Multicultural Classroom

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Multicultural Classroom

• Day Four
• My notion of democracy is that under it the
  weakest should have the same opportunity as the
  strongest. M.K. Gandhi

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• Share Sexism Activity Results

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(No Transcript)
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Terms Defined

• sexual identity (straight, bisexual, lesbian/gay)
• Gender roles refer to the clothing, behaviors,
  thoughts, feelings, relationships, etc., that are
  considered appropriate or inappropriate for
  members of each sex.
• One may be any combination of sex (male/female),
  gender (masculine/feminine), and sexual identity
  (straight, bisexual, lesbian/gay.)

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• Transgendered (TG) One who switches gender
  roles, whether just once, or many times at will.
  Inclusive term for transsexuals and
  transvestites.
• Transsexual (TS) One who switches physical sexes
  (usually just once, but there are exceptions.)
  Primary sex change is accomplished by surgery.
  (See SRS.) Hormone therapy, electrolysis,
  additional surgery, and other treatments can
  change secondary sex characteristics. (See Pre-op
  TS.)
• Transvestite (TV) One who mainly cross dresses
  for pleasure in the appearance and sensation. The
  pleasure may not be directly erotic. It may be
  empowering, rebellious, or something else. May
  feel comfortable in a focused transgender role
  while cross dressed. May occasionally experience
  gender dysphoria.

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Statistics about Gay/Lesbian Youth

• In a study of students in public high schools,
  97 report regularly hearing homophobic remarks
  from their peers. Source Making Schools Safe for
  Gay and Lesbian Youth Report of the
  Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and
  Lesbian Youth, 1993.
• The typical high school student hears anti-gay
  slurs 25.5 times a day. Source Carter, Kelley,
  "Gay Slurs Abound," in The Des Moines Register,
  March 7, 1997, p. 1.

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• In a 14-city study of gay, lesbian and bisexual
  youth, 80 reported verbal abuse, 44 reported
  threats of attack, 33 reported having objects
  thrown at them and 30 reported being chased or
  followed. Source A. R. D'Augelli and S. L.
  Hershberger, Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in
  community settings Personal challenges and
  mental health problems, American Journal of
  Community Psychology 21421, 1993.
• In a study of 4,159 Massachusetts high school
  students, 31.2 identifying as gay, lesbian or
  bisexual were threatened/injured with a weapon at
  school in the past year compared to 6.9 of their
  peers. Source Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior
  Survey (MYRBS), Massachusetts Department of
  Education, 1997.

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• In 73 schools in Washington State, 111 incidents
  of anti-gay harassment and violence have been
  reported in the past 5 years, with about 1/3 of
  these incidents serious enough to warrant
  possible criminal allegations. Source The Don't
  Even Know Me Understanding Anti-Gay Harassment
  and Violence in Schools A Report On the Five
  Year Anti-Violence Research Project Of the Safe
  Schools Coalition of Washington State, 1999.
• In Seattle, 34 of students identifying as gay,
  lesbian or bisexual reported being the target of
  anti-gay harassment or violence at school or on
  the way to or from school, compared to 6 of
  heterosexual students. Source The 1995 Seattle
  Teen Health Risk Survey. Over 8,400 Seattle high
  school students completed the survey.

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• In Michigan, 28 of school personnel surveyed
  determined their school environment emotionally
  unsafe for sexual minority youth. Source 1997
  survey of 300 superintendents, school counselors
  and psychologists in public and private schools
  in five Michigan counties, conducted by the Gay,
  Lesbian Straight Teacher's Network.
• In a national survey, youth described being
  called lesbian or gay as the most deeply
  upsetting form of sexual harassment they
  experienced. Source American Association of
  University Women, 1993. A total of 1,632 field
  surveys were completed by public school students,
  grades 8-11, in 79 schools across the U.S.

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• Studies on youth suicide consistently find that
  lesbian and gay youth are 2 - 6 times more likely
  to attempt suicide than other youth and may
  account for 30 of all completed suicides among
  teens. Source Report of the Secretary's Task
  Force on Youth Suicide, U.S. Department of Health
  and Human Services, 1989.
• Service providers estimate that gay, lesbian and
  bisexual youth make up 20-40 of homeless youth
  in urban areas. Source The National Network of
  Runaway and Youth Services. To Whom Do They
  Belong? Runaway, Homeless and Other Youth in
  High-Risk Situations in the 1990's. Washington,
  D.C. The National Network, 1991.

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In a study of 4,159 Massachusetts high school
students, 46 who identify as gay, lesbian or
bisexual had attempted suicide in the past year
compared to 8.8 of their peers, and 23.5
required medical attention as a result of a
suicide attempt compared to 3.3 of their peers.
The same study found 18.4 of the gay, lesbian
and bisexual students had been in a physical
fight resulting in treatment by a doctor or nurse
compared to 4 of their peers, and 22.2 skipped
school in the past month because they felt unsafe
en route to or at school, compared to 4.2 of
their peers. Source Massachusetts Youth Risk
Behavior Survey (MYRBS), Massachusetts Department
of Education, 1997.
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• Gay male adolescents are two to three times more
  likely than their peers to attempt suicide. Some
  evidence suggests lesbians have higher rates of
  smoking, overweight, alcohol abuse, and stress
  than heterosexual women. The issues surrounding
  personal, family, and social acceptance of sexual
  orientation can place a significant burden on
  mental health and personal safety.
• http//www.cdc.gov/Features/LGBT/

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PFLAG

• Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and
  Gays
• Website http//www.pflag.org/
• PFLAG Lynchburg P.O. Box 3224 Lynchburg, VA
  24503 434.528.5210

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GLSEN

• http//www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home.html
• OUR MISSION
• The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
  strives to assure that each member of every
  school community is valued and respected
  regardless of sexual orientation or gender
  identity/expression.

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Matthew Shephard Act

• http//www.hrc.org/FightHate

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Multicultural Scavenger Hunt
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II. Starting Assumptions

• By Paul Gorski
• Excerpted from his presentation
• Beyond Celebrating Diversity Creating Equitable
  Learning Environments w/ Multicultural Education
• March 2007

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II. Starting Assumption 1

• All students deserve the best possible education
  we can provide, regardless of
• Socioeconomic status or class
• Gender
• Religion
• Citizenship status
• (Dis)ability
• Race or ethnicity
• Sexual Orientation
• Etc.

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II. Starting Assumption 2

• Educational equity is deeper than simple
  curricular content
• Pedagogy
• Assessment
• Classroom/School Climate
• Distribution of Power

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II. Starting Assumption 3

• Education is NOT politically neutral
• We decide which readings and activities to use in
  class
• We decide how students are to be assessed
• We decide engage (or dont engage) students in
  the learning process
• And so on...

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II. Starting Assumption 4

• The problem of educational inequity is one of
  consciousness, not only one of practice
• Impossibility of implementing a multicultural
  education if one doesnt think and see
  multiculturally
• Even with a great curriculum, I cannot teach
  against racism if I am a racist
• Shaking free from traditional models of teaching
  and learning (and asking, to whose benefit..?)

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II. Starting Assumption 5

• The achievement gap is not as much an
  achievement gap as an opportunity gap

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II. Starting Assumption 6

• A single teacher cannot undo systemic inequities
  in the school system or larger society.
• But at the very least we can make sure were not
  replicating those inequities in our own curricula
  and pedagogies.

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II. Starting Assumption 7

• Gross inequities exist in our public schools
• And these inequities, and the resulting
  achievement gap, will not be eliminated by Taco
  Night, the International Fair, or other
  activities that, however fun, do not address
  racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other
  oppressions in educational policy and practice.

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II. Starting Assumption 7 Gross Inequities

• Compared with low-poverty U.S. schools,
  high-poverty U.S. schools have
• More teachers teaching in areas outside their
  certification subjects
• More serious teacher turnover problems
• More teacher vacancies
• Larger numbers of substitute teachers
• More limited access to computers and the
  Internet
• Inadequate facilities (such as science labs)

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II. Starting Assumption 7 Gross Inequities
(contd)

• More dirty or inoperative bathrooms
• More evidence of vermin such as cockroaches and
  rats
• Insufficient classroom materials
• Less rigorous curricula
• Fewer experienced teachers
• Lower teacher salaries
• Larger class sizes and
• Less funding.

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II. Starting Assumption 7 Gross Inequities
(references)

• Barton, P.E. (2004). Why does the gap persist?
  Educational Leadership 62(3), 8-13.
• Barton, P.E. (2003). Parsing the achievement gap
  Baselines for tracking progress. Princeton, NJ
  Educational Testing Service.
• Carey, K. (2005). The funding gap 2004 Many
  states still shortchange low-income and minority
  students. Washington, D.C. The Education Trust.
• National Commission on Teaching and Americas
  Future (2004). Fifty years after Brown v. Board
  of Education A two-tiered education system.
  Washington, D.C. Author.
• Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged
  Why American poverty affects us all. New York,
  NY Oxford University Press.

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The Multicultural Classroom We are all here to
learn. We are all here to teach.
Teacher Learning style Teaching
style Multicultural competency
Student Learning style Multicultural
awareness Class rules (i.e. Who gets called on?)
Curriculum Inclusion Assessment Grading Voice
(i.e. Is your voice being heard?)
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Levels of Awareness

• Social action
• Individual action
• Reflective analysis
• Acquiescence
• Anger
• Denial
• Blatant discrimination

Continuaa can be different for different isms

Opposite of empowerment
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Levels of Integration of Ethnic Content

• Social Action Students make decisions on
  important social issues and take actions to solve
  them
• Transformation The structure of the curriculum
  is changed to enable students to view concepts,
  issues, events, and themes from the perspectives
  of diverse ethnic and cultural groups
• Additive Content, concepts, themes, and
  perspectives are added to the curriculum without
  changing its structure
• Contributions Focuses on heroes, holidays, and
  discrete cultural elements
• Banks (1994). An introduction to multicultural
  education.

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Goals of Multicultural Education

• To have every student achieve to his/her
  potential
• To learn how to learn
• To appreciate the contributions of different
  groups who have contributed to our knowledge base
• To develop positive attitudes about groups of
  people who are different than ourselves
• To become good citizens of the school, the
  community, the country and the world community
• To learn how to evaluate knowledge from different
  perspectives
• To develop an ethnic, national, and global
  identity
• To provide decision-making skills so the students
  can make better choices in their everyday lives

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Basic Assumptions of Multicultural Education

• It is increasingly important for political,
  social, educational and economic reasons to
  recognize the US is a culturally diverse society
• Multicultural education is for all students
• Multicultural education is synonymous with
  effective teaching
• Teaching is a cross-cultural encounter
• The educational system has not served all
  students equally well
• Multicultural education is (should) be synonymous
  with educational innovation and reform
• Next to parents (primary caregivers) teachers are
  the single most important factor in the lives of
  children
• Classroom interaction between teachers and
  students constitutes the major part of the
  educational experience for most students.
• Hernandez (1989) pp 9-12

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education
Adapted from the work of Maurianne Adams and
Barbara J. Love (2006).
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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education From Paul
Gorskis presentation March 2007 Beyond
Celebrating Diversity Creating Equitable
Learning Environments w/ Multicultural Education

• 1. What Students Bring to the Classroom
• Past educational experiences (its not always all
  about us)
• Complex identities, prejudices, biases
• Expectations about the roles of students and
  teachers
• Varying learning styles, intelligences, ways of
  illustrating learning

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 2. What We Bring to the Classroom
• Complex socializations, identities, biases, and
  prejudices
• Notions about the purposes of education and our
  roles as teachers
• A teaching style, often related to our own
  preferred learning styles and how weve been
  taught

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 3. Curriculum Content
• Course materials Whos represented in readings,
  examples, illustrations
• Perspective and worldview Whose voices are
  centered, whose are othered
• Is content, whenever possible, made relevant to
  the lives of the students?
• What is the hidden curriculum?
• Are multicultural issues addressed explicitly?

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 4. Pedagogy
• Focus on critical, complex thinking and asking
  critical questions
• Paying attention to inequity in classroom
  processes
• Attending to sociopolitical relationships (power
  and privilege) in the classroom
• Acknowledging student knowledge through
  problem-posing, dialogue, and general
  student-centeredness
• Using authentic assessment techniques

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 1 What Your Students Bring to the Classroom

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• A. Find ways to challenge stereotypes (both in
  society and your own field)
• Example Albert Einstein as a white, male
  scientist who wrote very progressive essays about
  racism, imperialism, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• B. Watch for and challenge student behaviors and
  relationships that reflect stereotypical roles
• Example Men assuming the lead in lab activities,
  women being note-taker in small groups

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• C. Be thoughtful about how you create cooperative
  teams or small groups
• Example Avoid temptation to distribute people
  from under-represented groups (tokenism)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• D. Understand students reactions to you and your
  social identities in context
• Example Even if you dont think much about your
  whiteness (for example), it may mean something
  significant to students of color who may only
  rarely not have white professors

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• E. Help students un-learn the ways of being and
  seeing that lend themselves to prejudice
• Example Dichotomous thinking, competitive nature
  of learning (NOTE this also means WE have to
  un-learn)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 2 What You Bring to the Classroom

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• A. Identify and work to eliminate your biases,
  prejudices, and assumptions (yes, you do have
  them) about various groups of students
• Example Race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual
  orientation, religion, socioeconomic status,
  (dis)ability, first language, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• B. Identify and work to broaden your teaching
  style (which, according to research, probably
  suits your learning style)
• Note Research shows that two elements most
  effect how somebody teaches (1) their preferred
  learning style, and (2) how they were taught what
  theyre teaching

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• C. Identify and work on your hot buttons
• Question What are the issues that set you off to
  the point that you become an ineffective
  educator/facilitator?

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• D. Provide students with periodic opportunities
  to share anonymous feedback
• Note Students already feeling disempowered and
  disconnected are not likely to approach you about
  your teaching or curriculum

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• E. Share examples of when youve struggled to
  climb out of the box and to see the world and
  your field in their full complexity
• Note When we make ourselves vulnerable we make
  it easier for students to do the same

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• F. Consider the significance of the
  professor/student power relationship and what
  this means re student learning
• Question What might it mean to be a white male
  computer science professor teaching a young
  African American woman in a field historically
  hostile to African American women?

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• G. Identify the gaps in your knowledge about
  equity issues and pursue the information to fill
  those gaps
• Point I cannot teach anti-classism if Im
  unwilling to deal with my own classism

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• H. Build the skills necessary to intervene
  effectively when equity issues arise
• Examples Racist joke or comment, sexual
  harassment, men talking over women

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• I. Mind your compliments
• Point Research indicates that educators,
  regardless of gender, are most likely to
  compliment male students on their intelligence.
  Female students? On their appearance.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 3 Curriculum Content

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• A. Assign tasks that challenge traditional social
  roles
• Example Assign men to be note-takers, women to
  be group facilitators

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• B. Try centering the sources you previously may
  have used as supplements
• Example Slave narratives as central history
  texts instead of supplements to a more
  Eurocentric framing of history

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• C. Avoid other-ing weave diverse voices and
  sources seamlessly together instead of having
  separate sections or units
• Example No units on women poets or Latino
  voices, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• D. Discuss ways people in your field have used
  (and continue to use) their scholarship and
  platforms to advocate for social justice
• Examples Leontyne Price, Howard Zinn, Stephen J.
  Gould, Ida B. Wells, Mark Twain

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• E. Discuss ways people in your field have used
  (and continue to use) their scholarship and
  platforms to support inequity and injustice
• Examples Science eugenics journalists
  refusal to critique Bush foreign policy during
  war-time etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• F. Discuss the history of oppression and
  exclusion in your field and how this has affected
  knowledge bases in your field
• Examples Women and STEM fields (and law,
  business, etc.)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• G. Vary your instructional materials as a way to
  draw in students with various learning styles
• Suggestion Consider visual, tactile, aural, and
  other dimensions of your instructional materials
• Note Doesnt mean every lesson must include all
  of these, but that theyre distributed over the
  course of the semester

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• H. Encourage students to raise critical
  questions, not only about the content itself, but
  about how the content is presented in educational
  materials
• Example Use of male anatomy as standard
  differentiation between American literature and
  African American literature (and misuse of the
  term American)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 4 Pedagogy

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• A. Be very clear about how you expect students to
  participate (open discussion, raised hands, etc.)
• Related suggestion Avoid first-hand-up,
  first-called-on approach

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• B. Never, under any circumstance, invalidate or
  allow other students to invalidate concerns of
  inequity raised by students from disenfranchised
  groups

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• C. Avoid putting students from disenfranchised
  groups in positions to have to teach people from
  privileged groups about their privilege

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• D. Develop your facilitation skills so that you
  can effectively facilitate difficult dialogues
  about racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism,
  etc.
• Note When these dialogues happen, be comfortable
  advocating for equity

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• E. Design assignments that encourage students to
  apply what theyre learning to a human rights
  issue

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• F. Allow students, when possible, to choose how
  they will be assessed (as people dont
  demonstrate understanding and application in the
  same ways)
• Example Choice between an essay or an
  application project

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• G. Invite a colleague to observe your teaching
  and provide feedback on a variety of concerns

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• H. Use peer teaching, peer feedback, and other
  peer interactions to provide students an
  opportunity to learn content through a variety of
  lenses

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VII. Shifts of Consciousness for Multicultural
Educators
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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 1
• I must be willing to think critically about the
  things about which Ive been discouraged from
  thinking critically
• Capitalism, Consumer Culture, Globalization
• Two-party political system v. democracy
• Etc.

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 2
• I must acknowledge that multicultural education
  is about creating equitable learning environments
  for all students, so I must be against all
  inequity

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 3
• I must understand inequities as systemic and not
  just individual acts (and what this means in the
  context of my classroom)

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 4
• I must transcend the idea of multicultural
  education as learning about other cultures and
  celebrating diversity

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 5
• I must be willing to discomfort and unsettle
  myself and my students
• Institutional likeability

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 6
• I must shift from an equality orientation toward
  multiculturalism to an equity orientation

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 7
• I must move beyond the objective facilitator
  role and actively advocate for equity and justice
• Multicultural education is not about validating
  all perspectives

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 8
• I must understand multicultural education as a
  comprehensive approach, not additional activities
  or slight shifts in an otherwise monocultural
  curriculum