At the time, I was teaching Music at a Title I middle school with a population of mostly Latino and mostly poor students. Students at my school did not get to choose their electives classes (this is not common practice in suburb schools) and so I had to be creative with the curriculum in order to engage the students who did not want to sing and had zero interest in pursuing music outside of my class. I designed a series of rotating interdisciplinary units of study so that students who were placed in my classes multiple semesters would get a variety of relevant musical experiences, while also singing in an ensemble. One of those units focused on the music entrepreneur. It is perplexing that when we talk to students about future careers, it is almost always in the context of working for someone else. Of all my students who learned through this unit over multiple years, not one of them had been told they could someday own their own company or be their own boss.
As part of the unit final assessment,
students brainstormed ideas for new music products or services. The
students came to consensus on which ideas were the most viable and then placed
themselves (with help if needed) into start-ups. Each start-up consisted of a
CEO or Co-CEOs (based on whose idea was chosen), a CFO, and one or two
Marketing Directors. Students in each specific role were responsible for a
section of a larger business plan. The CEO wrote the Executive Summary. The CFO
wrote a short financial plan and was responsible for identifying start-up
costs. The Marketing Director created a logo for the company and wrote the
marketing plan. All members of the team pitched their business idea to
“investors” (other teachers, administrators, and I) “Shark Tank” style. The
better the pitch, the more likely they were to get an investment
offer. And just like the show, if they received an offer (or multiple
offers) from the “Sharks”, they had the opportunity to negotiate.
So when I was asked to do nothing more
than get students to write a decent paragraph, it truly felt like a slap in the
face. 6th, 7th, and 8th graders can do more than write a paragraph and I
had the evidence to prove otherwise. I started to think...what did I do
differently that allowed these students to achieve at a higher level in my
class but not in others? For me, it started with setting a high bar and
genuinely believing that my students were capable of reaching or exceeding
it. I also gave them a relevant and engaging task, one where every student
had a role and success depended on each of them doing their part. Each student
contribution was valuable.
How did my colleagues make the
assessment that our mutual students were only capable of writing a paragraph?
Are teachers making assumptions based on past performance or on a belief that
these students were somehow inherently underperformers?
Dr. Edward Fergus identifies three
types of beliefs that contribute to our unconscious bias[1]. Each one of these
biased-based beliefs is connected by an unwillingness to examine the school
system and/or teaching practices as a cause for achievement gaps.
Colorblindness: (while often well intentioned) Dismissing or marginalizing cultural and social identities;
turning a blind eye to racial inequalities that have led to disparities in
achievement; and/or encouraging students of color to adopt ‘colorblindness’
themselves.
Sample Statement: I view each student as an individual. I don’t
see their race and I wish my students would see everyone as the same like I do.
Deficit Thinking: Blaming
the student for their own learning deficits and projecting a superior/inferior
hierarchy upon them based on genetics alone.
Sample Statement: Students of color and their parents just don’t
value education and that’s why the student doesn’t achieve academically.
Poverty Disciplining: Blaming
poor people for their economic conditions based on a lack of discipline, will,
and/or self-control necessary for social mobility.
Sample Statement: If the poor family would only work harder to
‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’, they could achieve the American Dream
like everyone else.
Tests have shown that people from all
backgrounds hold unconscious biases based on various aspects of identity such
as gender, class, and race and that people both favor the groups they belong to
as well as the “culturally valued group”.[2] We call these beliefs
unconscious because we are often unaware that they exist and don’t yet
recognize how they impact the decisions we make for students, even when their
influence is in direct opposition to our conscious belief systems.
A high-expectancy student receives more positive interaction from
teacher-friendly banter, frequent praise, eye contact and communicative
responsiveness. Low expectancy students, on the other hand, are often
seated further away, given less wait time to answer questions, less informative
feedback on their responses, and less positive nonverbal communicative
interactions such as leaning forward and using positive head nodding.[3] –Tina Ruybalid
I have seen unconscious bias play out
in subtle and overt ways. On one occasion, I was conducting at Equity
Audit with a School Leadership Team at an elementary school that, as a system,
wholeheartedly embraced multiculturalism yet struggled to identify why academic
achievement gaps still existed. During the classroom walk through section
of the Audit, I observed a young, enthusiastic teacher checking for
understanding by asking open response questions about the lesson she just gave.
All 7 of the students called upon were white males, even though white girls and
students of color (boys and girls) had their hands raised. Neither the
school leaders nor the teacher herself were aware of the unconscious bias and
the negative message it sent to the non-white and female students. The way
she called upon students was simply not on anyone’s radar as an area of
growth.
To truly transform learning, we must
first examine our beliefs as educators and challenge ourselves to recognize the
unconscious biases that play out in our instruction.
[1] Fergus, Edward Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity: A Leader’s Guide
to Using Data to Change Hearts and Minds, Corwin 2017
[2] Fiarmen, Sarah Unconscious Bias: When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough, Educational Leadership, Vol 74 No. 3, November 2016
[3] Ruybalid, Tina Conscious
Equity: Managing our Unconscious Student Expectation, School Reform Initiative
blog post
http://www.schoolreforminitiative.org/blog/conscious-equity-managing-our-unconscious-student-expectations/
Comments
Post a Comment