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I believe one of the most critical strategies for achieving ed. equity is
addressing issues of class and the role it plays for students, teachers and
the culture itself. Because class is not a 'protected category' the same
way
race, gender, national origin etc. are, it receives little or no overt
attention. However, it plays a huge role on student achievement and teacher
expectations, if I may paraphrase Dee Grayson's originating work [GESA]. A
wonderful and distressing research article by Jean Anyone of Rutgers
University in 1979 entitled "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of
Work"
details how schools were [and still are?] set up to ensure that some people
are the worker bees, some are the managers and others are the owners and
entrepreneurs. I believe, as do many social justice workers, that the
pillar
that holds up the trailers of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., is class.
In a class based society, to address this sacred cow would be tantamount to
treason. Yet educators are confronted with its impact every day. Today's
teachers name it as the tension between the "have's and the have-not's" and
wonder why there aren't more trainings on how to address that dynamic. When
I tell them that the continuation of class distinctions is the bedrock upon
which our American economic system is based, they look confused as if
somehow keeping some people from having equality is in variance with the
American principles of 'all men[sic] are created equal' and 'liberty and
justice for all'. Mix this in with the most recent educational mantra of
'all children to high standards', it is no wonder educators are confused.
'All' doesn't really mean 'all'. [George Orwell's doublespeak is alive and
well in the 21st century]. Some students, teachers know, are never going to
make it. Others will make it to a degree and others are going to be just
fine. What is not stated is that the latter group is going to be just fine
in a middle or upper class construct of what constitute success. What is
not
spoken is that schools are working from middle class rules yet house
students from poverty, working class and the middle class. (The owning
class
goes to private schools so they don't have to mix or deal with the
'other').
And the rules of each of these classes are not the same all the way around.
What is also not spoken about is the fear teachers as a group, have of
being
radical innovators. In a class based society, having a group of
disenfranchised people (i.e., the poor), keeps the middle class from being
too innovative, from questioning too much, from pushing too hard when the
contradictions reveal themselves. After all, there is always the threat of
the middle class (and that includes more than teachers of course) loosing
their status and joining the disenfranchised class to keep the middle class
pretty compliant and unquestioning. All of these and many more factors are
at play in our educational system. After all, educational systems, no mater
what country, have as their primary assignment the replication of the
controlling culture. Given that in this country, education was the sole
right of the rich, male, Caucasian originators of our current system, it
makes sense that most of the struggles we wage as 'civil rights advocates'
is to first open those doors to the rest of us, and, once in, to mess
around
with the prevailing structure to make the education we receive relevant to
all of our lives. Ruby Payne's work on this is really quite wonderful. I
used it in a workshop for another middle class group of people, psychiatric
social workers, most of whose clientele were people in generational
poverty.
(Once again, the wealthy being able to separate themselves away from the
rest by affording to access private mental health treatment, leaving the
poor to heal in public)
Coursework in college, certification requirements for teachers and
professional development workshops on class, that include where we each
have
come from, how that has impacted our point of view of the world and how we
as educators see and behave towards students in our classrooms, I believe
are critical and key to moving the equity agenda. Without acknowledging the
existence of class, its inherent inequality, and its huge influence on
everyone, we will never run out of the need to do equity work.
In additional to Ruby Payne's work, Julian Weisglass, through his work in
EMELI (Equity In Mathematics Education Leadership Institute) has some
wonderful models for addressing this very issue, in a way that is honoring,
enlightening and freeing for all. He can be reached at UC, Santa Barbara
at:
805/893-3026.
Hope this is helpful.
Thanks for asking.
Susan McKevitt
Administrator
Bureau of Career Development
Department of Education
101 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603-271-6613
Fax: 603-271-1953
Email: smckevitt@ed.state.nh.us <mailto:smckevitt@ed.state.nh.us>
"You have to become the change you want to see."
Mahatma Gandhi
-----Original Message-----
From: lpurring [SMTP:lpurring@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 11:57 AM
Subject: [EDEQUITY] strategies for achieving educational
equity
Hi, I'm looking for responses from this list to the question
"What
three
strategies for achieving educational equity do you consider most
important today?" I would like to include some of these
responses,
duly
credited, in an international conference paper on this subject;
I
will
contact you off list for permission to quote.
Thanks very much! Linda
Purrington,
Title IX Advocates,
lpurring@earthlink.net
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