"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.
Hi Lizzie I enjoyed reading your post! I also agree with the author of the article you shared that ethnic studies should be taught at all levels. I actually remember in 6th grade we did a whole unit across all subjects on the Mayan people. We learned about the history and culture of the past, but also Mayan numbers, art, science etc. We also learned about the Mayan culture now. I remember this being so engaging and just think that students today would also be equally engaged. It seems so silly that our current government is so afraid of ethnic studies when it just is a way to get students interested in education
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie -- thanks for sharing! My 3rd grade teacher was passionate about making our education feel as relevant to us as possible. I don't remember how/where it came about, but each year she would have students in the class do a project about their family heritage. Each student studied their own background and would present to the class. We got to participate in an annual "culture parade" with the entire school district, and it was such a fun experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie, great connection to some of the previous readings we have looked at in this course. I agree that Sleeter's research emphasizes not only the need for other cultures to be more accurately represented in mainstream curriculum and textbooks, but the importance of relatability and representation. I often found school to be boring because of lack of interest in the topics, but I agree with you in that I finally found a topic I am passionate about- teaching and education.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie. You did a great job on your blog, as always :) I agree with you with you where we should have choices with what we learn about. If we can engage students based on their interests, I believe they would be much more successful. I feel like once you have a solid foundation of reading, writing and math, you should have some choice as to what classes you are taking. Maybe have more subject matter experts in elementary school and offer “choice time” with those teachers for a small part of the day. I also think ethnic studies is so important in schools. You are in these small communities throughout our k-12 years. Then we go to college and it’s a whole different experience. I went to a small college in Florida but was one of the biggest international schools in America. I met people from all over the world. It was such a great experience. Talking to people from places I never even heard of and learning about their families and culture really helped me open my eyes.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie, I absolutely agree that it is so important to teach topics that students are interested in. There is absolutely a correlation between this and engagement. It makes me frustrated that our curriculum is so framed around white europeans, when America claims to be such a melting pot of cultures.
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