history. Instead of feeling encouraged to pursue greater understanding of those subjects, he internalized his inability to learn. Given that he scored a 100% on a test that the majority of his classmates failed, Charlie has been most likely misplaced and should be challenged more to achieve his true potential. This high achievement was not atypical of him, as both Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Ronald commented to me that Charlie was nearly always at the top of the class on tests. Charlie‘s poor behavior in conjunction with his academic potential reflect school officials placing students into classroom settings based on a behavioral criterion rather than an intellectual one. Few students successfully navigated EC classrooms while disruption and violence occurred, and EBD students often manipulated low functioning children to cause disruption in the classroom. Mrs. Ronald, the resource language arts teacher, explained to me that ―EBD kids like Georgia shouldn‘t be with this [resource] population, because they find out what will ignite the class and then have the low cognitive functioning kids act it out.‖ The bureaucratic system makes the transfer of disruptive EBD students difficult. I spent much of my time in EC observing EBD students disrupt the classroom structure and prevent the rest of the class from focusing on their lessons. Invariably, the lower level students then got in trouble and the class became non-functional. In my first classroom observations, I witnessed this

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hostile interaction just as a member of the class might daily say: ―Yo, Yo Yo Mr. Slate, Mr. Slate, I‘m gonna punch you in the jaw. And then you won‘t be able to speak, Mr. Slate. You won‘t be able to speak, and then you can‘t teach, Mr. Slate, Mr. Slate. And after your mouth is wired shut, I won‘t have to listen to your fat mouth Mr. Slate, Mr. Slate.‖ Mr. Slate responds ―You done being retarded Lucas?‖2 Mrs. Ruth, Mr. Slate‘s teaching assistant, explained that Lucas has EBD and has had many behavior-related problems in the past year. Georgia, another student in the class, provides an example of EBD students using name calling, such as ―retarded,‖ to get the rest of the class off topic. One day Jeffrey accidentally banged his head against the wall while singing. Reflecting the discourse that retarded equates to stupidity, Georgia yells: ―You trying to hurt yourself…Now that‘s retarded.‖ Georgia‘s comment not only conveyed how students see events and actions as ―retarded,‖ but those same events also disrupt the class. They often distracted other students from their work, and on more than one occasion, they provoked reactions in other students. An incorrect placement could be corrected—but the school‘s bureaucracy made it an arduous process to change a student‘s placement. Lucas could have been transferred to an EBD classroom if his IEP team determined that removal from the classroom was the appropriate action to take given the situation. For instance, Madisonville Middle School had been documenting Lucas since September 24, 2007. By April, 2008 nothing had changed despite the fact that Lucas had been in several fights during that time span. As Bon, Faircloth, & LeTendre (2006) confirm: ―A child who may be in an inappropriate placement—as determined by an ‗educational expert‘—will remain in that placement pending resolution of the due process hearing, regardless of aggressive or disruptive behaviors that first led educators to question the current placement‖ (p. 150). Moreover, Etscheidt (2006) further explains that any disciplinary action that would ―change a student‘s placement (e.g., suspensions culminating in more than 10 days or expulsion) the district must conduct a manifestation determination and functional behavioral assessment to determine if the misconduct is related to the child‘s disability‖ (p. 68). Manifestation determinations are required due process hearings that occur before a change in placement (Procedural Safeguards, 34 CFR 300.523) because both students with disabilities and the general education population 2

―Retarded‖ is a primary discourse surrounding special education. Within Mr. Slate‘s question, he highlights the overwhelming perception that retarded denotes maladaptive behavioral problems. Further, by asking if Lucas is ―finished being retarded,‖ he engenders the belief that, at some level, exceptional children have a choice in whether they are retarded or not.

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walk into school with the same rights of protection (Goss v. Lopez, 1975). To avoid manifestation determinations, school administrators would often utilize repeated 10-day suspensions rather than attempt to transfer or expel the child. When a student‘s disability entails a behavioral dimension, teachers must exercise greater pedagogical flexibility, especially when considering punishments. Students should be encouraged to participate in classroom exercises even if they experience outbursts or potentially disruptive behavior. Teachers should ensure that only serious infractions of classroom rules result in dismissal from the classroom because, as Brophy (1986) elucidates, ―the most consistently replicated findings link student achievement to their opportunity to learn the material‖ and students who are consistently removed from the classroom have inherently fewer opportunities to learn the material or reach their potential (p. 1069). An interaction between two students, Lamont and James, illustrated the problem of distraction and violence associated with placing lower level children incorrectly in higher level classes. Instead of remaining focused on the classroom tasks and being engaged by the material, Lamont caused disruption in the classroom.      

Lamont to James: ―If you don‘t stop lying I‘m gonna stab you.‖ James: ―You don‘t have a knife.‖ Lamont: ―I‘ll bring a pocket knife to school and stab you.‖ Lamont to himself: ―Ya‘ll keep messing wit me and I‘m gonna bring a pocket knife to school and stab you.‖ Lamont to James: ―You‘re gay James. You‘re like a girl.‖ Then Mrs. Ronald yells at James: ―James you keep turning around and looking at Lamont. He‘s more captivating to you than your work.‖

When students of lower cognitive functioning were misplaced in higher level classes, they often became frustrated with the work level and the difficulty of the assignments, which often lead to behavior problems. And when higher functioning children learned in lower functioning classrooms, they were not being challenged academically, which could also breed disruptive behavior. Harry & Klingner (2006) conclude that ―the classroom context is seldom taken into account as a source of children‘s learning and behavioral difficulties,‖ but classroom should be taken into account because those dynamics can magnify children‘s learning difficulties and create new learning challenges (p. 67).

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Curriculum My first observation in Mrs. Ronald‘s classroom began with a short directive to the class: ―You will need to know this for the EOG.‖ Nearly every class I attended included some reference to the ―EOG‖ or End-of-Grade exam. Students must pass this exam each year to move on to the next grade level. Deshler, Schumaker, Bui, and Vernon (2005) explain that many states mandate that all students must achieve a certain score on graduation exams— regardless of disability—in order to receive a standard diploma. At Madisonville, state regulations also required all students to pass the EOG to graduate to the next academic grade level. While having the students prepare for the EOG in Mrs. Ronald‘s class, their tests included: ―similes, metaphors, hyperbole, limerick, end rhyme, free verse, alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia.‖ However, the curriculum and instruction did not engage the students. As my field notes report, Will stared at his shoes for most of the class period one day. Mrs. Ronald then declared that ―when you fail [your EOG tests] I am going to send a note home…and I‘m going to write on the note; didn‘t concentrate, didn‘t do review, talked during review, now do the work…come on guys.‖ Mrs. Ronald believed that her students did not care about their EOG tests, something she later accepted: ―I‘m going to do my job, but ya‘ll clearly do not care about passing sixth grade. I‘m going to call home and tell your parents.‖ Again and again, Mrs. Ronald threatened to call home and to tell their parents that they were failing, but to no avail. Within Madisonville Middle School, there were two curricula: an official curriculum and another, unofficial, albeit hidden, curriculum that teaches societal beliefs and values to children (Marrais and LeCompte, 1998). The official curriculum was based on student test standards and the hidden curriculum was based on discipline and punishment. Both the formal and the hidden aspects of the curricula were inextricably linked. For the most part, teachers did not seem to believe that their students cared about succeeding on their tests. During one observation, for instance, Jeffrey and Amy got in trouble for running ahead of the class: 

Jeffrey: ―I don‘t care about getting in trouble with Mrs. Ronald because she‘s a piece of hand-me-down bull crap. I wanna do good on my EOGs but I don‘t care bout her [Mrs. Ronald].

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Amy: ―I was on task and I don‘t care if she tells my momma about it. I was running from that idiot Jeffrey.‖ Mrs. Ronald never connected the tests to her punishment of Amy and Jeffrey, but Jeffrey tied getting in trouble with the EOGs. He noted he wanted to do well, but that he didn‘t ―care ‗bout her.‖ Mrs. Ronald‘s constant emphasis on the EOGs tied her to the tests that the students hated, and they therefore felt antagonism towards her and the tests. While the emphasis in the resource classroom was on the EOG, the emphasis in Mr. Slate‘s EC classroom was on the modified curriculum for the EC students. Mr. Slate began his lesson with the class reading four pages about Peru. World geography was part of the overall school curriculum, so there was a modified curriculum for lower level students. In my field notes, I reported, ―the class spent approximately 30 minutes reading five pages of text.‖ The students began looking out the window. One young student asked if he ―can go to the bathroom? Mr. Slate said ―No.‖ The student then asked ―Can I go get water?‖ Mr. Slate answered ―No, go back to your seat.‖ Unless these students had a teacher right next to them guiding them, they did not do the lesson. Once Mr. Slate began to go over the answers to check for comprehension, he asked about Peru‘s geography:             

Mr. Slate: ―What is a desert?‖ Brian (squirming to answer): ―Rocky!‖ Anthony: ―No water.‖ Mikey: ―What about Cactuses?‖ Anthony: ―Mexico!‖ Mr. Slate: ―Deserts have extremes in temperature, drops, and usually very hot near the equator.‖ Adam covers his head with his Jacket. Mr. Slate: ―Now we‘re going to move on to the economy of Peru. What is economy?‖ Jeffery: ―Money?‖ Mr. Slate: ―Rainforests, mountains, and deserts determine the economy. Can you eat dirt?‖ Class: ―NO!‖ Mr. Slate: ―We‘ll that‘s economy…its agriculture. You raise crops to feed people.‖ Mrs. Ruth tells Jeffrey to put his foot on the floor.

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In this classroom, the students were on a modified curriculum for their abilities, but they were still required to learn the same basic information as the ―regular‖ students. Therefore, rather than learn skills that might help them in the future to live independently and self-sufficiently, they were tested (quite leniently) on information that had no relevance or utility to their lives— information that was only required for an EOG. Mr. Slate and Mrs. Ruth later informed me that the students in EC primarily had IQs around 60 or lower, and most of them also struggled with Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or a host of other disabilities. When I asked Mr. Slate how successful he thought he was with the EC students, he responded, ―If I get them to do anything, then it‘s a successful day.‖ Given the limitations they have, the question must be raised, why are they learning what they are learning? As Thomas Hehir (2005) reminds us: ―If the curriculum provided by the district is rigid and narrow, it may not allow students to learn important skills relevant to independence that nondisabled students may already have, like crossing streets or making purchases in stores‖ (p. 48). I do not argue that the curriculum should shift to learning how to cross streets or buy things for all students—only that we accept that not all students arrive in the classroom with the same sets of skills. For the students that I observed, learning to cross a street would not be an appropriate component of the classroom curriculum. Learning about Peruvian culture while ignoring the challenges these students faced in reading, writing, and other basic skills provided an incomplete education. The bar should not be set to a standard so low that the students already meet it and the bar should not be set so high that the information becomes unattainable for the students. And a ―one size fits all‖ curriculum deprived some students the opportunity to learn vital skills and knowledge that was relevant and useful to everyday life. Therefore, the most beneficial pedagogical approach is one that teaches students basic life skills (behavior-focused) and academic skills (content-focused). Such a strategy would lead to a well-rounded ―student with a disability‖ prepared to meet the challenges of everyday life and critical thinking. Simply put, one approach cannot exist without the other. When I asked Mrs. Ruth at lunch one day just where most of these children will go after high school, her answer provided insight into many problems associated with the lowest level of special education:

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 

 

 

Mrs. Ruth: ―Brian should go to SAC [Social Adjustment Class], but none of the teachers want to do the paperwork. This [SAC] is more like vocational training than a classroom.‖ PB: ―What do they do after high school?‖ Mrs. Ruth: ―The school system has a program where you can be certified to work on cars. There is also a cosmetology class for girls. [But nothing else].‖ PB: ―But why no focus on vocational training, especially considering these children‘s disabilities?‖ Mrs. Ruth: ―I don‘t know, but there should be. They used to have CBI or Community Based Instruction. We did it with a manager of a home goods store. Kids learned to bag groceries and shelve canned goods. Boys learn how to help take goods out to customers. Wal-Mart and Target have similar programs, as does Good Will.‖ PB: ―What about the stuff they learn in class, the curriculum? What about the lesson on Peru?‖ Mrs. Ruth: ―I don‘t know why we teach that, because what difference does it make when most kids won‘t get out of the school system? Who cares about world perspective when these kids can‘t tell time or count money? But then again, if some kids don‘t know how to count change…however…how would they learn for any job how to tell time, or even get a job [without those skills].‖

A disconnect existed between the faculty and the curriculum, as well as between the curriculum and the students. According to Mrs. Ruth, the special education faculty at Madisonville did not see the value in the official curriculum and the curriculum often had little value for the students. But each teacher adhered to the curriculum because they were required to do so. These children needed to learn the basics: basic math, computation, and most importantly, basic living skills. But many students on the bottom rung are lost in the shuffle towards uniformity. The priority of the school might very well be the mandated curriculum, but the school system required students with severe learning disabilities to learn a ―modified‖ curriculum that lacked relevancy and utility.

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Hidden Curriculum ―Discipline and punishment‖ sums up the hidden curriculum I encountered throughout the social system at Madisonville Middle School. Hehir (2005) underscores how special education ―children are being required to be nondisabled in order to receive an effective education‖ (p. 101). Children must often minimize their disabilities in the classroom in order to attain an education. In the Resource classroom with Mrs. Ronald, I commented to her that ―it seems like Resource is more behavior [focused] and the real learning disabilities are in the EC class with Mr. Slate.‖ She responded ―Yes, for the most part.‖ Mrs. Ronald accepted that some of her students had behavioral disabilities that caused them to act out. But she did not modify her disciplinary policy to reflect her students‘ disabilities. To the contrary, she established even stricter rules for her classroom in order to control the class. For instance, any time that a student got out of his or her seat without raising a hand and asking first, she gave herself a point. Once she had ten points, she made them have silent lunch for a week in the classroom. When Jeffrey got up to sharpen his pencil without asking, Mrs. Ronald gave herself a point. In a regular education classroom this rule would only encompass a minor amount of the class‘s time. However, the resource classroom became paralyzed as the class debated with Mrs. Ronald over a point she gave herself. These arguments often lasted ten minutes or longer. Counter to a healthy learning environment, Mrs. Ronald‘s attempt at disciplinary control constructed a new and different problem—the hidden curriculum: ―me versus them‖ or, in this case, the teacher versus student. The students became focused on the point totals, chastised offenders, and ridiculed each other. Had she just ignored certain types of interruption she could have minimized more disruptive behavior in the future. Officials at Madisonville Middle School utilized strong policing tactics instead of support staff or specialists to maintain order, especially within the EC student ranks. For example, Jeffrey began singing loudly one afternoon. Mrs. Ronald repeatedly told him to quiet down, but Jeffrey continued to sing. After 15 minutes, she ―bounce[d]‖ him to Ms. Tanner, the principal. Exclusionary disciplinary policies, such as Mrs. Ronald ―bouncing‖ Jeffrey, reflected the ―widespread and contentious adoption of rigid, automatic, and exclusionary ‗zero tolerance‘ approaches to discipline‖ (Achilles, McLaughlin, & Croninger, 2007, p. 33). This example demonstrated how educators often punished students for behavior caused by their learning disability instead of advocating a change in such behavior. Mrs. Ronald utilized ―traditional

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authoritarian approaches‖ to discipline her students, which limited a child‘s ability to participate in the learning process (Hehir, 2005, p. 102). Jeffrey could not contain his singing, an aspect of his learning disability, so instead of dealing with the disability, Mrs. Ronald removed him from the classroom. Similarly, Mrs. Ronald removed Harry from the classroom using a police officer ―for not listening and disrupting the class.‖ Zero-tolerance policies for disruption continued to prevent misbehaving students from receiving a worthwhile pedagogical experience. In many ways, zero-tolerance policies offer methods of exclusion in schools. Removing students from the classroom for minor and even major disruptions benefit neither the student, nor the school (Martinez, 2009). Not only did armed police officers often act as enforcers of discipline at Madisonville Middle School, but the school routinely utilized male EC teachers in a similar role. Each day, Mr. Slate left his classroom between classes, walk over to Lucas‘ (an EBD and extremely violent child) classroom, and then walked him to the door of his next class because the school believed Lucas would violently attack another student without such supervision. I asked Mrs. Ruth why Mr. Slate had been chosen for this role. She answered quite candidly: ―It‘s because he can handle Lucas, most other teachers cannot.‖ While it might have been true that Mr. Slate was better able to handle a violent student like Lucas, it made Mr. Slate‘s job much more difficult. EBD students also represented a threat, or at least a perceived threat, by the rest of the school community. Mrs. Ruth explained to me that a month before I arrived to begin this study, two EBD students, Lucas and Ian, carried out a premeditated assault on another EC student, a boy named Marvin, who suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Marvin‘s father pressed charges against the two boys for the attack, and the boys were suspended for 10 days each. Mrs. Ruth commented, ―I don‘t know why those kids weren‘t expelled,‖ and she reiterated how fearful she is of Lucas attacking her. A fine line exists between behavioral disorders with minor disturbances, such as getting up without asking permission to sharpen a pencil or humming to one‘s self during class, and violent acts of student aggression towards each other or towards educators in the classroom. When a student exhibits repeated violent or aggressive acts towards others, removal of the student from the classroom and relocation is a viable position for school administrators and teachers. In such cases, the overall community, as well as the student, may benefit from placement in classrooms better able to respond to the child‘s emotional, behavioral, and pedagogical needs.

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The hidden curriculum focused on behavior and punishment also included parental influences over student behavior. Teachers would often disrupt classroom activities to call home and ask the parent to help stop the disruptive behavior. I witnessed such disruption in Ms. Turner‘s classroom when Charlie called Amelia an idiot. Ms. Turner then looked at Charlie, stopped her lesson, walked over to her desk, picked up her phone, walked over to Charlie and called Charlie‘s mom. ―Hi, could you get him to please stay quiet? Here he is.‖ Ms. Turner said. Charlie took the phone and the class watched as he spent three minutes on the phone. At the end of the conversation, he finished with ―Ok, Mom I‘ll try harder.‖ He handed the phone back to Ms. Turner and Ms. Turner restarted her lesson. Five minutes later, she had the students (who were not paying attention to their lesson on PEMDAS) stand up and ―do some exercise.‖ When Jeffrey began singing loudly and uncontrollably, the class laughed at Jeffrey, and Charlie yelled, ―It ain‘t funny.‖ Ms. Turner then yelled at Charlie and called his mother again. These students with disabilities were often taught two different types of curriculum: the curriculum of testing, and the curriculum of discipline and punishment. The curriculum on punishment continued to ignore the inherent differences of those children in special education compared to the regular education environment. Instead of adjusting classroom practices and policies to minimize the disruption, I often observed teachers magnify behavior problems by treating these students as if they did not have a disability. While deriving a list of strategies for special education teachers to use in their classrooms with special needs students is not the goal of this chapter, I do think that further research is needed on the hidden curriculum within special education classrooms that might produce best teaching strategies.

Teachers’ Work The final ruling relation at Madisonville included the special education teachers themselves. Every teacher faced two primary working conditions at Madisonville: (1) extra-administrative responsibilities and (2) additional certification requirements. Each student in inclusion or non-inclusion classrooms was required by law to have a case manager, whose main responsibilities included updating reports IEP, disciplinary reports, and hearings) on up to 18 students. At Madisonville, special education teachers were also case managers who attended numerous meetings on IEP, consultations with parents, and hearings with the administration on their

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students. As case managers, special education teachers experienced work overload and a constant, intense focus on maintaining paperwork. Current educational law IDEA (2004) requires specific individuals to attend IEP meetings. This includes a regular education teacher (if applicable); a special education teacher of the child; a ―representative of the public agency‖ who is qualified to assess the student; an individual who determines implications of the evaluations; and the child when appropriate (US Department of Education, 2006). Case managers would often double as both the special education teacher and the qualified ―representative of the public agency,‖ so that fewer additional individuals had to attend these meetings. However, this merely placed an additional burden on the already overburdened special education teachers. At Madisonville, as I stated earlier, no separation existed between the special education teacher and the case manager, which resulted in fewer checks on the individual to ensure that the EC student received the greatest amount of accommodation possible. As a result of their added administrative responsibilities, I found teachers who were tired and unhappy. They often stated that parents antagonized them and made their jobs more difficult because they felt that parents did not understand what their educational and administrative responsibilities were. According to school statistics, many parents failed to consistently attend IEP meetings: 79% of parents at Madisonville had never attended an IEP meeting, which made parents appear disengaged with their children‘s IEP meetings and their children‘s placement. Measurements of parental perceptions of IEP meetings established that many parents found the meetings confusing, upsetting, and, as a result they remained without a strong understanding of their child‘s disability (Stoner et al. 2005; Fish 2008). In addition to work overload, teacher compensation remained a contentious issue. Mr. Slate admitted to me that ―after nine years of special education, I may quit soon, because I‘m just tired of the bad pay, especially with the extra time spent being a case manager.‖ While talking to Ms. Turner, another teacher approached me and this interaction occurred:   

Teacher: ―Why are you observing these [special education] classes?‖ PB: ―It‘s for my education class.‖ Teacher: ―Honey, change your major, there‘s a reason we get paid next to nothing, nobody cares what happens to these [EC] kids.‖

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The lack of adequate compensation decreased the incentive that potential educators might have for becoming special education teachers, and increased the resentment among teachers already in the field. Teachers evolved into dual roles, case manager and educator, and this often led to exceeding resentment of the school system from the teacher population. As Mr. Slate lamented, ―I have 18 students that I case manage for, but I only teach nine of them.‖ The greatest reason for resentment was, as Mr. Slate articulated, that ―the teacher that throws balls all day [during gym] gets paid the same as me but I have to do extra paper work and IEPs without any [extra incentive].‖ Murnane and Steele (2007) also note that ―special education positions often entail more administrative responsibilities and paperwork than do general education positions‖ without added pay (p.28). No Child Left Behind created further difficulties for teachers with additional certification requirements. Ms. Turner told me that ―NCLB is overworking special education teachers.‖ There are many ways that this occurred. Mrs. Ronald commented that she did ―notice differences in special ed since NCLB [began].‖ I asked her to elaborate: 

Mrs. Ronald: ―Social studies is really easy [now, but] science is so hard. But if they can‘t read then you know…what‘s the point? Some kids are sliding through. Nina is failing right now but [I‘m] not sure she‘s going to fail the course. They [the school system and case manager] might slide [her] through to get in better placement.‖

―Sliding through‖ occurred because NCLB‘s goals revolve around providing all students a general educational curriculum and because teachers were left doing more work for less remuneration (Hoover and Patton, 2008). The standardization of curriculum for all children means that schools, especially middle schools, would often let children slide to upper level schools and have another administrator deal with the disability issue. Moreover, NCLB also requires updated certifications and updated standards annually, which seeks to ensure that those who teach special education in America are qualified to do so. NCLB mandates that all teachers must be ―highly qualified,‖ but NCLB does not specifically identify special education as a core subject area. Therefore, many teachers are required to obtain certification in other subjects as a highly qualified teacher (Weaver & Cox, 2004). Hoover and Patton (2008) mirror Mrs. Ronald‘s position that

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when NCLB mandates that teachers be highly qualified, it adds ―new demands to the changing role of the special education teachers‖ (p. 196). NCLB has made it much more difficult to hire teachers. Most teachers, such as Mrs. Ronald, begrudgingly commented when I asked about NCLB that every year special education teachers have a new requirement or certification they must attain: ―[Now] to be a special education teacher you must jump through many hoops.‖ Several results develop from the difficulties encountered by special education teachers: there were not enough ―highly qualified‖ teachers leading to an increased burden on the remaining teachers, and there are high teacher turnover rates. Mrs. Ruth informed me, ―In the past three years, there have been only three male EC teachers in the entire EC department. One lasted two years then transferred, one lasted a semester then transferred, and this is Mr. Slate‘s first year at Madisonville Middle School.‖ In addition, Mr. Slate told me he was heavily considering transferring elsewhere at the end of the year. The overall annual retention rate for teachers at Madisonville Middle School hovered around 58%, the overdependence on male EC teachers as police agents decreased the number interested in remaining in the school and more importantly, in the profession of teaching special education. Murnane and Steele (2007) comment that the ―sample of principals surveyed in 1999-2000 reported difficulty staffing 75 percent of their special education openings‖ (p. 28). Therefore, many case managers and special education teachers are not only unfamiliar with the material they teach, but many are feeling overwhelmed by all the paperwork that accumulates daily. The increased reliance by Madisonville Middle School administrators on male EC teachers to act as enforcers or regulators of the peace may explain the retention rate of EC teachers at Madisonville Middle School.

IMPLICATIONS In this institutional ethnography I mapped out the ruling relations at Madisonville Middle School: such as student placement, or as I discovered, misplacement in the levels of special education classrooms; an official curriculum based on teaching to the national assessment; a hidden curriculum based on discipline and punishment; and finally, an overworked and strained teacher population. I conclude that the question of whether Lucas is ―done being retarded‖ is less a question of Lucas‘s willingness to conform to the ―normal‖ school norms and structures, and more of a question of whether

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educational policy and practice is willing to adjust to accept his learning disabilities for what they really are—learning differences. Learning disabilities are differences that require flexibility and personalized strategies for the student to succeed. Schools should teach vocational skills, social skills, and academic skills based on what will benefit students with disabilities most. If we fail to adjust our demands and fail to accommodate students with their disabilities as they are, then we will have no hope of decreasing the number of students with disabilities who drop out of high school and end up unemployed, underemployed, or in prison (Reschly & Christenson, 2006; Wagner et al. 2007). What should be done? We must remember that what works for the mainstreamed general education classrooms is not necessarily the best system for children with learning disabilities. In a wide approach, our educational system must develop a new pedagogical strategy that advances learning disabilities not as disabilities, but as learning differences. Skrtic (2005) labels such an educational system as an ―adhocracy‖ that is ―premised on innovation rather than standardization, on the invention of personalized practices through organizational learning grounded in collaboration, mutual adaptation, and reflexive discourse among the organization‘s members and the people it serves‖ (p. 150). Harry & Klingner (2006) support Skrtic‘s (1991) push for educational adhocracy as ―a system [that] requires maximum flexibility, based on the principles of innovation and problem solving, in contrast to standardization‖ (p. 111). This flexibility requires ―proactive rather than strictly punitive‖ punishment, ―in-house counseling support for anger management, and other emotional/behavioral needs, positive reinforcement systems and behavioral supports, and increased relationship building‖ amongst teachers and parents (Harry & Klingner, 2006, p. 179). Studies have shown that if the curriculum reflects student differences and teachers employ tailored teaching strategies for those students, then the students often succeed (Gibb et al. 2007). Constructing effective supports for students with disabilities for non-inclusion placement should be a major aspect of national policy because it will reduce the time spent on disruptions based on behavioral problems and other issues (Kennedy et. al. 2001). National programs, such as Response To Intervention (RTI), may present a possible improvement in special education since it offers a protocol where teachers and administrators monitor student difficulties and provide students with interventions when the student first begins to struggle (Deno, Reschly, Lembke, Magnusson, Callender, & Windram, 2009; Grigorenko, 2009). As the National Center on Response to Intervention (2010) explains, ―schools use

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data to identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student‘s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities‖ (Essential components of RTI—A closer look at response to intervention, p. 2). Galvin (2007) asserts that teachers who utilize RTI may need to learn to address parental concerns and student challenges in different ways to enhance special education effectiveness. RTI exhibits potential as a possible strategy to provide better accommodations to students with disabilities—but more research is required. For some segments of the population of students with disabilities, noninclusion classrooms can provide the best opportunity for success. Several studies, most notably Tracy Carpenter-Aeby and Victor Aeby‘s (2002) investigation of youths in separate educational settings, found that the students‘ ―educational outcomes (attendance and grades) improved significantly in the alternative educational setting but declined when students returned to traditional school‖ (p. 86). The classroom environment often suffers considerable disruption when special education students are incorrectly placed in the classroom environments. Indeed, students who face continual academic failure and difficulty often act out with disruptive behavior to protect themselves from inhospitable learning environments and the emotional frustrations of academic failure (Gable, Bullock, & Evans, 2006). Placement affects the classroom environment and the quality of instruction, and my observations point to a strong connection between placement and academic successes. Instead of placing students in the correct tier of special education or accepting serious classroom disruptions from students as part of their disability, teachers often discipline and punish with irrational disciplinary policies (Achilles, McLaughlin, & Croninger, 2007). Essentially, incorrect placement prevents the development of a healthy classroom environment, and the zero-tolerance mentality for poor behavior in school denies students access to an equal and equitable education (Martinez, 2009). When Jeffrey, Amelia, or any of the other children I observed during my study were punished for behavior attributable to their disabilities, the teachers and the administration taught these children the hidden curriculum of negative beliefs and devaluation—that their behavior was their fault not the fault of the disability or of the placement or curriculum. Too often, students attain a label as ―dumb‖ or ―a problem‖ when the student suffers from a disability, instead of exploring alternative plans for the student. Rigid school structure inherently prohibits innovation in the classroom as teachers become more focused on

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teaching the ―smart‖ and ―well-behaved‖ student. This causes the marginalization of many students in the educational community. A student who receives special education is not incapable of success, but success requires parents, teachers, administrators and students to come to terms with limitations and receive the intellectual, academic, and behavioral supports necessary to succeed. This includes (1) altering the belief that learning differences are necessarily disabilities and (2) providing students with disabilities access to high-quality educational opportunities (Hehir, 2005). Lucas, for example, should not have to cover up or hide his disability to gain an effective and appropriate education. Rather, the system must move away from the ruling relations of inappropriate placement, the official academic, testing focused, and hidden behavioral curricula for special education classrooms, and the overworking of special education teachers; towards recognition of students with learning differences to create a more flexible, collaborative, and accepting learning environment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my professor, mentor and friend, Dr. Hilton Kelly, for challenging my understanding of education, pedagogical practices, and guiding my research further than I thought possible. Without his support and advice over the past two and a half years—countless hours of discussion, numerous editing sessions, and his unwavering belief in the quality of my research—this chapter would not have come to fruition. I am also grateful to the administrators, teachers, and students who opened their school to me and allowed me to see how special education truly happens. I would also like to thank Dr. Greg Wiggan for allowing me to contribute to this book, without his support this chapter would not be possible. I hope that the topics I discuss in this chapter help to further our understanding of learning differences, and provide insights about how we can improve learning opportunities for students with disabilities.

REFERENCES Achilles, G. M., McLaughlin, M. J., & Croninger, R. G. (2007). Sociocultural correlates of disciplinary exclusion among students with emotional,

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behavioral, and learning disabilities in the SEELS national dataset. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 15(1), 33-45. Altshuler, S., & Kopels, S. (2003). Advocating in schools for children with disabilities: What's new with IDEA? Social Work, 48(3), 320-329. Bhagat, F. (2007). Exploring inclusion and challenging policy in mainstream education. British Journal of Nursing, 16(21), 1354-1359. Bon, S. C., Faircloth, S. C., & LeTendre, G. K. (2006). The school violence dilemma: Protecting the rights of students with disabilities while maintaining teachers' sense of safety in schools. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 17(3), 148-157. Bouck, E. C. (2004). Exploring secondary special education for mild mental impairment. Remedial and Special Education, 25(6), 367-382. Brophy, J. (1986). Teacher influences on achievement. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1069-1077 Browder, D., Spooner, F., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L., Flowers, C., Algozzine, B., & Karvonen, M. (2004). A content analysis of the curricular philosophies reflected in states' alternate assessment performance indicators. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 28(4), 165-181. Campbell, M., & Gregor, F. (2004). Mapping social relations: A primer in doing institutional ethnography. New York: AltaMira P. Carpenter-Aeby, T., & Aeby, V. G. (2002). Family-school-community interventions for chronically disruptive students: An evaluation of outcomes in an alternative school. The School Community Journal, 11(2), 75-92. Cartledge, G. (2005). Learning disabilities and social skills: reflections. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28(2), 179-181. Deno, S. L., Reschly, A. L., Lembke, E. S., Magnusson, D., Callender, S. A., Windram, H., et al. (2009). Developing a school-wide progressmonitoring system. Psychology in the Schools, 46(1), 44-55. Deshler, D. D., Schumaker, J. B., Bui, Y., & Vernon, S. (2005). High school adolescents with disabilities: Challenges at every turn. In J. B. Schumaker & D. D. Deshler (Eds.), Teaching adolescents with disabilities: Accessing the general education curriculum (pp. 1-28). New York: Corwin P. DeVault, M. L., & McCoy, L. (2006). Institutional ethnography: Using interviews to investigate ruling relations (D. E. Smith, Ed.). In Institutional ethnography as practice. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. DeVault, M. L. (2006b). Introduction: What is institutional ethnography. Social Problems, 53(3), 294-298.

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Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Pursuing members' meanings. In Writing Ethnographic Field notes. Chicago: University of Chicago P. Essential components of RTI: A closer look at response to intervention (2010). National Center on Response to Intervention (RTI) - What is RTI? Retrieved September 28, 2010, from http://www.rti4success.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcat egory&id=22&Itemid=79 Esteves, K. J., & Rao, S. (2008). The evolution of special education: Web Exclusive. National Association of Elementary Principals, 1-3. Etscheidt, S. ( 2006). Seeking an interim alternative education placement for dangerous or disruptive students with disabilities: Four burdens for the school district to meet. American Secondary Education, 34(2), 67-83. Fish, W. W. (2008). The IEP meeting: Perceptions of parents of students who receive special education services. Preventing School Failure, 53(1), 8-14. Ford, A., Davern, L., & Schnorr, R. (2001). Learners with significant disabilities: Curricular relevance in an era of standards-based reform. Remedial and Special Education, 22(4), 214-222. Fore, C., Hagan-Burke, S., Burke, M. D., Boon, R. T., & Smith, S. (2008). Academic achievement and class placement in high school: Do students with learning disabilities achieve more in one class placement than another? Education and Treatment of Children, 31(1), 55-72. Gable, R. A., Bullock, L. M., & Evans, W. H. (2006). Changing perspectives on alternative schooling for children and adolescents with challenging behavior. Preventing School Failure, 51(1), 5-9. Galvin, M. (2007). Implementing response to intervention (RTI): Considerations for practitioners. Great Lakes West Newsletter, 1-7. Gibb, K., Tunbridge, D., Chua, A., & Frederickson, N. ( 2007). Pathways to inclusion: Moving from special school to mainstream. Educational Psychology in Practice, 23(2), 109-127. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 LexisNexis (January 22, 1975). Grigorenko, E. L. (2009). Dynamic assessment and response to intervention: Two sides of one coin. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(2), 111-132. Harry, B., & Klingner, J. (2006). Why are so many minority students in special education ?: understanding race & disability in schools. New York: Teachers college press. Hayling, C. C., Cook, C., Gresham, F. M., State, T., & Kern, L. (2007). An analysis of the status and stability of the behaviors of students with

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emotional and behavioral difficulties. Journal of Behavioral Education, 17, 24-42. Hehir, T. (2005). New Directions in Special Education: Eliminating Ableism in Policy and Practice. New York: Harvard Education Group. Hocutt, A. M. (1996). Effectiveness of special education: Is placement the critical factor. The Future of Children, 6(1), 77-102. Hoover, J. J., & Patton, J. R. (2008). The role of special educators in a multitiered instructional system. Intervention in School and Clinic, 43(4), 195-202. Kauffman, J. M., Bantz, J., & McCullough, J. (2002). Separate and better: A special public school class for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Exceptionality, 10(3), 149-170. Kennedy, C. H., Long, T., Jolivette, K., Cox, J., Jung-Chang, T., & Thompson, T. (2001). Facilitating general education participation for students with behavior problems by linking positive behavior supports and personcentered planning. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 9(3), 161-171. Kliewer, C., Biklen, D., & Kasa-Hendrickson, C. (2006). Who may be literate? Disability and resistance to the cultural denial of competence. American Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 163-192. Klingner, J. K., & Vaughn, S. (2002). The changing roles and responsibilities of an LD specialist. Learning Disability Quarterly, 25(1), 19-31. Levine, P., & Wagner, M. (2005). The transition to adulthood for the special education population. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and Public Policy, 24, 1-3. Marrais, K. B., & LeCompte, M. (1998). What is taught in schools: Curriculum and the stratification of knowledge (M. LeCompte, Ed.). In K. B. Marrais (Ed.), The Way Schools Work A Sociological Analysis of Education (3rd Edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Martinez, S. (2009). A system gone berserk: How are zero-tolerance policies really affecting schools. Preventing School Failure, 53(3), 153-157. Murnane, R. J., & Steele, J. L. (2007). What is the problem? The challenge of providing effective teachers for all children. The Future of Children, 17(1), 15-43. Okolo, C. M., & Sitlington, P. (1986). The role of special education in LD adolescents' transition from school to work. Learning Disability Quarterly, 9(2), 144-155. Procedural Safeguards, § 34 CFR 300.523-Manifestation Determination Review (2009).

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Reschly, A. L., & Christenson, S. L. (2006). Prediction of dropout among students with mild disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 27(5), 276-292. Richards, C., Pavri, S., Golez, F., Canges, R., & Murphy, J. (2007). Response to intervention: Building the capacity of teachers to serve students with learning disabilities. Issues in Teacher Education, 16(2), 55-64. Simmons, B., & Bayliss, P. (2007). The role of special schools for children with profound and multiple disabilities and multiple learning difficulties: Is segregation always best? British Journal of Special Education, 34(1), 19-24. Skrtic, T.M (1991). The special education paradox: Equity as the way to excellence. Harvard Educational Review, 61(2), 148-206 Skrtic, T. M. (2005). A political economy of learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28, 149-151 Stoner, J. B., Bock, S. J., Thompson, J. R., Angell, M. E., Heyl, B. S., & Crowler, E. P. (2005). Welcome to our world: Parent perceptions of interactions between parents of young children with ASD and education professionals. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 20(1), 39-51. Swanson, H. L. (2000). Issues facing the field of learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 23, 37-50. Towles-Reeves, E., Kleinert, H., & Muhomba, M. (2009). Alternate assessment: Have we learned anything new? Exceptional Children, 75(2), 233-252. Trout, A. L., Nordness, P. D., Pierce, C. D., & Epstein, M. H. (2003). Research on the academic status of children with emotional and behavioral disorders: A review of the literature from 1961 to 2000. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 11(4), 198-210. US Department of Education. (2006, October 4). Building the legacy: IDEA 2004. In Individualized Educational Program (IEP) Team. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from ideapartnership.org Wagner, M., Newman, L., Cameto, R., Levine, P., Marder, C., & SRI International. (2007). Perceptions and expectations of youth with disabilities (Publication No. NLTS2). Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education. Weaver, R., & Cox, D. (2004). The intersection of access and outcomes: A joint project of the NEA and NASDSE providing policy guidance to state leadership. Alexandria, VA: National Education Association.

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Weintraub, F. (2005). The evolution of LD policy and future challenges. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28(2), 97-99. Wood, S. J., & Cronin, M. E. (1999). Students with emotional/behavioral disorders and transition planning: What the follow-up studies tell us. Psychology in the Schools, 36(4), 327-345.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 5

SUCCESSFUL CHARTER SCHOOLS: A PATHWAY TO CLOSING THE STUDENT TREATMENT GAP PERPETUATED BY TRADITIONAL SCHOOL FAILURES Cedric L. Stone The fight for social justice and educational rights is clearly embodied in the experiential struggle of African Americans. In fact, the very idea of citizenship would not be granted without an intense effort to receive social acceptance, political power and equal educational opportunities. Today, while some African Americans have gained social acceptance and political power, the quest for equal educational opportunities continues to elude a large portion of the population. The legacy of discriminatory practices that existed before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case and which continues today in a subtle and sinister way, has re-segregated American students along racial and social class lines. Unfortunately, many public school systems in the United States struggle to resolve academic injustices and to successfully educate African American students. As a result, in the early 1990s charter schools were proposed as an alternative to traditional public schools. In this chapter, I investigate the history and development of charter schools and their impact on the education of African Americans. In particular, I focus on the autonomy given to charter schools that allows them to use best practices to educate using culturally responsive pedagogical strategies.

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TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM: SEARCHING FOR SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE, POLITICAL POWER AND EQUITABLE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES In the book, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, James D. Anderson discusses the educational plight of African Americans in the South after slavery. ―Between 1800 and 1835, most of the southern states enacted legislation making it a crime to teach enslaved children to read or write‖ (Anderson, 1988, p. 2). Since the Reconstruction period, black education has been a struggle to achieve and to sustain a fair chance at life. Freed blacks were denied the opportunity to receive an education (Barak et al., 2001; Fuller, 1981). As a result, they also suffered the loss of economic and political power, and a lack of social acceptance. When former slaves began to lose political and economic power, they also lost control of their educational dreams. Literacy was being suppressed for African Americans, while the movement to develop a nationwide educational system was flourishing. Blacks were being forced into agricultural trades, while a formal educational system was being established for the southern whites at the taxpayers‘ expense. The formal education system was flourishing around the freed slaves; however, they were not included. The student treatment gap, which is the discriminatory treatment of students based on race and social class status, was slowly formulating as a direct result of structural barriers to educational access. Upon the abolishment of slavery, freed slaves campaigned for a universal, state supported public education. Ex-slaves desired to exercise their freedom, and they faced great opposition from southern whites, especially small farmers and planters. In their fight for an equal educational opportunity, ex-slaves sought the assistance of Republican politicians, the Freedmen‘s bureau, and northern missionary societies. Southern whites despised the government‘s intervention into their civil issues. They were very reluctant to accept universal public education reform. Consequentially, African Americans created their own educational independence by organizing their own schools and staffing them with black teachers. They were not willing to allow their educational movement to be controlled by northern whites (Anderson, 1988). The first educational reform for ex-slaves was ‗Native Schools‘ that were developed in the South, then Sabbath schools followed, and then the development of small private schools. Native schools were common schools that were founded and maintained exclusively by ex-slaves (Anderson, 1988). In these schools, teachers focused

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on building student leadership skills in order to create strategies for political independence and self-determination. The purpose of black schooling was to gain literacy skills and citizenship training for participation in the larger society (Meyer, 2000). As the literacy rate increased and black schools expanded into the South, so did white oppression. Southern whites had a different approach to the education and life options of African Americans. One such approach was the Hampton Model of 1868, which was nothing more than a ploy for legal and voluntary slavery. The creator of the ‗Hampton Model,‘ Samuel Chapman Armstrong, would champion its cause and his protégé, Booker T. Washington, would carry on his work. While there was a general fear that educated blacks would compete with whites for work, ―Armstrong developed a pedagogy and ideology designed to avoid such confrontations and to maintain within the South a social consensus that did not challenge traditional inequalities of wealth and power‖ (Anderson, 1988, p. 33). Armstrong‘s Hampton Model provided blacks with manual education, and he believed that blacks should refrain from accepting political offices. Furthermore, Armstrong believed that blacks were incapable of selfgovernance.

TRADITIONAL SCHOOL FAILURES AFFECTS AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS From the time of Armstrong and Washington, and even after the Brown case and the subsequence Civil Rights Movement, the lack of equality and separation among the races continued to impact the educational attainment of African Americans. And still today, there remains a huge disparity in the treatment of students along the intersection of race and social class. African American students are falling behind in their school performance, primarily due to differences in access and in how they are treated. Wiggan (2007) examines the discourse on student underachievement and explains that researchers have proposed popular explanations for school failure such as: genetic deficiency, cultural and/or class poverty, low teacher expectancy, and student oppositional identity. Wiggan proposes that researchers have improperly diagnosed the main cause of student failure, which connects to structural differences in the quality of education for poor and minority students.

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The traditional school system fails to educate all students equally, and yet it holds all students accountable for knowing the same materials even though they may not have been exposed to it. Most urban schools do not receive the same quantity or quality of resources as suburban schools. In these schools, new teachers often see this experience as a temporary appointment, while they prepare to move to what they perceive as better opportunities in the suburbs or in administration. Compounding this issue is the fact that low- income schools have less qualified teachers teaching the neediest students. Researchers have also discovered that students at the greatest risk of suspension are black males in urban schools (Mendez & Knoff, 2003). School attendance is an important success indicator of the educational achievement of black males. Although 72% of black students in America graduate from high school each year, over 45% of black males drop out of high school (Livingston & Nahimana, 2006). As African Americans move up in grade level, school attendance decreases (Hoffman, Llagas, & Snyder, 2003). These are just some of the reasons that lend support to the need for an alternative school system focusing on inclusive and transformative learning styles for diverse students.

CHARTER SCHOOLS Charter schools offer an alternative format for meeting the needs of a changing and diverse student population. A charter is based on a performance contract between a school and the state where it is located. The contract specifies the requirements and policies that the schools must adhere to, including, but not limited to: school operation, enrollment, duration of a charter, facilities, teacher licensing, transportation, reporting requirements, student discipline and grounds for termination. Charter schools, free to the students who attend them, are deregulated public schools with open enrollment (Collins, 2009). With the creation of charter schools brings hope that the student treatment gap can be eradicated and educational opportunities improved. Buddin & Zimmer (2005) have identified four types of charter schools, which are: public school converted to a charter school: a start up from scratch charter school, classroom based charter school, and non-classroom based charter school. Buddin & Simmer‘s (2005) study on the effectiveness of charter schools indicate that, overall, blacks in elementary and secondary education perform better in charter schools than traditional schools. This study examined the success rate of the blacks in charter schools as opposed to traditional schools,

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and emphasized students‘ academic achievement, attendance and suspension rate. Having a sound educational base is imperative for students since this has a strong impact on the first stage of the life cycle. Schools are a microcosm in which children learn the social norms of our society (Clark, 2000; Fitzsimon, 2009). Children typically spend most of their developmental years in a school setting. For many young black males who may have limited home resources, the school system becomes a primary source of achievement and socialization (Livingston & Nahimana, 2006). Therefore, school attendance is crucial for the academic achievement of this population. When absenteeism increases, learning opportunities for students decreases (Hoffman, Llagas, & Snyder, 2003). However, black males are disproportionately affected by out-of-school suspension and expulsion from school. This is quite troubling for a population of students that needs schools the most. Suspension and expulsion cannot be the first disciplinary recourse in public schools. A more nurturing school environment is needed to increase school attendance among black males and to promote academic success. In Texas, charter schools are meeting these challenges for black male students. Clark (2000) finds higher school attendance in the elementary and middle grade charter schools for all students, including black males, than traditional public schools. Mendez and Knoff (2003) have determined that students, who are male, black and in middle school, are at a greatest risk of being suspended from school. The authors‘ study took place in Miami Dade County in Florida, one of the largest school districts in the nation, which is also the second largest school district in Florida. The black male experienced the highest suspension rates of any group. School officials often cite insubordination as the most common reason for black students being suspended out of schools. The disparity in the treatment of black and white students is growing exponentially. The creation of a quality school system for African Americans is crucial to the enrichment of education, society and the economy. With the academic explosion of alternative education, it is imperative to understand which options are most viable -- charter schools or traditional schools. It appears that charter schools are more effective at the elementary, middle and high school level for African Americans, when assessing the areas of curriculum and pedagogy.

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SUCCESSFUL CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES The U.S. student population is changing rapidly. Currently, one out of every three students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools is of a racial or ethnic minority background (U.S. Department of Education, 2004), and by the year 2035, this group is expected to constitute a numerical majority of the K-12 student population. One in five children under eighteen years of age lives in poverty. More than one in seven children between the ages of five and seventeen speaks a language other than English at home; over one-third of them are of limited English proficiency (Hutchison, 2009). It is imperative that the teachers of tomorrow be equipped with the proper tools for creating a successful learning environment using a culturally responsive pedagogy (Lucas & Villegas, 2002; MacLeod, 1995). Some researchers have devised plans to strengthen the curriculum with improved pedagogical techniques and they have identified characteristics of successful charter schools. Katherine Merseth‘s (2009) study identifies successful charter schools that serve poor and minority students in Boston. All of the charter schools are located in the belly of a competitive traditional school environment and feed from the same demographic pool within close proximity in Boston. The charter schools are experiencing greater success in the students‘ performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), and have more students matriculating to college and university. Merseth (2009) identities the demographics of each charter school in Table 1. Merseth‘s findings lend support to the charter school movement for a free alternative, autonomous and accountable educational program. The study provides a recipe for a top-notch public education for all students attending traditional, charter, private or parochial schools. Merseth finds that these schools created a positive environment; they had teacher and parent buy-in; they implemented a transformative and inclusive pedagogy in the curriculum; and they had a proven system of discipline and reward in schools. These successful schools employed the following process: they were selective in choosing teachers; they created a nurturing school environment; they delivered high quality instruction; they had parent support; and the teachers and administrators formed a strong team.

Table 1. School Demographics.

School Founded Grades Enrollment Native American African American White Hispanic Asian Multiracial, non Hispanic Free reduced lunch Special education First language English Limited English Language 2006-07 Per-pupil expenditure

1997 5-12 472 0% 57% 23% 16% 3%

Boston Collegiate Charter School (Boston) 1998 5-12 412 0% 27% 64% 6% 2%

Match Charter Public High School (Boston) 2000 9-12 222 0% 62% 4% 30% 2%

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School (Boston) 1999 6-8 198 2% 61% 0% 33% 0%

N/A N/A N/A 0% 39% 13% 37% 9%

Community Day Charter Public School (Lawrence) 1995 K-8 330 0% 2% 9% 67% 1%

1%

1%

2%

5%

2%

1%

0%

52%

42%

71%

70%

71%

64%

83%

13% 12%

17%

11%

12%

20%

18%

19%

4%

14%

27%

38%

80%

82%

1%

0%

0%

1%

19%

29%

24%

$13,464

$11,356

$16,643

$14,879

$16,467

$13,917

$12,039 (FY07)

Academy of Pacific Rim (Boston)

All Boston Public schools

All Lawrence Public Schools N/A N/A N/A 0% 2% 7% 88% 3%

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Merseth‘s (2009) qualitative study has similarities and differences when compared to the success of schools in China. The charter school reforms in Massachusetts focus primarily on school quality as a key to success. Similar trends have been identified in Chinese schools. The Chinese ‗Quality Education‘ reform deemphasizes testing and focuses on promoting student learning (Preus, 2007). In this new reform, the Chinese school policy acknowledges that a tightly controlled test based education system fails to enhance creativity or student innovation. One similarity between the successful charter schools in Boston and the Chinese schools is that they both had systems for mentoring new teachers. The more experienced teachers visit the classrooms of new teachers and offer support and feedback for further improvements. A similar process is implemented within the successful schools in China. Both school systems have benefited from parental involvement. In Merseth‘s charter school study, parental involvement and support was important to the success of the schools. Similarly, the parents of the Asian students were heavily involved in the education of their children. Merseth (2009) explains that the successful charter schools also had excellent daily operations; the teachers had great classroom management skills; the schools had a reward and demerit system; and the culture of the school was inviting and supporting. Like Merseth, Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994), the author of The Dreamkeepers, Successful Teachers of African American Children, discusses the positive school outcomes of African American students. Ladson-Billings addresses the effective use of culturally responsive pedagogy in teaching minority students. Ladson-Billings also offers examples of effective teaching strategies for African American students. Ladson-Billings has done a wonderful job in educating us on the reasons for the huge disparity in the learning and outcomes of African Americans. She argues that we need better schools and students need better instruction. The U.S. Department of Education‘s examination of charter schools entitled, ―Innovations in Education: Successful Charter Schools,‖ explains the elements of effective charter schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). The schools selected for this study were very diverse in their student demographics and they were located in various cities across the country. The eight charter schools were a combination of elementary, middle and high schools. Three of the schools have 80 percent of their students qualifying for subsidized meals. One of the schools was in existence for 10 years and the others for five and six years. The project team conducted a two-day visit at each school, interviewed site leaders, teachers, board members, parents and

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students as well. They collected parent letters and schedules and training agendas, which provided examples of school practices. From this documentation, a case report was developed for each site. From the case reports, an analysis of common elements was derived. The results of the U.S. Department of Education study indicate that the common characteristics of effective charter schools are as follows: 1) They have a mission that everyone associated with the school believes in. 2) The schools engaged the parents as partners in the educational process. 3) The culture of the school is highly collegial and the administration implements continuous improvement processes. 4) The schools had a strong accountability system. While traditional schools struggle to educate minority students, effective charter schools are experiencing great gains with this student population. However, charter schools often have their own challenges. Charter schools are opening and closing in record numbers across the country, as many of them are ineffective. Therefore, it is imperative that we determine what makes some charter schools more successful than others.

CONCLUSION During the post-slavery era, African Americans were excluded from educational reform. Blacks started their own education initiatives, which were strongly opposed by southern whites. Without a proper education, African Americans would have limited economic and political power. The doctrine of ―Separate but Equal‖ would derail African Americans‘ dreams of equal citizenship. The creation of Jim Crow laws would ensure that blacks would never achieve an equal opportunity, which remained the social norm for another eighty years. The Brown v. Board of Education case would ultimately replace the precedent decision of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. However, even after the Brown case, persistent racial inequalities continued to plague the American social class system and subsequently, public schools. While school failure impact minority and urban students most, effective charter schools are using inclusive and transformative learning styles to educate these students.

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Given the success of effective charter schools, these institutions should be given serious consideration as a viable option for addressing school failure.

REFERENCES Anderson, J.D. (1988). The education of blacks in the south, 1860-1935. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Barak,G., Flavin,M.J., Leighton, P.S., (2001). Class, race, gender and crime. Social realities of justice in America. Lamhan, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Buddin, R., & Zimmer, R. (2005). Student achievement in charter schools: A complex picture. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24(2), 351371. Clark, C. (2000, January 1). Texas charter schools: New choices for Texas families. Clearing House, 74(2), 64-69. Collins, K. (2009, October). NAACP may sue for diversity. Retrieved March 23, 2010 from http://www.newsobserver.com/2009/10/31/167055/naacpmay-sue-for-diversity.html Fitzsimon, C. (2009, October). The real agenda of the re-segregationists. Retrieved March 23, 2010 from http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/cms/2009/10/29/the-real-agenda-of-theresegregationists/ Fuller,C. (1981). I hear them calling my name: A journey thru the new south. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Hoffman, K., Llagas, C.& Snyder, T.D. (2003). Status and trends in the education of blacks. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Hutchison, C. (2010). Teaching diverse learners with basic principles, classroom insights, and best practices. Charlotte, NC: Catawba Publishing. Ladson-Billings, G.(1994). The dreamkeepers, successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Livingston, J., & Nahimana, C. (2006). Problem child or problem context: An ecological approach to young Black males. Reclaiming Children and Youth: The Journal of Strength-based Interventions, 14(4), 209-214. Lucas, T. & Villegas, A.M.(2002). Educating culturally responsive teachers, a coherent approach. New York: State University of New York press

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Macleod, J. (1987 & 1995), ―Ain’t no makin’ it‖, Aspiration and attainment in a low-income Neighborhood. Denver: Westview Press, Inc. Mendez, L. M., &, Knoff, H. M. (2003). Who gets suspended from school and why: A demograhic analysis of schools and disciplinary infractions in a large school district. Education and Treatment of Children, 26(1), 30-51. Merseth, K. (2009). Inside urban charter schools. Boston: Harvard Education Press. Meyer, S.G. (2000). As long as they don’t move next door. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield publishers, Inc. Preus, B. (2007). Educational trends in China and the United States: Proverbial pendulum or potential for balance. Phi Delta Kappan. Retrieved May 14, 2009 from http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v89/ k0710pre.htm U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement. (2004). Innovations in education: Successful charter schools. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Wiggan, G. (2007). Race, school achievement, and educational inequality: Toward a student-based inquiry perspective. Review of Educational Research, 77(3), 310-333 10.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

PREPARING TOMORROW’S TEACHERS: THE COMPONENTS OF A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATIONAL APPROACH Lindsay Sheronick Yearta Minority groups typically achieve lower levels of literacy than their white counterparts do. According to the National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] (2006), in 1993 and 2005, whites were reported to read to their children more frequently than African Americans. In 1993, 84.8 percent of whites reported that they read to their children while only 65.9 percent of blacks did. In 2005, 91.9 percent of whites reported that they read to their children while 78.5 percent of blacks read to their children regularly. However, in the same years, blacks taught their children expressions through music and songs more frequently than their white counterparts did. In 1993, only 40.2 percent of whites taught their children songs and music while 48.9 percent of blacks did. In 2005, 52.1 percent of whites reported that they taught their children songs and music, while 56.4 percent of blacks reported that they taught their children musical abilities (NCES, 2006). More recently, these disparities have increased further. The most recent research from the NCES followed a cohort of children born in 2001. Data were collected when the children were nine months old, two years old, and four years old. The research reveals a 30 percent difference between white families who read stories to their children, and black families who read stories at each age level. Black parents continued to sing to their children at a slightly higher

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rate than their white counterparts did, which is another form of literacy. However, it is one that is not valued in public schools (NCES, 2009). The difference in students‘ home culture and the culture of schools is one possible explanation for the literacy difference between white and black students. The cultural differences between minority students and the general white middle-class culture of schools affect teachers‘ ability to understand the knowledge and abilities that students bring with them to school (Delpit, 1995; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). This is evident in the underperformance of minorities in the area of literacy. Culturally responsive teaching is a possible prescription for mediating the cultural mismatch between students, teachers and schools, as well as for promoting better student performance. Culturally responsive teaching is an approach to education that uses student‘s home culture as a pedagogical tool for instruction in the classroom (Gay, 2000; Howard, 1999; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Myers & Botting, 2008; Shade, Kelly, & Oberg, 1997 as cited in Howard, 2003). This approach utilizes students‘ own cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and learning styles to make classroom lessons relevant (Gay, 2000). Many students who lack exposure to school literacy do indeed come from literate homes. However, the home literacy and school literacy are not valued in the same way. According to Howard (2003), one must only examine academic achievement along racial lines to have a firm understanding of who is benefitting from education and who is not. If teachers knew how to bridge home and school ‗literacies‘ through the use of culturally responsive pedagogy, they could meet students at their current levels while valuing and building upon the knowledge and culture they bring from their home environment. A major part of the solution, then, lies within institutions of higher learning, specifically the colleges of education. Teacher education programs should be leading the way in training teacher candidates how to work with diverse learners and how to build on minority students‘ home culture and literacy. Since most colleges of education fail to do this, most of the teachers they produce are culturally incompetent when they enter urban and minority school environments. By the year 2050, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos/Latinas will constitute close to 57 percent of all U.S. students (US Department of Commerce, 1996). As the minority becomes the majority, teachers will continue to teach students whose backgrounds differ from their own. The nation‘s largely homogenous white teacher workforce will be responsible for teaching many non-white students (Howard, 2003). Therefore, colleges of education must prepare teacher candidates to teach in culturally

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and racially diverse environments (Howard, 2003). Teacher candidates must learn to teach in a manner that has relevance and meaning to the social and cultural realities of their students (Delpit, 1995; Howard, 2003). The population of the U.S. is changing rapidly, but the demographics of the teacher workforce remain unchanged. We must prepare our K-12 teachers to work with a new, diverse population. In order to do this, we must arm these educators with the tools necessary to foster relevant learning experiences in schools. Colleges of education play a major role in achieving this goal. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the components of effective education programs that have taken a culturally responsive educational approach to teaching and learning. The question that I seek to answer is: In a college of education, what are some of the crucial components for infusing culturally responsive educational programs?

CULTURE AND EDUCATION As mentioned, culturally responsive education provides an opportunity for students to receive cultural enrichments through classroom instruction that incorporates knowledge and lessons from their home environment. While public schools are premised on a white middle-class experience, minority voices and perspectives are excluded and students indirectly learn that nonwhite groups are not important and that they have not contributed anything worth mentioning. This is a tragedy for all students, because it mis-educates them and teaches them racism as facts. Therefore, culturally responsive education seeks to address the cultural exclusion of minorities by being culturally inclusive and emphasizing multiple perspectives in the curriculum (Gay, 2000). Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994) defines culturally responsive education as a pedagogy that recognizes and values the significance of including a student‘s culture in the learning process. Public schools fail to present minority students with an education that is of a high quality or one that addresses their rich cultural backgrounds or experiences from their home environment (Hunsberger, 2007). In a culturally responsive classroom, the teacher strives to include examples of literature that represent the students and their communities (Janks, 2010). According to Paulo Freire (1970), liberation becomes possible when students are taught how to critically reflect on the social and political conditions in their communities, as well as how to transform those very conditions.

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If we expect teachers to utilize culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms, colleges of education must take responsibility for teaching teacher candidates how to deliver this kind of instruction. In most education programs, if there is a multicultural education course, it succeeds only minimally in exposing teachers to issues of diversity, because there are only one or two classes that are addressing the topic (Bruna, 2007). Furthermore, in this one class, all of the diversity issues are crammed together and presented in a quick drive-by style. Therefore, there is very little continuity across the curriculum. Multicultural and culturally responsive training should be taught and reinforced across the entire curriculum, and it should be complemented with field experiences and practicums in diverse learning environments (Delpit, 1995; McCaleb, 1998; Nieto, 2000; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). Colleges of education should have at least three required courses that address multicultural education, culturally responsive teaching, and differentiated instruction for diverse learners. There are three main components of an effective college of education program that teaches through a culturally responsive lens: 1) the curriculum should be enriched with multiculturalism, 2) there should be critical reflection about diversity in each class and 3) there should be fieldwork opportunities that include diverse school placements.

CURRICULUM AND MULTICULTURALISM The curriculum is the first component of culturally responsive education programs offered in colleges of education. Culturally responsive education programs offer specific courses on multicultural education (Delpit, 1995; Kunjufu, 2002). These courses should be mandatory for all teacher candidates and they should provide candidates with an in-depth understanding of multiculturalism. James Banks (2001) finds that the teacher workforce is predominantly composed of white, middle-class females, and that they are often unaware of minority issues and concerns. Therefore, multicultural education courses should serve the transformative purpose of projecting minority issues and concerns into the mainstream classroom (Pungello et al., 1996; Sharif et al., 2003). In these classes, selections such as the Dreamkeepers by Gloria LadsonBillings, Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, among others, should be read and studied by all candidates. Furthermore, ongoing study groups should facilitate continued

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discussions on relevant urban education and minority school issues. Colleges of education should do a series of public discussions and open forums on promoting school achievement. In addition to having the required classes, a college guest lecture series could help to foster an ongoing dialogue on effective teaching strategies for minority students. In college of education courses, professors should teach in a culturally responsive manner that leads by example (McCaleb, 1998). This might also mean that the faculty members receive some training and workshops on the topic of multicultural education and culturally responsive teaching. Most colleges of education are predominately white and there are few minority faculty, and most of the faculty members were never trained in urban education or culturally responsive education. Therefore, these professors and instructors often reproduce that limitation in the way they teach, and in the candidates they prepare for the teaching profession. Therefore, the professors and instructors must to be exposed to multicultural education and culturally responsive teaching if they are to teach it and model it for teacher candidates. In education, all courses can be infused with content relating to diversity (Nieto, 2000). This can be as simple as having students share personal cultural experiences through a discussion, or a writing assignment which requires the student to gain exposure from the cultural perspective of other groups, or even doing field experience in a diverse environment. Teacher candidates should be given assignments that require collaboration and problem solving related to diverse learners (Nieto, 2000). For example, students could collaborate on a math project or community project that involves working in an urban school to decrease unemployment. While working together, the candidates would learn more about urban communities and schools, as well as how to make their class lessons relevant. When these candidates gain knowledge and experiences from a cultural group other than their own, they can use that knowledge as a pedagogical tool. Education professors should lead by example in this regard as well. Collaborative faculty in colleges of education is a necessary element of a culturally responsive education (Nieto, 2000). Teacher candidates should see and experience a diverse faculty working together to improve education and minority school issues. However, how can this be possible if even in colleges of education, only a very few minorities are hired as faculty members?

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CRITICAL REFLECTION Critical reflection is the second component in creating culturally responsive educational programs in colleges of education (Bruna, 2007; Grant & Zozakiewicz, 1995; Howard, 2003; Jacobs, 2006). Reflection should be used as a tool for creating culturally responsive teaching practices (Howard, 2003). Critical reflection (Jacobs, 2006) can lead to critical discussion both in and out of the classroom (Bruna, 2007; Jacobs, 2006), and it can be used to examine the hierarchical nature of higher education institutions, K-12 public schools, and the larger society (Smyth, 1989). Upon examination and analysis of the racial and hierarchical nature of schools in general, teacher candidates can work diligently to ensure that their own students do not suffer from the effects of this in their own classrooms. In order to participate fully in critically reflective practices, teacher candidates must be prepared to reflect on their own thinking and practices as ―cultural and racial beings‖ (Banks, 2001). This reflection can have a transformative effect of the way they teach. One way that teacher candidates can engage in critical reflection is to have them write an autobiographical composition (Jacobs, 2006; Milner, 2003). In this assignment, teacher candidates can reflect on their individual, educational journeys and examine their inherent belief systems in order to better inform their pedagogical practices. Professors might also facilitate critical reflection in their students by posing the following questions from Milner (2003): 1) How will my race influence my work as a teacher with students of a different race? 2) What is the impact of race on my beliefs? 3) How do I, as a teacher, situate myself in the education of others, and how do I negotiate the power structure in my class to allow students to feel a sense of worth? Professors might assign a personal reflection piece where students must critically examine their lives in relation to a required reading such as: We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools (Howard, 1999). James Banks (2001) explains that he often requires his students to complete a family history project. Banks finds that students must examine and analyze their own lives, histories and biases in order to begin the process of deconstructing history and reconstructing, or challenging the dominant discourse (2002, 2003, 2008).

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According to Jacobs (2006), teacher candidates should also engage in critical reflection regarding context. Candidates should discuss school as an institution and seek to answer the following questions: (1)Who is benefiting from school? (2)Whose voices are being heard? (3) Whose voices are missing? When those questions have been asked and answered, it opens the door of possibility for understanding how power and privilege are enacted in schools, and how teachers can better teach and advocate for minority students. Journal writing assignments are another way for candidates to engage in critical reflection in an open and non-threatening way (Jacobs, 2006). For this assignment, candidates can write reflections in a journal that focuses on daily interactions in their school and with students. The professor or instructor can then write back to the student and give suggestions or ask probing questions. The journals can be in a traditional notebook or it can take place in an online forum through the use of blogs or Wikis. As with all critical reflections, a safe and nurturing atmosphere is absolutely necessary in the classroom so that students feel comfortable enough to share their experiences and to learn and grow (Howard, 2003; Jacobs, 2006; Nieto, 2000).

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE Traditionally, teacher candidates report that they failed to get adequate experience and exposure for working with minority students (McClanahan & Buly, 2009). For this reason, diverse and meaningful fieldwork opportunities are the third component to culturally responsive education in a college of education (Jacobs, 2006; McCaleb, 1998). School placements should reflect racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender, and other types of diversity (Nieto, 2000). If, due to the location of the college or university, a placement in a diverse setting is impossible, McClanahan and Buly (2009) argue that the Internet can be used to connect teacher candidates with diverse students. Technology can be used to connect online classrooms and student activities. Teacher candidates can correspond in writing with teachers in urban schools through email and blogs. Classrooms can be virtually connected, and students can hear and see each other through Podcasts and Skype, etc. These are some of the ways that technology can help teacher candidates connect with teachers who teach in

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diverse schools (McClanahan & Buly, 2009). In addition, colleges of education in rural and suburban areas must plan regular fieldtrips for candidates to gain exposure to urban schools and diverse student populations. In rural colleges and universities, these trips should be built into required classes. Furthermore, college classes should be expanded to include community outreach (McCaleb, 1998). Teacher candidates should be required to spend a fair amount of time in urban and diverse communities so that they can gain greater exposure and interact with community leaders and civic organizations. This is important in making connections, collaborating and fostering community support in schools (Nieto, 2000). Our future teachers should be given opportunities to develop strong and meaningful relationships with students (Nieto, 2000). This can be achieved by requiring teacher candidates to spend time doing community learning or social literacy projects as part of their fieldwork placement (Jacobs, 2006; McCaleb, 1998, Nieto, 2000). Candidates should learn to work with families and with the community. Students will see these candidates meeting their parents and working with them to promote school achievement, and they will grow to respect their teachers. The relationships forged through communities can have an instrumentally positive effect on student achievement. Diverse fieldwork placements require supervision of the teacher candidates by university supervisors. There are three critical areas of fieldwork supervision that supports culturally responsive education: culturally responsive supervision, critical supervision, and multicultural supervision (Jacobs, 2006).

Culturally Responsive Supervision Culturally responsive supervision aims to help candidates realize how the linguistic and cultural practices that they might take for granted differ across various cultures. This type of supervision helps future teachers understand the influence of the aforementioned differences on the learning environment of the classroom (Bowers & Flinders, 1991, as cited in Jacobs, 2006).

Critical Supervision Relating to culturally responsive supervision is critical supervision in field placement. The goal of critical supervision is for teacher candidates to engage in emancipatory actions that move them towards critical self-reflection and

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towards autonomy (Jacobs, 2006). Zeichner and Tabachnick argue that critical supervision questions the status quo and analyzes how social themes manifest themselves in the classroom (1982). One way to engage in critical discussion through critical supervision is to begin by sharing daily experiences in the classroom. Once teacher candidates have shared their daily experiences, they can connect this to broader social themes regarding the causes of oppression in society, as well as how schools can foster agency and student resilience (Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1982).

Multicultural Supervision The third aspect of supervision connects to the area of multiculturalism. In this supervision, supervisors remind their teacher candidates to take aspects of students‘ identity and culture such as: race, ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, and disability into account as variables in the learning process (Davidman, 1990 as cited in Jacobs, 2006). This type of supervision in fieldwork helps to alleviate some of the issues in school that students face because of a lack of multicultural and diversity learning opportunities (Jacobs, 2006). Multicultural supervisors push teacher candidates to reflect on their decisions about content and teaching strategies and to incorporate multicultural materials and perspectives into the curriculum (Jacobs, 2006).

CONCLUSION As we move forward into the twenty-first century, our public school students are in desperate need of a culturally responsive teacher workforce. Our students are not being provided with an adequate or a quality education. In fact, some of our urban students face deplorable education conditions with new teachers, inadequate buildings and supplies, and a low quality curriculum (Kozol, 2005). However, we cannot expect K-12 teachers to know how to teach in urban and diverse schools when they have never been exposed, nor were they taught how to teach using culturally responsive pedagogy. In order to prepare our teachers to work with a diverse student population, deserving of stellar educators, colleges of education must improve their curriculum, their hiring practices and their training of teachers. In these institutions, there should be a programmatic focus on improving diversity and course offerings related to multicultural education, culturally responsive pedagogy, and diverse

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fieldwork placements for teacher candidates. These future teachers should be immersed in culturally responsive teaching through their college of education training. Culturally responsive education, when properly implemented, can improve the delivery of instruction to students. It can also help future teachers understand who has the power and privilege in our society, as well as provide them with the transformative tools to create a better, more equal society in which we can all learn from each other, and where the voices of marginalized groups cease to be silenced.

REFERENCES Banks, J.A. (2001). Citizenship education and diversity: Implications for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 52, 5-16. Banks, J.A. (2002). Race, knowledge construction, and education in the USA: Lessons from history. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 5, 7-27. Banks, J.A. (2003). Teaching literacy for social justice and global citizenship. Language Arts, 81, 18-19. Banks, J.A. (2008). Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Educational Researcher, 37, 129-139. Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Howard, G. (1999). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Howard, T.C. (2003). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher reflection. Theory Into Practice, 42, 195-202. Hunsberger, P. (2007). ―Where am I?‖ A call for ―connectedness‖ in literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 420-424. Janks, H. (2010). Literacy and power. New York: Routledge. Jacobs, J. (2006). Supervision for social justice: Supporting critical reflection. Teacher Education Quarterly, 33(4), 23-39. Kozol, J. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York: Three Rivers Press. Kunjufu, J. (2002). Black students. Middle class teachers. Chicago, IL: African American Images.

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Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass. McCaleb, S.P. (1998). Connecting preservice teacher education to diverse communities: A focus on family literacy. Theory into Practice, 37, 148154. McClanahan, L., & Buly, M.R. (2009). Purposeful partnerships: Linking preservice teachers with diverse k-12 students. Multicultural Education, 16, 55-59. Milner, H.R. (2003). Reflection, racial competence, and critical pedagogy: How do we prepare pre-service teachers to pose tough questions? Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 6, 193- 208. Myers, L., & Botting, N. (2008). Literacy in the mainstream inner-city school: Its relationship to spoken language. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 24, 95-114. National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). The condition of education 2006, NCES 2006-071. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). The condition of education 2009 (NCES 2009–081), Table A-2-1. Retrieved March 15, 2010 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009081.pdf Nieto, S. (2000) Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York, NY: Longman. Pungello, E.P., Kupersmidt, J.B., Burchinal, M.R., & Patterson, C.J. (1996). Environmental risk factors and children‘s achievement from middlechildhood to early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 32, 755-767. Sharif, I., Ozuah, P.O., Dinkevich, E.I., & Mulvihill, M. (2003). Impact of a brief intervention on urban preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 30, 177-180. Taylor, D. & Dorsey-Gaines, C. (1988). Growing up literate: Learning from inner-city families. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. U.S. Department of Commerce (1996). Current population reports: Population projections of the United States by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin: 1995- 2050. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Zeichner, K. M., & Tabachnick, R. B. (1982). The belief systems of university supervisors in an elementary student-teaching program. Journal of Education for Teaching, 8, 35-54.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 7

RECRUITING AND RETAINING FEMALE AND MINORITY ENGINEERING STUDENTS: A CRITICAL SOCIAL FEMINIST AND RACE PERSPECTIVE Patricia Tolley The recruitment and retention of female and minority undergraduate students in engineering is a systemic problem threatening the economic and technological prospect and power of the United States. According to the American Society of Engineering Education (2010), in 2008 only 18.0% of undergraduate students enrolled in engineering programs were female and 15.2% were African American, Hispanic, and Native American combined (Gibbons, n.d.). The percentage of engineering bachelor‘s degrees awarded to women in 2008 was 18.0%; only 4.9% of engineering graduates were African American and 6.2% were Hispanic (Gibbons, n.d.). As Chubin, May, and Babco (2005) so clearly articulate, ―[e]ngineering has a ‗diversity‘ problem‖ (p. 73). They admit that diversifying the workforce is a complicated proposition that has far-reaching economic, political, and social ramifications. Yet, in order to meet the nation‘s need for a qualified technical workforce, the profession must attract and retain practitioners who look like the clientele they serve. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that, nationally, less than half of the freshmen who start out in engineering graduate with an engineering degree (Astin & Astin, 1992; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Zhang, Anderson, Ohland, & Thorndyke, 2004). African American students are the least

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successful group to graduate in the major (Brown, Morning, &Watkins, 2005; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997) and those that do must overcome a ―pervasive combination of academic and institutional barriers to educational success‖ (Green, Marti, & McClenney, 2008, p. 529). Despite attempts by government, industry, university, and philanthropic organizations to resolve the gender and ethnic disparities in engineering over the last decade, little progress has been made (Brown, Morning, & Watkins, 2005; Chubin, May, & Babco, 2005; Gibbons, n.d.). The structure of the K-12 education system in the U.S., as well as socio-cultural influences, the absence of female and minority role models in academia and industry, and the continuing struggle for power by white males have resulted in problems and challenges that are too systemic and complex to fuel the engineering pipeline with underrepresented student populations (Anyon, 1980; Blanchett, Mumford, & Beacham, 2005; Chubin, May, & Babco, 2002; DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999; Kozol, 2000; Robinson & McIlwee, 1991; Smith, 1983; Villegas, 1988). For those who do pursue the major, they are confronted with a demanding and competitive learning environment that is exacerbated by isolation, discrimination, and oppression imposed by a community of white males, all of which contribute to their attrition (Brown, Morning, & Watkins, 2005; Chesler & Chesler, 2002; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Tonso, 1996a, 1996b; Washburn & Miller, 2004). Some of these consequences are unintended, and while not all of the white males in engineering exact power, it is clear that the field is dominated by their perspectives. Although the engineering education community has attempted to understand and address the problem, existing research has primarily focused on academic characteristics that influence recruitment and retention -- such as the mathematics and science preparation of high school graduates and the freshman year college experience (see for example, Astin, 1993; Astin & Astin, 1992; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Zhang, Anderson, Ohland, & Thorndyke, 2004). However, these efforts have traditionally been limited in scope in that they do not contextualize the problem within the broader framework of social, political, and economic oppression based on gender and ethnicity. Clearly, previous efforts have heightened awareness of the problem and, in some cases, even proposed prescriptions. However, the reality is that they have treated the symptoms without understanding the cause of illness. Thus, a critical social feminist and race perspective can help answer the question: What are some of the hegemonic factors influencing the recruitment and retention of female and minority engineering students? Examining the problem through the lens of critical social theory promotes a comprehensive

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and integrated understanding of causes and consequences of oppression; exposes hidden assumptions that legitimize the oppression of female and minority students; encourages a meaningful dialogue among parents, educators, and industry leaders; and engages thoughtful and coordinated participation in their liberation.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY Marxism is a social philosophy of conflict that is based on ownership of economic modes of production and property. In this way, structural socioeconomic relations form as a result of the means, modes, and forces of production with workers subordinated in the struggle for power and ownership (Marx, 1844; Morrison, 2006). The result is a stratified society with power struggles among the classes: Aristocrats, who are born into wealth and power; the Bourgeoisie, the upper or merchant class who create wealth and power through education and employment; and the Proletariat, who are the propertyless wage earners ―who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their [labor] capital increases‖ (Marx, 1844, p. 41). Marx‘s philosophy is clearly played out in African American history. Slaves worked the land but did not own it. Blacks were forced to sit at the back of the bus and drink from different water fountains than whites. Despite government policies ensuring equal employment opportunities, there is evidence that racial discrimination continues to influence hiring decisions (see for example, Ward & Ong, 2006). In 1954, the Brown vs. Board of Education case (Clark, Chein, & Cook, 2004) sought to desegregate schools, but white flight from the inner cities and implementation of educational policies and practices have resulted in a re-segregation of urban schools (Mickelson, 2003). The stereotypical contemporary African American is still perceived as Proletariat class. Those who struggle to successfully defy the stereotype are hailed as heroes and role models as evidenced by the recent election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States. Social scientists and philosophers of the Frankfurt School in Germany framed critical social theory in the 1930s in response to critiques of Marxist conflict theory. They believed that Marx‘s macro-level conception that economic forces and modes of production were responsible for class stratification, division of labor, and domination was insufficient to explain human conflict. Neo-Marxist critical social theory expands the debate by examining resistance, oppression, human agency, and hegemony relative to

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gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Critical theory is applied at multiple levels of social life, beginning with the individual and culminating with the larger society. Such a broad perspective provides insights into the sources of inequality and oppression, the experiences of individuals within social organizations, individual autonomy, patterns of communication and interaction, and how meanings and identities are constructed (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Similar to Marxist conflict theory, critical theory posits that social contradictions create inequality among groups and legitimize oppression. For example, the philosophies of equal access and education are incongruent with the current structure and practices of the K-12 system. Critical theorists contend that as individuals become aware of such social myths and assumptions, they are better prepared to take action to transform their lives. It is this concept of active involvement that they refer to as ―human agency‖ (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Also fundamental to critical theory are the beliefs that social reality is constructed and that knowledge is differentially distributed by gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and other attributes. W.E.B. Du Bois‘ (1903/1994) seminal work, Souls of Black Folks, was perhaps the first to most eloquently and realistically articulate the ―problem‖ (p. 1) of being black in a white society. Written in 1903, it offers a compelling account of the destitution, social degradation, and disfranchisement experienced by blacks after the abolition of slavery. African Americans‘ liberation was met with a myriad of challenges associated with ownership of property, education, employment, and social integration. According to Du Bois (1903/1994), ―…life among free Negroes was simply unthinkable, the maddest of experiments‖ (p. 18). Though liberated, the ―Veil‖ (Du Bois, 1903/1994, p. 39) between whites and blacks continued to shroud attempts at reconciliation for injustices of the past and hope for opportunities in the future. As a civil rights leader, journalist, and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Du Bois had a profound effect on race relations in the early 1900‘s (Wiggan, 2010). Du Bois‘ brilliant account in Souls of Black Folk also provided a historical context for what later became critical race theory. Critical race theory emerged in the 1970s in response to critiques that critical social theory did not adequately address issues of racial civil rights and discrimination. Contemporary critical race theory has expanded the scope so that it now incorporates law, sociology, history, ethnic studies, and women‘s studies (Yosso, Parker, Solórzano, & Marvin, 2004).

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Perhaps one of the best known and most prolific among contemporary writers on race relations is Molefi Asante (1991; 1998; Turner & Asante, 2002; Wiggan, 2010), who propounded the theory of Afrocentricity, which he described as ―a paradigm which infuses all phenomena from the standpoint of African people as subjects in human history rather than as on the fringes of someone else's culture‖ (Turner & Asante, 2002, p. 718). According to Mazama (2001), people of African descent have unconsciously adopted a Eurocentric world view that is ―normal, natural, or worse yet, ideal‖ (p. 387). Rather than contextualize knowledge within a universal Eurocentric ideology, Afrocentricity focuses on the interrelationships of African Diaspora knowledge, society, religion, medicine, and tradition. However, an Afrocentric paradigm is not merely descriptive in nature nor is it culturally specific. It is transcendent in that it promotes inquiry, analysis, and synthesis from a multicultural and historical perspective. It ―expands the repertoire of human perspectives of knowledge‖ (Asante, 1998, p. 18). It advocates agency and action as the basis for liberation. It promotes a consciousness of victory rather than oppression (Mazama, 2001). Asante‘s concept of nommo refers to the ―generative and productive power of the spoken word, in African discourse and in specific instances of resistance to the dominant ideology‖ (Asante, 1998, p. 22). He contended that African discourse and agency are suppressed by socio-political structures that dictate relationships among people thus creating inequalities between African Americans and European Americans. According to Traoré (2007), a ―false sense of superiority of European and American worldview and values‖ (p. 62) denigrates those of African descent. Afrocentricity challenges and deconstructs the Eurocentric version of history and re-characterizes and reconstructs African history. Contrary to the European perspective, the African worldview is one of living in harmony with nature, interdependence, spirituality, working for the common good, and respect for elders. People of African descent are liberated when they relinquish the Eurocentric perspective, reclaim their African heritage, and construct an Afrocentric identity. However, a worldview that embraces diversity in terms of race and gender is precluded by the myriad of hegemonic factors that exist to perpetuate the dominant culture.

SOCIAL FEMINIST THEORY Despite the proliferation of feminist activities characteristic of the 1970s, feminism has a long history that extends almost 150 years, beginning in the

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mid-1800s. This first wave of activism focused on the equality of human and political rights. Harriet Martineau and Ida Wells-Barnette, for example, were two of the earliest feminists and sociologists who focused on exposing the discrepancies between democratic morals and ideals and the treatment of slaves and women (Deegan, 1991). However, their work received little recognition among their white male contemporaries. Jane Addams, who founded the Hull House in 1889, was perhaps one of the best known of the early women‘s rights activists (Adams, 2004). The Hull House was a social settlement in an oppressed community in Chicago that provided education, training, and recreation for the poor and disenfranchised. Addams and her mostly female Hull House colleagues developed programs for social improvement, served as the ―moral conscience‖ (p. 67) of the labor movement -- particularly for unskilled women in the labor trades -- and fought for women‘s suffrage, which was initiated by Susan B. Anthony in the mid-1800s and ultimately ratified in 1920. Contemporary feminists such as Friedan (2004), author of the Feminist Mystique and founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW, 2009), challenged the role of the 1950‘s suburban housewife, which she described as the ―cherished and self-perpetuating core of competency of American culture‖ (p. 357). Her perspective was mirrored by existentialist feminist Simone de Beauvoir (2004) who aptly portrayed men‘s subjugation of women as the duality between ―Self‖ and ―Other‖ (p. 340). In the 1960s and 1970s, Steinem (1990) and Smith (1983) emerged as visible, outspoken, and controversial leaders in the second wave of the feminist movement that advocated for the economic and social equality of women. More recently, feminists such as Collins (1989, 2000, 2004) and Hartsock (2004), offered perspectives of gender power relations that extend beyond the sexes. This third wave of feminism also incorporates ethnicity, socio-economic class, age, religion, and sexual orientation as well as individual and collective resistance to oppression. Feminism offers a range of philosophies and ideologies that share a common theme, which is the liberation of women of all ages, ethnicities, social and economic classes, and sexual orientations. The second wave of feminist philosophy includes social feminism. Social feminists argue that society – not just individuals – must be transformed such that gender roles and economic and social relationships are redefined (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). For example, social feminists believe that women have the right to define their own sexuality and they have the freedom to choose if and when they will have children. If they do have children, they believe that men should fully participate in child-rearing. They also believe that, contrary to

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stereotypical patriarchal roles, a woman can be the primary wage earner for the family while a man can stay at home to care for children, cook, and clean. Such role reversals give women social and economic power, independence, and empowerment that collectively can lead to social acceptance and transformation. According to Smith (1983), the experience of patriarchy is ―a product of how women and men have been socialized in the relations of dominance and subordination‖ (p. 3). She asserted that systematic, patriarchal oppression by governments, businesses, and professions has rendered women politically and economically powerless. The socially constructed roles of wife and mother are subordinate in the typical family organization. Women are caretakers, nurturers, and supporters at the expense of their personal interests and goals. Instead, they focus on the interests and goals of their husband, who is usually the primary wage-earner for the family. Their pay-off is in the acquisition of material possessions, such as a larger home, and in increased prestige among members of their social circle. Women who work outside of the home tend to assume professional roles that are commensurate with their work experience at home such as secretaries, nurses, and teachers. Smith (1983) contended that women have limited opportunity for advancement because such positions are ―skilled but ancillary and subordinate…and, of course…low paid‖ (p. 15). Conversely, men tend to pursue careers that are more technical or specialized and that offer social prestige and economic advantage, such as engineers, doctors, dentists, and school administrators. Their careers also replicate familial roles but, in contrast to women, they are ones of leading, managing, and decision-making. Thus, social feminist theory offers a gender-based context while critical race theory offers a racial context for understanding the hegemonic factors that influence the recruitment and retention of female and minority engineering students. The nexus of feminist and critical race theories is achieved by the work of black feminists such as Collins (1989, 2000, 2004). Black women are often considered the ―minority of minorities.‖ Many are head of their household yet they are restricted to low paying jobs that lack economic and professional opportunity or personal fulfillment (Collins, 2000). Also consistent with Marxist conflict theory, many black women do not own property. Thus black feminist ideology is shaped by political, economic, and epistemological influences (Collins, 1989). Collins (1989, 2000, 2004) expands the classic feminist objective of liberating women from male, particularly white male, domination. She and other black feminists strive to redefine images of black women as beautiful in

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comparison to the Eurocentric concept of beauty, self-reliant rather than dependent, proactive rather than passive, and powerful rather than subordinate. According to Collins (2004), there are three levels of oppression of black women: Personal, group, and systemic. Personal oppression is the result of individual experience, values, and motivations. Group oppression is culturallybased depending on gender, class, and/or race. Systemic oppression is imposed by social institutions such as the workplace, churches, and schools. Collins (2004) asserted that black women must confront all three in order to overcome the matrix of domination. This matrix concept also provides a useful framework for establishing a triadic prescription for social change.

THE MYTH OF EQUAL EDUCATIONAL ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY The utopian aspiration of equal educational access and opportunity is a myth – one that is perpetuated by the dominant class in an effort to reproduce and legitimize subordination of the masses and maintain control and power. For example, U.S. public tax-supported K-12 education requires equality for all children regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic background. This means free education up to the point of entry into the workforce, a common curriculum, opportunity to attend the same school, and equality within a given locality supported by taxes (Coleman, 1968). Although it is a legal obligation to provide educational equality, it is also a moral imperative. As the diversity of the U.S. population continues to shift over the next decade such that whites are no longer the racial majority, educational institutions need to reevaluate, reinvent, and transform to meet the changing needs of its students. However, race and gender bias in K-12 education is clearly manifested in structural inequalities in funding, ability grouping and tracking, hidden curricula, and test scores (Anyon, 1980; DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999; Kozol, 1990, 2000). For example, almost half of a public school‘s revenue is based on local property taxes (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999). Therefore, schools that are located in wealthier districts are better funded. They can afford to attract the best teachers and administrators and ensure that students are equipped with the necessary educational resources. In contrast, inner-city schools are typically located in low tax districts and enroll a high proportion of low-income and minority students. They struggle to attract and retain teachers and often lack the vital resources necessary to ensure

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educational equality. Kozol (2000) argued that lack of funding is a ―…conscious act of social demarcation: [A] shameful way of building barriers around a child‘s mind, of starving intellect, of amputating dreams‖ (p. 49). Ability grouping in high school, which is often based on perceptions rather than objective measures of ability, also limits students‘ access to lucrative careers such as engineering (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Those who are not tracked into college preparatory courses such as calculus and physics, lack the pre-requisite skills necessary for admission to engineering programs. Many minority students who are tracked into college preparatory courses, particularly those who come from inner-city schools, often find that lack of educational resources, inadequate facilities, and deficient mathematics and science curricula do little to prepare them for success in engineering (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). In addition, high school teachers and counselors are often unaware of the variety of opportunities and benefits afforded by an engineering degree. They encourage most students to pursue stereotypical occupations based on their socio-economic class and/or gender (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). As a result, many high school graduates are ill-equipped to make educated career choices, particularly if they do not have family members, friends, or teachers who can serve as role models to guide their decisions. Given the shortage of females and minorities in the profession, the probability that a student has access to an engineering role model is slim. George Campbell (1999), former president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, indicated that financial need, social and cultural segregation, and prejudice further exacerbate the attrition of minority engineering students. Consequently, minority students typically have little incentive, encouragement, or academic preparation to pursue engineering. Those who do often ultimately switch majors or drop out of college (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). In addition to structural inequalities, teachers‘ perceptions of students‘ socio-cultural and economic environments also result in differential treatment in the classroom (Villegas, 1998; Wineberg, 1987). This is especially true when minority students lack the cultural capital characteristic of their predominately white, middle-class teachers. According to Bourdieu (1974, 1986), cultural capital can exist in three states: (1) The embodied state represented by assimilated dispositions of mind and body, (2) the objectified state in the form of cultural goods such as textbooks, and (3) the institutionalized state such as educational institutions. For example, differences between teacher-student cultures at home and school contribute to a disproportionate number of African American students in special education

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and vocational tracks, which can have a detrimental effect on their cognitive and social development (Blanchett, Mumford, & Beachum, 2005; DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Consistent with Asante‘s (1991, 1998; Turner & Asante, 2002) arguments, Eurocentric ideologies serve as a lens through which white teachers evaluate African American students‘ behaviors, attitudes, and abilities. Those that do not conform to expectations are perceived as cognitively and/or socially deficient and, therefore, require special treatment to help them learn to abide by the rules. However, the reality is that what is considered acceptable behavior at home and at school are culturally distinct. African American children are caught in a chasm between right and wrong without understanding the rules of engagement. In order to assimilate into the dominant culture at school, African American students must manifest what Du Bois (1903/1994) referred to as a double consciousness that rarely, if ever, is fully integrated into a unified Self. This double consciousness is clearly evident in a study conducted by Lim (2008a, 2008b) who found that, in an effort to adapt to her mathematics classroom, one African American middle school girl created an alternative identity that was vastly different from her personal identity at home and with her peers. However, the girl still suffered from feelings of negativity, selfdoubt, and alienation that contributed to feelings of inferiority to her white female peers -- despite the fact that her mathematics ability was as good, if not better, than theirs. To compound the matter, the student‘s behavior and attitude resulted in misperceptions of the teacher that she was not interested in mathematics and that she was not working hard enough. The anxiety associated with learning in an environment that is not commensurate with a student‘s life outside of the classroom may not be ameliorated by familial support. For example, many parents, particularly those who are not college educated, may not understand how students are grouped by ability into college preparatory, vocational, or other tracks. As a result, many parents are not involved in their child‘s education to the extent necessary to monitor, support, and encourage their learning and career choices. The structure of the educational system likewise differentiates girls from boys in terms of access to information, experiences, and opportunities. Several studies (see for example, Ambrose, Lazarus, & Nair, 1998; Anderson, 1995; Brainard & Carlin, 1998; Jackson, Gardner, & Sullivan, 1993) suggests that girls are likely to pursue engineering as a major if recommended by a high school counselor, if they are supported by their mother to follow a nontraditional career path, or if they are influenced by an engineering role model. However, as feminist Smith (1983) indicated, girls are generally directed to

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courses of study that prepare them for stereotypical careers. Such choices usually preclude advanced science and mathematics classes that are prerequisites for admission to engineering programs. As a result, girls are inherently disqualified from opportunities in professions that offer lucrative salaries and the independence that comes along with not being dependent on a husband (Smith, 1983). In addition, most mothers fulfill stereotypical roles in the home and in the workplace which means they have little insight and reason to encourage their daughters to pursue non-traditional careers. The likelihood that girls will have access to relevant information and have the interest and self-motivation to pursue engineering without the guidance from those they respect and trust is minimal at best. Finally, girls almost never have a female engineering role model to emulate in their family or in society. The reality is that they hardly exist and those that do are typically kept out of positions of power, which means they are virtually invisible (Robinson & McIlwee, 1991; Smith, 1983). Clearly, the face and voice of the engineering profession is that of the white male. Based on her landmark ethnographic study, Anyon (1980) contended that a hidden curriculum also perpetuates the dominant culture. She examined fifth grade classes, which were identified as working-class, middle-class, affluent professional, or executive elite. She found that working-class schools perpetuated the blue-collar psychology of strict adherence to rules. Middleclass schools modeled the white-collar, middle management work ethic of knowing the right answer and which form or procedure to use. In contrast, affluent professional schools reinforced individual creativity and technical innovation while executive elite schools fostered an environment of entrepreneurship and leadership. However, the hidden curriculum is as much about what is not taught as what is taught in the classroom. For example, the K-12 curriculum is Eurocentric-focused. Rarely do students learn about the history of women or minority groups (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). As Asante (1991) argued, ―[h]egemonic education can exist only so long as true and accurate information is withheld…only so long as Whites maintain that Africans and other non-Whites have never contributed to world civilization‖ (p. 177). Students also learn about the structure of society by observing the hierarchy of the learning environment. Men typically hold positions of power and authority such as principals and superintendents, while women are in subordinate roles of teachers and administrative assistants (Smith, 1983). In the classroom, socially engendered roles are also reinforced. Girls are asked to do domestic

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tasks such as tidying up the classroom while boys are relegated to more manual work such as moving desks or lifting heavy books. Such indoctrination early in the academic career of a female or minority student can profoundly affect self-efficacy appraisals and future career choices. Bandura (1977a, 1977b, 1986, 1989, 2002) operationalized selfefficacy as beliefs about one‘s ability to organize and execute a course of action to achieve specific outcomes. He identified four sources of selfefficacy: Mastery experiences, vicarious experiences or modeling, verbal persuasion and other social influences, and physiological states. Self-efficacy has been shown to be an important factor in students‘ academic performance, career exploration, and choice of college major (Bandura, 1977a, 1977b, 1986, 1989, 2002; Betz & Hackett, 1981; Nauta & Epperson, 2003). Clearly, the engineering self-efficacy of female and minority students is compromised by the obvious lack of role models and other social influences. Finally, college admission decisions are generally based on standardized test scores and other quantifiable measures such as high school grade point average and high school rank. Fleming and Morning (1998) contend standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT that are used as traditional measures of ability often mask the true potential of minority students because they are biased due to lower predictive validity for minority students. Other studies (Fleming & Morning, 1998; Rosser, 2000; Sackett, Kuncel, Arneson, Cooper, & Waters, 2009) reveal that performance on the SAT and ACT is stratified by social class, gender, and ethnicity. Differential K-12 educational experiences for female and minority students and test bias inherently translate into higher test scores for white male students from middle and upper income families, a situation that further reproduces and legitimizes hegemonic socioeconomic and political oppression. As a result, female and minority students are at a distinct disadvantage in the competitive college admission process. Given these inequities, it is not surprising that female and minority students are not enrolling in engineering programs at higher rates. From a critical social feminist and race theory perspective, they are denied access to educational opportunities and experiences that provide them with the prerequisites necessary for admission to and success in engineering. They lack the social support and self-efficacy to pursue a profession dominated by white males. Females are encouraged to pursue socially engendered stereotypical roles and minority students must peer through the ―Veil‖ (DuBois, 1903/1994, p. 34) at opportunities that elude them. In addition, the double consciousness of female and minority students allows them to engage in a white man‘s world but to never actually be part of it, despite the myths that suggest otherwise.

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THE MYTH OF EQUALITY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION The patriarchal structure of the engineering curriculum and learning environment are also a reflection of the dominant white male culture characteristic of the profession. The most recent statistics published by the American Society of Engineering Education (2010) indicate that nationally only 12.3% of engineering faculty is female, 2.5 % is African American, and 3.5% is Hispanic (Gibbons, n.d.). The historical perspective of the profession and the content of the curriculum are clearly Eurocentric and masculine. The contributions of female and minority engineers are noticeably absent. The practice of engineering design is taught within the context of Eurocentric structures rather than using ethnocentric examples, such as the great pyramids of Egypt, the ancient irrigation systems of the Nile valley, or more recently the gentrification of urban areas. Most of the textbooks are written by men who use language and examples that are unfamiliar to females. The traditional engineering curriculum is very discipline-specific rather than multidisciplined, technically-oriented rather than people-oriented, and limited in scope rather than focused socially and globally. There is substantial evidence (see for example, Goodman Research Group, 2002 and Seymour & Hewitt, 1997) that suggests that females and minority students are more likely to pursue engineering and remain in the major if they perceive it as an altruistic profession. In addition, the ―hard‖ technical skills, such as those required in mathematics and science, are traditionally attributed as masculine and are hailed as superior to the ―soft‖ skills such as teamwork and communications that are pejoratively referred to as feminine. Burack and Franks (2004) suggested that this linguistic differentiation is consistent with culturally engrained masculine concepts of virility and sexuality. Such male-dominated discourse also perpetuates the hegemonic status quo, despite the fact that the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (2010) maintains that both types of engendered-meaning skills are necessary for success in the engineering workplace. These are just some of the many reasons why so few female and minority high school graduates pursue engineering in college. Those who do enter the major find a learning environment that is foreign and unwelcoming. For example, Green, Marti, and McClenney (2008) suggests that minority students have to employ a wider range of attributes and skills in order to be successful in predominately white learning environments. They must expend a great deal of time and contextual effort to acclimate to a campus community that is not inclusive, thus leaving less energy available for academic pursuits. In

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comparison, because white students have fewer cultural barriers, they are usually more engaged in educationally effective practices. Some female students report feeling ―invisible‖ (Anderson, 1995, p. 323) and believe that no one is personally interested in them. The lack of role models, both in terms of faculty and peers, further exacerbates feelings of isolation for both groups. In addition, most female and minority engineering students have not had access to a variety of technical experiences prior to college, which further differentiates them from their white male peers. They have not worked on cars, rewired lighting, or operated power tools. They have not been in a welding shop or an auto shop. Most female and minority students also enter the major without an understanding of what engineering is or what engineers do. Similar to Bourdieu‘s (1974, 1986, 1991) concept of cultural capital, they do not possess the ―engineering capital‖ associated with technical language, knowledge, tools, and experiences. Nor do they look like other members of the engineering community. As a result, female and minority students feel an immediate sense of isolation that separates them from their classmates socially and academically. This vulnerability puts them at a distinct disadvantage in that they are in a position of subordination to their white male peers, most of whom exploit the situation. A seminal study conducted by Seymour and Hewitt (1997) revealed that female and African American students were adversely influenced by the culture of engineering education. They were less likely to feel like part of the engineering community, were less likely to engage in the classroom, and had less favorable impressions of teaching. As a result, they were more at risk of changing majors or dropping out of college than their white male peers. While the content of the engineering curriculum is certainly representative of the dominant culture, so is its delivery. It has only been in the last decade or so that engineering pedagogy has incorporated interactive, collaborative learning techniques as a means of engaging students and enhancing their learning (see for example, Brawner, Felder, Allen, & Brent, 2001). However, most engineering faculty members are uncomfortable with such modes of instruction. They prefer the traditional ―chalk and talk‖ lecture style with more attention given to the blackboard than to the students. They are authority figures who transmit knowledge by wielding control and power such that female and minority students are often hesitant to ask questions or make comments (Chesler &Chesler, 2002; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Washburn & Miller, 2004). In some cases, students who do ask questions are ridiculed in front of their peers, which further undermines their self-confidence and selfefficacy.

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The culture of the engineering classroom is also generally one of strict adherence to rules and authority and one of competition rather than collaboration (Chesler & Chesler, 2002; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). Such environments further alienate female and minority students. When they do have an opportunity to work with their white male peers, the interactions can be negative and demeaning (Brown, Morning, & Watkins, 2005; Tonso, 1996a, 1996b; Washburn & Miller, 2004). For example, females and minority students are often relegated to tasks that are less technically demanding. Group discussion, activities, decision-making, and conflict resolution are dominated by white males. Examples and analogies usually have white male connotations. Racial and gender discrimination in behavior and attitude are clearly evident. This ―chilly‖ and discriminatory climate is a major factor in many female and minority students‘ decision to leave the major. For those who do persist, the road is long and arduous. Ambrose, Lazarous, and Nair (1998) report that females persevere by being ―tough, stubborn, and persistent, and sometimes by openly challenging institutions that discriminated‖ (p. 364). Green, Marti, and McClenney (2008) found that African American students had to work harder than white students and they had to overcome a ―pervasive combination of academic and institutional barriers to educational success‖ (p. 529). In an attempt to reconcile their femininity with ―men‘s work,‖ many females assume a plurality of roles that compromises their self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. The same is true for minority students relative to ―white man‘s work.‖ The double consciousness described by Du Bois (1903/1994) is rife with psychic and emotional conflict. Ultimately the identities of female and minority students become fractured. They function one way in the classroom in order to be socially accepted, yet function in other ways outside of it. The lack of role models further exacerbates the problem (Bandura, 1977a, 1977b, 1986, 1989, 2002) since there are few, if any, for them to emulate within colleges of engineering, particularly among the leadership and within the rank of professor. From a critical social feminist and race perspective, the engineering curriculum and pedagogy are intentionally structured to alienate female and minority students, legitimize their subordination, and reproduce the dominant culture.

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PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE The society – not just individuals – must be transformed such that gender and race relations and economic and social relationships are redefined (DeMarris & LeCompte, 1999). Therefore, consistent with Collins‘ (2004) matrix of domination, a triadic prescription for change should address personal, group, and systemic oppression. Personal oppression is the result of individual experiences, values, and motivations; group oppression is culturally-based depending on gender, race, and/or class; and systemic oppression is imposed by social institutions such as the workplace, churches, and schools. Giroux (2009) contends that pedagogy shapes and reinvents power through the interaction of textbooks, teachers, and students. Students who are not from the dominant culture, such as females and minorities, are excluded from socio-political hegemonic activities inside and outside of the classroom. Therefore, educators must provide individual learning experiences that help students become aware of the emancipatory relationship between knowledge and power. Critical pedagogy must uncover the assumptions and myths of the dominant culture and reflect the multicultural life of its students. Students‘ personal and cultural histories should provide a relevant context for their learning – one that liberates them from the Eurocentric patriarchal worldview and puts them at the center of history. As such, multicultural pedagogy promotes human agency so that students can reconstruct their identity, relations with others, and society. By offering such experiences early in K-12 education, students‘ individual motivations and interests may be redirected into areas that are personally meaningful and intellectually stimulating, thereby allowing them to more fully reach their learning potential. Group oppression can be mitigated via an aggressive national electronic marketing campaign to recruit more female and minority students into the profession. For example, the Society of Women Engineers (2009) and the National Society of Black Engineers (2010) have pre-college initiatives that introduce students to engineering through fun, hands-on educational activities. However, due to restricted availability of resources at the local level, their efforts are usually limited in scope in terms of the number of schools they impact and the types of activities they offer. Both organizations also have websites and printed materials, but many teachers, students, and parents are unaware that they exist. A comprehensive marketing strategy that promotes the profession via electronic media and social networking sites on the internet, for example, could easily target audiences of different ages, gender, and

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ethnicities. Such a strategy was greatly successful in President Barack Obama‘s ability to raise campaign funds and enlist the support of young Americans in his bid for the White House. The national marketing campaign should focus on at least three key areas: (1) Culturally relevant and genderspecific technological innovations that are of interest to young people; (2) the technical contributions of female and minority engineering role models; and (3) the global and societal impact these groups can make by being members of the profession. Such a comprehensive strategy would generate a new and exciting dialogue among a broad audience of teachers, counselors, students, parents, and industry representatives. It would also have a more dramatic and long-lasting effect on the ability to influence stereotypical gender and race roles than existing printed materials or organizational efforts that are locally isolated. Such social persuasion is a powerful source of self-efficacy that has been shown to influence academic performance and educational and career choices (Bandura, 1977a, 1977b, 1986, 1989, 2002; Betz & Hackett, 1981; Nauta & Epperson, 2003). The engineering profession must also put females and minorities into positions of corporate and educational leadership and make them visible to young people. Collectively, the face and voice of engineering must be transformed from that of a white male to one with whom female and minority students can identify. Consistent with Bandura‘s (1977a, 1977b, 1986, 1989, 2002) social learning theory, vicarious experiences or modeling are powerful sources of self-efficacy. The academic and career self-efficacies of female and minority students must simultaneously be nurtured by the K-12 learning environment. According to Hill, Corbett, and Rose (2010), the foundation for a career in engineering is established early in life. They also contend that social and environmental factors contribute to students‘ decisions to pursue and persist in engineering and engineering-related fields. Therefore, female and minority students must engage in learning experiences that foster an interest in engineering-related subjects early in their K-12 education. Teachers, counselors, and parents must be educated about the benefits and opportunities afforded by a career in engineering. They must be equipped with information to challenge stereotypical roles based on gender and race. They must have the skills and tools necessary to successfully guide and mentor young female and minority students into courses of study that prepare them for success in the major. They must be proactive in preparing these students for lucrative careers in a profession that affords social and political influence, economic independence, and personal choice. In essence, K-12 educators must find viable alternatives

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to the hidden curriculum and tracking if they are to resist the hegemonic culture and be an agent of social change. Finally, systemic curriculum reform must occur at the college level. Science, mathematics, and engineering, which are traditionally taught as disparate parallel topics in progressively linear curricula that promote deductive logic using teacher-centered, didactic pedagogy, should instead be taught within the duality of a technical/non-technical context commensurate with students‘ socio-cultural background and level of ability. A more integrated, problem- or project-based pedagogy that uses an interactive, student-centered, and group experiential learning format is also needed to more effectively engage students and promote meta-cognition including deep learning strategies and self-regulation of learning (Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2009; Stepien & Gallagher, 1993). A new approach to undergraduate engineering education is long overdue as it ―is holding on to an approach to problem solving and knowledge acquisition that is consistent with practice that the profession has left behind‖ (Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2009, p. xxi). Engineering pedagogy must embrace a multicontextual approach that introduces students to the profession through realworld applications of science and mathematics in ways that are personally relevant, self-efficacious, and cognitively developmental and that also prepare them for professional practice and to be life-long learners (Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2009). Clearly, faculty education and incentives that promote and reward curricular innovation are paramount for institutionalizing such wide-spread engineering education reform.

CONCLUSION The purpose of the current K-12 education is to prepare graduates to conform to the socio-cultural, economic, and political order of the group in power (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1999). A critical social feminist and race perspective offers a contextual framework for understanding how the dominant Eurocentric patriarchal society affects the recruitment and retention of female and minority engineering students. Structural inequalities, ability grouping and tracking, hidden curricula, and bias in standardized testing are just some of the obstacles that limit their access to educational and career opportunities. For students who succeed in overcoming the obstacles of the K12 learning environment, they must still contend with the isolation and discrimination of the white male engineering community. As the American

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Society of Engineering Education (2010) reports, the percentage of female and minority engineering graduates has remained consistently low for the last decade. Unless and until more females and African Americans are in positions of power and authority to affect change, it is certain that increases in enrollment and retention will not be possible.

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In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 8

“TURN IN SOMETHING THAT YOU’RE PROUD OF” — PEDAGOGICAL SCRIPTS AND THE RE-EDUCATION OF U.S. EDUCATED ENGLISH LEARNERS Spencer Salas Taylor St. John1 moved to prop open the door of the oven-warm, yellow, cinderblock classroom as her class dutifully began the worksheet that accompanied the day‘s lessons. Placing a transparency on an overhead projector anchored squarely in the center of her 15 students, Taylor had just invited examples of the sentence types before them. 1. Simple: My name is Barbara; 2. Compound: I am a boy, and you are a girl; 3. Complex: I went to class late because it was raining; and, 4. Compound-Complex: If there hadn‘t been a weather warning last night I would have made more money, and I could have paid my bills. Circulating the room, Taylor stopped over Yesi— reassuring her in a buttery drawl, ―It‘s okay if you get it wrong. Nobody‘s going to laugh at you. I‘ve made some mistakes too.‖ Taylor St. John was the kind of teacher children fell in love with in first grade. Athletic, young, Southern, and white, she was one of Sweet Water College‘s beautiful people, and she also happened to believe with great conviction that learning in general, and learning to write in particular, was a process—one to which she was committed to helping her developmental English as a Second Language (ESL) student writers master. 1

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In this ethnographic narrative, I argue that Taylor‘s empathy, as embodied in the pedagogical script to which she turned to whisper encouragement to her students that February morning, was undermined by a looming institutional measure of what it meant to be ready for college. Even if as Phipps (1998) explains, ―The need to help under-prepared students has been embedded in the very fabric of the nation‘s higher educational system for well over three centuries‖ (p. vi), in the last two decades, remediation has become the almost exclusive endeavor of the nation‘s public two-year colleges (The National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). That said, what remediation is, exactly, depends on what an institution, its administrators, faculty, and students have accepted ―college-level‖ work to signify. In the case of the University System of Georgia, the Board of Regents first institutionalized postsecondary Developmental Studies programs in the Fall of 1974, ―as a means of bringing the reading, English, and mathematical skills of marginally prepared students up to standard‖ (Office of Strategic Research and Analysis Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, 2001). Ten years later, Developmental Studies policy and procedures were reconfigured under an umbrella organizational structure of Learning Support—nevertheless allowing individual institutions to set higher regular admission standards and/or higher standards for exiting Learning Support than those set by the Regents themselves, as was the case at Sweet Water—but never lower. ESL Learning Support, a Sweet Water College initiative, was a branch of Learning Support designed for students exhibiting ―non-American English‖ features in their writing. Aside from exhorting her students to do their best, Taylor could do relatively little to change the fact that a comma splice or sentence fragment or run-on would ruin her students‘ chances of passing the assessment cycle that would determine their eligibility to continue their studies at Sweet Water College, Georgia. Here, I examine the divergent two-year college pedagogical scripts that Taylor turned to as she and her students prepared to navigate the end of the semester testing to theorize the limits of contemporary representations of teacher advocacy in the literature challenging privileged forms of academic writing. I conclude with the argument for more attention to the complex contradictions surrounding college composition professionals‘ engagement with the power structures of academic writing and student advocacy.

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UNDERSTANDING THE FIGURED WORLD OF POSTSECONDARY DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION Contemporary scholarship in qualitative research has contested ethnographic ―ways of seeing‖ (Wolcott, 1999) as a complex series of intertextual, collaborative, and rhetorical moves—‖inherently partial— committed and incomplete‖ (Clifford & Marcus, 1986, p. 37). That is, meanings do not miraculously emerge from the data like Aegean goddesses foaming on half-shells. Rather, they are ―crafted‖ (see, e.g., Cahnmann, 2003). Or as Geertz (1973) explained, ethnographic writings are ―fictions‖—―in the sense that they are ‗something made,‘ ‗something fashioned‘ not that they are false, unfactual, or merely ‗as if‘ thought experiments‖ (p. 15). Elaborating his understanding of ethnographic production, Geertz (1973) compares ethnographic production to the act of a literary critic reading an ambiguous manuscript—―foreign, faded, full of ellipses, incoherencies, suspicious emendations, and tendentious commentaries, but written not in conventionalized graphs of sound but in transient examples of shaped behaviors‖ (10). The following glimpse of Taylor St. John was afforded by a larger ethnographic study of ESL Learning Support at Sweet Water that began in January 2004, and continued for five academic semesters distributed over three years. The continuum of my participation ranged from that of a silent observer taking notes on an Alpha-Smart to that of an active participant helping with small group or individual work. In a number of instances, I substituted for my colleagues. More than 250 hours of site visits generated data that included 300 + pages of fieldnotes, 500 + pages of instructional artifacts, 10 audio-taped hours of classroom interactions, and more than 10 hours of structured audio-taped conversations with participants. Specific procedures for compressing, fashioning, and reading my data followed Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw‘s (1995) practical considerations for generating and processing ethnographic fieldnotes. Analytic procedures included initial lineby-line open coding of my data with the comment function in Microsoft Word or a pencil to name my understandings; focused coding whereby the assorted tags I had previously established were reduced into larger categories; inprocess analytic writing; initial and integrative memo writing; and, content analysis of archival data.

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“IMPROVISATION” AND THE TEACHING OF DEVELOPMENTAL ESL Sociocultural theory posits that how individuals or groups understand themselves and each other is dependent on their participation in communities or cultural models whereby membership is marked by adherence to the scripts and other discursive accoutrements and material tools afforded by and to such communities (Holland et al., 1998; Holland & Lave, 2001; Holland & Quinn, 1987; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wertsch, 1985). While cultural models provide distinct and sometimes even rigid forms of thinking and being, at the same time, Holland et al. (1998) theorize a human propensity ―to figure worlds, play at them, act them out, and then make them socially, culturally, and thus materially consequential‖ (p. 280). Accordingly, Holland et al. propose the construct of ―figured worlds‖—worlds that women and men collectively write and rewrite in ―practice‖ (Bourdieu, 1977). During my semesters at Sweet Water, I had inventoried a number of predicaments that potentially affected participants‘ understandings of their teaching selves and how their understandings of the figured world of Sweet Water mediated their ability to write and re-write their professional subjectivities. Mediating contexts ranged from the politics of immigration in the region to the personal dilemmas that the instructors negotiated alongside their teaching (Salas, 2009). Along the way, ESL faculty were, indeed, able to re-position themselves in spontaneous but often conflicted ways that allowed them to make sense of who they were and what their work accomplished (cf., Salas, 2008). However, for the purpose of this narrative, I limit my focus to Taylor and the conflicting pedagogical scripts she employed as she prepared her students to face the exams—and what I understood, through the Holland et al. (1998) framework, as her agency in the face of the Sweet Water‘s privileged, local definition of college readiness.

TURN IN SOMETHING THAT YOU’RE PROUD OF The low, sleek, architecture of Sweet Water College first opened its doors to North Georgia in 1964 with an enrollment of 419 students. As the greater Atlanta metro region crept steadily northeast, Sweet Water College‘s headcount grew. By the time of this study, enrollment reached nearly 6,000. The total number of first-time freshmen at Sweet Water hovered around 1,567.

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Of those first-time freshmen, consistently more than 50% were enrolled in one or more Learning Support courses (Office of Strategic Research and Analysis Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, 2005). During the period of fieldwork, ESL Learning Support‘s most visible population was its Latinos/Latinas who enrolled in the program from the area immediately surrounding the College, its neighboring counties, and the greater Atlanta metro region. The second most visible enrollment of students was a smaller, but closely-knit, body of Vietnamese immigrants. The remaining enrollment of ESL Learning Support included an array of students of diverse ethnic and/or national identities—Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese—a mix of international (F-1 Visa) students and U.S. high school graduates—the latter always constituting the majority. What Taylor‘s students shared was an institutionally perceived under preparedness for college-level work. In fact, every student who came to Sweet Water without SAT or equivalent national scores—or ones lower than the standards set by the College—was assessed for readiness in Math, Reading, and Writing. Subsequent variables for student identification and course placement for writing included (1) the SAT/ACT scores applicants brought with them from high school, (2) the scores they received on the College‘s or ESL program‘s placement exams, (3) their obligatory writing samples for the English department, or (4) a combination of all of these things. The lowest scoring English learners were required to follow a ten-course sequence of Grammar and Writing, Vocabulary, Reading, and Communication. Enrollment in more than two ESL Learning Support courses also meant that they had to take the ESL version of College Orientation, a course Sweet Water required of its more vulnerable students, i.e., students needing more than two Learning Support courses. Others were funneled directly into ESL Advanced Grammar and Writing, and some directly into ESL Reading Level III—or both. For all, the way to English 1101 depended on their passing the capstone ESL Advanced Grammar and Writing course, passing the English Department‘s exit essay, and passing the ―COMPASS‖ in writing (in that order). Were a student to fail any of the three components, they would retake the course and re-attempt the entire sequence. After three successive failures, students would be ineligible to register for additional Sweet Water coursework during threeyear quarantine.

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THE EXIT ESSAY On day one of the exit essay, students received a slate of five questions from which they selected one and composed a five-paragraph essay in two hours. On day two, students received another five questions, chose one, and composed another essay. On day three, students returned for approximately one hour to choose the better of their two essays to edit and, finally, submit for scoring. The handwritten essays were scored by either (1) a combination of two English professors, or (2) an English professor and an ESL faculty member other than the one who had taught the student whose essay was being scored. The first two readers assigned a score of Pass, Fail, or Borderline. If one of the two faculty recommended a score of ―Fail,‖ the student failed. In the event of a Pass and Borderline or two Borderlines, a third reader‘s score was taken into consideration. That third reader was always the ESL instructor whose student‘s performance was under review.

The Compass Writing Skills Test By passing the exit essay, students were enabled to take the COMPASS Writing Skills Exam, a pre-packaged assessment technology developed by the ACT and is widely used across the University System of Georgia. The skills exam simulated the editing process by presenting several 200-word essays and requiring students to locate and then correct grammar, usage, and style errors. It was then that a student might enroll in English 1101, the college‘s freshman writing requirement.

The Georgia Regents’ Test Post-English 1101, high stakes standardized testing would reappear in the form of the Georgia Regents‘ Test: a multiple choice, reading comprehension exam coupled with a five paragraph essay written on a choice of topics. As such, the Regents was Georgia‘s reassurance that no degree-seeking student would slip through its system without demonstrating once more what the state deemed as minimal academic competence. Passing the Regents was a requirement for all of Sweet Water‘s degree programs. Whatever the Sweet Water assessment obstacle course was not related to, it most certainly was related to a privileged, local definition of ―literacy‖ – a

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definition that, for all practical matters, was a means of producing and reproducing ―distinction‖ (Bourdieu, 1984). Thus, the possibility of exiting ESL Learning Support and the recurring testing to which students would then be subjected across their postsecondary trajectories, was a marker by which they would be granted or denied access to the opportunity structure of higher education. The test mattered—and Taylor knew this and taught with the tests in mind.

TAYLOR’S SCRIPTS Greeting the class full of students the same week that an unexpected ice storm shutdown Sweet Water, Taylor hoped aloud that they had not forgotten everything to which Joaquin replied that he had. On a more serious note, Taylor was returning an essay that the students had taken home some days earlier and later submitted. She had graded them, she explained, on content and grammar/mechanics—―By content, I mean did you answer my questions?‖ Talking to no one in particular, she reminded the class that if they made two or three grammar mistakes on the exit essay, they probably would not pass—especially if there were ―serious‖ errors such as a comma splice, run on, or sentence fragment: ―Also, if you have problems with verbs and/or verb tenses, then you probably won‘t pass.‖ As she distributed the papers to the silent classroom, she noted that the drop date had been extended until that coming Friday because of the ice storm. The grades were low and Taylor expressed her disappointment in their efforts. They worked, after all, on the essay at home. There was no time limit. Admonishing the class for not doing their best, Taylor, resorted to a more familiar message—one her students most likely encountered in their U.S. K-12 careers— ―I‘m a little disappointed if you didn‘t spend enough time. Whatever you turn in, be proud of it. Turn in something that you‘re proud of.‖ Joaquin responded in high schoolese:  

Joaquin: Why is everybody looking at me? Taylor: Nobody‘s looking at anybody.

The tension between Taylor‘s positions as a process-oriented basic writing instructor, and a Sweet Water insider who knew how the college worked, was evident in the above example of the multiple pedagogical scripts she employed to motivate and, at times, even badger her students. While Taylor‘s

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interactions with her students reflected her commitment to establishing a safe, communicative environment, there was work to be done and an institutional party line, so to speak, to uphold. This reality also shaped the language Taylor used to motivate or even cajole her students into being the sort of writers that Sweet Water valued. That semester and the other semesters that I knew her, Taylor often found herself caught in the middle of the two positions—as evidenced in the following classroom exchange between Taylor and a U.S. educated college aspirant: 

 

Taylor: The policy for late assignments is—according to the syllabus I don‘t take late assignments—but if you have a valid excuse you can turn it in but I‘ll take 10 points off for every day. Joaquin: What about the end of class? Taylor: Are you just overwhelmed with other work?

Joaquin, who spent all but a few years of his young life in the U.S., was repeating Taylor‘s course again. Here and in other exchanges with Taylor, he stubbornly drew from a discourse that I imagine he had somehow internalized over the course of his K-12 schooling in North America. The way I understood ―What about the end of class?‖ at least, was his attempt to re-negotiate the rules Taylor had initially set about late assignments. On a macro level, ―What about the end of class?‖ drew, I suspect, from a cultural model of teaching and learning that posited that there was always some wriggle room to ―talk about it‖ and to ―try again‖— and that teachers such as Taylor were, or at least should be, open to negotiating with well-intentioned students. At Sweet Water, however, the rule went, if at first you do not succeed, try two more times and then go away. Taylor, though sympathetic, resisted going ―high school‖ on Joaquin perhaps because at Sweet Water, and I suspect in the figured worlds of many two year colleges, a rule was a rule—just as the standard usage they had studied all semester had rules and expectation—neatly printed in black and white. Rules were privileged—as were instructors‘ decisions to stick fast to them.

“Did you answer my Questions?” Yesi, Taylor‘s student, had been living in Georgia since middle school and graduated from a local high school a few years before coming to Sweet Water. Working full time as a dental assistant, she mainly cleaned children‘s teeth, as

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adults‘ teeth were, in her words, ―harder.‖ Yesi defined her goal as finishing Sweet Water and then going to trade school to get her dental assistant‘s license. She already failed the COMPASS twice. This was her last chance. Yesi explained that her problem was that she went too quickly. She ―just wrote.‖ Joaquin, also a U.S. high school graduate, was taking Taylor‘s course for the third and last time. Joaquin explained that he did not show up for the Compass exam the semester previous and that was why he had failed. Taylor, on the other hand, speculated that ESL Learning Support was his ―comfort zone‖ and that if he was still in the program it was because he was afraid to enter the mainstream. Skipping in and out of Spanish and English, Lucero recounted that, born in McAllen, Texas, her entire K-12 experience had been in the U.S. Identified for ESL Learning Support because of a low SAT verbal score, Lucero opined that the score was the consequence of being the only native Spanish speaker in her North Georgia middle and high schools—where there was no one to help her prepare for the exam. In fact, she took the SAT twice. Her preparation, she described, was ―a book with examples in it that her teacher had given her— you just do it yourself, do it at home—and that's how I practiced for the SAT.‖ Paola moved in high school from a farm near Brazilia to Mississippi and later to Georgia. Paola identified as her goal to gain an Associate‘s Degree in General Agriculture, ―Crop and soils. It‘s been my dream since I was fifteen.‖ Married, and living in an apartment complex not far from the college, she was not sure if she would stay in Georgia or join her extended family in Holland. Paola failed her first COMPASS with fifty-nine points—one point short of the sixty points needed to pass. She explained her problem as a lack of preparation in high school: ―I didn‘t have the grammar basics—my former teacher would make us write essay and essay with no structure: for the first time I‘m learning how to write in English.‖ In Mississippi, ―It wasn‘t about learning academic English.‖ Like Paola, Joaquin, Lucero, and Yesi, that semester four more of Taylor‘s twelve students entered Sweet Water after a sustained experience in North American public high schools. The other students were still relative newcomers or internationals with F1 Visas. Nevertheless, they all seemed to have brought with them what I understood as a distinctly high school way of talking about their studies. It went something like this, ―If I demonstrate that I am trying hard, I will be rewarded.‖ Taylor was also able to speak that language of high school fluently. In fact, Taylor did value hard work and told them so—often exhorting them to do their best. At the same time, however,

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effort alone would not ensure their futures at Sweet Water. They had to succeed and to do so they had to display a certain degree of mastery of conventional grammar, spelling, and the five-paragraph essay—the centerpiece of Learning Support. To that end, Taylor designed her syllabus to raise students‘ awareness of the three most common errors that would prevent any student from passing the exam. Thus, the course began with a review of parts of speech and punctuation, to an examination of sentence types, to issues of thesis statements, to paragraph and, finally, essay construction. Taylor, a selfprofessed analytical learner, preferred such an approach because that was, she explained, ―the way she learned languages best.‖ Consequently, the sequence seemed to come to her easily. At the same time, she candidly recognized that not every learner would benefit from her approach. Thinking about the fiveparagraph essay that she was teaching her students, Taylor admitted that she herself had resented the exercise as a student: ―I was always a creative writer.‖ Nevertheless, then and now, she recognized it as ―The structure that teachers wanted to see and expect to see. It‘s a template that you have in your head.‖ If Taylor eventually mastered the genre, she believed it was only because her ―teachers drilled it into her.‖ Paola, after reading an exemplary essay by a former student of Taylor‘s to the class, joined a group discussion about the essay‘s strengths and weaknesses. It had, among other things, a closed thesis statement. The language was vivid and the sentences error free. As Taylor approached the group to facilitate, Paola turned to Taylor, saying  

Paola: I know one thing I don‘t like about it, that I can‘t write as good as she can. Taylor But you can. You will be able to. And even better!

In cheerleader-mode, Taylor explained that the author was an English Language Learner just like them. She started with many problems in her writing (i.e. comma-splices, run-ons, and fragments). But, importantly, she studied hard and, consequently, succeeded.

”Do you want me to put you in Small Groups?” As early as Valentine‘s Day, it seemed that the students already internalized the Sweet Water script prioritizing standardized measures of

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individual achievement. For the February morning, Taylor chose ―Love‖ as the topic of the mock essay of the day—an activity that began, as Taylor preferred, with some collaborative brainstorming about the prompt—what true love was—or if it even existed—and examples of a closed thesis statement around the topic. After a lively prewriting chat, Taylor who, despite Sweet Water and its values, still favored collaboration, and gave the class the option of working together:  

Taylor Do you want me to put you in small groups?‖ Class (in unison) No!

The group work that Taylor‘s students seemed to enjoy only a few weeks ago -- and to which they reacted earlier that same semester with dynamic discussion -- was a thing of the past. Looming ahead of and behind them and Taylor, and everything she did (not) do on behalf of her students, were the faceless rubrics that would decide individual performances and postsecondary futures: the English professors. If Taylor focused on the tests, she did so because, she explained, that was what the institution wanted. Looking forward, she wanted to have a discussion with the English professors about what they really wanted her students to be able to do when they arrived in their classes, ―Do they really want them to write a five-paragraph essay with a closed thesis statement? Or are they going to try to undo that immediately when they get in there?‖ Taylor explained that once entering English 1101, her students would find that, having proved that they could write a five-paragraph essay, they would no longer be asked to do so. She explained, ―The professors, a lot of them, immediately try to break them out of that. They want them to be more creative so they really try to undo what [laughing] we've done here. So that's kind of ironic in a way [laughing].‖ However, at minimum, teaching to the tests, Taylor rationalized, would create access to a postsecondary degree program. Later on, there would be opportunities to write differently—but the important thing was for her students to have opportunities—to access credit bearing coursework that might eventually lead to an Associate‘s Degree.

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DISCUSSION: BETWEEN CONFRONTATIONAL PEDAGOGIES AND A HARD PLACE High stakes assessment practices and privileged measurements of college readiness were not unique to Sweet Water College nor are they new to postsecondary education. In a coda to her ethnography of four middle grade Latinos‘ trajectories through English as a Second Language placement and coursework, Valdés (2001) revealed that the unique participant who succeeded in exiting secondary education, Elisa, was turned away from credit-bearing coursework at a two-year college. Reactivated as an English learner, the young woman was given the option of the sort of coursework that I had come to know at Sweet Water. Valdés notes, ―Not surprisingly, Elisa was devastated by the recommendation.‖ While some of Taylor‘s students readily accepted their placement into ESL Learning Support, others, like the young Latina in the Valdés (2001) narrative, were angry. They had, after all, a high school diploma—and in some cases had even graduated with honors. What is certain is that, from a critical perspective, the assessment mechanisms that Elisa encountered and that others still encounter at the two-year college, and the assessment mechanisms that ultimately mediated Taylor St. John‘s preparation of her students, essentially block many non-traditional college students full entry into institutions of higher education. To that end, they should be resisted. Lu (1994) for example, in her description of an international (F1 Visa) writer‘s unorthodox combination of ―can be able to‖ as a political statement urges the field to examine ―deviations from the official codes of academic discourse not only in relation to the writer‘s knowledge of these codes but also in terms of her efforts to negotiate and modify them‖ (p. 448). Similar pedagogies of confrontation have advocated, among other things, that second language writers be sensitized to ―the medium they are using, developing a critical understanding of its potentialities and limitations as they appropriate and reconstruct the language to represent their interests‖ (Canagarajah, 2002, p. 17). Yet, as Durst indicated, such stances are potentially incongruent with students‘ motivations for attending college in the first place. (see, e.g., Durst, 1999). That is, the marginalized masses that college composition aims to lift up are not necessarily those students sitting in a two or four-year college composition classroom. They are the ones who never got in. Or, as Smith (1997) has argued, those who do find themselves in college composition

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classrooms are perhaps less motivated by a desire to overthrow a system than to join its ranks. Without diminishing the contribution of critical stances about the postsecondary curriculum, it seems safe to say that resistance to the sort of developmental writing that Taylor and other basic writing instructors engage in is privileged in the activist research literature to the point that it has become an expectation. In the face of such certainty, the fact that instructors such as Taylor, who find themselves drawing from conflicted and, at times, disparate pedagogical scripts in their interactions with their students are often framed, I believe, as complicit in the academic marginalization of ethnic youth. Or, as the party line goes, ―If only Taylor had resisted.‖ But, perhaps her complicity was her resistance — or at least that was how I came to understand it. That is, often ―making it‖ in school is a standardized measure, and my beaucoup graduate fellowship from the University‘s Research Foundation was in large part thanks to a composite GRE score that a lady in Texas told me over the phone that I would need to compete for graduate funding. She gave me figure— privileged information. I bought the study guides. I learned how to take the test. I was glad she had told me how exactly I would be measured. She did not have to; she could have simply told me the test did not really matter. However, she did, and, that knowledge was powerful. Taylor St. John was an activist—even if and perhaps because she taught to a test that she was unsure of. Her subterfuge, and that of her colleagues, was to exhort students to work hard, to do their best, to always turn in something that they were proud of, and, to teach them in no uncertain terms what to do and what not to do on the assessment cycle upon which their continued enrollment at Sweet Water depended. Taylor‘s students passed the tests—or at least 70% of them did that semester. That was, Taylor maintained, something to be proud of — and she was — however fleetingly.

REFERENCES Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cahnmann, M. (2003). The craft, practice, and possibility of poetry in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 29-36.

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Canagarajah, A. S. (2002). Critical academic writing and multilingual students. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. E. (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography: A School of American Research advanced seminar. Berkeley: University of California Press. Durst, R. K. (1999). Collision course: Conflict, negotiation, and the teaching of composition. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English. Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books. Holland, D. C., Lachicotte Jr., W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Holland, D. C., & Lave, J. (2001). History in person: Enduring struggles, contentious practice, intimate identities (1st ed.). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. Holland, D. C., & Quinn, N. (1987). Cultural models in language and thought. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]; New York: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lu, M.-Z. (1994). Professing multiculturalism: The politics of style in the contact zone. College Composition and Communication, 45, 442-458. The National Center for Educational Statistics. (2003). Remedial eduacation at degree-granting postsecondary institutions in Fall 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Office of Strategic Research and Analysis Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. (2001). University System of Georgia Information Digest 2001-2002. Retrieved August 14, 2006 from http://www.usg.edu/usg_stats/info_digest/2001/academic/8.phtml Office of Strategic Research and Analysis Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. (2005). University System of Georgia learning support requirements for first-time freshman Fall 2005. Retrieved August 14, 2006 from http://www.usg.edu/sra/students/ls/ls-reqs/ls_fall05.pdf Phipps, R. (1998). College remediation: What it is, what it costs, what's at stake. Washington, DC: the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Salas, S. (2008). Roberta; or, the Ambiguities: Tough love and high stakes assessment in a two-year college ESL Learning Support program in North Georgia. Journal of Basic Writing, 27(2), 5-28.

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Salas, S. (2009). Teaching and the dilemma of the personal: Lodoiska's story. TESOL Journal, 1(3), 368-378. Smith, J. (1997). Students' goals, gatekeeping, and some question of ethics. College Composition and Communication, 50, 299-320. Valdés, G. (2001). Learning and not learning English: Latino students in American schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wolcott, H. F. (1999). Ethnography: A way of seeing. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

In: Power, Privilege and Education Editor: Greg Wiggan

ISBN: 978-1-61209-627-8 ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 9

SOME URBAN PARENTS’ RESPONSES TO WHITE POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN EDMONTON’S K-12 EDUCATION STRUCTURES: SELF-ACTUALIZATION OUTCOMES OF SOME CARIBBEANCANADIAN BLACKS Jean Walrond While the majority of Canadians are concerned about the level of funding education receives and its cost effectiveness, Caribbean Canadian parents have other vexing issues. In multicultural societies such as Canada, those who educate are challenged to adapt their curriculum and pedagogical practices to meet the educational needs of a diverse student body (James, 2003; McLaren, 2003a; Thomas, 2000). In addition, some theorists and many parents are concerned that the present education system, in an effort to fulfill a capitalist agenda, streams youths into low-paying or low-status jobs (Carby, 1999; Giroux, 2003; James, 2001; McLaren, 2003a). As well, there are concerns that the classroom is not a welcoming and accommodating environment where children of Caribbean heritage and other marginalized groups can discuss their life experiences (Foster, 1996; McLaren, 2003a; Walrond-Patterson, 1999; Walrond-Patterson, Crown, & Langford, 1998). Lastly, schools with their hidden curricula, function to make marginalized students unwitting and willing accomplices and participants in a form of social reproduction that undermines

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their opportunities for self-actualization (Bannerji, 2000; Brathwaite, 1996; James, 2001). In countries such as Canada, researchers of color sometimes internalize racism and attempt to analyze black school failure and students‘ inability to self-actualize based on models of social deficits. The emergence of the third millennium characterized by globalized economic systems, emerging markets in the South, and advances in telecommunication, calls for a discourse that must critically analyze education and knowledge construction from a global perspective. As such, it is imperative that education and knowledge be critiqued from the perspective of the emerging ―other‖ who has claimed its voice. It is from this standpoint that I wish to analyze white privilege as a facet of cultural identity and its relationship to school outcomes. There is also the emerging dichotomy of how the relationships of cultural identities, which are now being constructed from a global perspective, will affect white privilege and school success in countries such as Canada and the United States. White privilege refers to unearned assets as well as unrecognized rewards, advantages, and benefits, often afforded to the dominant and powerful white group within a system of white hegemony and institutional racial oppression. This privilege appears invisible to and/or is normalized by the dominant group, (Case, 2007; Dei, 2008; McIntosh, 1990; Solomon, Portelli, Daniel & Campbell, 2005). As I unpack the racism discourse, I conclude that it is impossible to discuss racism in cultural structures without a similar interrogation of white privilege in these structures. Therefore, I approach my analysis with education stories of five families including myself, to analyze ways in which white privilege manifests itself in curriculum and pedagogy to limit the selfactualizing of black students of Caribbean heritage in Edmonton‘s school. I ask the question: Is it not to our developmental advantage to ―re-imagine and re-invent‖ (Torres, 2010) education in first-world countries such as Canada and the United States so that it represents 21st century changes, and produces citizens who will occupy productive places in a globalized world?

BACKGROUND Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, my race/ethnicity was not an issue as I saw black people of Caribbean heritage who had self-actualized. In this respect, my skin color was never a variable which I consider in my efforts at self-actualizing. It only became a variable when I came to Canada and was

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confronted with whiteness as a ―norm or standard by which most other things are judged‖ (Rothenberg, 2008, p. 2). In places such as the Caribbean where there may be limited resources, socio-economic status would have been a factor in my attempts at self-actualization. In multi-cultural countries such as Canada, the ―race-whiteness‖ dichotomy enters the equation. In the beginning I assumed that my foreign-ness was a factor in the imposed exclusion limits. However, as second generations of Caribbean heritage students enter the school system, their foreign-ness follows them. Canadian schools are at a loss when it comes to preparing black youth for a globalized world. For example, in a recent CTV.ca news commentary entitled ―Murders rob Alberta, Somali community of youth,‖ Geoff Nixon (February 27, 2010) commented that since the summer of 2005, twenty-nine Somali youths were murdered in Alberta. Authorities are quick to claim that these youth are still suffering from traumatic effects of the wars in Somalia, which makes them prone to conflicts. The president of the Canadian Somali Congress, Ahmed Hussen, and Somali community members claim that the majority of these youth are Canadian born, and they blame improper education and services as the reasons why these youth turn to crime. Similarly, aboriginal community members complained that the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) was insensitive to their educational needs when it invited Dr. Widdowson, a white academic who opposes multicultural education that incorporates Aboriginal histories and knowledge systems, to speak on Aboriginal education at their conference (Hanon, 2010). The transcript of Dr. Widdowson‘s address reveals that she said: Instead of promoting incorporation of unsystematic teaching methods, pre-literate languages and superstitions into the education system, it needs to be recognized that this misguided effort to raise aboriginal self-esteem entrenches the ignorance experienced by all of our ancestors before they developed literacy and an understanding of the material nature of the universe (Hanson, 2010, March 4, 5).

Members of Caribbean heritage communities who participate in Edmonton‘s school systems face similar challenges.

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LITERATURE REVIEW Understanding of Culture and Cultural Identity Culture is a term that takes on several different meanings, but generally refers to the particular social practices and beliefs that can be attributed to a specific social group (Macionis & Gerber, 2011). These nuanced meanings of culture are dependent on the perspective or the lenses through which we analyze culture. Various definitions of culture are addressed in the next section. Conceptually, culture is a key construct that positions, identifies, and contextualizes people of Caribbean heritage in Canada‘s dominant discourse. Its importance relates to the fact that many of the challenges educators face in the school system are associated with not having an understanding of their own cultural identities or those of the diverse students in the educational system. Recognizing that all individuals are endowed with some degree of ―cultural encapsulation‖ (Howard as cited in Banks, 2002), and that they are striving to exist in a country with an official multiculturalism policy, I note that this juxtaposition of cultural identities has the potential for social dislocation and ―social stratification‖ (James, 2003, p. 201). Here James (2003) defines social stratification as ―a hierarchical system in which segments of the population are ranked on the basis of power and access to wealth and prestige‖ (p. 201). With this in mind, I strive for a better understanding of culture and cultural identity. The disciplines and areas of study that I draw on to define culture are anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and popular culture. The concept of culture can be linked with many other words or concepts and its definition can change moderately or dramatically to reflect the context in which it is used.

Anthropological Perspective Marshall (1998) defines culture as ―a general term for the symbolic and learned aspects of human society, which is socially rather than biologically transmitted‖ (p. 137), and may be visceral to all societies. He characterizes it as ―a learned complex of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law and custom‖ (p. 137). Marshall also states that the anthropological definition implies that culture is transmitted through teaching, and hence may influence or be influenced by civilization and social stratification. This is perhaps the theoretical basis for the understanding of culture in the disciplines of history,

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economics, and sociology. The anthropologist Victor Turner (1982 & 1986), who studied many rituals and performances, characterizes culture as including such concepts as language, religiosity, and moral beliefs. He further defines it as an expression of ―an infinite assortment of positive and negative existentvalues‖ (Turner, 1982, p. 14) from a person‘s past and present that come together to make meaning that is expressed in intelligible terms to others during communicative processes (Turner, 1982). Edgar & Sedgwick (2002) provide a contemporary definition of culture from an anthropological perspective, without reference to the notion of ―high‖ culture. They suggest: Culture is the complex everyday world we all encounter and through which we all move. It originates at the point where humans dispense with what is natural to their environment in favour of manmade constructs such as artifacts and language. (p. 102)

This reference to language is also taken up by theorists who view language as a system of signs. Cavallaro (2001) defines culture ―as a systems of signs; verbal and visual languages, movements, postures and gestures, buildings and furniture, clothes, accessories and menus [that] are open to semiotic decoding‖ (p. 16).

Sociological Perspective From a sociological perspective, Macionis & Gerber (2011) define culture as ―the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objectives that together shape a people‘s way of life‖ (p. 54). In addition, various postmodern sociologists inextricably link culture with race and define these terms as social constructs (Dei, 1996a, 2000; James, 2003). Dei (2000) suggests that society routinely articulates culture in racialized and hierarchical terms and, having said this, he defines culture as a social construct that is dynamic and mediated in institutions such as schools. Another sociological definition of culture comes from James (2003), who states: ―culture [is] a core set of [norms], values and expectations that exert tremendous influence on our lives, structure our worldview, shape our behavior and pattern our responses‖ (p. 199). He goes on to state that in the context of our Canadian ideology, these norms, values, and expectations are grounded in Canadians‘ notion of multiculturalism, ―which promotes a culture that reflects social, ethnic and racial stratification‖ (James, 2003, p. 199). From a holistic perspective, James‘ other definition of culture is ―the way in which a

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given society organizes and conducts itself as distinguished from that of other societies. [And that] culture consists of a dynamic and complex set of values, beliefs, norms, patterns of thinking, styles of communication, linguistic expressions and ways of interpreting and interacting with the world‖ in which we live (2003, p. 201). Bhabha‘s (1994) sociological view of culture is dichotomous, incorporating a subjectivity that is colonial yet postcolonial, modern yet postmodern, and structural yet post-structural. Thus in his opinion, culture is said to be a double-inscribed, inanimate, paradoxical, and uncanny concept. At times, it can be inscribed ―with its disciplinary generalizations, its mimetic narratives, its homologous empty time, its seriality, its progress, its customs and coherence‖ (p. 36). In terms of cultural authority, this concept is also unusual because, as Bhabha states, for culture to be ―distinctive, significatory, influential and identifiable, it has to be translated, differentiated, interdisciplinary intertextual, international, [and] inter-racial‖ (p. 137). This is an affirmation of Caribbean culture -- as our subject-position is an identity that draws on relationships between many ethnicities and allows for a fluid multiculture.

Cultural Studies Perspective Seidman and Alexander (2001) state that cultural studies‘ aim ―is to analyze culture in relation to lived experience and in relation to social structural inequalities where it functioned as a force of both domination and resistance‖ (p. 8). Their definition of culture may be taken to encompass the diverse ways in which culture is understood and analyzed in such areas as sociology, history, ethnography, and education. As well, in their interpretation of identity as a fluid multiple construct of the self, Seidman and Alexander allude to the idea that cultural identity is formed at the juncture of multiple intersecting discourses, such as culture and nationality; culture, race and racialism; and culture and ethnicity. Seidman and Alexander (2001) state: Instead of assuming that individuals have an identity as, say, a woman or a black, or assuming that selves are produced by discourses in any simple way, they see individuals as being inserted into webs of discourses that always position us in multiple, intersecting ways. We are never simply a man or woman, white or black, but always assume many, intersecting subject positions or identities. Agency is always implicated in the way discourses position us —both constraining and enabling us. (p. 7)

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Hall (2001) and other cultural studies‘ theorists define culture as the ensemble of meanings, beliefs, values, norms, and rituals that structure a society. Culture is both a source of meaning for individuals and communities and an ideological force related to power dynamics. The aim of cultural studies is to analyze culture in relation to lived experiences and in relation to social structural inequalities where it functions as a force of both dominance and resistance. Gilroy (1991) has conceptualized culture as a notion that includes ethnicity and nationality within the context of Englishness. In his critique of culture and Englishness, he writes: I have grown gradually more and more weary of having to deal with the effects of striving to analyze culture within neat, homogeneous national units reflecting the ―lived relations‖ involved with the invisibility of ―race‖ within the field and most importantly, with the forms of nationalism endorsed by a discipline which, in spite of itself, tends towards a morbid celebration of England and Englishness from which blacks are systematically excluded. (p. 12)

Gilroy (1991) defines culture ―as a field articulating the life-world of subjects (albeit de-centered) and the structures created by human activity‖ (p. 17), but stipulates that ―the contemporary tendency towards ethnic absolutism, comes to view it [culture] as an impermeable shell, eternally dividing one ‗race‘ or ethnic group from another‖ (p. 17). Giroux writes on the intersection of cultural studies and critical pedagogy, and he has been greatly influenced by the work that emerged in British cultural studies. He writes that ―cultural studies are important to critical educators because it provides the grounds for making a number of issues central to a radical theory of schooling‖ (Giroux, 1992, p. 201). This is so because language, which is an important constituent of the production of meaning, is also a vital element in the relationship between knowledge and power. Cultural studies represent the rethinking of Marxist theories where the mass media are central, and the actions of ―social movements advocating gender, racial, and social justice‖ are prominent to the discourses of contemporary development.‖(Seidman & Alexander, 2001, p. 8)

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Populaire Cultural Perspective From the perspective of popular culture, I focus on the textiles and clothing discipline and the concepts of clothing and dress. Kaiser (1990) states that ―clothing refers to any tangible or material [culture] object connected to the human body‖ (p. 5). Dress as a verb refers to the ―act of altering or adding to appearance‖ (p. 5), while dress as a noun refers to the material objects that are added to the body as well as the vast array of externally detectable body modifications (Roach & Musa, 1980). Cunningham and Voss Lab (1991) provide this synopsis: ―Dress, in the context of popular culture, includes clothing worn in everyday life, by ordinary people, as they go about the daily activities of their lives and carry on the traditions that bring meaning to them‖ (p. 1). They add: We use clothing to communicate our individuality, and personality, our group and familial associations, our occupations, our status, our cultural identity, values and symbols, as well as our societal concepts of status, art, aesthetics and technology. We adorn our bodies in dress to fit into either the ideal standard for appropriate behavior or our own sense of aesthetics and beauty. (pp. 2–3)

Based on these perspectives, culture may be defined as a complex set of habits, learned behaviors, customs, beliefs, and ways of knowing the world that, though changing, are shared by a defined social group and transmitted to subsequent generations (Cunningham & Voss Lab, 1991; Kaiser, 1990; McCracken, 1988). Popular culture is the medium by which dress and other material culture artifacts ―reflect political climate, technological patterns and economic conditions‖ (Cunningham & Voss Lab, 1991, p. 1). As such, the artifacts of popular culture ―include the changing fashion and fads of the moment as well as more stable traditions, customs and folkways of society‖ (Cunningham & Voss Lab, 1991, p. 1). The treatment ascribed to dress can be applied to the music, songs, and dances that come out of the Caribbean. These have been used quite successfully in diaspora‘s contexts, such as Canada, as identity markers for people of Caribbean heritage (Warlord-Patterson, 1999).

The Cultural Identité Model The consistent analogue with these definitions or understandings of culture is that the phenomenon appears to be embedded within the individual. In addition, aspects of culture are concentrated to varying degrees within the

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individual. Core cultural values are harder to eliminate and, in due course, serve as one‘s heritage. Material culture incorporates popular culture and when different cultures come together, cultural layering occurs. Though many believe that culture is a social construct, its uniqueness, individuality, and habitude suggests the difficulty that may be encountered when culture is ignored and suppressed in the classroom. This elucidation of the concept ―culture‖ is necessary as it grounds my discussion in diaspora and multiculturalism and their ramifications for education. Also, Ladson-Billings and Donor (2005) write: DuBois‘s notion of double consciousness applies not only to African Americans but to all people who are constructed outside the dominant paradigm. Although DuBois refers to a double consciousness, we know that our sense of identity may evoke multiple consciousness, and it is important to read [their particular] discussion of multiple consciousness, as a description of complex phenomena that impose essentialized concepts of ―blackness,‖ ―Latina/o-ness,‖ ―Asian American-ness,‖ or ―Native American-ness‖ on specific individuals or groups. (p. 282)

This belief can be postulated for any human or group interaction and I will go a step further to assume that it also occurs when there is any other interaction with a material cultural artifact or cultural structure. Thus, as I began to make meaning of what my research participants were saying about culture and cultural identity, I proceeded to re-conceptualize my theoretical framework to include a collective understanding of these two terms. This aspect of my framework seeks to provide a model for culture and cultural identity. It is based on a human ecology model (Westney, Brabble, & Edwards, 1988) integrated with a social ecology model (Berry, 1995; Bronfenbrenner, 1979) to establish the one I am now using. This modified human or social ecology model consists of seven nested concentric circles with the individual situated in the center; with the family, clothing, and the home in the second-most inner circle; sectored community structures in the third-most inner circle; sectored societal structures in the fourth circle, and sectored world structures in the fifth. The sixth realm (Nn) is undefined as this consists of entities that are unknown or unnamed at the present time. As cultural attributes subsume all sectors of these concentric circles, culture is held constant and placed in the seventh and outermost circle. As the individual draws cultural attributes from all sectors of these concentric circles to varying degrees, the individual can be described as having several cultures. In other words, I visualized culture as a component of each of these

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sectors, contributing to the overall cultural identity of the individual, thus accounting for the notion of a multiplicity of cultures (Walrond-Patterson, 2006, p. 336). This framework helps me to define culture within the context of a multicultural country such as Canada. I state that cultural identity determines individualized privilege and power in the educational landscape. As a corollary, it also determines the lack of power and privilege racialized minorities have in the education landscape because of the presence of white privilege (McIntosh, 1990). In a recent publication, I demonstrated, with the aid of Ogbu‘s (1992) hypothesis, that cultural identity is a determinant in the school success of students (Walrond, 2009).

The cultural identity slices of all others (A)

Figure 1. Culture and the Cultural Identity Model.

In this publication, I develop a working hypothesis that cultural identities of white privilege and power intersect with the cultural identities of racialized minorities to determine the success or failure of students in the educational landscape. The assumptions I make about cultural identity are: 1) An individual‘s cultural identity consists of a collective of cultures, not just a culture. 2) Culture identity may be static in moments or instants, but it is dynamic or fluid (Appadurai, 2003) across time and space. 3) Cultural attributes are transmitted through semi-permeable orifices, where the actors‘ ―internalized social attitudes and

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expectations‖ (Barakett & Cleghorn, 2000, p. 134) determine the level of cultural transmission. 4) Cultural homeostasis exists in this environment. Cultural homeostasis is defined as the state of dynamic equilibrium that occurs when an individual is at the point of cultural harmony with and in his or her environment. 5) The bottom semi-circle represents the cultural identities of all others. In this model I note that this bottom semi-circle represents the static cultural profile of all other people. Within this sphere other cultural identities impact me and my cultural identity influences them as well (see Figure 1). 6) The broken double-headed arrow indicates that cultural identities are generated outwards into cultural and social structures (see Figure 1). I postulate that our cultural identities interact, intersect, coalesce and contest space to determine the culture of social structures. Consequently, those who can align their cultural identities to control the opportunity structure are said to have the power and earn the privileges meted out in that structure. Culture, in this instance, is a function of all the various attributes (and their mitigators) that constitutes the various realms. I am now using all the levels of awareness that are at my disposal at this time to discuss the information I received during my data collection. In contemporary urban schools, because teachers and students do not come from a relatively homogeneous community (McLaren, 2003b), many of the cultural identities that intersect and interact are dissimilar and may sometimes clash. In many classrooms in Edmonton, Canada the cultural identities which clash are those that include a component of whiteness and others that have components based on being defined as the racialized other. In countries such as Canada, whiteness, white privilege and racism are constructs which are imposed within structures such as education. Much research has been conducted on the effects of racialization on the educational outcomes of the racialized other. Freire‘s (1970/2005) theory grounds my analysis of white privilege on the school outcomes of the racialized other. Freire (1970/2005) writes: The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or

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In addition Solomon, Portelli, Daniel and Campbell, (2005) state that today studies on race and education are moving away from the ―‗racial other‘ to examine the institutionalization of whiteness and the systemic factors that underscore continued dominance‖ (p. 147). Thus it is reasonable to analyze white privilege and power in the classroom to determine how these mitigate the learning outcomes of racialized youth. At a personal level, my educational experiences with my two children alerted me to the fact that few resources were in place to deal with Caribbean heritage families and their children. In most cases, teachers displayed very little knowledge of the regions of the world from which we emigrated. They had very little idea about our habits or customs. On many occasions, I was asked to either send some of my country‘s food to the class or to come in my ethnic clothes to let the other children know more about my family and me. Some years later, my older daughter, Abiona, who is now a teacher in Edmonton‘s school system, came to me asking for more information about Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana because the students in her Advance Placement Teaching (APT) class wanted to know more about her origins and background. On the one hand, I admired the curiosity of the children. However, on the other hand, I felt if Abiona had been given an opportunity in school to explore her identity and to reinforce the Caribbean cultural knowledge she learned while at home and in her community, she would have been better prepared to answer their questions. She would have understood the importance that Canadian education systems ideologically placed on identity and the celebration of diversity. For me, it reinforced my argument that no place was made in the school curriculum for her to explore her identity and to share this with her classmates in an all-empowering way. Other theorists and students today continue to express similar sentiments, proposing that the worldviews of non-mainstream students are not validated in the classroom (Codjoe, 1997, 2001; Dei, 1996a; K. James, 1996; Kallen, 2003; WalrondPatterson, 1999; Walrond-Patterson, Crown, & Langford, 1998). Today, issues regarding the inclusion of black students and other non-minority worldviews in the education system are still pertinent. I have reflected on the educational experiences of my children but, as Clandinin and Connelly (1995) and Greene (1978) point out, there is a larger story: School narratives are often dominated by the storied lives of school board officials, administrators, teachers, and students. I must now unpack

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some of the pedagogy and practice literature to provide the collective education story that was part of my daughters‘ school experiences. An understanding of their views is important because, as Greene writes, ―once pedagogy becomes crucial, the splits and deformations in those who teach or treat or administer or organize take on a political significance never confronted in time past‖ (p. 96). Clandinin and Connelly‘s work (1995) uses the stories of teachers to describe ―the professional knowledge landscape‖ (p. 4); that is, to investigate ―the interface of theory and practice in teachers‘ lives‖ (p. 4). They write that the knowledge landscape of teachers includes in its setting, professional knowledge that is influenced by experiential encounters. These experiences are with people, places, and things behind the classroom doors and in other professional, communal spaces. These encounters produce meaning that is both intellectual and moral in scope. Clandinin and Connelly (1995) also assert that their research shows that teachers demonstrate anxiety because of the experiences they encounter within that knowledge landscape. The conflicting messages they receive about professional knowledge contribute to their anxiety as these messages may not align to produce personal practical knowledge. Notes on a musical scale can either come together to produce harmony or discord, as in the case of noise. It is as though two rhythmic beats (dis)function together to produce noise. The question I ask is why is there this misalignment of knowledge? I also ask: How does this conscious or unconscious discord manifest itself in the classroom when difference and diversity are encountered and where personal practical knowledge confronts praxis? Many researchers are still trying to answer this philosophical question. Meanwhile, students, such as my children, must deal with the fallout from the epistemological dilemmas associated with the confrontation that occurs when educators try to balance their experiences in different spaces along the knowledge landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). All the teachers who taught my children were white; hence during their school life they never experienced what it was like to have someone similar to their parents in such a leadership role in the classroom. It may be easy to conclude that perhaps a shortage of black teachers contributed to this situation. However, while my children and others of Caribbean heritage were most likely to be schooled in urban settings such as Edmonton, the majority of teachers of Caribbean heritage who were fortunate to find employment in the education field, were employed in rural school districts or school districts that were in areas outlying urban settings. Some of these teachers chose to maintain families in urban settings and they sent their children to schools that were closer to their homes. The major impacts of this strategy were that these

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teachers were not in a position to mentor or to be positive role models to Caribbean heritage children. As well, because they rarely had time to immerse themselves in the urban Caribbean community, they were external to this community, were seldom seen as part of the community, and seldom contributed to community capacity building. Youths, such as my children, were robbed of important socialization and motivational opportunities for acquiring a sense of identity as prospective teachers. While they were in the classroom, my children had to make a conscious effort to look beyond race, ethnicity, and other social constructs of the dominant society to visualize their potential as Canadians of Caribbean heritage. This was never my experience as I saw black teachers throughout my schooling and could dream of one day growing up and becoming a teacher. Schissel and Wotherspoon (2003) argue that the literature is inconclusive as to whether the achievement gap decreases if students are taught by teachers of similar heritage. However, they add that ―the presence of teachers who share a common heritage with the students they teach fosters a sense of acceptance and may facilitate stronger communication among education system personnel, students, and parents‖ (pp. 116–117). White privilege and power can be conceptualized by ―significance of teacher race‖ (Sleeter, 2004, p. 161), ―dysconscious racism‖ (King, 2004, p. 72), ―social dominance theory‖ (Howard, 2006, p. 35), ―malefic generosity‖ (Greene, 1978. p. 97), ―false generosity‖ (Freire, 1970/2005a, p. 45), and ―critical race theory‖ (Ladson-Billings, 2004, p. 53) and these can define the teacher-student praxis of many Caribbean Canadian school children. Malefic generosity is intentional or unintentional kindness that does not alleviate the misery or oppression of the intended recipient. In fact it serves to perpetuate the misery or oppression and provides the oppressor with the option to continually feed off the misery of the oppressed. Sleeter (2004), who self identifies as a white teacher educator, conducted research with white teachers to determine the inherent ill effects of the education system. She was able to conclude that these effects are associatively linked to those in society. She positions the White discourse of non-white students‘ educative potentials squarely on a hegemonic society. Hegemony refers to moral and intellectual coercion by a dominant class over a subordinate class that is intended to maintain, through force or consent, the social practices, social forms and social structures in social institutions (McLaren, 2003b). Sleeter (2004) argues that white teachers cannot be expected to be nonracist because they are products of and beneficiaries of a society that is inherently and structurally racist. She contends, ―A structural analysis of

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racism suggests that education will not produce less racist institutions as long as white people control it‖ (p. 164). White society has no desire to disrupt the educational status quo because empowering the masses to have access to high status education places them in the competitive pool for the limited high status jobs. Sleeter (2004) concludes that ―it is important to educate white people as well as people of color about racism, but not with the assumption that white people on their own will then reconstruct racist institutions‖ (p. 165). There is also the tendency to target a nebulous external inertia for societal inequality and ―to explain persistent racial inequality in a way that does not implicate white society‖ (Sleeter, 2004, p. 167). As well, a ―culturaldeficiency perspective‖ is adopted where parental attitudes toward schooling, lack of language skills, and gang influences contribute to a power remissive discourse used to frame the school failure of children of Caribbean and others of non-white heritage (Sleeter, p.166). King (2004), another teacher educator, explains the white student teacher experience with the visible minority student through their ―dysconscious racism‖ (p. 72) lenses. She defines dysconsciousness as ―an uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs) that justifies inequity and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as given‖ (p. 73). She conceptualizes dysconscious racism as ―limited and distorted understandings about inequality and cultural diversity,‖ which underscores the challenge and makes philosophically problematic any praxis towards ―truly equitable education‖ (p. 72). King conducted content analysis of her students‘ reflective essays from 1986 to discern that they portrayed ―internalized ideologies that both justify the racial status quo and devalue cultural diversity‖ (p. 72). Her findings led her to advocate for teaching about dysconscious racism as a part of social foundations of education courses. After listening to comments some white teachers were making during a conference, Howard (2006), a self-identified white educator, reflected on some assumptions white teachers make about their students and themselves in the education landscape. First, some teachers believe that all students are the same culturally and historically. Second, many teachers do not recognize or understand the underpinnings of social dominance theory and practice in schools. Howard, (2006) proposes: As a White educator, I find it difficult to approach the topic of White dominance. I know that many of my White colleagues are tired of hearing about it. The litany of past sins committed by Whites against people of other

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Howard (2006) defines whiteness as ―the centrepiece of a constant and undifferentiated milieu, unnoticed in its normalcy‖ (p. 14). White dominance is defined metaphorically as ―a highly selective poison that continually steals the lifeblood from those people who have not been marked with the genetic code of whiteness‖ (Howard, 2006, p. 19). Social dominance theory assumes the following: 1) Human social systems are predisposed to the creation of social hierarchies with the hegemonic group at the pinnacle. 2) There exists the iron law of male dominance. 3) Social oppression is a manifestation of human dominancy. 4) And, social hierarchy is a survival strategy adopted by many species including humans (Howard, 2006). When Howard came face to face with blackness/otherness, he perceived that cultural encapsulation or living in a mono-cultural environment contributed to his narcissistic and xenophobic identity. This is his third assumption. The forth assumption Howard (2006) identified is ―social positionality, [which he linked to] European hegemony and social dominance in educational settings‖ (p. 34). Greene (1978) draws attention to those teachers who ―have no real faith in the capacities of the students with whom they work, but are nonetheless committed to transforming an unjust social order in their behalf‖ (p. 96). She claims their actions usually amount to malefic generosity. Similarly, Freire (2005b) postulates that those teachers who are culpable in perpetuating the existing power structures are incapable of liberating marginalized students even if they reach out to help them. In Freirean terms, their praxis amounts to false generosity as said teachers set aside historic prejudices associated with whiteness or dominance. Their very vocation is based on the rhetorical inability of the oppressed or marginalized individual or community to achieve self-actualization (Freire, 2005b). Critical race theory, an offshoot of critical legal studies, is defined as a ―radical legal movement that seeks to transform the relationship among race, racism, and power‖ (Dalgado & Sterancic, 2001, p. 144). Delgado & Sterancic (2001) posit the five tenets of critical race theory as:

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1) Racism is ordinary, not aberrational—―normal science‖ the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color …in [countries like the United States and Canada]. Ordinariness means that racism is difficult to cure or address. Color-blind or ―formal‖ conceptions of equality, expressed in rules that insist only on treatment that is the same across the board, can thus remedy only the most blatant forms of discrimination. 2) A system of white-over-color ascendency serves important psychic and material purposes in countries such as Canada and the United States. This is sometimes termed interest convergence or material determinism. Thus, since racism benefits white elites materially and the working-class psychically, there is no urgency on their part to change the status quo. 3) The social construction thesis argues that race and races are products of social thought and relations, not objective, inherent, or fixed. They correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates or retires when convenient. 4) Dominant society practices differential racialization. This highlights the ways the dominant society racializes different minority groups at different times in response to the shifting needs of social institutions such as the economy. 5) The idea that each race has its own origins and ever evolving history is defined as the notion of intersectionality and antiessentialism. No person has a single, easily stated unitary identity. Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties and allegiances. 6) And finally, there is the voice-of-color thesis which holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, minorities have the competence to speak about race and racism. Each of these analyses point out the role whiteness, white power and white privilege plays is the construction of race, racial domination, and racialization. In many urban schools across Canada, the results of white privilege are evident in the curricula, as well as teachers‘ pedagogies and practices.

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METHOD This chapter is part of a larger research project. The question from the larger research project that applies to this chapter is: From the perspective of Caribbean Canadian blacks, what systemic changes are needed in Alberta, Canada‘s education system? During the course of a five-year investigation (2002-2007), this question was posed to five Canadian Caribbean black families who had educated their children in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My first selection criterion was that the parents should have been schooled in the Caribbean prior to migration to Canada. This was requested because I wanted their opinion on the education they received in the Caribbean. Secondly, I wanted families where the children were about to matriculate or had matriculated in the last two years. The research question required establishing the relationship between the culture of people of Caribbean Canadian heritage and the culture that plays out in the educational landscape. The question required a critical analysis inquiry and this approach allowed me to establish relationships between the culture of Caribbean Canadians and that of the curriculum, pedagogy and practice in Edmonton‘s educational terrain to gain insights into what possible outcomes for selfactualization were to be expected. The theoretical framework that grounds this discussion is the cultural identity model (Figure 1). Critical race theory and discourse analysis are the analytical tools applied to provide a critical analysis of the outcomes of school success for Caribbean students when white privilege influences teacher school pedagogy and curriculum. My qualitative research design employed three data-gathering strategies. These were ethnographic interviews, a group dialogue/exchange session, and auto-ethnographic self-reflections. My interviews with the individuals lasted approximately one hour each. The group dialogue/exchange session lasted about one and one half hours. I proceeded systematically to interview the parents individually; next I interviewed the parents as a couple, where this was warranted. I then completed this portion of my data collection with a group dialogue/exchange session. My selfreflections were continually recorded in a journal during the data collection stage. My own thoughts continue to contribute to this research and will continue to do so until the final document is completed. Throughout the time I spent collecting the data, I found it very helpful to maintain a journal or log book (Ely, Anzul, Friedman, & Garner, 1991). The five families included three two-parent households and two single mothers. All the parents were high

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school graduates, although three of the parents had completed their high school in Canada and England. The setting or site I chose for my research is Edmonton‘s Caribbean Canadian community. Sites such as the Caribbean Albertan community presented an added concern and responsibility. While I presented myself to the community as the researcher, there was also my concurrent identity: that of a community member. Proceeding with my analyses, I marked up the text in the Nvivo® program, identifying lists of metaphors, similar items or different ―items that belong in a cultural domain‖ (Ryan & Bernard, 2000, p. 770). By immersing myself in the data, I was able to discern creolized speech patterns (Morgan, 2002; Rickford, 1987; Winer, 1993) that are inherent to ―Vernacular Black English‖ (Rickford, 1991). This is too pronounced to neglect, and it also addresses the tenets of representation and validity. Hence, I represent the participants‘ speech genres in my document phonologically and grammatically intact.

FINDINGS Concern 1:--The Hegemonic Representation of Knowledge White privilege accounts for a curriculum that is Eurocentric. A Eurocentric curriculum that denies a multiple perspective of knowledge and knowledge construction extends miseducation into the classroom and teacher practices (Howard, 2006). In the following statement, Frank (pseudonym) comments that the curricula did not give his children a holistic worldview. 

Frank: Under Edmonton‘s education system, when you look at the work that they do; they cover Canada, the US and Europe and what goes on here or there more than adequately. [However]… I don‘t find that they consider the other, 90 percent of this planet. You know, where people have very different lives to that of Western European and North American societies. So for us to be happier I would like to see … [the school system] cover the Caribbean, Central and South America a lot more; the daily lives of those people and how people [there] see things and that kind of thing. … I believe the knowledge of us as a Caribbean people, our history…are important.

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Frank points out the hegemonic nature of education. He is quite aware that an education system that covers the world view of Western Europe, Canada and the United States is not giving his children a holistic education that prepares them for global citizenship. From my own experiences, I have found that when teachers wish to provide other views to the students they would ask the inexperience parent to do a presentation. This is wrong for several reasons. It vests the responsibility of knowledge construction with the parent. Delgado and Sterancic (2001) argue that it should not be assumed that marginalized parents have the authority or knowledge to speak for their groups. In addition, if the parent cannot provide this information, fulfillment of the purpose of knowledge construction will not be achieved. This form of pedagogy ensures that the other‘s knowledge never gets into the dominant knowledge discourse, but it gives the impression that the cultural voices of others are being heard. Even if the parent is quite knowledgeable, this information leaves the education landscape or structure once he or she leaves. The (un) fortunate white or non-white students who are the subjects of this experience, sense what is happening and believe that this is the way the education system deals with other cultural knowledge. As these students who are predominantly white, enter university as student teachers they come with a belief that only white Eurocentric knowledge is important and knowledge of the other is only important in so far as white students wish to work as colonizers and missionaries to the other. These pedagogical practices help neither the racialized other nor the white students in the age of contemporary globalization. Hutchison & Wiggan (2009) describe this era as ―a shrinking world where global financial markets are synchronized, and time and space compressions are facilitated by technological advancements, and goods and services are exchanged with relative ease‖ (p. 4). In addition, they argue: New World Order—or better put, One World Order—has become necessary, since there is the need for a common, undergirding standard or system that articulates international and cross-cultural differences. Such a system strongly implies that some level of ―one-world education‖ is vital. (p. 4)

Students should be taught to value all knowledge, that new knowledge construction is possible in an arena where diversity of knowledge is the norm and is respected.

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Concern 2:--Left out of the Curriculum The second complaint supports the first and deals with being left out of the curriculum. Again we hear from Frank. Here he refers to the notion that even though we see and hear Caribbean voices in contemporary popular culture, they are ignored in mainstream education. Today Caribbean heritage singers such as Jamaican reggae artist Robert Nesta ―Bob‖ Marley and Barbados born artist Robin ―Rihanna‖ Fenty are known worldwide yet according to Frank, Jamaican art and culture do not become part of the contemporary curricula. Curriculum developers can endeavor to include Caribbean Canadian contributors to the Canadian political landscape in the curriculum. For example, the Honorary Rosemary Brown who emigrated from Jamaica, was the first black woman to be elected as a provincial (British Columbia, Canada) legislature, Governor General Michaelle Jean of Haitian heritage, was the first black to be Canada‘s Governor General, and Senator Anne Cools, originally from Barbados, was the first black to be a member of Canada‘s senate. 

Frank: We see Jamaican people in the music and in drama …could more be done in schooling? I think there should be more of a recognition, or of an exposure of our children to the Caribbean music for instance because after all I see the young folks and they look at Caribana [a Carnival festival in Toronto] and they say … What‘s that? How come they didn‘t know about that and what is it? So there is a lot to be learned on the part of mainstream Canadians about us as a race and as a people? … We have contributed a heck of a lot to the political scene [here], which is unknown to mainstream Canadians. So from an educational point of view, I suppose there is that opportunity really … [for] we as a people from the Caribbean to get it into the schooling system [curriculum], because we have so much of our Children in the school system. So it can only be a benefit. So yes, [for example] Canadians politicians and there are an endless amount from Rosemary Brown to the current members of the Ontario Legislative Assembly. There are a lot of Jamaicans in there [but you never see them represented in the curriculum]…

This except suggests that the radicalized others notice when they are left out of the curriculum. Here Frank (pseudonym) speaks about students who

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know nothing about famous Caribbean Canadian politicians or Caribana, which is the largest Canadian festival that is held in Toronto, Ontario. Caribana attracts thousands of tourists, and contributes millions of dollars to the city of Toronto and it is used in all Canadian advertisement to illustrate the cosmopolitan and multicultural nature of the country. Inclusion in the curriculum should not be left to social studies classes, but efforts should be made for a seamless integration of material in all facets of the students‘ courses. As Hill, Harris & Martinez-Vázquez (2009) write, ―any learning exercise that attends to students‘ own narratives of racial or ethnic oppression needs to be crafted carefully, to avoid an ―othering‖ of the ―other‖ (p. 12). At the same time, Solomon et al.‘s (2005) study suggests that many white university students are very uncomfortable when they are asked to consider alternative interpretations of history, society, and social relations. In addition, they cite the reaction of white feminists from developed countries that are challenged to interpret the experiences of blacks and other feminists who are from developing countries.

Concern 3:--Realities of Systemic Whiteness in Educational Structures 



Jean: I think to refresh we were talking about one of your daughters who had in particular, I would say, racial problems to use another word, in the school that she was going to, how did it first manifest itself? Errol (pseudonym): I would recall she would come home and she would be in an unhappy mood, and then we will pull her out of it. And then kids don‘t want to do things with her. They would all go to one side, the name calling and those kinds of things. It had the effect of making her feel that she was in a corner by herself. We, being reluctant to go to the teacher, so we really had to, at this very table, each evening talk about all aspects of what happened and then have everybody[the family] look into the causes. So then it became clear that it wasn‘t that she was doing anything wrong. It was just that she was a different color to the majority of everybody, and you know getting our children to understand that people are like that outside of this house and in many places.

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This parent is addressing some of the problems children of color experience in the classroom when whites do not recognize the white power and privilege they have. They normalized this power and privilege of whiteness without understanding the consequences of this action in countries such as Canada that proclaim a multicultural ideology. Frank‘s experience with his daughter being marginalized in the classroom is not an isolated event and is corroborated by hooks (1994), who writes about the hate and negative experiences she dealt with when she moved from being at the center of an allblack school to the margins in a predominantly white school. Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom (1994) and Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (2003) by hooks are critical to this research. Education as an act of emancipation was her first pedagogical experience as a student in an all-black school with only black teachers. As a student in the southern United States in the 1960s, she was also part of the desegregation process and was bussed to a typical white school. hooks (2003) schooling experience at the predominantly white school was, in her own words, that of an interloper exposed to ―an education that merely strives to reinforce domination‖ (p. 4). After a teaching practice that spanned 20 years, her academic experience has evolved so that she has become a community teacher. In this capacity she takes on some of the issues of anti-racism education in academe. She writes: While it is a positive aspect of our culture that folks want to see racism end; paradoxically it is this heartfelt longing that underlies the persistence of the false assumption that this is not a white-supremacist nation. In our culture almost everyone, irrespective of skin color, associated white supremacy with extreme conservative fanaticism, with Nazi skin-heads who preach all the old stereotypes about racist purity. Yet these extreme groups rarely threaten the day-to-day workings of our lives. It is the less extreme white supremacists‘ beliefs and assumptions, easier to cover up and mask that maintain and perpetuate everyday racism as a form of group oppression. (hooks, 2003, pp. 29–30)

Following up with this analysis, it may seem that black youths are not interested in being teachers. I contend that there has been very little work in this area, and not much work is being done by Alberta Education to encourage black high-school graduates to become teachers, and less is done to retain those black teachers who actually do enter Alberta‘s school system. Alberta Education has had a history of recruiting teachers from Jamaica in the 1960s (Walrond, 2008), but while these teachers lived in the cities of Edmonton or

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Calgary, they taught in rural areas. Therefore, they were not visible to young black students in the classroom, nor were they able to spend much time in the communities where their own children were schooled. The practice of creating teaching opportunities for blacks in rural areas continues today. Such practices ensure that the education landscape remain exclusionary and hierarchical, as the preferred spaces for teaching is geographically defined. Teachers in rural areas will have less influence on curriculum and educational practices because the further they are from the central government, the less voice they will have and hence the less opportunity to influence change.

Concern 4:--White Power and Privilege Ensures Status Quo On October 2nd and 3rd 2002, as a doctor of philosophy student in the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta, I attended a curriculum development review workshop for the kindergarten to grade 9 Social Studies program. The group consisted of teachers and some community workers. An excerpt of my journal entry for that day reads: 

Jean: The one thing that struck me was that many teachers had an awareness of inclusion and marginalized cultures, but there was very little evidence of that in the teaching population who were there planning the curriculum; I was the only Black person there.

My concern was that there was no space [in the educational discourse] for other perspectives, and other experiential knowledge as well, the practice of holistic knowledge construction was not evident. The practice of critically thinking to resolve issues relevant to the social studies curriculum could not have been done from the lived experiences of diverse cultures in the school systems where diversity is supposed to be a hallmark. Practices, such as these, filter down throughout the school system and these seemingly unintentional visible practices are manifested in classrooms where non-white students are made to be victims of white privilege, and power in the school system. The evidence of mainly white teachers there to critique the curriculum is tantamount to the ―recentering of whiteness‖ and ―ensures that the focus of the discussion remains on white people‖ (Solomon et al., 2005, p. 156). The practice of the study of whiteness, which purports the understanding of racial identities, the ideologies with which white educators enter the classroom and the exploration of those ideologies are insufficient. It does not allow white

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educators to come to terms with the practical aspects of cultural accommodation and the construction of knowledge that accommodates other diverse knowledge systems.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS As individuals of Caribbean heritage who live in countries such as Canada and the United States, we understand that there are multiple worldviews. As this chapter suggests, we question the education system‘s inability to accommodate diversity in its curriculum, pedagogy and practice. Current media publications emphasize that these practices contribute to the failure of some marginalized students. Connelly & Clandinin‘s (1995) analysis of teacher narratives and McLaren‘s (2003a) ethnographic accounts highlight the discordance between theory and practice in a diverse education landscape. Nevertheless, in Canada we continue to see remedial changes to policies and practices that do not address the comprehensive changes that are required if schools of the 21st century are to produce workers who can contribute in a globalized economy. Connelly and Clandinin (1995) write that school administrators use a funnel process to implement educational policies. By this I mean: ―The funneling process … [allows] the administration to selectively target schools for specific board policies‖ (p.3). The cultural identity model demonstrates that individual cultural identities interact in the education landscape—a landscape defined by racialized others juxtaposed against white power and whiteness. These tensions exist in an era of low levels of educational achievement by a percentage of racialized youths. Wiggan (2009) writes: ―low levels of educational achievement‖ signals to stakeholders that the workforces in Canada and the United States are losing their global, economic, competitive advantage. As Canada now relies on immigration from the South to bolster its population, it is crucial to question if education policies can ignore a sector of its population. In addition, the technology associated with globalization ensures that individuals construct cultural identities that are more closely linked with their heritage countries and this accounts for an increased sense of autonomy as well as individual and community capacity. This increased autonomy and growth in individual and community capacity ensures a parallel reevaluation of the significance of indigenous knowledge (Dei, 2008), a concomitant critical examination of other knowledge systems (Freire, 1970/2005; Ladson-Billing, 1994) and curriculum policies that recognize

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multiple perspectives of knowledge construction as a concept whose time has come. Moving the curriculum towards a multiple perspectives of knowledge construction will ―dislodge them [white people] from the position of power and undercut the authority with which they speak in and on the world‖ (Dyer, 2009, p. 10).

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Paul Bennett is from Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He is a 2011 graduate of Davidson College with a degree in Political Science. His scholarly interests lie predominantly in the legal realm, particularly special education law. Tarra Ellis is a National Board Certified, former science/social studies middle school teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. She is in the dissertation stage of the Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Urban Education program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Tarra also works with teacher education candidates at UNCC as a lecturer and advisor. Her research interests include culturally relevant education, multicultural education, and middle school philosophy. Crystal Glover is a lecturer and academic advisor in the Reading and Elementary Education department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has 10 years of experience as primary grades teacher in North and South Carolina. Crystal is a National Board certified teacher and a certified reading specialist. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Urban Literacy. Crystal‘s research interests include urban teacher preparation, critical literacy, primary writing development and multicultural education. Dr. Cedric L. Stone was born and raised in the inner-city west-end community of Cincinnati, Ohio and educated within the public school system. He has many years of volunteer service with the inner-city youth, middle and high school students of traditional schools systems in Cincinnati, Ohio and Charlotte, NC. Stone holds a Bachelors of Science (B.S.) degree in Marketing from the Ohio State University, Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Management from Miami University, and, a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D) Educational Leadership, Community Specialization from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Stone has studied abroad in the People‘s

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Republic of China. He has been inducted into Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society as well as the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars. Spencer Salas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research examines New Latino South classrooms to theorize teachers‘ engagement with the multiple and interactive contexts of their professional activity. Katie Stover is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Literacy Strand of the Curriculum and Instruction Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has worked as a public school teacher, a literacy coach and consultant, and a clinical lecturer in the Reading and Elementary Education Department at UNC Charlotte. Her research interests include the particular literacy needs of urban students and the use of critical literacy as a way to question unjust institutional inequities. Other research interests include writing instruction with a focus on the process approach, reading instruction, and literacy coaching. Patricia Tolley is an associate professor and assistant dean in the Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in mathematics education. She is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina who worked in industry as a practicing engineer and engineering leader prior to her career in higher education. Her educational research focuses on the recruitment, teaching, learning, and retention of engineering students using quantitative methods of evaluation. She is particularly interested in the freshman year experience because it is such a critical period of transition, particularly for women and minority students who are underrepresented in the major. Lindsay Sheronick Yearta is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Curriculum and Instruction: Urban Literacy program. She co-teaches Reading in the Content Areas at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and teaches in the K-12 system in South Carolina. Her research interests include culturally responsive pedagogy through the utilization of critical literacy within the K-12 classrooms as well as within Higher Education classrooms. Jean Walrond is an instructor in the Department of Sociology at Concordia University College of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her research interests include cultural studies, sociology of education, urban

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education, urban sociology, community capacity building in the Canadian Caribbean community and representation. Greg Wiggan is an Assistant Professor of Urban Education, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Affiliate Faculty Member of Africana Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research addresses urban education and urban sociology in the context of school processes that promote high achievement among African American students, and other underserved minority student populations. In doing so, his research also examines the broader connections between urban school districts, globalization processes and the internationalization of education in urban schools. He is co-editor of the book, Global Issues in Education: Pedagogy, Policy, Practice, and the Minority Experience, and co-author of Curriculum Violence: America’s New Civil Rights Issue, and author of Education in a Strange Land: Globalization, Urbanization and Urban Schools, the Social and Educational Implications of the Geopolitical Economy.

INDEX A access, ix, xi, xiv, xv, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 31, 34, 56, 78, 79, 83, 86, 87, 112, 116, 117, 118, 120, 122, 126, 132, 139, 143, 152, 163 accommodation, 74, 173 accountability, xv, 10, 13, 57, 93 activism, x, 35, 114 ADHD, 59, 63 administrators, 19, 31, 55, 57, 59, 61, 66, 72, 76, 77, 79, 90, 115, 116, 134, 160, 173 adolescents, 29, 36, 41, 47, 48, 51, 52, 80, 81, 82 adults, xvi, 17, 34, 141 advancement, 11, 30, 33, 115 African Americans, x, xiii, xv, 9, 14, 30, 48, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 97, 98, 112, 113, 127, 130, 157 age, 12, 13, 23, 52, 90, 97, 106, 107, 114, 168 agriculture, 68, 179 alienation, 30, 31, 33, 46, 118 American culture, 20, 114, 177 antagonism, 33, 68 anthropology, 152, 178 anxiety, 118, 161

assessment, 38, 51, 57, 58, 76, 80, 81, 83, 134, 138, 144, 145, 146 atmosphere, 40, 43, 103 authority, x, xi, 32, 34, 35, 119, 122, 123, 127, 154, 168, 174 autonomy, xv, 5, 85, 105, 112, 173 awareness, 2, 4, 5, 6, 24, 41, 110, 142, 159, 172, 174

B barriers, xvi, 110, 117, 122, 123 behavioral disorders, 72, 82, 83, 84 behavioral problems, 65, 77 behaviors, 33, 62, 65, 81, 118, 135, 156 belief systems, 102, 107 benefits, xii, 10, 16, 37, 117, 125, 150, 165 bias, 22, 23, 24, 26, 116, 120, 126 Black students, 25, 29, 46, 106, 175 black tea, 86, 161, 171 Blacks, 30, 86, 93, 111, 149 brothers, 21, 24 Brown vs. Board of Education, 9, 111 businesses, 11, 115

C candidates, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 178, 181

186

Index

capacity building, 162, 183 Caribbean, xvi, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154, 156, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 169, 170, 173, 178, 179, 183 case study, 42, 43 catalyst, 14, 34 certification, 73, 75, 76 challenges, x, xvi, 6, 12, 17, 35, 41, 45, 51, 66, 69, 78, 84, 89, 93, 110, 112, 113, 151, 152 charter schools, xv, 85, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95 Chicago, 11, 25, 45, 47, 81, 106, 114, 146, 175, 178 childhood, 2, 3, 107 children, xi, xiv, xv, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 46, 47, 52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 89, 90, 92, 94, 97, 106, 107, 114, 116, 118, 133, 140, 149, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174 China, 92, 95, 182 cities, 11, 13, 92, 111, 171 citizens, ix, x, 17, 150 citizenship, 51, 85, 87, 93, 106, 168, 179 Civil Rights Movement, x, 35, 87 civilization, 20, 119, 152 classes, 9, 16, 31, 32, 43, 56, 60, 66, 72, 74, 100, 104, 111, 114, 119, 143, 170 classroom, xv, xvi, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 46, 48, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 78, 88, 92, 94, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123, 124, 130, 133, 135, 139, 140, 144, 149, 157, 160, 161, 167, 171, 172 climate, xvi, 6, 123, 156 clothing, 156, 157, 177 cognitive function, 64, 66 collaboration, 37, 40, 43, 52, 77, 101, 123, 143, 179 college students, 130, 144

colleges, xii, xvi, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 123, 134, 140 color, iv, x, xii, 35, 128, 150, 163, 165, 170, 171 communication, 31, 112, 154, 162 communities, 11, 13, 19, 30, 38, 51, 99, 101, 104, 107, 136, 151, 155, 172 community, 15, 19, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 50, 51, 53, 72, 79, 80, 101, 104, 110, 114, 121, 122, 126, 129, 130, 151, 157, 159, 160, 162, 164, 167, 171, 172, 173, 176, 177, 181, 183 compensation, 74, 75 competition, 37, 123 composition, 102, 134, 144, 146 comprehension, 26, 68 conference, 151, 163 conflict, 25, 46, 106, 111, 112, 115, 123 confrontation, 144, 161 consciousness, 1, 4, 113, 118, 120, 123, 157 construction, 56, 106, 130, 142, 150, 165, 167, 168, 172, 174 consumption, 48, 177 content analysis, 80, 135, 163 controversial, 19, 20, 22, 114 conversations, 23, 135 creativity, 41, 92, 119 critical analysis, 2, 5, 166 critical thinking, 5, 15, 24, 35, 69 cultural differences, 31, 98 cultural identities, 40, 150, 152, 158, 159, 173 culturally responsive pedagogy, 46, 90, 92, 98, 100, 105, 182 culture, ix, 10, 11, 13, 25, 31, 38, 40, 41, 48, 49, 69, 92, 93, 98, 99, 105, 113, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 131, 146, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 166, 169, 171, 174, 175, 176, 178, 179 curricula, xiii, 15, 31, 36, 38, 52, 55, 56, 57, 67, 79, 116, 117, 126, 149, 165, 167, 169 curriculum, xi, xii, xv, 10, 13, 14, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 56, 57, 62, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 89, 90, 99, 100, 105, 116, 119,

187

Index 121, 122, 123, 126, 127, 145, 149, 150, 160, 166, 167, 169, 172, 173

D data collection, 159, 166 deficiency, 87, 163 Delta, 25, 46, 95, 182 democracy, 7, 129 denial, 82, 178 Department of Education, 74, 83, 90, 92, 95, 146 depth, 19, 100 despair, 12, 24 dichotomy, 150, 151 disability, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 81, 105 discrimination, ix, x, xii, 13, 14, 21, 22, 110, 111, 112, 123, 126, 165 diversity, 38, 48, 60, 94, 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107, 109, 113, 116, 128, 160, 161, 163, 168, 172, 173, 174, 176, 179 dominance, xii, 115, 155, 160, 162, 163, 164 dream, ix, 27, 141, 162 duality, 114, 126 due process, 60, 65

E ecology, 157, 174, 179 economics, 153, 179 educators, vii, xiv, 3, 4, 10, 17, 35, 55, 65, 71, 72, 75, 82, 99, 105, 111, 124, 125, 152, 155, 161, 172 effective charter schools, 92, 93 elementary school, 15, 19, 30 employment, 5, 111, 112, 161 employment opportunities, 111 empowerment, 40, 46, 115 encapsulation, 152, 164 encouragement, xi, 117, 134

engineering, xvi, 109, 110, 115, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 182 England, 155, 167 English Language, 91, 142 enrollment, 88, 127, 136, 137, 145 environment, 3, 52, 62, 73, 78, 89, 90, 98, 99, 101, 118, 119, 140, 149, 153, 159, 164 EOG, 42, 44, 67, 68, 69 equality, ix, x, xv, 6, 56, 87, 114, 116, 129, 165 equity, 36, 37, 39, 55 ethnicity, xii, 40, 105, 110, 114, 116, 120, 150, 154, 155, 162, 176 ethnographic study, 119, 135 everyday life, 69, 156 evidence, 16, 78, 111, 121, 172 evolution, 22, 81, 84 exceptional children, xv, 59, 65 exclusion, xiii, 55, 72, 79, 99, 151 exercise, 13, 66, 73, 86, 142, 170 exploitation, 5, 163 exposure, 22, 98, 101, 103, 169 expulsion, 60, 65, 89

F fairness, 55, 60 families, 10, 12, 20, 22, 23, 30, 38, 48, 52, 94, 97, 104, 107, 120, 150, 160, 161, 166, 179 family members, 39, 117 fear, xi, xii, 19, 20, 87 feelings, 22, 30, 31, 33, 118, 122 feminism, 113, 114, 129 financial, 11, 35, 117, 168 flexibility, 66, 77 flight, 11, 111 fluid, 154, 158 food, xiv, 23, 160 force, 4, 11, 64, 154, 155, 162 Ford, 56, 81 formal education, 33, 86 formation, 5, 147

188

Index

foundations, 35, 128, 163, 177 Frankfurt School, 1, 2, 111 freedom, x, 7, 86, 114, 176 Freire, Paulo, v, xiv, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 17, 35, 99, 100, 178 funding, 14, 15, 16, 116, 145, 149

G general education, 55, 56, 57, 62, 65, 75, 77, 80, 82 Georgia, 59, 64, 65, 134, 136, 138, 140, 141, 146 Germany, 1, 111 gifted, 32, 48, 59 globalization, 10, 12, 26, 27, 168, 173, 176, 179, 183 goods and services, 50, 168 Goss v. Lopez, 60, 66, 81 grades, 30, 38, 47, 78, 139, 181 group work, 61, 143 grouping, 16, 32, 37, 40, 43, 116, 117, 126 growth, vii, 6, 11, 39, 50, 58, 173 guidance, 29, 52, 83, 119

H harmony, 113, 159, 161 health, xi, 12, 50 hegemony, xvi, 6, 13, 34, 35, 111, 150, 164 high quality instruction, xi, 90 high school, 3, 9, 14, 15, 30, 45, 46, 47, 69, 70, 77, 81, 88, 89, 92, 110, 117, 118, 120, 121, 131, 137, 139, 140, 141, 144, 167, 176, 181 higher education, xiii, xvi, xvii, 102, 132, 134, 139, 144, 182 hiring, xiii, 105, 111 history, ix, xii, xiii, xv, 3, 5, 10, 27, 64, 85, 102, 106, 111, 112, 113, 119, 124, 128, 131, 152, 154, 165, 167, 170, 171, 178 homes, 12, 98, 161 House, 25, 45, 46, 94, 114 housing, 11, 12

human, x, 1, 5, 34, 35, 45, 111, 112, 113, 114, 124, 136, 152, 155, 156, 157, 164, 174, 177, 178 human agency, 34, 111, 112, 124 human right, 35, 177 human rights, 35, 177 husband, 3, 115, 119 hypothesis, 62, 158

I ideal, 4, 113, 156 ideals, 17, 18, 21, 114 identity, xvi, 29, 39, 43, 87, 105, 113, 118, 124, 130, 150, 152, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 164, 165, 166, 167, 173, 177 ideology, xiv, 2, 30, 32, 35, 36, 87, 113, 115, 153, 171 images, 18, 115 immigrants, ix, 137 immigration, 136, 173 income, 10, 11, 12, 14, 26, 39, 47, 88, 95, 116, 120 independence, 29, 69, 86, 115, 119 individuality, 156, 157 individuals, xi, xii, 2, 62, 74, 112, 114, 124, 136, 152, 154, 155, 157, 166, 173 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 57 industry, xvi, 110, 111, 125, 182 inequality, xiv, 1, 2, 95, 112, 163 inequity, 12, 25, 35, 163 institutions, xii, xvi, 17, 94, 98, 102, 105, 123, 134, 144, 146, 153, 163 intervention, 44, 78, 81, 83, 86, 107 isolation, 110, 122, 126 issues, xiv, xvi, 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 48, 77, 86, 100, 101, 105, 112, 142, 149, 155, 160, 171, 172, 176, 178, 179

189

Index

J Jamaica, vii, 169, 171

L labor force, 11, 13 landscape, 158, 161, 163, 166, 168, 169, 172, 173 languages, 41, 50, 142, 151, 153 Latinos, x, 9, 98, 137, 144 lead, 1, 5, 12, 16, 17, 22, 33, 66, 69, 101, 102, 115, 143 leadership, 83, 87, 119, 123, 125, 161 learners, 2, 10, 16, 20, 30, 94, 98, 100, 101, 126, 137 learning, xii, xvi, 13, 25, 31, 32, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 62, 66, 69, 70, 71, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100, 104, 105, 110, 118, 119, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 128, 131, 133, 140, 141, 146, 147, 160, 170, 176, 182 learning difficulties, 62, 66, 83 learning disabilities, 55, 56, 70, 71, 77, 78, 80, 81, 83 learning environment, 38, 71, 78, 79, 90, 100, 104, 110, 119, 121, 125, 126 learning outcomes, 78, 160 learning process, 40, 72, 99, 105 learning styles, 88, 93, 98 lens, xv, 17, 24, 36, 100, 110, 118 liberation, xiv, 2, 6, 7, 99, 111, 112, 113, 114 literacy, xv, 2, 7, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 87, 97, 98, 104, 106, 138, 151, 181, 182 love, vii, 3, 6, 64, 133, 143, 146

M majority, xiii, 36, 55, 58, 64, 90, 98, 116, 137, 149, 151, 161, 170 man, 115, 120, 123, 154

management, 58, 77, 119 manipulation, 5, 18 marginalization, xi, xii, 16, 31, 79, 145 mass, 43, 155 mass media, 43, 155 materials, 23, 61, 88, 105, 124, 177 mathematics, 26, 48, 50, 110, 117, 118, 119, 121, 126, 130, 182 mathematics education, 182 matrix, xii, 116, 124, 129 matter, xvi, 118, 145, 175 media, 124, 173 mental impairment, 56, 80 mentor, 79, 125, 162 mentoring, 92, 129 Miami, 89, 181 middle-class families, 11, 13 middle-class students, 10, 31 models, xvi, 20, 39, 42, 110, 111, 117, 120, 122, 123, 125, 136, 146, 150, 162 multicultural education, 48, 100, 101, 105, 107, 151, 176, 177, 178, 181 multiculturalism, 100, 105, 146, 152, 153, 157, 179 music, 50, 97, 156, 169

N narratives, 154, 160, 170, 173, 175 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 10, 15, 26, 30, 48 National Center for Education Statistics, 30, 48, 94, 97, 107 nationality, 154, 155 neglect, xii, 15, 23, 128, 167 North America, 140, 141, 167

O officials, 31, 32, 61, 64, 89, 160 OH, 45, 46, 48, 175 opportunities, x, xii, xiv, xv, 10, 11, 13, 15, 22, 30, 33, 39, 41, 42, 51, 66, 79, 85, 88,

190

Index

89, 100, 103, 104, 105, 112, 117, 118, 120, 125, 126, 143, 150, 162, 172 oppression, x, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 87, 105, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 124, 150, 162, 164, 165, 170, 171, 178 ownership, 111, 112

P parallel, 126, 173 parents, xvi, 13, 15, 16, 19, 31, 39, 49, 55, 57, 61, 67, 73, 74, 77, 79, 81, 83, 92, 93, 97, 104, 111, 118, 124, 125, 149, 161, 166, 168, 174, 175 participants, 18, 19, 58, 61, 135, 136, 149, 157, 167 pedagogy, xi, xiv, 2, 6, 7, 18, 38, 40, 43, 45, 46, 47, 87, 89, 90, 92, 98, 99, 100, 105, 106, 107, 122, 123, 124, 126, 150, 155, 161, 166, 168, 173, 175, 176, 177, 182 perpetuation of inequality and oppression, 1 Peru, 68, 70 Philadelphia, 127, 175, 178, 179 police, xi, 72, 76 policy, xvii, 13, 18, 27, 28, 44, 55, 61, 62, 71, 80, 83, 84, 92, 134, 140, 152, 176, 178 politics, 7, 11, 24, 46, 136, 146, 175, 176 population, ix, 2, 12, 14, 36, 56, 57, 58, 60, 64, 65, 75, 76, 78, 82, 85, 88, 89, 90, 93, 99, 105, 107, 116, 137, 152, 172, 173 poverty, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 37, 48, 49, 87, 90 power elite, ix, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 power relations, xv, 18, 23, 34, 61, 114 praxis, 2, 5, 7, 161, 162, 163, 164, 178 prejudice, 14, 117, 174 preparation, 5, 13, 110, 117, 141, 144 preservice teachers, 21, 26, 46, 107 president, x, 111, 117, 151 President, x, 125, 179 prestige, 115, 152 principles, xv, 15, 18, 22, 29, 35, 36, 40, 42, 43, 77, 94

prior knowledge, 38, 39, 41 privatization, 9, 13 privilege, iv, ix, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xvii, 10, 12, 13, 16, 20, 29, 31, 34, 103, 106, 150, 158, 159, 160, 162, 165, 166, 167, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 problem solving, 15, 77, 101, 126 professional development, 42, 52 professionals, 11, 83, 134 project, 1, 5, 46, 83, 92, 101, 102, 126, 166 public education, 16, 26, 86, 90 public schools, xi, xv, xvi, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 48, 85, 88, 89, 93, 98, 99, 102 punishment, ix, xi, xv, 21, 67, 68, 71, 73, 76, 77

Q qualitative research, 135, 166, 175, 177 questioning, 4, 17

R race, xii, xv, 10, 11, 30, 35, 36, 40, 46, 47, 81, 86, 87, 94, 102, 105, 107, 110, 112, 113, 115, 116, 120, 123, 124, 125, 126, 132, 150, 153, 154, 155, 160, 162, 164, 165, 166, 169, 175, 176, 177, 178 racial minorities, x, 14, 30, 32, 36 racism, xi, xiv, xvii, 9, 12, 13, 20, 22, 23, 29, 35, 99, 150, 159, 162, 163, 164, 165, 171, 175, 176, 177, 178 reactions, 18, 21, 23, 65 reading, 3, 10, 12, 18, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30, 33, 38, 42, 48, 68, 69, 102, 134, 135, 138, 142, 181, 182 reading comprehension, 25, 138 reality, 5, 22, 30, 110, 112, 118, 119, 140, 165 recognition, 79, 114, 169 recommendations, xvii, 37 reform, 9, 15, 26, 45, 46, 47, 81, 86, 92, 93, 126

Index relevance, xv, 17, 29, 31, 36, 37, 39, 43, 69, 81, 99 religion, xii, 105, 113, 114, 176 remediation, 134, 146 reproduction, 33, 35, 36, 128, 149 requirements, 73, 75, 88, 146 researchers, xiv, 21, 25, 87, 90, 150, 161 resistance, 22, 34, 82, 111, 113, 114, 128, 145, 154, 155, 176 resources, 9, 14, 15, 16, 19, 36, 38, 42, 50, 56, 61, 88, 89, 116, 117, 124, 151, 160 response, 20, 78, 81, 111, 112, 165 restoration, 47, 106 rights, iv, x, xv, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 60, 66, 80, 85, 114, 128 risk, 78, 88, 89, 107, 122 rules, 24, 32, 60, 61, 66, 71, 118, 119, 123, 140, 165 ruling relations, xv, 58, 61, 76, 79, 80

S scholarship, 135, 177 school achievement, 49, 95, 101, 104 school failure, 87, 93, 128, 150, 163 school success, 46, 150, 158, 166, 175, 177 schooling, 3, 5, 25, 29, 30, 38, 46, 47, 81, 87, 106, 140, 155, 162, 163, 169, 171, 175, 178 science, 45, 48, 64, 75, 110, 117, 119, 121, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 165, 181 scope, 110, 112, 121, 124, 161 scripts, 134, 136, 139, 145 second generation, 32, 151 secondary education, 88, 144 secondary schools, 90, 175 segregation, 11, 12, 14, 23, 26, 32, 56, 83, 111, 117, 129, 130 services, x, xiv, 55, 56, 81, 151 SES, 12, 16 sexism, 20, 22 sexual orientation, 112, 114 sexuality, xii, 114, 121 shame, 47, 106 shape, 11, 24, 61, 153

191

shortage, 117, 161 skin, xii, 150, 171 slavery, xii, 10, 86, 87, 93, 112 slaves, ix, 86, 114 society, ix, xiv, 1, 2, 6, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 22, 27, 30, 34, 35, 38, 40, 45, 50, 51, 56, 87, 89, 102, 105, 106, 111, 112, 113, 114, 119, 124, 126, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 162, 163, 165, 170 socioeconomic background, 13, 32, 33, 39 socioeconomic status, 12, 15, 16, 30, 31, 34, 105, 131 sociology, 7, 112, 128, 129, 152, 153, 154, 177, 182, 183 special education, xv, 9, 14, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 117, 181 speech, 142, 167 staffing, 76, 86 stakeholders, 12, 52, 173 standardization, 13, 75, 77 standardized testing, xv, xvi, 126, 138 state, xiii, 14, 15, 21, 27, 35, 42, 43, 67, 83, 86, 88, 117, 138, 153, 154, 158, 159, 160, 182 states, ix, xii, 3, 42, 67, 80, 86, 117, 120, 152, 153, 154, 156 statistics, 10, 74, 121 stereotypes, 20, 22, 171 stratification, 82, 111, 152, 153 stratified education system, xv, 10 structure, x, xv, xvi, 7, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, 47, 57, 61, 64, 78, 102, 110, 112, 118, 119, 121, 134, 139, 141, 142, 153, 155, 157, 159, 168 style, 19, 100, 122, 138, 146 supervision, 72, 104, 105 supervisors, 104, 105, 107 Supreme Court, 60, 129 surveillance, xv, 10, 13 suspensions, 60, 65 synthesis, 46, 113

192

Index

T target, 124, 163, 173 TBI, 59, 72 teaching strategies, 73, 77, 92, 101, 105 techniques, 24, 90, 122 technology, 11, 13, 34, 103, 130, 132, 138, 156, 173 test scores, 12, 16, 30, 39, 42, 43, 116, 120 testing, 13, 14, 62, 73, 79, 92, 134, 139 textbooks, 117, 121, 124 thoughts, 50, 166 tracks, 32, 36, 118 training, 4, 5, 87, 93, 98, 100, 101, 105, 114 traits, 31, 38 transformation, 1, 4, 5, 6, 12, 17, 18, 24, 46, 115 transportation, 12, 88 treatment, 16, 86, 87, 88, 89, 114, 118, 156, 165 Trinidad, 150, 160, 179 Trinidad and Tobago, 150, 160, 179 turnover, 14, 76

U uniform, 37, 57 universities, xii, xvi, 104 urban, 11, 13, 15, 26, 27, 33, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 88, 93, 95, 98, 101, 103, 105,

107, 111, 121, 129, 130, 131, 132, 159, 161, 165, 181, 182, 183 urban areas, 11, 121 urban schools, 14, 15, 33, 88, 103, 111, 159, 165, 183

V variables, 62, 105, 137 verbal persuasion, 120 victims, 17, 172 violence, 46, 60, 64, 66, 80 vision, 12, 45, 52 Vygotsky, 18, 27, 147

W Washington, 6, 45, 46, 49, 83, 87, 94, 95, 107, 127, 131, 146 water, xiv, 68, 111 wealth, 10, 11, 12, 17, 87, 111, 152 welfare, 12, 51 wellness, 50, 52 Western Europe, 167, 168 workers, 11, 111, 172, 173, 175 workforce, 56, 98, 100, 105, 109, 116, 129 workplace, 116, 119, 121, 124 worldview, 35, 113, 124, 153, 167