Ethnic Studies

 "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies" by: Christine E. Sleeter

    "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnice Studies" by Christine E. Sleeter discussed the importance of ethnic studies and how the current curriculum centers around Euro-American history. The reading starts by telling Carlos's story of his education experience. He was the only one of his friends to graduate from high school, which was a big accomplishment for him. Even though he graduated, he was not the best student and found school very boring. Because of this, he went on to join the military instead of continuing his education further. When he completed his mission, he came back home and got a minimum wage job. Carlos ran into an old friend from high school who told him he was studying Chicano studies as a community college and recommended he do the same because he was really enjoying the courses. This motivated Carlos to do the same to learn more about his reality and culture's history. Seeing how passionate his friend was about his courses, inspired Carlos to want to do the same thing. Carlos absolutely loved all of his Chicano studies courses and was able to get a BA degree in Spanish. Carlos went from a disengaged, unmotivated student to a passionate, hardworking student all because he could relate to the courses he was taking and found himself caring a lot more about school. 

    Sleeter went on to explain that she has seen this occur with many students in her time, especially students of color. The current education system focuses heavily on Euro-American history and "whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplishments" (p.2). With that being said, it is no wonder that Carlos found his education experience boring. He was not learning about his own culture, rather learning about white history that he cannot relate to. When he was finally able to learn about Chicano studies, his view of school completely flipped, and he found himself a lot more engaged and motivated to keep learning more. It is a simple fact that students are more likely to be engaged in a lesson that they can relate to and have interest in rather than a subject they do not care about. This goes along with what we've been discussing a lot in class about the "Broken Model" and "Shifting the Paradigm". We've been talking about our "dream education models" and have all agreed that some sort of "choice based" method would be more beneficial for students where they are able to select more "interest based" classes rather than being forced to take the general math, science, history and ELA courses. 

    In conclusion, when students are able to learn about topics that interest them and that they can relate to, they are more likely to succeed and continue on to further education. Whether it be Ethnic Studies, or something else that students want to learn more about, they are going to be much more engaged and motivated. I myself know that when I am learning about a topic that really interests me and I am able to apply to my own life, I am more likely to understand the topic and want to continue to learn more. Even here at RIC, I have truly loved my time so far learning more about Education and becoming a teacher because I am passionate about it. I do not dread coming to class or doing my homework because I find the topics so interesting and I am able to apply them to my life as a substitute teacher. It is clear from Sleeter's article that there needs to be a change in the history curriculum because it will lead to further success for students' future, motivation, and overall understanding of topics. 

Reflection: I found this great article from Harvard Graduate School of Education discussing "The Lasting Impact of Ethnic Studies" by Gianna Cacciatore. She discusses how the Ethic Studies course started out as a class of 30 and quickly grew to over 100 students due to its popularity. A student said, "after taking this class, it's so clear to me that we need to be teaching ethnic studies in middle school, elementary school, in high schools" she continued and said, "my experience of it was so reaffirming to my identity, the community we built as a group was so strong during the course of one semester". This article confirms Sleeter's article as to why it is so important to teach ethnic studies at all levels of education. 

Shifting the Paradigm

 "Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models: Why Leaders Need to Promote an Asset Orientation in our Schools" by Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini 

    I really enjoyed the reading this week because it focused on a positive way to teach and motivate students. As a future educator, something that is very important to me is having a positive classroom environment. I am a very positive person, and I want to reflect that in my classroom and to my students. I hope to have an asset-model based classroom in the future because I want to highlight my students' strengths and motivate them to keep going. I love the quote from the reading, "We can make powerful changes when we break through the pervasive influence of the deficit paradigm and recognize the untapped strengths of students and teachers" (Weiner 2006 p.24). 

    

    Reflecting on my own experiences throughout my schooling, I distinctly remember the classrooms where my teachers highlighted our strengths rather than our weaknesses. I was so much more motivated in those classes and wanted to continue to learn. I even found school fun when those strengths were highlighted because I felt like I was doing something right rather than always making mistakes. Even something as small as a little "excellent work" on the top of a test made me a much more confident and motivated student. As a student, I struggled in certain subjects, but I really valued when my teachers took the time to highlight the skills I did have and how we could build off of those skills. 

    

    I also love how the reading mentioned that there should be an asset-model from school staff as well as for the students. As a future teacher, I want to be encouraged by my administration rather than discouraged. I thrive off of positive feedback and highlighting my strengths. I am going to me a much more motivated teacher if I know I am doing something right rather than being told I am doing something wrong. I realize that mistakes will still happen as a new teacher, but I hope I'm able to turn those mistakes into something positive and learn from them. 

    I found this great article that lists 15 ways to create a more positive classroom environment. It also includes a great video that highlights different teachers and ways they make their classroom more positive. I will definitely be using some of these in my own classroom someday!

Reflection:

One question that comes to my mind is "could an asset-model approach be more work for teachers if they are adjusting lessons based off of their students' strength?". My answer would be yes, but I think that extra work is worth it if it creates more motivated and positive minded students in the classroom. 

Educational Policy

 What "Counts" as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm by: Jean Anyon

    After reading "What 'Counts' as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm" by Jean Anyon, I have once again developed a new perspective as a future educator. All of the readings in the course so far have been very eye opening to me since I am new to the educational world. This reading in particular left me really thinking about how many different issues there actually are in the current education structure. 

    Throughout my time substitute teaching so far, I have been exposed to students from all different backgrounds and poverty levels. I have seen very well behaved and talented students, but I have also seen a lot of misbehaved and under achieving students. I have not necessarily thought about how these different students have been brought up, rather I am normally quick to believe that me or their teacher should be able to control their behaviors and success since that is our role as a teacher. I think teachers, parents and administrators put such a large pressure on educators to be able to control their classroom while still having high academic success, when in reality there are so many underlying issues involved in students that are outside of the classroom and the school. The quote, "Poor children have more health and behavior difficulties than those from more affluent families, which mitigates against educational success" (p.75) is stating that poverty levels have a direct correlation to academics and it is not only on the educators to solve this issue. 

    

    I was so fascinated to read about the different studies that have been done to show the effects that poverty levels have on cognitive development. This was particularly interesting because we have been talking about cognitive development in our psychology class. The results make complete sense, but they are still very eye opening. Knowing that poverty levels/household wages have a direct influence on cognitive development and student success, makes it so clear that this is a major issue in our system that must be fixed in order to improve academic success for our students. Before we go fixing "The Broken Model", which is still another large issue, we must solve this poverty issues. How are students ever going to succeed in school if they are coming from a stressed, low-income, segregated neighborhood/family? It was so interesting to read "family income consistently predicts children's academic and cognitive performance, even when other family characteristics are taken into account" (p. 75). The results from the study where Lee and Burkham explored achievements based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status at the start of kindergarten were shocking. To read that race and ethnicity have less of an effect on achievements than socioeconomic status was eye opening. This study made it clear that we must solve poverty issues before changing the school structure or other issues going on. 

    As a future educator, I have a new perspective on all of the students I have come across so far during my time substitute teaching. Knowing just how much poverty levels effect cognitive development makes me want to make a change even more. I am hoping to be able to teach kindergarten when I am done with this program, so knowing that I could be dealing with students in such an important development stage in their life makes me want to make a difference even more. All children deserve to have the same opportunities to learn no matter what their poverty level is, and I hope to be a part of that change someday because I want all of my students to have success!

Reflection Question: Since these studies were done in the early 2000s, I am very curious to see what the results would be with students today. Have these results increased or decreased at all since then? Are there even more issues going on now that would affect these results? I found this article with some 2026 policy trends that was an interesting read. 

    

    

The Broken Model

 The Broken Model by: Khan

    Chapter 2, "Questioning Customs" of The Broken Model by Khan was a very interesting read. Although I knew that the schooling systems have been around for a very long time, I did not realize how much of these systems are still utilized in today's world. In a society that is evolving every single day, you would think that the education system would also be evolving with it. The world that we live in today is completely different than the world was in the 1800s when schools were invented. It is crazy to me that we are still using a lot of the same tactics in schools today. 

    Back then, school was a way to set up young children for the workforce and to teach them about strict regiments that they would be using in their lifetime. There were very strict rules and routines used each day to provide structure and discipline for the students. A lot of these rules and routines are still being utilized in schools today, such as "periods", "subjects" and "testing". While sometimes, these things can be beneficial to students and provide them with a good structure and routine, they can also cause harm to the students because they are not experiencing new ideas or evolution. 

    I myself as a substitute teacher, do enjoy having the structured schedules each day to follow so that I know how the day is going to go. I understand why these schedules are important for teachers and students. I have learned that students rely heavily on these schedules/routines because they will call me out if I have changed something from their normal routine and it often causes issues. This structure can be harmful to the students because they are a lot less accustomed to change. 

    I really related to the part of the chapter about testing and how it can sometimes be difficult to read students' potential just from a test score. I myself was always a very poor test taker in school growing up. I would not consider myself a "bad" student, but some of my test scores would say so. I always had a lot of anxiety around test taking because I knew that it would not come easy to me and I had to study a lot harder than other students in my classes. I would always compare myself to the "smarter" students in my classes that always did so well on tests and often feel bad about myself because I tested lower than them. In high school, there was the advanced math class that everyone referred to as the "smart" class, and I of course was never in those classes. Even with the different levels like CP and Honors classes were a way of "ranking" students and comparing their skills to one another. The students in the CP classes were always thought of as "dumber" than those in the Honors classes. When in reality, they just learned differently and needed some more encouragement. 

    I found an article titled, "How Does Standardized Testing Negatively Affect Students?". They list a lot of the same things that were stated in the reading such as, "teachers teaching to test" which means that teachers are more focused on their students getting good test scores than actually learning the lesson because it directly impacts their jobs. This is not going to show teachers that their students understand the "full" subject, rather just the brief topics discussed for test preparation. It also talks about how standardized tests can cause a negative self-perception and reduced motivation, which is something we have been discussing in our CEP 552 class. Although, testing can sometimes be beneficial if they are "well-designed tests" (p. 94). Tests are not always showing teaching the students' understanding of a full subject or topic. Personally, as a future teacher, I would rather ensure that my students fully grasp the subjects and lessons through fun and engaging activities and assignments rather than always testing them. There is no need to cause extra stress and anxiety when students are already dealing with that outside of school and other external factors. I hope to be able to "evolve" The Broken Model when I become a teacher and leave a larger impact on my students.