Need help - Racial Diversity Interview

[Sheena]

Hi - I need an ethnically diverse/minority teacher to interview about their experiences with the educational system. It is part of a unit about multi-cultural education I am taking through UWF teacher training program. I am 36 year old Irish female with MA in English, hoping to become a Middle School Language Arts teacher. I would really appreciate any responses. If you would prefer to respond in private, please PM your answers. Thanks!!!
Sheena

As a teacher of color, what challenges do you face?

What challenges do students of color face in today's classroom?

What challenges do students of poverty face in today's classroom?

Are our school's facing the challenges of creating learning environments for students with diverse backgrounds?

What advice would you give a beginning teacher teaching in today's classroom?
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[Chef Dave]

As a teacher of color, what challenges do you face?

I would prefer not to be labeled as a "teacher of color." Everyone is colored. Being "white" is a color. The suggestion that those of us who are not white are "colored" seems overtly condescending.

I am Asian ... not "Oriental" and certainly not "yellow."

I think challenges have diminished over the past three decades. When I first started in the early 80's, I had teachers ask me if I spoke Chinese. When I admitted to not speaking Chinese (being a 3rd generation U.S. citizen), they foolishly asked me if I could read Chinese.

One administrator told me that he had always loved Chinese food ... as though I were some sort of cultural ambassador to his school. To some extent, I suppose I was as I was the only Asian on faculty. The faculty was about 50-50 Caucasian and Hispanic. The student body at this south Texas school was heavily Mexican.

A kindergarten teacher asked me what Christmas was like in China. I didn't have a clue and she wasn't happy when I told her that most Chinese aren't Christian.

I think the biggest problem that I had was that there were many Caucasian teachers who insisted upon addressing me by my family name instead of using my familiar name. My familiar name is "David." Insofar as these teachers didn't address each other as "Gonzalez," "Smith," or "Brown," I thought that this was overtly racist ... as though these teachers assumed that anyone who was ethnically Asian must have an Asian name.

When I first started teaching, I was an elementary teacher. My intermediate students had many questions - which I suppose was only to be expected as I was probably the first Asian they had ever met. They wanted to know whether I spoke Chinese. They asked about the difference between Chinese and Japanese. They asked if I knew martial arts. I didn't mind these questions and even turned them into short impromptu lessons, using a pull down map to show them where China and Japan are located.

I wasn't offended by questions from the students. Questions from a supposedly educated faculty did bother me.

In today's world, I continue to be a distinct minority. Last year I was the only Asian on faculty. We had 1 Chinese foreign exchange student. Most of the students were Caucasian but we had about 40% students of Mexican origin.

During my two years at this school, I only had one teacher ask about my ethnic background. This teacher brought his class to my Culinary Arts Department to ask if I was Japanese or Chinese. The class seemed to be embarrassed about this.

None of my students have asked me whether I speak Chinese or whether I know martial arts or any of the other cultural assumptions presumed by teachers and students in past decades.

What challenges do students of color face in today's classroom?

In the United States, there are still a number of issues.

1) Some standardized testing like the SAT is criticized as being biased because some tests seem oriented towards white middle class backgrounds.

2)Inner-city schools seem to be dominated by poor ethnic minorities. Graduation rates at these schools are below the national average. By way of example, Detroit only has a 25% rate of on-time graduation! There are many reasons for this. Inner city schools tend to attract novice teachers. They also have high rates of faculty turnover. Inner city schools are also not very heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity or social economic backgrounds.

3) In the United States, the Federal government has mandated accountability testing. Schools must meet AYP, adequate yearly progress, to receive Federa funding. Schools that don't meet AYP are put on probation and are at risk of being taken over by the state. THe problem with this is that inner-city schools are at an inherent disadvantage for meeting AYP. Blaming teachers for social and academic problems that were generations in the making doesn't seem to be fair. I myself worked at an inner city school that promised us two years to turn the school around. We were promised smaller classrooms, supplemental budgets to buy additional educational supplies, and extra computers.

My classroom was a battered portable with broken floors and a leaking roof. My class was not any smaller than anyone else's in the district. We had no supplemental budget and no additional computers. Instead of having two years to turn the school around, we were only given one year. At year's end, the teachers became the scapegoats and were blamed for failure to meet AYP. With the exception of the building administrator, everyone lost their jobs.

4) Some inner city schools have tried to address the issue of diversity by bussing white students into these schools while sending an equal number of students out. Forced desegregation has not seemed to be effective. White students have dropped out or transferred to private schools. Home schooling is also on the rise. Minority students bussed to the affluent suburbs have also been uncomfortable. From what I have observed, these students cluster together in classrooms, do not socialize with others duirng break times, and hang out together during lunch.

5) With regards to the bussing of students, effective instruction could help miniority students feel more welcome ... but most teachers in this country come from white middle class backgrounds. I think it can be difficult for non-minority teachers to understand the issue of race since they are unlikely to have suffered discrimination. I cannot help but wonder whether any of these teachers even see an issue when minority students cluster together in their respective classrooms.

What challenges do students of poverty face in today's classroom?

I think it is difficult to differentiate issues of race from issues of poverty. Inner-city schools do not make this distinction since students from minority backgrounds are typically from impoverished families.

With this being said, I will address rural poor who have many of the same problems associated with the inner-city.

Since schools in the United States are largely supported by property taxes, inner-city schools and rural schools are typically supported by smaller tax bases as opposed to affluent middle class subdivisions.

Lack of financial support means that students in these schools are often in aging buildings. They don't have the tools and equipment that teachers in affluent areas often take for granted. Lack of sufficient tools such as computers with internet access and well equipped science labs can minimize student opportunities for learning and enrichment. This puts them at a disadvantage for doing well on some standardized tests and can make it more difficult to get into the college or university of their choice.

Are our school's facing the challenges of creating learning environments for students with diverse backgrounds?

It is difficult to answer this question. Minority students from affluent backgrounds do not appear to have any more problems with learning than non-mnority students.

Minority students from impoverished backgrounds face far more serious problems.

Our schools are a reflection of our society. Schools can only do so much because they have no control over the diversity of residential neighborhoods, poverty, or crime.

In the United States, issues of poverty and race are typically bound together.

Inner city students in particular have a number of challenges to overcome. How can we expect these students to do well if they come to school hungry? How can we expect them to learn if they are neglected, abused, or if they live in high crime areas? Some of these students are homeless. Others have no place at home to study. Issues of poverty are an unfortunate problem that face far too many minority students.


What advice would you give a beginning teacher teaching in today's classroom?
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1) Teach to the standards i.e. the instructional objectives mandated for your grade level or subject.

2) Build accountability into your instruciton. If students experience difficulty, reteach the lesson or make arrangments to pull the students into small remedial groups. Failure to address academic problems will lead to later problems as these students will lack the academic prerequisites to succeed.

3) Establish classroom rules with consequences that are in line with your school's policy. Consistently enforce classroom and school rules in a firm, fair, and consistent way. Novice teachers typically make the mistake of undermining their class management by giving warning after warning after warning. Don't do this otherwise when you finally choose to enforce your rules, the students will be resentful.

4) Do not take student misbehavior personally. Do not get upset if your students act out. Address problems with class management without overtones of anger or frustration.

5) If students act out, avoid confrontation. Some students act out for attention. Do not try to address these problems in class. Isolate the student, talking to them during a break or in the hallway.

6) Take the time to make personal connections with your students. I have taught at the elementary and secondary level. I have ALWAYS eaten with my students. Eating with your students gives you the opportunity to see what they're like when they're out of a structured classroom environment. This also gives the students the opportunity to get to know you.

Laugh with your students. Joke with them. Being firm, fair, and consistent with your class doesn't mean that you have to be a snarling facist dictator.

As a teacher, I have always regarded myself as a benevolent dictator. My classroom is not a democracy. If it was, we would never learn our lessons. We would never take tests. Teachers have to lead but they can lead with sensitivity, compassion, and a sense of humor.

[Chef Dave]

I ran out of room when posting the previous response.

Additional advice:

7) Establish good lines of communication with parents. If a student experiences problems in your class, contact the parents. Parents SHOULD NOT LEARN about problems via the report card. They need to have the opportunity to support your efforts and to help their children succeed in your class.

8) Understand that some parents will be incredibly supportive. Others will essentially tell you that teaching is your job and that they don't want to be disturbed. Do not take any of these atittudes personally.

9) Keep your hands off the students. Whenver I have a disciplinary issue, I isolate the student for a private discussion and typically clasp my hands behind my back.

10) Be careful of overly connecting with your students. Remember that you are there to teach. You can teach in a friendly, compassionate, and senstiive way but you are not there to be your friend. Novice teachers typically want to befriend their students. This can lead to problems with getting work done. After all ... if you are their friend, why would you make them study for a test? Why would you give anyone a failing grade?

[Sheena]

Thank you so so much for the reply that you sent, I have not had an opportunity to read it yet but I did want to clear up the one thing about the use of the word 'color' in the question. These are the questions as I was given them by the University and, believe me, I debated using them as they stand BUT I felt that to use them as is gives an opportunity to reflect back to them your (and my) take on their inappropriateness, so, ultimately I used them as is for that reason. I will be in touch further on the rest, again thanks so much for taking the time to respond!

Sheena

[Sheena]

Hi again,

Thank you so much for the reply, especially for sharing your own personal experiences with me. In some ways you have the opposite of my experience, I am a first generation immigrant but I am Caucasian (some would say more 'see through' than white being Irish - like one of those illuminous jelly fish!) so I am rarely asked anything about my ethnicity as if it doesn't exist at all and has no impact on who I am. And I'm right there with you - I am happy to answer to the most ridiculous questions from kids about shamrocks, leprechauns etc etc but have little patience for supposedly educated adults that ask me asinine questions or make stupid comments about Irish issues they have no intention of trying to understand.

I will be doing my teacher experience in a predominantly white and definitely middle-class school so I probably won't get much experience of the central problems in the system. I do hope to give my students an awareness of honoring cultural differences and how one's socio-economic status can be something that one is blind to but should not be.

The advice is exactly what the textbooks have been telling me also, so you are perfectly on the mark (or they are!). Being a little older entering the profession and as a single mother, I am considerably less idealistic than I would have been 15 years ago, so hopefully I can take on board the sage advice and use it well!

Again, I truly appreciate you taking the time to reply, and especially so thoroughly!

Sheena

[Chef Dave]

You are certainly welcome.

Although our society continues to have issues regarding matters of race, I cannot help but feel that we are moving forward.

I am just old enough to remember the old segregated south. When the first McDonalds opened in Atlanta, Georgia, it did so at a time when the old Jime Crow laws were still in effect.

My father was a serving officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (medical branch of the Coast Guard). Although McDonalds was happy to sell my family a meal, we were not permitted to eat on the premises as the restaurant seating was "whites only."

My father's career took my family overseas. I attended international American schools and was not enrolled in a stateside public school until my senior year.

When my family returned to the states, we returned to Atlanta, Georgia. I was the only Asian in my school. My friend, Kenneth, was the only black at our school. The white kids accepted Kenneth because he was on the football team. They accepted me because I "talked white."

I hated my public school experience so much that I graduated a semester early.

As am adult, I have had people in passing cars scream racial abuse at me ... though this has not happened for several years.

I have been denied service at restaurants and gas stations, although this hasn't happened since the eighties.

I have had job applications literally torn up and thrown away by human resource officers who have "politely suggested" that I look for employment with more diverse employers. As with other incidents, I have not had this experience repeated in some time.

Problems with race still exist but for those of us with middle class backgrounds, I don't think they're as clearly dileniated as they used to be. I wish the same could be said of inner-city low income minorities. Sadly, segregation in our cities still exists although I believe this to largely be the result of poverty.