Upon reading Strong is the Silence by Herbel-Eisenmann et al. I was challenged quite a bit emotionally. I guess I am getting ahead of myself and should first comment on what they have presented. Herbel-Eisenmann et al. presents "the need to break the silence of privilege and oppression in mathematics education. The authors present three distinct reasons for the need to voice these concerns. These reasons are: that the teacher population is not a very good representation of the student population with regards to race, social class, and language spoken, the lack of literature surrounding the diverse nature of the classrooms in the United States and lastly, the lack of literature that confronts the "privilege granted by institutions and society through addressing interlocking systems of privilege and oppression in order for our mathematics education community to thoughtfully avoid replicating imperialism."
I guess this is where the emotional cord comes in. The article addresses the fact that typically "White teachers claim to be 'colour-blind' and treat all students the same." The authors believe this is not possible and covers up the inequities that occur in the classroom with regards to race, class, and power. They go on to say that this "color-blind"ness leads to differing expectations in students from different situations and ultimately may "negatively impact the performance of students of color and undermine multicultural practices and policies." Until this week I would have like to say that I treat all my students the same regardless of their backgrounds and I would never have said I hold different students to different standards. Although it would be impossible to say that you are colour-blind, as having an appreciation for each of your children's life situations is imperative, I truly would like to believe that I treat them equally and have appropriate expectations for each of them. Although I work in a school that is definitely not a complete representation of society, we do have many students of differing race, social-economic status, and multilingual families, there are students from all walks of life that need extra support or care at different times.
I believe that this question is much more complex than just a simple socio-economic analysis. As we all know as educators, children are extremely multi-dimensional with their needs in school and out of school. However, in conclusion, I do believe it is important to acknowledge the issues of privilege and oppression and I whole-heartedly agree that these two entities do not need to exist in parallel and if they are addressed separately, we as mathematics teachers will be able to help more of our students obtain success.
In reflection of your response to the article, I ask myself, how can we demonstrate a more multicultural mathematics education in our own classrooms? I concur that often we mistake colour-blindness for being accepting and tolerant of students of all cultural and racial backgrounds. This is too my struggle. It truly is not trivial to recognize that treating students of all walks of life fairly and equally is not enough in a mathematics classroom. Acknowledging each student's history and life experience he or she brings to class seem to be one of the most important legacies John Dewey left us with. This piece also reminds me of Paolo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed which speaks of emancipating the students from the power of the governmental control. If we do not take the initiative to address the interlocking system of privilege and oppression, who will be the true leader of our mathematics classrooms today? As hard as the truth is, we need to begin with ourselves. Peggy McIntosh's Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack is a great place to commence. Turning a "colour-blind" eye by failing to address the students' individual uniqueness in our curriculum, we may unintentionally be the students' oppressors. Now we return to the questions, how can we break the silence in our own classrooms?
ReplyDeleteWow! Your article seemed much more controversial than mine. I found it interesting when you mentioned that the authors said that white teachers claim to be colour-blind and treat all students the same. For me, being 'colour-blind' doesn't always equate treating everyone the same. A wise man once told me that "Fair does not equal same". I would like to believe that we all practice equity over equality. Not every student needs the same tools to succeed. I have different expectations for all of my students whether they are of the same racial, social, economic background or not. As you mentioned, Phillipa, this is a much more complex issue than race, or socio-economic status. Expectations for children, and how we treat them can vary from day to day depending on lots of things such as what's happening at home, or even whether or not they ate breakfast that morning.
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