While working with the HCZ school system I found Hartigan and Du Bois’s articles applicable; most of the staff members had the black middle class toolkit. They were able to code switch with the students as a means of communication in order to get the students to perform at higher standards. Staff was able to communicate effectively with students as they created lesson plans they were personally passionate about, and topics students could relate to. Students were consistently engaged and teachers were able to create lesson plans that they were passionate about and that the students would latch onto. HCZ staff used code-switching while working with the students in order to prepare them to advance to college in the future. HCZ has created a model …show more content…
School systems that create classes that actively discuss racial and ethnic identity and history serve as an empowering dynamic. The documentary Precious Knowledge presented a battle over Ethnic Studies classes that were offered at Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) in Arizona during 2009. Divisive issues were not the product of these discussions, but a reluctance of white Americans who held the social, political, and economic privilege. The Ethnic Studies classes that were offered at TUSD empowered the Mexican-American students in the community by allowing them to learn more about their history, who they were, and how they fit into the social structure in the U.S. society. The classes taught the students about the systematic structures within the United States, providing students with a holistic understanding of the racial and ethnic issues relating to their personal social-political position, as well as others in the sociopolitical system. Courses similar to these are critical for students from underrepresented backgrounds and whites to engage in at the high school level because they push both whites and marginalized groups to understand a new perspective from a young
In the article, “Learning How to Code Switch: Humbling, but Necessary,” I learned that I can relate to Eric Deggans to my own experience. When growing up I had to code switch, an example when I was in elementary and I was in Bilingual classes from Kindergarten to Third Grade. Then when fourth Grade hit my school wanted to switch me to an English class not a Bilingual classes anymore. My mom that day had a lot of thought about it and she said it was fine that the school suggested that, so I switched. The change was different because I couldn’t speak Spanish in my 4th grade English class anymore and I had to code switch to just speaking English to the rest of my classmates. And when I saw my Last 3rd grade bilingual class moving to 4th grade
In Tucson, Arizona ethnic studies classes caused controversy over what kinds of classes should be allowed in Tucson’s public schools. The Latino population of students was greatly being effected by only a 50% graduation rate. The ethnic studies curriculum was created to engage students with a history from a different cultural viewpoint than what was usually taught in public high school. From the outside of the classroom the opposing forces against ethnic studies believed that the hidden curriculum within the classes was detrimental to students. This was because it was teaching anti-American beliefs along with creating students who would act with rebellious beliefs and racism. From inside the classroom the teachers and students look to their curriculum and insist that their curriculum was more about having courage to examine history, create understanding and respect for one another and one’s self. They believed in looking at problems that the world was facing and not just accepting them but also trying to make a change for the better. The problematic readings were grounded in the courses use of the "Pedagogy of the Oppressed” with ideals that are based in teachings like Marxism.
Racial formation is a vast sum of signifying actions and social structures that clash in the creation of complex relationships and identities that is a labeled race. Throughout the history of the United States, a large array of strategies was engaged in regarding education that took advantage of nonwhites. Since policies by those who supposedly “protect our rights” attempted to eradicate social, economic and cultural aspirations, dominated groups were more often than not suspicious of the school 's interests. According to John Ogby, “children from dominated cultures often failed school because they considered the school to be representative of the dominant white culture” (Spring, 101). This portrays racial formation having an effect on equality. “Acting white” meant to attempt to do well in school because
High school is often considered a microcosm of society. Beliefs, social order, and current issues present themselves through student’s interactions and the environment they learn in. One of the oldest and still prevalent issues in the United States today is race and equality. So it is no surprise when racial issues are exposed in public education. Although many believe the civil rights era fixed most discrimination, racism remains in schools. Even after court ordered integration, classroom disparities have led to harmful segregation to continue within schools.
In recent years, the Arizona education department has been under fire after the Arizona legislature passed a law banning Mexican-American studies in schools (Planas, 2015, p. 1). Not only have the schools in Arizona suffered from this discriminatory law, but also the advancement of Mexican-American students. This essay will briefly go over the Tucson Unified School District, the district in the midst of the controversy, and will mainly focus on Pueblo Magnet High School, one of the schools in the Tucson Unified School District that was greatly affected by the ethnic studies law.
Millions of children, teenagers, young adults, and adults attend school every Monday through Friday in the United States with the intent to learn and further their knowledge of core subjects. They learn math, science, English, history, and countless other subjects throughout the week of school. In history they learn about how for a long time in American history women were not allowed to go to school and were forbidden get a higher education for even longer. They also learn that for much of American history schools were separated by race. In “The Next Kind of Integration” by Emily Bazelon, the author talks about how in 2008 the Supreme Court ruled in a close decision that the racial-integration efforts of two school districts was unconstitutional. In “When Bright Girls Decide That Math is ‘a Waste of Time’” by Susan Jacoby, Jacoby talks about how gender stereotypes limit girls and young women from being proficient in math and science throughout their life. Even though integrating different races, socioeconomic statuses, and even genders can be difficult, in the long run it leads to better educated students and a better experience in school.
In the reading, Culture and Power in the Classroom: A Critical Foundation for Bicultural Education, Antonia Darder argues that education is a critical tool and necessity for the advancement of people of color. She highlights that education is tied to status, which in turn, then gives you power in society. She helps us see many of the flaws in the school system that prevents students of color from excelling in the academic world. She points to us, that although there are many things within the school institution itself that fail students of color over and over again, the blame is always placed on the individual. She also highlights that there are many myths about students of color that say that their failure is tied to coming from cultures and backgrounds that do not value education. Finally, Darder argues that conservative educators hurt bicultural student’s education, and liberal educators, although may seem the better option, still fail to attack the institutions that help foster failure in the education setting. They also end up alluding to student failure to individual failure.
The United States of America is a nation based on the idea of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness, the people from this country have an obligation to make sure that every American can experience these given rights. However by banning Mexican-American studies in Arizona, this right to express and learn about their culture is taken away. According to Kirk Semple of the New York Times, about 41 percent of all Mexicans between ages 16 and 19 [in the city] have dropped out of school. There could be a plethora of reasons why this statistic may be so high for Mexican-Americans, however, based on the statements made by students in the documentary Precious Knowledge, there
Antonia Darder sets a language in Culture and Power in the Classroom that critiques the traditional American educational system while challenging teachers to a new thinking of culture and diversity in the classroom. Using the groundings from several theories, theory and resistance, regimes of truth, and theory of hegemony, she set the platform of the hidden curriculum that is valued in traditional public education. She seeks to use several theoretical frameworks to create a bicultural critical pedagogical approach, which links education to impactful politics. In Culture and Power in the Classroom, Antonia Darder makes is clear that education matters, but yet more importantly that all students matter in their educational experience. As educators there needs to be awareness and consciousness of the hegemonic forces of race, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, and/or ability shape that inferiority within students. Cultural hegemony is so natural, that even in the classroom students are immune to the shoddiness of living within the realms of the dominant culture.
Code Meshing is the process of speaking both formal and informal at the same time; where as code switching is the process of switching from speaking formal to informal, or informal to formal in order to fit in. I choose not to use either of those methods. I used to use code switching most of my life up until I went to high school. My parents taught me to code switch to show respect to my elders. You should not speak to elders the same way you would speak to your friends. I went to a Afrocentric school Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School There we was taught to embrace our history and use Ebonics in our everyday language.
While Biggers focuses on the positive aspects of the teachers, students, and legislators, Wun points out possible improvements that the Ethnic Studies movement should have made to protect themselves and further their goals. Specifically, she discusses two distinct problems with both, how the film portrays the program, as well as the program itself: the complete
We examined the issues, problems, and solutions to equitable schooling in a pluralistic society. Viewing schools as social institutions that transform the cultural and political dynamics of society. Some of my favorite activities in that class had to do with the articles of Crystal City and Little Rock Nine. The Walkout in Crystal City article was about how in 1969, Mexican Americans were prohibited from speaking Spanish in school and there were no classes or lessons about Mexican history, culture or literature and how the he Crystal City students came together after the school board refused to hear the students' demands and the walkout remains a high point in the history of student activism in the Southwest. The Little Rock Nine article had to do with the decision that was made on May 17, 1954 due to BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of America’s public schools was unconstitutional. That is when nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Even though the students were not wanted their and discriminated against, they were still brave enough to encounter the mistreatment is order to show that they to deserved to have the education and equality that the caucasian students had. This really encouraged me to collaborate
To begin, a white woman named Erin Gruwell decides to take up teaching at Woodrow Wilson High School two years following the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. She arrives on the first day to find out that her class is full of “at-risk” high school students— some of which are just out of juvenile hall and have very poor grades. These are kids who have segregated themselves into racial groups so badly that they can’t even sit near each other in the same classroom or walk by each other without getting into fights.
During the late 1960’s, America had entered into a period of cultural definition especially with the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. Although the term “multicultural education” had not come into play yet, the idea that the U.S needed to reexamine their efforts of educating diverse groups was emerging. During this time inequality especially among minority groups in comparison to the white dominant culture became a social issue (Banks 1999). Before the arrival of this reform multicultural education was displayed in the classroom as having minorities adapt to the predominant culture. Teachers during this time felt it would be more beneficial for minorities to adapt. However, many parents of these minorities begin to argue that the
In this world, there are a lot of languages used to communicate. Nation and cultural diversity are a source of variation in the languages. The diversity of the language used by a particular group is a factor of the occurrence of bilingualism. According to Grosjean (1984, p. 1) bilingualism is the use of two or more languages. The proficiency of bilingualism may vary depending on the exposure to the other users of language and opportunities to use the language. It is one of the factors of replacement of the language. This phenomenon known as code switching, it can occur as a whole, the incorporating elements of other languages in the language being used, or the turn of a variation of a language. Based on Poplack (1980) theory code switching is the alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent. Garrett (2010, p. 11) said that code switching is the most powerful feature of informal communication. Code switching happens when speakers speak in one language into another language as example when they