Mon+2-6


 * What do teachers expect from students and why do they expect it? ||

Before Class:

1.) Please read this article, "Seeing, Hearing, and Talking Race: Lessons for White Teachers from Four Teachers of Color."



Please be prepared to discuss these topics:


 * What's wrong with saying, "I don't see race or color"?


 * What does it mean for a teacher to have a caring heart but also a critical eye? (p. 7)


 * "Buying into the myth of the White savior has sunk many novice urban teachers, even as it is perpetuated in popular films and books about teaching. But despite thefamiliar Hollywood storyline, children of color don’t need to be rescued by anyone."

What does this quote mean to you? Where do you see this idea propagated?

2.) Please check out this [|article]. You don't need to read everything, but familiarize yourself with the debate over teacher pay-for-performance. What does this mean for teacher's expectations? How will affect you, if it is enacted? What alternatives are there?


 * During class:**

Billingsley went on to explain that the problem was not so much skin color as it was a clash of expectations: teachers who expected to be viewed as authority figures simply by virtue of their position, and students who believed adults should earn their authority by showing they knew how to exercise it. She was also quick to point out that a number of White teachers at her school had built strong, mutually respectful relationships with their students. Still, she was unequivocal about one thing: for teachers and kids in city schools—as in most any school in this country, really—race matters.

It’s not a matter of putting up a few posters that represent the cultural heritage of your students—though that couldn’t hurt. Rather, the teachers I interviewed suggest changes toWhite teachers’ belief systems, thought processes, selfconcepts, interaction patterns, and classroom practices that are deeper and in many ways more personal, and thusrequire a greater commitment, a longer view.

Why do we need to do this? How can we do it? What connections do I have to the quote? What disconnections do I have to it?


 * Listen to Teachers of Color

“[A]ppropriate education for poor students and students of color can only be devised in consultation with adults who share their culture” (p. 45). She adds, “Good liberal intentions are not enough.”


 * Examine Privilege and Whiteness.

More recently, another teacher I know listened as a White counselor expressed her dismay at what she perceived as the limited experiences of some of her school’s Mexican-American students. “I can’t believe these kids haven’t been to Navy Pier,” the woman said, referring to a downtown Chicago tourist attraction. “Their parents don’t take them places. When I was little, my mom would pack up the car and take us to Grant Park." She added, “And we weren’t rich, either. But she still took us places.” Such responses grow out of an often subconscious worldview that takes for granted a White, middleclass, English-speaking frame of reference. Examining previously unrecognized social advantages and privileges can help White teachers question such notions and recognize, as anthropologist Wade Davis (2004) has said, that the “world in which [they] were born does not exist in some absolute sense, but is just one model of reality.” Understanding the limitations of their own perspectives may in turn help them work with students of color and their families in more authentic and respectful ways. But like learning to teach, the process of confronting one’s privilege and redefining one’s whiteness is a continual one (Howard, 1999; Tatum, 1997). For the committed White teacher—myself included—it’s an ongoing project.


 * Acknowledge our gaps in knowledge.

Still, Kirby believes that despite their uncertainty, White teachers must be willing to say to Black (lets expand this to all students) students, “I know I’m really ignorant about your experience, but I want to know, and I’m open to learning, even though some of what I learn may be hard for me to understand or painful for me to hear.” Teachers who are honest about their own gaps of knowledge and who demonstrate a sincere desire to learn, Kirby says, will gain their students’ respect. “Kids can read you,” she says. “They can tell if you’re really trying to understand or if you’re just going through the motions.

Gisela (Mexican-American, undocumented immigrant, fifth grader) Kamesha (African-American, at least seven generations in this community, fifth grader) Michael (Anglo-American, lives with Mom and younger siblings, fifth grader)


 * Why are you becoming a teacher?

Many of the White pre-service teachers with whom I have worked initially cite a love of kids and a desire to help as their primary motivations. There is nothing wrong with either of those: in so many corners of the world—and in most of our own backyards—more love and more help would go a long way. But to work effectively in urban communities of color, teachers need not only a caring heart, but a critical eye as well (Wink, 1997). I’ve heard Nancy Serrano speak to groups of aspiring Chicago teachers on several occasions, and—especially if most of those in her audience are White—she challenges them to look critically at their reasons for choosing a life in the classroom. “You have to ask yourself why you’re becoming a teacher,” she says. “What’s your purpose? Is it just because you think you love kids? Is it because you think you’ll have short work days and summers off? Or is there more to it? You really have to ask yourself those questions.”


 * Challenge Students, Don't Pity Them.

Teachers need to do all they can to understand the forces that constrain their students and show compassion for their situations, but at the same time they must arm students with the necessary tools to push against those constraints with all the force they can muster.


 * Be Resilient

Buying into the myth of the White savior has sunk many novice urban teachers, even as it is perpetuated in popular films and books about teaching. But despite the familiarHollywood storyline, children of color don’t need to be rescued by anyone. They need opportunities and steady support, not heroics. While “saving” someone is often imagined as an act that happens swiftly and boldly, that is not how real teaching works. Teaching alongside urban students—learning from them and with them—is something that can only happen over time as trusting and mutually respectful relationships are built.