Panel Discussion

This panel discussion on the topic of diversity was engaging and interesting. Some of the things we talked about that I had not considered before included relational learning, not seeing color, students can affect change, and raising expectations for students. 

Relational learning is a process by which deeper learning can take place than just the basic facts. In today’s society, deeper learning is what needs to be happening because anyone can look up the answer on a computer or phone in less than a minute. All students need to be challenged and by knowing the students background and culture, teachers can make that happen on a more regular basis.

“If we don’t see color, we don’t see God.” This quote from Dr. Webster-Moore really stuck with me. God created color, God created differences, and God created human beings. We need to recognize this and celebrate it. Being aware of the differences that we have as individuals makes us better and makes us able to accept and deeply care about people. This goes back to the relational learning aspect, that we need to know our students to teach them.

Students can help in the “River of Change” that Howard is talking about in his book. My classmates and I are the next wave of teachers to go out and try to change the way students are educated. Our students will be after that. If we want to make a change, we need to change the way we teach our students. I am so thankful that I have had an education in which I feel like I have changed and grown so much. We need to not only be more accepting of differences, but more open to talking about it and letting it help us become more educated.

Expectations mean so much. As a teacher, I want to expect my students to succeed. I do not ever want to give them easier material or “dumb it down” for them. I expect my children to be children of God and that means I need to treat them with respect and respect for the brains that God has given them. I think by expecting them to succeed and do well in school, they will rise to the challenge. I understand that there will have to be some differentiation, but if I truly believe that all students can learn, then there must be a challenge for them to prove their learning.

I am very thankful for this assignment to read the book and have a panel discussion. My eyes were opened to issues that I had heard about, but never truly explored and discovered. I hope that I can keep learning and continue to grow in my teaching abilities and my Faith as I enter the world of teaching next year.

Conclusion

This is a great book. We Can't Teach What We Don't Know talks about a lot of difficult issues, but also talks about how important White educators are in schools today. It is just like the title says, we really cannot teach what we do not know. My perspectives have changed after reading this book because it is good to know that it is ok to be a White teacher. Hating White culture does not mean you are a better teacher. I have always struggled with how talk about this in schools because I am a White girl who was raised in a very "White" culture. I think that this book has changed my view because now I understand that I can be a White educator and be effective in diverse schools. There is such a need for highly qualified and willing teachers to go into schools like this. The book talks about bringing about change. I hope that our generation can start to bring about change, not only in the test scores of students, but in the way that diverse schools are viewed.

Some of the things that I still may struggle with is how this can actually work. I think that going to Kenya in the spring will be a huge part of my journey through this. I hope that my education will grow and I will have new perspectives. I am going to be the only White person in my school as far as I know. It will be incredibly different. I want to put myself in that situation so I can understand how my students feel. If there are students with disabilities, I want to be able to connect with them. I may not be able to understand some things, some of the culture, some of the language, but I know that is how some students feel every day!

Throughout my education, I have learned a lot about diversity in schools and students. I think that books like this can only keep helping me in my journey. One thing that I believe very strongly is that teachers are never not students. Teachers need to learn every day. Reading books like this widens my perspective and therefore can make me a better teacher. My next step in regards to diversity will be going to Kenya in three months. I will be taking a step into something very unknown. I will be starting a blog about my experience. I hope that through this blog I can help others as well as help myself process my journey and growth that I will experience.

Achievement Triangle

When we look at the future, it is clear that the students of tomorrow are continually changing and evolving. The students need to know different information because anyone can look up who was President in 1924 on any computer in less than 10 seconds. We need to teach our children how to think. Teachers need to be educated on how to educate and how to bring about deep meaningful thought. Howard talks about  an achievement triangle,  a way to define the dimensions of knowing and will help us improve our educational quality (p 126). I chose to focus this blog entry on this topic because I believe this is one of the critical components of teaching in any school, and helping every student regardless of their background or culture.

The achievement triangle consists of three parts; knowing myself, knowing my students and knowing my practice. The first part Howard focuses on is "knowing my practice". Teachers of all schools should be highly qualified and prepared to teach their classrooms. In some cases, students who attend lower income schools do not have teachers like this. Howard says, "White teachers know our practice well" (p126). Having a broad range of foundational knowledge helps us understand what we are going to be teaching from all aspects. As teachers, we need to be qualified and ready to teach our students.

The second part of the achievement is "knowing myself". I believe this is what Howard was talking about when he talks about White Identity. If we know that there are differences between our students and ourselves, and address that, maybe it can bring about change. He also talks about how, "Change begins with us, as White teachers in multi racial schools" (p127).  Teachers need to know themselves, know how they learn, know what kind of person and teacher they are. I think this is important because each teacher is responsible for the learning of their students. If a teacher is going to only teach they way they learn, that might reach less than half the class. If the teacher is aware of the way they learn, and also knows how to teach the subject in a different way, the potential for learning grows within that classroom.

The last part is "knowing my students". "The extent to which we can know who our students are is the extent to which we can avoid projecting onto them our own imagine assumptions and biases" (p127) This kind of thing is what is the heart of teaching I think. If we can somehow be aware of these areas and strive to make these three parts work together I think that we can start to bring about change in the world. Knowing students, understanding their backgrounds, truly caring for their education, and believing in them is our duty as teachers.

This part of the book really stuck out to me because it was a good way to visualize what he has been talking about. Hooray for visual learners! Looking at this model, it makes sense that each of these parts of knowing are critical for teachers of diverse learners. One quote that really sums this up well is this, "For those of us who choose to teach in racially diverse schools, this knowing compromises these four arenas: that race matters, that change begins with us, that beliefs greatly influence outcomes, and that teaching is a calling,not just a job" (p126).

If I want to teach according to my worldview, then I must know myself in order to teach my students. I like to think of it as that is my contact lenses. They are in my eyes and that is how I view the world all the time. My practice would be my reading glasses, that I wear to see what I need to teach and understand my profession well in order to teach it well. And knowing my students will bring about a kind of understanding that will hopefully transfer into understanding how they learn.

It's a Healing Process

Becoming more accepting is a process. Thinking about how others think and understand things means that we are moving in the right direction. Howard suggests that honesty, empathy, advocacy and action are the steps to bring about a river of change in today's schools.

Being honest with ourselves is key. White educators need to acknowledge the differences between students. They need to acknowledge the differences between races, cultures, and ethnic groups. By doing this it is not a secret and not something that is just hushed because it is uncomfortable to talk about. All educators must have empathy. Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. It is something that may be hard to understand if we have never felt the way someone else has felt. Being able to understand what it is like to be the student who doesn't catch on, or the one who cannot understand the teacher are just a few examples. If a teacher cannot understand what a child is going through, it will be incredibly hard to reach and help that student. In order to have empathy for these students, we need to look at them for who they are, not through our own lens. Howard says, "Empathy begins with seeing others in their own light rather than through our projections of them in our light" (p 79). Advocacy and action are where the real change can start to occur. More people may be accepting when the action takes place. Howard says, "We are not responsible for having been born White, but we are accountable for how we respond to racism and dominance in our schools and communities today" (p 82). Acknowledgment of this topic needs to be given to our students if we want to start this "River of Change" as Howard calls it.

I have been in placements where the student population is diverse. I have heard a teacher address the issue once. I understand that I am not in the classroom all the time, but I believe that if the topic was brought up more often, students may not feel so uncomfortable about it. The teacher who talked about different races and cultures was from Ireland. She talked freely about how different families did things in different ways. She talked about her personal experiences in Ireland and how she was raised. One thing that I was very impressed by was the student's response. Junior Higher's shared how their family did things and how they were all different. I think this environment was so accepting and diverse that everyone felt comfortable sharing where they were from. They understood that they all had different experiences and that is why they were different from one another. It was not a bad thing, but it was definitely different and it was ok. This is the kind of change that I look forward to seeing as a teacher. I hope that my classroom will be an environment of discovery and learning, not only academic learning, but learning about who we are as human beings as well.

We Can't Grow if We Don't Know

Dominance is a topic that is largely covered in the text. White Dominance is something that most teachers have heard of and it is not an uncommon topic. Perhaps the fact that it has been addressed so much may lessen the importance of the topic. White people have heard about this over and over and the topic has been covered. Howard talks about the fact that the enemy here is not White people that are the the enemy, it is dominance itself (p 31). The perspective with which we look at each group of people is what gives us our viewpoint. Each of us have different backgrounds and events in our lives which shape how we view the world. With students it is the same way. Each class can not be taught the same way, and each student cannot be taught the same way.

In order to grow as educators and just human beings in general, we need to be aware of what is going on. We need to understand the depth of the suffering and pain that the World is going through. One of the participants in Howard's workshop said, "We are a World in need of healing, but healing can only begin when we acknowledge the depth of our pain" (p 52). He goes on to talk about how White Educators must choose to challenge themselves. In a world where White people make up the majority of educators, it is important that they are not only aware of their role, but also are aware of how much of an impact they can have if they choose to be open about the subject of White teachers and the rising diversity of students.

I personally have had approximately 50 teachers throughout my educational career. If I remember correctly, 4 of them have not been White. That means that about 92% of my education have come from White adults. If I said that this is why I am the way I am, then that would be giving in to the White Dominance theory. I would be saying that since White people have taught me, they have taught me in the "White Ways." Whether this is true or not, I am who I am because of a million different experiences, not because I have had White teachers. Being "Anti-White" does not make a person understand more about being African-American, but being open to different ideas, opinions, thoughts, and hopes for future students does make a difference.

I hope that the lens through which I view the World is a Christian lens. I have been brought up believing that each person created is a Child of God and that they have the ability to learn. This should go beyond race and socioeconomic status. The way I have been educated has shaped how I think and learn and how I view my future students. One of the most important things that I have learned is that everyone is different but everyone deserves to be given a shot. They deserve to have a chance to do something big and meaningful. I hope to give as many children out there the chance to succeed and believe in themselves to accomplish something that they want to do. Something that goes along with this is truly believing that the students can do this.

We Can't Lead Where We Won't Go.

Teachers are predominately white, while the student populations are growing and increasing in diversity. White teachers are usually brought up in a different culture from their students and they have different backgrounds. It is nearly impossible to be put into a situation unprepared and be expected to teach students effectively. Howard talks about White teachers having a healthy self identity, and that in fact being White is a culture of its own. People who dive into other cultures go through a process of discovering the culture and also relating that to how they were brought up. White teachers have their own background and their own experiences that shape who they are and what kind of teacher they will be.

The focus of the book is to find the missing section of learning that seems to have come with new reforms like NCLB. Educators have high standards for students and they want them to be reaching these standards. Howard suggests that perhaps the gap comes from the teachers not being able to teach these students in a meaningful way. The teachers are missing the pedagogy that connects the learning to the students. Howard also mentions that he is in fact a White person and that influences his writing. I believe that understanding this and acknowledging it means that he understands his racial identity and therefore can try to connect to other races and cultures.

Howard describes how he came to realize his cultural identity. While reading this, I tried to think about my cultural identity and if I have discovered it. Most of my life, I have grown up in a predominately white setting where racism was rare but non extremely uncommon. I think that it was rare because there was not a lot of opportunity for it. When I came to college, it was pretty much the same and I have always felt comfortable and in the racial majority.

One thing that really stuck out to me from the book is that some of Howard's friends from The Hill said that he could go back whenever he wanted. If things got too intense, he could go back to Yale or back to his comfortable home, yet The Hill was their home. The more I thought about this statement and reflected on it, the more I realize it is very true. In only three short months, I will be going on an adventure to Kenya, which is definitely going to be out of my comfort zone. I will be student teaching there, teaching students who are very different than me. But the reality of that is, I am coming back home. All I have to do is make it through the eight weeks I will be there and then, boom, I am back in suburban America where I fit in and feel comfortable.

I believe that God has called me to not be comfortable. Since I was in Junior High I have been called to something more than the "normal life." At this point, I am definitely still discovering my cultural identity and who I am, and am not even sure what the "normal life" is. I believe that God created me with a view of the world that calls me to be more. I think that a lot of White teachers stay in what they know and where they feel like they can make a difference. For this I am extremely grateful because there are many students and schools that need people like this. After reading the first part of this book, I realize that maybe I am called to discover who I am in situations that force me to examine myself in deeper ways than are possible in my small White town.

I am enjoying reading We Can't Teach What We Don't Know and am looking forward to understanding more about my current stage of life and where I may be going in the future. I think that God puts certain tasks and assignments in our lives for a reason and examining this book may be one that can help me in ways I never expected!

Introduction: We Can't Teach What We Don't Know

Gary Howard writes We Can't Teach What We Don't Know in response to today's constantly changing demographics in schools. Schools are changing, and this book strives to make us aware of that. Teacher's need to be aware of the diversity of students and understand how the new School Reform efforts affect their teaching. 

I am looking forward to reading this book because I think it is important for all teachers to understand diversity and not only recognize it, but know how to teach diverse populations. Culturally responsive teaching is something that is going to be increasing in importance as most teachers remain White, and the school populations are constantly changing and becoming more diverse. I hope this book can give a good perspective on how to be a more effective teacher in any classroom. 

Howard, G. (2006). We Can't Teach What We Don't Know (Second Ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.