As February comes to an end, I question what
the implications are of ending the chapters and conversations around Black
history and the inclusion of the Black Lives Matter movement in classroom
dialogue. Will the conversation stop? Will business carry on as usual? Will
classrooms—both urban and suburban—cease to celebrate the accomplishments of
Black Americans because March has begun?
It must not.
It is not new news that there is a dearth in
histories of people of color represented in social studies/history curricula in
US schools. Although Howard Zinn (2005) had been able to bring these histories
together as a counter-narrative to the Eurocentric history we had been taught
in our classrooms, not many children, especially those from marginalized
communities, are exposed to this knowledge. This knowledge is not usually found
until one finds themselves in a university—a place to which many people do not
have access. Most children never get to know the histories/herstories of their
people and communities. Knowing how powerful and liberating such an education would
be for black and brown youth, why then, has there been no movement to diversify
the narratives within history classrooms?
Blame is always put on different peoples and
institution; it’s the fault of NCLB, Race to the Top, Common Core, policy
makers, politicians, administration, teachers, parents, etc.—or so the story
goes. I argue that we all play a role in shaping and maintaining many of the
oppressive forces within the education establishment, including the absence of
recognizing the historical contributions of people of color—some people more
than others, of course. In this framework exists the assumption that the
system, school, and classroom are not set up to be liberating spaces, but
rather, oppressive spaces to ensure the stratification and reproduction of an
unequal society. Whether actors and institutions are conscious of this is up in
the air. For social justice-oriented teachers, this is obviously not the
objective of why we started to teach. And for those trying to fight the binds
of policies and administration to bring about a more radical curriculum with
critical pedagogy, burn out is inevitable. Unless
we remember that we are not alone. All educators are at different places
and spaces in developing our pedagogy and exploring different modes of teaching
and learning history/social studies, and finding a community that is on a
similar trajectory helps us figure this out organically. Luckily, there are
quite a few communities in existence organized around this, including the
Literacy Teachers Initiative at the Institute for Urban and Minority Education.
But back to the issue at hand. Espousing
Eurocentric history curriculum may not be intentional (and even worse if it is
intentional), and can be a difficult act to modify if it has been commonplace.
Indeed, absence of alternative curriculum is a normalized aspect of the US
schooling system, integral to maintaining the larger economic system as is, but
we’ll leave this critique for another time. Yet, this should not be a deterrent
for incorporating different content that can transform the classroom,
particularly content that can re-humanize
a space that has been historically dehumanizing, especially for black and brown
students.
What if you’re not too confident in your
knowledge of the content? Or perhaps you’re still cultivating your pedagogy.
Maybe talking about race instills the fear of God within you. Like I said,
we’re all at different stages, and that’s okay. What’s most important here is
that you are making the commitment to teach your students a history through a
social justice lens—a history that can transform lives. Race talk, or
‘difficult dialogue’, is too often avoided rather then explored, which is a
representation of larger phenomena related to forces of privilege and
oppression. However, make no mistake; not
talking about race and issues around race is oppressive. (I highly suggest
the work of Dr. Derald Wing Sue of Teachers College, Columbia University to
further explore this notion. You can find one of his articles here: https://depts.washington.edu/anthweb/resources/diverse_pdfs/diversity_microagressions_11.pdf. For an even
deeper theoretical analysis of symbolic violence in omitting race dialogues,
please see an article by Dr. Zeus Leonardo of UC Berkely: http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/faculty/ZLeonardo/PedagogyofFear.pdf).
Discussions around race, both in present and
historical contexts, are necessary for the development of a powerful capacity
for social analysis within our urban youth. It should be embedded in American
history lessons because, simply put, race plays a major role in American
history; without it, we are missing an important piece to the puzzle. What’s
most unfortunate is that this missing piece is the space where history meets
biography for students of color. It is the space where we can see how our
histories have been shaped in order to be better informed on how to shape our
own futures and that of our communities. This history is not simply about our
oppression, but about our struggle to fight for our own liberation, about the
battles we’ve won and about the people who paved the way for us. I would bet
money (something I never do since well, #graduateschoollife #thestruggleisreal)
that if a history class had such content that enabled students of color to see
themselves and their communities through an additive lens—In contrast to a
deficit lens—the culture of the classroom would drastically change.
Once again, however, the content can be
transformative, but without critical pedagogy, the message will be lost. There
is a plethora of research on critical pedagogy and all its different branches,
yet I want to focus on one that I find is most easily digestible but equally
effective: reality pedagogy. Developed by Dr. Chris Emdin (2011), reality
pedagogy is centered on bringing in the experiences and sociocultural understandings
of students into the classroom. Rather than summarizing the core aspects of his
theory, I’d rather let him explain it to you himself:
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height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Y9tVf_8fqo"
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A cheat sheet of the 5 C’s he discusses can be found here: http://cech.uc.edu/content/dam/cech/centers/hope/docs/RealityPedagogyCincinnatiHandout.pdf
Reality pedagogy can be powerful tool in
normalizing the inclusion of American Black history (as well as Latin@ and
Asian history) by connecting the present realities of our youth with the
histories of their communities. The marriage of history and biography is what
C. Wright Mills called, the sociological imagination—a way of looking at the
world, I argue, through the lens of political consciousness. This lens, as Mills
(1959) writes, “enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene
in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety
of individuals… The first fruit of this imagination… is the idea that the
individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by
locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life
only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances… The
sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the
relations between the two in society... Back of its use there is always the
urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in society and
in the period in which he has his quality and being.” (p. 5)
Not only does this tool of social analysis
allow students to understand the larger structures that have shaped their
histories and present realities, but it gives them the knowledge and
empowerment to address these structures too.
I would like to note, that although the above
statements were written with urban populations in mind, it is necessary that
radical education and race talk be a part of white, suburban, and/or
middle-class classrooms, too. As much as we need to work on combating the
internalization and reproduction of oppression, we must also turn our heads to
the spaces and places where privilege is also internalized and reproduced. Both
processes must be disrupted. As a result of these disruptions and
interjections, the understanding of white hegemony, which necessitates a
dichotomization of white American history and black American history, can be
fostered within students to help them liberate themselves from its effects. In
the hands of these students—our students—lies the political possibility that
history classrooms may one day include all stories and realities because we
will be the teachers and students to make that change.
Celebrating black history should happen every
day, in every classroom.
Please see below for a few resources and
articles, as well as online communities to join to further educate ourselves
and find colleagues to support each other. If you have any links that relate,
feel free to share as well!
Online
Communities and Resources (including children’s books and syllabus suggestions):
http://www.nycore.org/#sthash.nSPyv4nN.dpbs
https://docs.google.com/a/tc.columbia.edu/document/d/1kwZl23Q9tgZ23dxSJWS-WpjZhOZ_mzVPtWL8-pWuLt8/edit#
Articles:
Emdin, C. (2011) Moving Beyond the Boat without
a Paddle
http://nctear2013.ehe.osu.edu/files/2013/01/emdin-2011-reality-pedagogy-black-youth-urban-science-ed2.pdf
Engaging Young Children in Activities and Conversations
about Race and Social Class
Lee, Ramsey, & Sweeney (2008)
Racial literacy in a second-grade classroom: Critical race
theory, whiteness studies, and literacy research
Rogers & Mosley (2006)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1598/RRQ.41.4.3/asset/RRQ.41.4.3.pdf?v=1&t=i6mbnnp8&s=b121d3d0e623dd559eeff7521fd767483f14a0b9
Promoting Equity in Children’s Literacy Instruction: Using a
Critical Race Theory Framework to Examine Transitional Books
Hughes-Hasssell, Barkley, & Koehler (2009)
Transforming My Curriculum, Transforming My Classroom: Paulo
Freire, James Banks, and Social Justice in a Middle School Classroom
Hudalla (2005)
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/hudalla.pdf
About the author:
About the author:
Christina Marie Chaise is a graduate student at Teachers College,
Columbia University in the Sociology and Education Program under the Education
Policy and Social Analysis Department. Christina was a McNair Scholar at Hunter
College; she is also a graduate of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Her activism and community organizing experiences have shaped her research
interests, which include critical pedagogy and epistemology, ideology, and
identity development around race/ethnicity and class. Her current focus is on
studying spaces of both oppression and privilege to explore how the
reproduction and internalization of racist/classist ideas can be disrupted,
particularly in the classroom—from kindergarten to graduate school. She is
currently a teacher’s assistant for Dr. Ray McDermott in the Anthropology
Department and a project assistant at the Institute for Urban and Minority
Education. Christina has been with the LTI project since fall 2014.
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