What lengths am I willing to go to in order to do right by every child?

 

In the word graphic above, you can see some ideas that I feel encompass what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and what culturally responsive teaching is. I do include one counter-example, "not-learning", which means that a student is willfully rejecting even the most compassionate and well-designed teaching. This can be very frustrating for teachers, and this is when teachers need to go above and beyond for their students. These students are not just rejecting learning because they are poorly behaved children. These children often have difficult home lives that are out of their control, and the only thing they can control is how they behave at school. If your students do not feel safe or respected, especially by you, they will reject your teaching and the school system. To combat this, you will need to go to extra lengths to make sure your student feels comfortable and respected in the classroom. You must make a genuine effort to get to know your students and their families. Learn about the cultural media they are interested in, learn about their family stories and traditions, and learn about their culture. If you acknowledge the students' struggles and let them know that you are on their side and care for them, you can break through not-learning and be an amazing culturally responsive teacher. While you may feel underpaid or underappreciated as a teacher, it is so important to go to great lengths to see your students succeed. Seeing them succeed and having an impact on their life is the most rewarding experience you can have.

How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

 How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

In America, there is an overwhelming majority of female teachers. This absolutely has an effect on the profession of being an educator. Career fields that are dominated by women are not taken as seriously and are underappreciated. Another example of this would be nurses versus doctors. In our society, nursing is often viewed as a feminine field while being a doctor is a more masculine job. Because of this, I often see people taking doctors more seriously than nurses or male doctors more seriously than female doctors. You can see the devalued work clearly with the salary that teachers receive. The work that goes into being a teacher is not easy, but it is viewed as an easy job. 

In the picture above, you can see the rules for teachers in 1915. While this may seem ludicrous now, some of the rules are still things that are expected from teachers. Teachers are expected to dress and act modestly. It is frowned upon if we post anything on social media that involves things like partying, drinking, etc. Your life outside of school almost has to remain secret, which does not help teachers connect to their students. The dress code is strict for teachers, and, in some schools, we are not even allowed to wear jeans. We are not allowed to wear shorts, which pushes female teachers to opt for dresses and skirts during the hotter weather. While it is not a rule that we must wear dresses, the dress code does subtly push female teachers to dress "feminine".

Is Schooling Equitable?

 

What is equity?

I included a popular image that gives a great visual example of what equity is. Equity is giving everyone what they need in order to succeed. This may be more than others need or less than what others need.

Is schooling equitable?

In my opinion, schooling is not equitable in America. We have students from so many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and economic groups, and yet, schools typically only have one strict way they go about educating.

There is a disparity in the way that students of color are treated, especially discipline-wise. Black students are often treated as adults or even as criminals, while white students' misbehaviors are ignored or they only receive a small slap on the wrist. The suspension and expulsion rates are high for students of color, and this does not give them a fair chance of succeeding. If they were the people in the graphic above, it would be like taking a box away from the smallest child. If you continuously suspend or scold students, they will turn their backs on the school and possibly end up dropping out because of the isolation they feel. I'm not saying that students of color should not be disciplined for misbehaving, but it needs to be fair and the same for all students. As a teacher, you should also look into why a child is misbehaving and what their home life is like before resulting to suspension or expulsion.

There is also a disparity in the demographics of teachers. A strong majority of teachers in America are white. In the past, I thought that this was because of the demographics of the United States. I have since realized that there is also an issue with racial bias and discrimination in the hiring process of teachers. We need to combat this issue and recognize bias in schools.

Do I have the full picture?

To understand what the "full picture" is in education, you must first know what the partial picture is. In education, we already have the partial picture. A simple example of this would be how public schools teach history. I took the liberty of looking up some common history textbooks used in schools and textbooks I remember using in high school, and every single book I found was written by a white American man. How can we get the full picture if we only have one perspective? 

There are so many different stories and perspectives on everything that happens in our world, and yet we hear the same, very few stories in our public education system. Our education system and textbooks focus heavily on the experience of white Americans. When we discuss other races, we give brief stories that only focus on the final moments of overcoming racism. We don't talk about their achievements. We don't talk about the years and years of oppression and abysmal things that happened to them. An example of this would be the story of Ruby Bridges. The only thing I learned about her was from seeing a picture of her walking into a white school. I only saw her one moment of overcoming a racist boundary. I never knew about the awful remarks, the ostracization, and the rocks that were thrown at her. History books only show a glorified version of America overcoming racism and the achievements of white historical heroes, but that is not real history. That is not the full picture.

To get the full picture, we need to find unspoken stories. We need to listen to marginalized groups. We need multiple perspectives. If you look up Ruby Bridges, you will still just see the picture of her walking to school. It is more challenging to find pictures of the awful things happening, but if you listen to her story... you will get the full picture.

Stories: Whose are told and whose remain in the margins?

Whose stories are told and whose remain in the margins?

To answer this question, we must first know what it means to be in the margins -- or be marginalized. Someone who is marginalized has very little power or influence and experiences discrimination because of their identity. Someone can be marginalized because of their race, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, etc. For example, a black gay woman would absolutely be considered marginalized. She could face discrimination for being black, for being gay, or even just for being a woman. Women make up almost half of our world's population, yet we are still considered marginalized as we face discrimination for our identity.

When it comes to learning about our nation's history, we often only see one perspective, and that is the white American perspective. Historical events are told from the white American's point of view and often neglect the perspective of those at the time that were of a different race or nationality. Hearing only one perspective is not helpful for anyone. There is no moment that is remembered exactly the same by all participating parties. Everyone has a different perspective, so we cannot expect there to be a single narrative story of American history.

As a teacher, it is important that you tell stories from multiple perspectives and read with a critical, watchful eye. A historical event may be viewed completely differently by another cultural group, and that is okay. People often say that there are multiple sides to every story and that you need to hear everyone out. This same saying goes for history and our society as a whole. You need to make sure that your students who are in the margins of society feel uplifted and heard.