Case Study Of Alyssa's Interview

This paper is intended to explore and report upon the topics posited by Tyrone C. Howard in his book, Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in Americas Classrooms. Closely examining each and every chapter as they come and how the structure of this book gives a detailed framework and guidance system for novice and experienced teachers to take their pedagogical skills to more diverse and multicultural levels. Also, this paper will review a few lessons or projects that can be adapted and used within my personal educational institute in order to create

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

African American students account for the larger majority of minorities in public schools in the United States. Most areas in the northern part of the United states and coastal areas are ethnically diverse. However, down south this is not the case. Students of color will experience a harder time in the education system. African American students meet the obstacle of educators who will not want them to succeed based on a preconceived thought. In fact, Caucasian teachers make up for 85% of all

In the United States, each and every day, more minority children are born than white children. Fewer and fewer white parents are giving birth to multiple children, while many minority parents from African-American cultures to Hispanic cultures are continuing to have the same number of children, and possibly more. With all these minority children entering the U.S. education system, there is a problem current minority students are facing; there is a shortage of minority teachers. While there are minority teachers in the workforce, when Richard Ingersoll and Henry May, in their report: "The Minority Teacher Shortage: Fact or Fable?", looked at the data in 2011, they found that there is not a shortage in terms of number of teachers, but a shortage of minority teachers in the places that need them most: inner-city schools, with high minority populations. Minority students assimilate better with a teacher of the same ethnic background and the contrary view of this was highlighted in a 2012 skit by Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key. The duo did a skit of an inner-city black substitute teacher inside of a middle class, almost all white classroom. Using his current cultural capital (defined as: “…the general cultural background, knowledge, disposition, and skills that are passed on from one generation to another,” (McLaren, 80,) the teacher, Mr. Garvey, acts as a disciplinarian. He takes attendance and when a student corrects his inner-city pronunciation (i.e. says “Jay-quellin”

Also within the school is a very diverse group of children with around fifty-seven percent of students identifying as white, nineteen percent identifying as black or African American, and seventeen percent identifying as Hispanic or Latino.

Classrooms are becoming more diverse than they were several decades ago because so many people are migrating from their country of origin to seek for better living opportunities, in search of a safe place and because the United States of America is a super power. Therefore political, economic, and social-cultural reasons are the causes of migration which results in families remaining in the country causing classrooms today to be more diverse than they were decades ago thereby rapidly changing the demography of the United States and its classroom (Vacca et al, 2014, p. 62). To confirm this point for instance, at my school, there are a total of 354 students and the percentage of Hispanics: 41.5%, Blacks: 40.1%, Whites: 13.6%, Multicultural: 3.7%, other: 1.2%, Asians: 0.9%. Students from these different cultural backgrounds have different values, attitudes and experiences.

I decided to interview my aunt, Evert Landa, because she graduated from John Marshall High School which is located near Belmont Senior High the school I graduated from. I was curious to discover how similar our experiences were because she attended high school from 1996 – 2000 while I started high school a decade later 2010 – 2014. Both schools are located in a predominantly Hispanic and Latino community while also being diverse. However, as I interviewed her, the experience she had in high school was completely different from the one I had in high school; moreover, we also compared the experience that her daughter is having in high school to ours. The school system has undergone changes in terms of segregation, the way teachers lecture, and

This perspective, at first glance, can be seen as appropriate but a closer examination reveals several weaknesses to this perspective. Principal Foster is a white female elementary principal at a suburban school district. Foster describes her school as being a “fairly homogenous group of students, but I would say we do have some racial diversity. I’d say maybe our African-American population for a suburban area might be a little larger than some other schools around this area.” Here, principal Foster reveals that compared to other suburban school district’s her school has a great proportion of black

The person I interviewed was my mother, Holly Parker, her job currently is working at a pizza shop known as Little Caesar's, Holly was born in 1976 on January 27th. Holly’s parent's names are George and Carol McGee, and one of her siblings is named Nathan. Holly has lived in Ohio but is mostly in Bowling Green, she has moved to Sandusky once then moved back to Bowling Green. A school Holly attended was Crim Elementary School. Holly is 5 feet tall (Yes, literally), has brown hair, hazel eyes, and usually wears a yellow or pink hoodie (unless it’s in the summertime, then she will wear a T-Shirt.).

My data analysis of racial demographics in the school district shows that the area is uniquely isolated – surrounded by communities that don’t look similar. At Palos Verdes Peninsula High, there are two primary ethnic groups that attend school – white students and Asian students. Combined, they make up over 75% of the high school population, while white students represent the largest overall at just over 40%. The third largest ethnic group represented is Hispanic or Latino students, of which there are only 262. This equals about one-tenth of the high school. The district overall has even higher percentages of white students, totaling almost 48%. Only 12% of the district’s students identify as either Hispanic or

I spent a lot of time with Julia's interview. She completely detests campus food, and appreciates the fact that she lives off campus this year and no longer has to depend on campus dining, as evidenced by her quote, "I don't eat on campus at all anymore because I live off campus and don't want to spend my money on overpriced food that is subpar..."

I interviewed my mother, Stephanie Patsalis. My mother decided to get married because she wanted to be in a committed relationship. After she was married, she decided to have children because she loved the joy they bring to families. Stephanie has had a full time outside of the home since her children were born, the children’s father works in New York City. All childcare and housekeeping responsibilities are solely on Stephanie with the help of cleaning ladies and nannies. As mentioned before, Stephanie works outside the home and her workplace does a great job accommodating to her needs as a mother. Stephanie says the workplace policies are flexible with her schedule, however she says it’s still hard to juggle her career while raising her

I chose to read the interview with Beverly Tatum. What stood out to me was not the content she presented in the article but how much I related to it. I would like to say that this relation was a positive one but in fact I saw some of my own remarks in the ones she stated as having negative effect. As a caucasian female I never realized an inclusive classroom was more than saying I see all students as equals. There was a passage in the interview how most educators present this model throughout their classroom. It wasn’t until reading Beverly’s response to the interview question where I saw the wrong in that. Equality isn’t creating a common ground for all student’s. Just like the interview stated equal rights means more than making everyone equal. As a white educator in a predominantly white classroom that means seeing all my students as white. It is not something I would be doing on purpose but something that society has engraved in to me.

Faith is something that is extremely crucial to all of us, as Catholics, especially here at Central Catholic. I was able to have the opportunity to interview Hannah Kessinger, a senior at Central Catholic, and she was willing to share some personal information about her faith.

Within education teachers come in contact with a large population of culturally diverse individuals (students,