Here are my two goals for the course. One, interrogate (which means “ question thoroughly”) everything. Yourself first. Your biases. Your actions. Your curriculum. The educational system. Society. The media. Everything. Interrogate, interrogate, interrogate. Two, I hope you’ll simply be more nuanced ("increase your sensitivity to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings of meaning, feelings, or thinking about a topic”) about identity issues sixteen weeks from when you first began the class.
Remember these two things as we explore the socio-cultural issues in education: interrogate and nuance. Deal? Let’s get started!
Class Activity: Identify at least 5 of your own multicultural bubbles.
Check out Project Implicit.
Last of all, please read this very short historical piece about this class as it gives excellent context to the beginning of the multicultural education movement in American schooling. The History of Multicultural Education by Paul Gorski.
Bullying
Also, I am a huge student of anti-bullying measures. I got a unique film for you - made by the same folks that made the Straightlaced documentary - on bullying specially in middle school. Once again, I love this documentary because there are NO adults in it…only middle school kids speaking about their own experiences. If you have time, please check it out. You won’t be disappointed. It’s not required viewing, but it sure is relevant viewing!
The film is called Let’s Get Real and can be found here: https://csudh.kanopy.com/product/lets-get-real-students-bias-bullying
Resources
Do check out these great websites with amazing FREE resources!
www.adl.org The Anti-Defamation League fights anti-Semitism, bigotry, and extremism. Its website includes informaton on religious freedom, civil rights, and the Holocaust as well as resources for teachers on fighting hate.
www.edchange.org/multicultural/index.html The Multicultural Pavilion links teachers with others who are dealing with issues related to multicultural education.
www.feminist.org The website of The Feminist Majority provides information about women’s issues, Title IX, and education, including links to additional resources.
www.rethinkingschools.org The Rethinking Schools website was designed by a group of teachers who wanted to improve education in their own classrooms and schools and to help shape school reform that is humane, caring, multiracial, and democratic.
www.splcenter.org The Southern Poverty Law Center combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation against hate groups. It publishes the Learning for Justice Magazine, which is available at no cost to teachers, and numerous other teaching resources.
Check out the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME).
This is just the beginning. We’ve only scratched the surface.
FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE
Click on the photo below to watch a 2-minute video introducing Teaching Tolerance. And see if you can find me in one of the pictures in the video!
First of all, I worked for Learning for Justice Magazine and The Southern Poverty Law Center for 7 years as a writer and senior curriculum specialist. Check out their site, order the free magazine, and especially order their free videos and kits for your classrooms. You won’t be disappointed as these are high-quality resources and materials for your classrooms.
Recently the College of Education had five new faculty searches. I was on three of the search committees. We read dozens and dozens of resume packages, selected the best candidates for the positions, and got down to doing phone interviews and, eventually, in-person/on-campus interviews. There are always lots of fascinating things that you learn during search committee work, but here is something that happened and impacted me with these last searches…
Nearly every candidate - and certainly every single one of the folks who “made the cut” and were asked eventually to come for the in-person/on-campus interview - mentioned the exact same scholar.
Every. Single. One.
Well I don’t know about you, but if a whole lot of people are talking about one important work then I want to know all about it.
So, I’m happy to introduce some of you to the important and tranformative work of Luis C. Moll. Hey, it’s near the end of the semester so you are probably already familiar with Moll’s work, right?
Luis C. Moll is a professor and associate dean at the College of Education at the University of Arizona. His research addresses the connections among culture, psychology and education, especially in relation to the education of Latino children in the U. S. Among other studies, he has analyzed the quality of classroom teaching, examined literacy instruction in English and Spanish, studied how literacy takes place in the broader social contexts of household and community life and attempted to establish pedagogical relationships among these domains of study. He is perhaps best known for coining the term “funds of knowledge” to describe the cultural resources that students of color bring to the classroom.
Read this short synthesis of Luis C. Moll’s work on “Funds of Knowledge.”
Students and families bring their cultures into the classroom. Teachers also bring to school their cultures, which may be different than that of their students. What problems can arise if teachers establish their own culture as the norm to be followed in the classroom? What cultural norms should guide a classroom in which students are culturally diverse?
Wow! This Professional Development Module on Moll’s “funds of knowledge” is simply fantastic! Double wow! Read through it, watch the videos, and reflect on the questions posed in the module. This is your assignment for this week - the module tited “Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education: Family and Community Engagement”.
Think about how you could tap into your own students’ “funds of knowledge.” What did you think of this new information? More important, since most of you have taught for a few years now, what about this week’s information can you implement? How can you go out into the community to bring the community into the school?