Rethinking Schools (ICE in Schools)

 

Recipes of Resilience: 

I thought that this article was very well written, it was engaging and palatable to people looking to learn more about the realities of students and educators. Ross Irons writes about a community based gathering that was aimed at building collective community and reminding the community that they aren't alone-- which is especially important when the realities are so terrifying. There were a couple lines specifically that caught my attention-- "You don't deserve this". 

The idea of someone "not deserving this" -- no one deserves deportation, no one deserves the dumanization that comes with with ICE, with the criminalization of existence, and with the violent removal and uprooting that comes with deportation. 

It's more than people not deserving it and also it's more than making salsa verde with your students and having second graders cut up cebollas and bringing the community together. Resilience is community, it is togetherness but also at the same time the only word I have to describe it is cute. It's cute that we have these grassroots groups that are coming together to have community and feel like we're doing something. I wish it were helpful, more than just passing out Know Your Rights cards (I have many if anyone would like some), more helpful than hosting information sessions and restorative justice circles (which I have also done), and more helpful than being cute as a community. I wish there was actionable steps we could make to create real change, to get ICE agents off the street, to stop people from wanting to BE ICE agents (ICE hires very easily and pays a lot), I wish the president would follow the law, but most of all, that immigrants and immigrant communities were no longer dehumanized and targeted. 

Increasing the Possibility of Liberation for All: 

This interview highlighted the utopia that exists in the imaginations of not revolutionaries-- but regular people who hope for a better world. It starts with the idea that everyone has what they need, in a world (world being a placeholder for the word "place", the United States of America) where people-- and many people at that are struggling to get their basic needs met, it's hard to plan for a world where people's more than basic needs are met. These needs are listed as food, shelter, education, health and beauty, clean water, and art.

It's really powerful to see a list that truly does meet a lot of the needs of a successful population, I'd add to that-- community, connection. 

Ruth Wilson Gilmore describes abolition as an evolving and expanding process of generating questions-- and Mariame Kaba answers that we can answer questions and ask more questions with imagination. One tangible step that she suggests is creating a "social dreaming lab" where students are asked to talk about what they want from the world and from their lives. 

I think that this could be really impactful with the right community of students and framed the right way. I could see it working well if framed in a serious way, but I know for a fact some of my students would say things like "I want to fly". I wonder how we can talk about imagination and creativity, how we can introduce more steps of an abolitionist classroom by framing it the right way-- what would that framing look like within different age ranges? 

Another thing that has been on my mind, especially after having experienced my third grade students take RICAS and in reading about abolition, liberation, and change, I can't help but think how literacy is so closely connected with liberation. At the beginning of the school year it was really hopeful to think that my student who came in crying and saying "I can't read" would feel like he found even a bit of literary success. But after seeing him crying for around an hour while taking RICAS-- what do we do. Literally, what can I do? What can I do when my school cares so much about curriculum and grades and test scores? How do I teach my student to read, how do I have my third grade student catch up two grade levels while he's in my class. I am only doing what I can and am giving myself grace as a first year teacher but as the school year winds down, I can't help but feel like I'm failing. 

I'm failing my students and we (collectively, us) are failing the world (the world both literally and the world as in, the rest of us). 

Sex and Gender Based Systems

 RI Laws and Policies:

I noticed a lot of writing on bullying and being safe from bullying, protections in place to eliminate bullying for trans and gender-nonconforming youth, the laws do a good job at situating the importance of why we (RI) collectively needs guidance and laws regarding sex and gender. Students status is protected under Title IX and their education records. The guidelines state that there can be no discrimination due to gender or sex. 

The policies also introduce different key terms that are important when understanding the identities and realities of different LGBTQ+ people and students. 

The laws also include access to restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities that the student identifies with. 

Connection: This makes me think a lot about the attention that transgender athletes in college sports was receiving-- some people, particularly conservative people, felt as though transgender athletes should not be able to compete with the group that they identify with. The argument just seems silly to me, there, during the peak of this argument, was a single digit number of college-aged transgender athletes competing at a Division 1 school. Their argument seemed uneducated, unaware of the transitions-- both medical, social and aesthetic that many transgender people choose to engage in. It's also interesting to me that most of the attention was geared towards MTF athletes (male to female) which aligns even further with the much too common targeting of dolls and transwomen. 

Providence Schools Nondiscrimination- Transgender and Gender Expansive Students Policy: 

It makes sense to me while reading that the PPSD policy is aligned with the state's policy-- especially with explicit mentions of bullying and harassment along with explicitly naming and identifying key vocabulary that is needed to understand the identity of LGBTQ+ students. I really appreciated the specific point on names and pronouns and the fact that students have a right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to the student's gender identity. It's also very powerful to have a specific point on allowing transgender students to be able to participate in sports that are aligned with their identity. It also seems powerful that "each school shall form a point team that will serve as a visible resource for all students who have questions and concerns regarding any issues related to gender identity and expression", I wonder who these people are, what kind of people these teams consist of, especially considering clubs like an SGA aren't popular until secondary education but PPSD also includes elementary ed. 

It's also interesting to me that training is required for all staff members, who are the people who are training the staff and what kind of follow-up is required?

Teach Out Project Proposal

 The Teach Out Project Proposal

This is the first step in brainstorming your final project in this class.  Please post this document to your blog and bring this document to class on March 26.  This is just the planning stage – no formalities!

CHOOSE A TEXT: Review your whole blog to remind yourself about what we have read so far in class. What texts have stayed with you so far? What articles inspire you?  What topic matters most to you in terms of your own work? Are there any of these texts that you would like to share with others in your life?  The text that has stayed with me the most is “Other People’s Children”. My teach out project is centered around the culture of power and how power shows up in education, what educators can do to “level the playing field”. A text that compliments the culture of power and how it shows up is Bad Bunny’s halftime show. The performance and celebration perfectly highlights what the culture of power looks like by removing power from those who typically have it. One of the pillars of the culture of power is that those who have power are least likely to realize they do, Bad Bunny’s halftime show perfectly highlights– especially to people who have been accustomed to being in positions of power or being aligned on the culture of power– what being out of power (or excluded by power) looks like. Related to this, the five tricks card game has also stuck with me– it was really powerful to see the culture of power modeled and experienced. This matters to me in my own work because the majority of the students that I teach are Brown and Black. As a Chicana, but especially as a Chicana who grew up around the education sector, I was born knowing a lot of the rules of power and came into teaching with the assumption that everyone else would know the rules. The truth is some students don’t and it’s unfair to me– or to any of my white colleagues– to operate on the assumption that everyone knows the rules.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH? Are there people in your life with whom you would really like to talk about these texts? Colleagues? Students? Family members? Friends? Children? I can see the Dual Language community really benefitting from talking about power and the culture of power. The world of DLE has pillars that every program is following: bilingualism and biliteracy, high academic achievement, and sociocultural competence. When talking about sociocultural competence, a lot of educators focus on race, ethnicity, and culture. We fail to see the reality and impact that power has (because power also has a culture) on our students. One way to be able to reach the bilingual educators community is to present at MABE (the MultiState Association for Bilingual Educators).

WHAT FORMAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU? Individual interview? Small group discussion? Art activity? Professional development workshop? Poster for your office? Pamphlet to share? Lesson plan? Etc? The output of my teach out project looks a little bit different– I’m going to be writing a proposal for MABE– the MultiState Association of Bilingual Educators– to be able to present at their next conference. After I create my proposal, I’m going to be talking about it with some of the members of MABE– to get their feedback and thoughts.  The proposal is what my current tangible output will be but then I will be– hopefully (especially because I will have already had the approval of some MABE members) be presenting it at the next conference.

Reflections from Rethinking Schools

 

Reflections on ICE, Liberation and Social Justice Unionism 

While reading reflections: I really appreciated the "read-ability" and variety in the articles that I was reading and that were presented to me. I thought that the connecting magazine topic worked really well to ground the different articles in current events and education. I initially read the first article that caught my attention, about ICE in schools and communities and then decided to focus my readings and reflections on ways to push back on current events: we have a problem, now what do we do about it? 

We have a problem: 

Kicking ICE Out of Schools and Communities: I really appreciated reading this for a few reasons: 1. the language used (for example, the article used the term "Latine" instead of Latinx, showing being rooted in community and not higher ed) 2. basing the article in qualitative data in the beginning (starting with a story not only captivates audience attention but also clearly names the problem, especially for someone who may not believe it to be a problem) 3. the articles position on ICE. 

One of the points that come at the end of the article is the (in my opinion truthful) assertion that immigration is and has been seen as a security issue and not a human rights issue. I couldn't have more to say about this. As my audience may or may not know by know, a lot of the research and writing I've done in my undergraduate has been about immigration. This sort of "fear" of immigrants and immigration comes straight from xenophobic and racist American ideals and beliefs. The problem of viewing immigration as a "security issue" was blown up after 9/11 and the War on Terror (the article also mentions this) and an ongoing push and pull over what governmental department was put in charge of immigration. Undocumented immigration is also technically not illegal (!!), it is a civil infraction, like for example getting a parking ticket or getting a ticket for not crossing the street on a crosswalk. Additionally, existing in the United States as an undocumented person is not illegal and is not a civil infraction, so what many anti-immigrant U.S. governments have done is push a "immigrants are illegal" (to socially demonize immigrants) while also using ICE agents, sometimes police officers (that by law HAVE to work with ICE if asked), "arrest" immigrants for something they may or may not have done. This was all until Trump. What other presidents have done was not ethical, what Trump is doing is not ethical OR LEGAL. Pushing an "immigrants are illegal" perspective rationalizes (for the general American public who have no idea about the intricacies of immigration) using any force necessary to "protect Americans". Americans are not in danger because of immigrants. We are collectively in danger because of the government. So, yes, we do have a problem. 

Now what do we do about it?

In It For the Long Haul: Increasing the Possibility of Freedom and Liberation for All

I again, really appreciated the stance and knowledge that was shared in this article (which was a written transcript of an interview). I knew that the author was very knowledgeable when they mentioned Harsha Walia, an activist and writer who I am very familiar with from my time in undergrad and I recommend people read if they're interested in capitalism, immigration, and the environment. 

My biggest take away from this article was using imagination as liberation along with the take in imagination. The article wrote about imagination as a form of resistance that is a collective and constant practice. Increasing ways to encourage and ask for student imagination in the classroom actively asks students to come up with solutions, to think about their dream world, to get ready to act on it. 

I really appreciated the conversation on if students are too young to talk about abolition: the article suggests that students are the perfect age to talk about the world as it is and talk about abolition. Students creativity and imagination has not been capped yet by living through as many oppressions as many adults have (though this is not the case in every individual comparison), the article says that students are "willing to call you over to imagination land. Because they're already living there". Additionally, students are constantly asking why things are the way they are -- which is the first step to freedom. We must question our current reality, dream up a new one, find the ways in which these are not aligned and imagine solutions to fix it.

Trump's Education by Indoctrination Must be Fought with Social Justice Unionism: 

The article begins by naming and explaining that under Trump's America, we are falling, and fast into fascism. A fascist education can be characterized by erasing histories and banning perspectives until the only perspective that is taught or allowed, the white perspective prevails. If students aren't taught the ills of the world or how to see them themselves, they will fall submissive to the regime and not even think to act against it. 

Democrats aren't coming to save us either. They are at the beckoning call of billionaire and millionaire stakeholders who also support children as sheep and not children as active members of change. 

No one is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves. The basis of social justice unionism is rooted in an innate unity of education and social justice: we can't teach truth without teaching truth. Social justice unionism is about uniting educators that believe strongly in social justice, in children as change makers and not factory workers (which we read about in our history of education mini-unit). Social justice unionism is partnering with other liberation movements (or not) to demand, strike, protest that the needs of the youth be met, that the needs of educators be met, that the needs of the world be met. 

Teaching Other People's Children

Argument Statement: In the chapter titled “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children” by author Lisa Delpit in her book Other People's Children Cultural Conflict in the Classroom,  she argues that there is a cultural divide in a classroom with regards to race which impacts not only power differences but also creates an environment where one culture is being erased–especially when a white teacher teaches Black students. 

First talking point “When I get black kids, I just try to undo the damage that they did” (22), quoted by a Black teacher in the chapter. When I read this, I froze. I know for a fact that I’m causing damage to someone almost all of the time, there is practically no way to avoid creating damage, but I was thinking about my students. As much as I don’t want to create damage, I’m confronted with the reality that I am and it’s invisible to me. As much as I try to include practices of culturally responsive teaching, the teacher quoted in the chapter is correct, I am creating harm. My whiteness is prevailing over my Latinidad (probably for a plethora of reasons) and that leaves me to confront the harm I am creating. 

Second talking point: “Children from middle-class homes tend to do better in school than those from non-middle class homes because the culture of the school is based on the culture of the upper and middle classes– of those with power” (25). A lot of the time when we talk about power, we talk about power based on race, sex, even religion. Johnson even argued that class was removed from problems in the educational sector because class can change (I disagreed with this point but regardless this is what Johnson argued). Delpit is arguing that class is deeply embedded in the culture of power that is present within the classroom. Middle and upper class existence has certain codes of power that are mirrored in the classroom– other students who were raised in other classes have different rules of power, and obviously those who know the rules will have the advantage of playing fair and winning over those who do not know the rules altogether. This also made me think a lot about my educational experience and the reasons for my success in the classroom. 

Third talking point: “The dilemma is not really in the debate over instructional methodology, but rather in communicating across cultures and in addressing the more fundamental issue of power, whose voice gets to be heard in determining what is best for [lower class] children and children of color" (46). Delpit is arguing not just that we have an issue of a power imbalance– which is true but does not innately imply a need for change or any actionable step that will result in change. However, in naming that we should question whose perspectives are being listened to and whose voices are ignored, there is an obvious solution presented: to invite and include the perspectives of the populations we serve. 

Connection: As I was reading this, I was thinking a lot about the classes that I had in undergrad, especially the classes that I took on race and it reminded me of a paper I once read (I sadly don’t remember what it’s called anymore) that explained that the remnants and culture of slavery are present in almost every institution and way of being. The article explained that even in the way that parents talk about their children– with white parents openly bragging about their child and the culture of Black parents bragging about their children (which typically lessens their accomplishment or the compliment as a then protective measure that protected children from being taken by enslavers). Almost every part of the United States dominant culture is impacted from this and the education system is not different.

Asset vs Deficit

 

 Main Argument: In her article, Renkly argues that there is an innate harm created by deficit based teaching (the system that is currently in place) and that this can be remedied with introducing, adapting and having the education system live in asset based thinking. 

Beginning reflections: In the introduction of the article, Renkly explains that currently in a deficit based approach educational model that school functions in a reactive way instead of a proactive way. To expand on this idea a bit, reactive decisions are made when teachers or other adults in the building receive data or information from students-- typically in the moment, and react to it, they make changes. For example, in a situation where a student is escalated to the point where they are either unsafe with themselves or others, a reactive measure would be to remove the child from the classroom. Typically what happens after that is that when the student is deescalated, adults try to teach the child tools for when they are escalated in the future. Proactive teaching is recognizing when the child is beginning to get escalated and recognizing and giving them de-escalation strategies or asking if they want to take space before they are entirely escalated. My question is what else a proactive approach would include in an education system?

Middle Reflections: One thing that I noticed about the application of an asset based approach was that the studies done on secondary students (grades 6-12) yielded favorable results. The more assets a student had, the more success they had. I am also wondering when students can learn these assets. It's fairly obvious-- at least to me-- that not every student will be born with every asset. While we can use the assets that students possess to teach them in specific ways, we also need to target specific gaps. Asset and deficit based thinking does not replace teaching students core subjects. I'm also thinking that we have to understand a student's deficits within the 40 competencies that make up the asset based approach to be able to teach them the skills and mindsets they need to build (I suppose this would be done in elementary school if the application is happening in secondary).

Ending reflections: "No matter how old a child is,

they all need adults that are willing to mentor them, catch them if they fall, and encourage them

to get back up and try again. This can only be done with an asset model" (26) The part that catches my attention specifically is the idea that encouragement can only be done in an asset based model. I would love to find out more information about how a deficit approach innately goes against the encouragement of children. Additionally, I noticed that throughout the article, the only information that was given about how to implement an asset based approach is that teachers, administrators and the school community should all agree about it's importance and to potentially include this in the school's mission. I would have loved to hear more concrete steps on how to implement asset based approaches in schools that are so focused on deficits and how deficits relate to test scores. 

Connection: This reminded me a lot about the TFA (Teach for America) conference that we had on asset vs deficit based approaches. When we learned about it in TFA it was complemented with the idea that multiple truths can be true at the same time and we used deficit and asset based approaches to identify our personal thought patterns. I thought that the multiple truths at the same time was especially helpful and to connect it to this reading and my reflections so far: an asset based approach may identify and celebrate a student's successes in being empathetic, being a problem solver and having good communication. However, these assets do not negate the severity of a student who cannot read. 

Our Education System: Past and Present

Main Argument: "The Broken Model" by Sal Khan (Chapter 2 of his book, The One World School House ) situates the current education system among both its historical antecedents (the Prussian model) and its current reality while examining and deconstructing, in essence picking apart the traditions that we hold to be "normal" in the education system that we perhaps shouldn't -- with an emphasis on test taking in school. 

Beginning Reflections: Khan opens his argument by positioning the current realities of the education system among a longer list of current traditions and customs that while we are keeping them, are doing practically nothing to serve us in our modern era. He says "parts of the system we now hold sacred-- for example the length of the class period of the number of years assigned to "elementary" or "high" school are in fact rather arbitrary, even accidental" (62). This reminded me a lot about the video that we watched, "A Short History of Public Schooling", not because of their similarities but moreover because the video pushes on the idea that the current schooling model is accidental. The video introduces the idea that almost every aspect we recognize as normal in our education system was a deliberate choice towards pushing students to become subordinates, to recognize their place in the world (as being a cog in a larger factory machine) and most importantly, to realize the importance of this place-- there is no other option than to do it. 

Connection: This reminded me a lot of the four teaching ideologies that I learned in a class on Curriculum and Ideology at RIC that I took last semester. The idea behind the four teaching ideologies are that there are four ideologies-- or frameworks that frame your view on students, on teachers, on the student-teacher relationships, and on assessments. All of these core beliefs stem from a common goal that each ideology holds. The four teaching ideologies are: 

- scholar academic: who view the ultimate goal of education as transmitting information from teachers to students to have master academic subjects/academic disciplines. 

- social efficiency : Who view the goal of education as wanting to produce effective members of society that will work, social efficiency believes that students can meet the needs of society as students become contributing members of society. They understand and firmly believe that students can be successful members of society if they learn the behaviors needed to succeed.

- learner centered: focuses on the needs of the "individual", as opposed to the needs of academics or society. People who subscribe to a learner centered ideology believe that learning is a way to aid students in their growth, that because of the importance of growth, students naturally learn from their environment and so a teacher's role is to help a student maneuver their environments by providing "units" for the student to learn from. 

- social reconstruction: This ideology recognizes that society has many problems-- racism, sexism, economic inequalities, the list goes on. A social reconstructionist ideology asserts that the way to "fix" these problems is to use students by not teaching "undesirable" patterns. 

Beginning reflections; It's clear to me that while currently different educators may have different ideologies and anyone who has gone through the education system will recognize that they have parts and pieces of each ideology from different teachers, the ideology of the beginning of the public education system (Horace Mann's education system) was created around the social efficiency ideology. Because of this, our modern education system has many routines and traditions that support a student's role in becoming a "productive" member of society (it's important to note that social efficiency defines "productive" as someone who produces, someone who contributes to the economy and capitalism). Khan also asserts that if we "redo" the current education system, that our systems and routines as we know them would have to change. 

Middle Reflections: In Khan's reflections about the historical impact of the "Committee of Ten", he explains that this committee pushed that some subjects be made mandatory and other, more specialized subjects be made optional. If a student were able to take a specialized class, the student's work should be to create meaning, not just to be "merely receptive" (79). What was most interesting about this to me was that there is a current system that identifies the rigor in an activity (Blooms Taxonomy, as pictured above) as a tiered system that holds recalling facts at the bottom to the creation of something on the top. It made me wonder about whether Bloom's Taxonomy was created to reflect the current education system or if it was created to model what an ideal education system would be. It also made me wonder what the "Committee of Ten" would think of Bloom's Taxonomy. 

Ending Reflections: The last portion of the chapter heavily discusses testing in school. It asserts that the tests we have do not necessarily test the information we want to know. We typically (we as educators) look at tests to measure how much a student has "mastered" an idea. However, (both looking at where remembering is on Bloom's Taxonomy and what Khan says about testing) typically only measure how much a student is able to memorize in a certain moment: "tests measure the approximate state of a student's memory and perhaps understanding..." (92). Test taking, at least in my opinion (and I think Khan would likely agree with me) is a measure at how well a student can take a test-- whether they understand the way the test is formatted, if they remember what they need to, do not have any testing anxiety that prevents them from accessing the information they need, etc. The way to measure the mastery of an idea by a student, at least in my opinion, would be to follow Bloom's Taxonomy or a different system that tests rigor. One thing that surprised me was that Khan didn't say we should be done with tests altogether. He suggests that we can use tests, but to be specific about the ways we understand what they are measuring. I think I partially agree with him and I partially disagree. I think we could have tests if tests were not viewed as summative assessments, there should be different activities, whether it be a project, a one on one conversation with a teacher, or something else, that tests the mastery of a student. Additionally, I think that tests shouldn't hold the weight that they do in regards to the relationship that testing  has with funding. A lot of (at least public schools) view testing as one of the most important things that a student can go through because it directly impacts the funding that a school gets. 

But, not only is this relationship between testing and funding already making it more difficult for students who do not have the same outside resources, or even in school supports and resources, but also testing itself, at least testing as it is, is incredibly racist. Testing (especially in its relationships to immigration and voting) was created to exclude, specifically exclude anyone who is not white. 

Overall, I found myself agreeing with the majority of what Khan argued and I enjoyed reading his work :)