Critical Pedagogy Analysis

Authors Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton in Chapter Five of Courageous Conversations About Race broach the topic of race, by asking the reader to evaluate his or her own consciousness of race. According to the authors, in order to address the achievement gaps between African American students and White students, educators should shift their energy towards focusing on the factors that they have direct control of inside the classroom rather than on the factors that influence this achievement disparity between races outside the classroom.

The article Whose Culture has Capital? Acritical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth, talks community cultural wealth as the critical race theory. Critical race theory changes the way we look as communities of color, instead of thinking of places full of cultural poverty disadvantages, it focusses on and learns from the range of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially disregarded groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. There are various forms capital, including aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant, these forms of capital focuses on what Students of Color bring with them from their homes and communities into the classroom.

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

Critical pedagogy is a philosophy that aims to foster more than just dialogue between the educators and students. It encourages “exploration, to help students move through the process of discovery by talking with them, asking questions and generally keeping up the momentum of exploration” (Elmborg, 2002, p. 458). This then effectively resolves the issue of a stagnant pedagogy, one that does not keep up with the times and needs of the students. Additionally, critical pedagogy serves to place some, or perhaps a lot of autonomy on the students’ part, attributing the means to the realization potential to them as well as the educators. As such, the only way for the educator to come to a better understanding of their students’, as well as their own

On the very first day of the class, Introduction to the Black Experience, we learned that people are defined by their culture and geography. We are also defined by the gaze of others and our own gaze. This realization led me to contemplate what the “black experience” means to me. As a first generation Haitian-American woman at Wellesley College, it has become clearer to me how important the language and culture of parents has been in shaping my identity. I have also begun to think more critically about how my identity as a woman of color separates me from black brothers as well as my white peers at Wellesley.

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

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.

Thus Black Studies argues for a number of far-reaching reforms. There should be a greater emphasis on student participation in the teaching/learning process, rather than the banking process where the teacher deposits knowledge into students’ heads and periodically (at exam time) makes withdrawals. ….. Finally, freedom, like effective education, is achieved most often when groups of human beings cooperate with each other, not when lone individuals compete against all others” (Cole, pg

As discussed by Jabari Mahiri, African American culture and discussions about African American youth cannot be eliminated when trying to help educate black students. In detail, two African-American teachers who taught in the same high school had two different outcomes with their students. The reason there were two different results between the teachers was because one teacher decided to introduced and exposed the students to familiar faces that they can relate to and African American issues. In addition, Quassan Castro Writer, Activist, Columnist, Poet, Educator and Culture Critic suggested some tips and strategies to teach African American students because he noticed that there is staggering amount of African American students dropping out of high school and not attending college. Specifically, Castro mentioned that main three tips all Educators Must Know About Educating African American and Latino Students is 1) Connect with Parents. “Establish a positive connection with parents from the first day of class. A phone call to report good news is as equally vital to the success of your student as informing parents when children are struggling” (Castro). 2) Cultural Images. “Due to the overexposure to white identities in media, African American and Latino students need to see images of themselves where they are not portrayed as inferior or subordinate to white culture.” (Castro). 3) Value of Education and Real Life. “Express the value of education. Explain the varying levels of educational possibilities one can attain. Do not assume your students know how many high school credits they need to graduate. Do not assume your students knows what a bachelors, masters or doctorate program consists of” (Castro). These particular sources link the issue of African American students not having a high rate of academic achievement because

Today, African American students are under-represented in college and universities, and the reason is the ongoing disenfranchisement of African American students. Our education system needs be more responsive and needs to pay more attention to the college preparation for these students. People of color historically have been misrepresented, exploited, silenced, and taken for granted in education research (Dillard, 2000; Stanfield, 1995), (H. Richard Milner IV, 2008).

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

Black males enter educational environments questioning if they belong while trying to survive. Schools reflect critical factors that impact how Black males see themselves and how they envision their futures. Brooms (2016) asserts that school culture cannot understand the context of the lived experiences of Black males within education without positioning them as victims of the system. However, it is due to “institutional racism, intergenerational poverty, and the lack of meaningfully sustained educational reform and community development (Brooms, 2016)” that disproportionately puts Black males at risk for educational failure. Polite and Davis (1999) adds that “to be an African American male in school and society places one at risk for a

The United States of America is known for being a country filled with people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the student population in schools is just as diverse as it continues to grow. Lynch (2015) notes that schools are expected to teach their students “how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base” as this will help “facilitate students’ personal and professional success in a diverse world” (para. 8). Educators must be able to provide for the diverse needs of students and are expected to equip students with skills that can lead to healthy development as it can affect higher levels of student achievement and students have more opportunities of success in their future. Providing students with tools and skills requires an awareness and acceptance of their ethnic identity. Once students have developed self-acceptance about their ethnic identity, they can begin to feel empowered and motivated to do well. Through cultural empowerment, students of color can develop intrinsic motivation and achieve academic success.

An intersectional reflection of my dichotomous relationship with higher education is what fuels my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. As a first-generation college student, earning a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees profoundly altered the trajectory of my family out of years of generational poverty. As a result of embracing higher education, I possess the ability to think critically and creatively, with a passion and hunger for lifelong learning. Contrarily, the experience also left some biological, psychological, and social scarring. Macroaggressions, tokenism, and implicit bias have all contributed to the way that I now live, learn, and work in the world. While these experiences did not prevent the completion of my education, it has led others to abandon the pursuit, and certainly presents an enigma to many colleges and universities around the country eager to recruit and retain scholars that identify as Black/African-American, first-generation, and/or low socioeconomic status. The majority of my professional experience revolves around this very conundrum and the time has now come to pursue extensive and original research in this chosen field.

Education is a privilege given to people in a free society so they can gain knowledge and have a broad awareness of the world they live in. However, this privilege has unequally been stripped from people of color throughout history. People of color currently experience education at a disadvantage because they are taught with the understanding that they should naturally recognize the culture, when they do not. There are many steps educators can take to help students of color gain the education they deserve, but they are stuck in their self-proclaimed, righteous methods and believe change is unnecessary. In Lisa D. Delpit’s essay, “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children,” she argues that there are