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Celebrating Diversity Is Not Enough: Finding Authentic Pathways to Equity. By Paul C. Gorski February 2010. Initial Reflection Fight the Power VS Gimme Shelter. Agenda. Conceptualizing “Equity” Where We Get Stuck Shifts of Consciousness for Getting Un-Stuck
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Celebrating Diversity Is Not Enough: Finding Authentic Pathways to Equity By Paul C. Gorski February 2010
Agenda • Conceptualizing “Equity” • Where We Get Stuck • Shifts of Consciousness for Getting Un-Stuck • Principles of Equitable Practice
Primary Arguments • Practicing authentic equity requires shifts in consciousness which inform shifts in practice • Many common “equity” practices result in more inequity • There is something we can do about it
Warning!!! I do not have any of the following: • “The” equity formula or workbook, • A tidy set of activities for teachers to implement in their classrooms tomorrow, or • A single book or poster or video that will make any school “equitable.”
However… I do have: • A framework for thinking complexly and critically about educational equity, • Some difficult, sometimes even uncomfortable, questions about what is and what could be in education.
Where We Are Today • Gross inequities exist in our schools • And these inequities, and the resulting achievement gap, will not be eliminated by Taco Night, the International Fair, or other activities that, however fun, do not address inequities head-on
Gross Inequities Compared with low-poverty U.S. schools, high-poverty U.S. schools have: • More teachers teaching in areas outside their certification subjects; • More serious teacher turnover problems; • More teacher vacancies; • Larger numbers of substitute teachers; • More dirty or inoperative bathrooms;
Gross Inequities • More evidence of vermin such as cockroaches and rats; • Insufficient classroom materials • Less rigorous curricula; • Fewer experienced teachers; • Lower teacher salaries; • Larger class sizes; and • Less funding.
Seriously, I’m Not Making This Up! Barton, P.E. (2004). Why does the gap persist? Educational Leadership 62(3), 8-13. Barton, P.E. (2003). Parsing the achievement gap: Baselines for tracking progress. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Carey, K. (2005). The funding gap 2004: Many states still shortchange low-income and minority students. Washington, D.C.: The Education Trust. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (2004). Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education: A two-tiered education system. Washington, D.C.: Author. Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Can We Solve This By… • Studying a fictitious “culture of poverty”? • Hosting parenting workshops for low-income families? • Instituting Professional Learning Communities? • Developing a service learning program for students?
Where We Are Today Pt. II “I’m experiencing racism here and nobody’s doing anything about it!” --Student of Color During Focus Group “Here at XYZ School, we need to celebrate the joys of diversity!” --Principal of the Same School
So What Is This About? So this is about getting authentic. This is about being a champion of justice in our own spheres of influence. How do we do that..?
Changing Hearts, Not Policies • Focus exclusively on human relations and interpersonal dynamics (symptoms) • Mix-It-Up Lunch: nice program, not equity • Lack of focus on visionary leadership, policy, and accountability
Universal Validation • Equity is not about validating all perspectives (heterosexism, for instance) • In fact, sometimes equity is not even democratic
Equity Issues—Cultural Solutions • Trying to address equity issues, such as racial or class inequity with cultural programming, such as multicultural festivals or learning about the “culture of poverty” • Taco Night is fun, but it is not equity
Whitewashing the Dialog • Candy-coating the conversation to be consumable to privileged audiences • “Change takes time,” “Start where they are” • “We don’t want to make anybody too uncomfortable…” (Um, yes we do!)
Succumbing to Deficit Ideology • Defining the “problem” of inequity and the solutions to inequity in reference to assumed deficiencies within disenfranchised communities • For example, attempting to “fix” the economic achievement gap (which is really an opportunity gap) by fixing low-income people
Ruby Payne Syndrome • Latching onto ideas and models of hot new voices without critical analysis of their work • Professional development focused more on entertainment value than educational value • Illustrates need for consciousness: this wouldn’t happen in most other fields
Regressive Programming • Minimizing integration and equity to co- or extra-curricular programming • Student clubs • Service learning that maintains social and political hierarchies • Dances, food fairs, cultural plunges, arts and crafts
Missing the Implicit • Most inequity is buried in implicit assumptions and the hidden curriculum • Examples: out-of-class interactions (race); compliments (gender)
It’s Equity or It’s Inequity Shift #1 I must acknowledge that education equity is about creating equitable learning environments for all students, so I must be against all inequity.
Beyond the Interpersonal Shift #2 I must understand inequities as systemic and not just individual acts (and what this means in the context of my classroom) • Doesn’t mean I’m individually responsible for eliminating global poverty, that that I need to understand class inequity in schools within the context of larger economic injustice
More than Celebrating Diversity Shift #3 I must transcend the idea of equity as “learning about othercultures” and “celebrating diversity”
Spending Institutional Likeability Shift #4 I must be willing to discomfort and unsettle myself and my colleagues • Institutional likeability
From Equality to Equity Shift #5 I must shift from an equality orientation toward multiculturalism to an equity orientation
Comprehensive Equity Shift #6 I must understand equitable education and integration as a comprehensive approach, not additional activities or slight shifts in an otherwise monocultural school or classroom climate
Seeing the Hidden Shift #7 I must be able to see the hidden or implicit curriculum as clearly as the explicit curriculum
Rejecting Deficit Ideology Shift #8 I must reject deficit theory. And I must never, under any circumstance, make an assumption about any student, parent, or colleague based on a single dimension of their identity
Redirecting Resources Shift #9 I must never put resources for eliminating inequity into cultural programming * * *
Never Essentialize There is no set of curricular or pedagogical practices that work for all members of any specific group of students.
Start with Myself I cannot be of service to any movement for equity if I am unwilling to examine my own biases and socialization.
Fight for the Disenfranchised Fight to ensure students of color and low-income students are not placed unfairly into lower academic tracks.
Better Yet… Eliminate tracking altogether.
Know the Complexities Remember, it’s about more than race and class: home language, (dis)ability, sexual orientation…
Each One Teach One Teach students about racism, poverty, homophobia, and other atrocities, and how they operate in schools. (Yes, they are ready for these conversations.)
Institute Real Change For example, make family involvement more accessible to low-income families and families with home languages other than English.
Transcend Dialogic Surface Dialog is critical in order to prepare us for action. Dialog without action is a waste of time and resources.
Refuse the Master’s Language “Achievement” or “opportunity” gap?
To Whose Benefit? The best way to measure any policy or practice decision is to ask, and answer honestly, one simple question: To whose benefit?
Finally & Most Importantly Empower the equity advocates, who too often feel particularly disempowered.
Another Final Reflection: Fight the Power Vs Gimme Shelter
Thank you. Paul C. Gorski gorski@edchange.org http://www.edchange.org
