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Title: Black Students and White Teachers: Teaching and Learning for Achievement


1
Black Students and White Teachers Teaching and
Learning for Achievement
  • Created by Cassie Zippay
  • For EDCI 6300
  • Dr. Beth Christian
  • 3/5/08

2
Introduction and Overview
  • This presentation looks at some possible causes
    of the academic achievement gap between Black and
    White students and will focus on the area of
    teacher effectiveness as a factor for helping
    students achieve.
  • An increasing number of Black students and other
    races attend suburban and rural schools where the
    teaching force is predominantly White.
  • This is an important area of study because
    previous studies have focused on children,
    teachers, and schools in urban settings.

3
Key Questions
  • How can White teachers most effectively teach
    Black students, especially in suburban and rural
    settings?
  • What role do teacher education programs play in
    this issue?
  • What is the best way to help practicing teachers
    be effective teachers of Black students?

4
Summary of the Research Issues
  • Historical and social influences
  • Theories regarding the school achievement of
    Black students
  • The role of the teacher
  • Effective teachers of Black students
  • Teacher attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about
    race
  • Teacher preparation
  • Practicing and experienced teachers

5
Historical and Social Influences
  • Slave narratives like those of Frederick Douglass
    and Harriet Jacobs contain passionate stories
    about the power of literacy.
  • Contemporary narratives like those of Maya
    Angelou, Malcolm X, and Jocelyn Elders speak to
    personal struggles as they discovered the power
    of words.
  • African American communities provided vital
    financial and moral support to establish schools.
  • Citizenship schools like Tennessees Highlander
    Folk School and Sabbath schools developed partly
    as a response to the literacy requirement for
    voting.

6
Theories Regarding The School Achievement of
Black Students
  • Irvine (2003) categorizes these theories as
    socioeconomic, sociopathological, genetics, and
    cultural incongruence.
  • A theory that has received much attention from
    many researchers and scholars in the field is
    that of cultural-incongruence (Ladson-Billings,
    2001). This theory is based on the differences
    between home and school cultures.
  • None of these theories, by themselves, offer an
    acceptable explanation for why Black students do
    not achieve academically at the level of their
    White counterparts.

7
The Role of the Teacher
  • Effective Teachers of Black Students and the
    Classrooms They Establish
  • Understand the importance of the community and
    incorporate it into their classrooms
  • Establish caring relationships with their
    students
  • Have high expectations and push their students to
    achieve
  • Are strong disciplinarians
  • Are persistent and resilient
  • Believe that all students are capable of being
    educated
  • Understand the interconnectedness of
    instructional context and culture

8
The Role of the Teacher
  • Teacher Attitudes, Beliefs, and Perceptions about
    Race
  • Whites typically have little or no understanding
    of their own culture and the privilege and power
    their culture brings with it (Ladson-Billings,
    2001).
  • Many teachers refer to themselves as being
    color-blind they do not see color (Rosenberg,
    2004). They argue that all children are the same
    in their eyes.
  • Teachers must be aware of their own culture and
    its role in their lives, and they must learn
    about students cultures and community.
  • For many Whites thinking about race becomes a
    highly emotional experience which can result in
    resistance, misunderstanding, rage, and feelings
    of inefficacy (Rosenberg, 2004).

9
The Role of the Teacher
  • Teacher Preparation
  • Teacher preparation is culpable in the failure
    of teachers to teach African American students
    effectively (Ladson-Billings, 2000, p. 208).
  • Teacher preparation at the post-secondary level
    is often directed by White, middle-class
    professors who may not have experienced working
    with diverse student populations
    (Ladson-Billings, 1999).
  • Beginning teachers indicate they feel unprepared
    to teach in culturally diverse schools (Irvine,
    2003).
  • Colleges of education can take a leadership role
    in reversing the cycle of failure.

10
The Role of the Teacher
  • Practicing/Experienced Teachers
  • These teachers may be the most disadvantaged
    group of teachers. Because the schools they
    teach in have become much more diverse, they may
    feel ill-equipped to work with students of color.
  • Professional development seems to be the most
    promising practice for aiding these teachers.
  • Professional development must be extensive
    (Thompson, 2004).
  • It should include opportunities for discussion,
    personal growth, self-assessment, and developing
    the positive model of the white ally (Tatum,
    1994).

11
Teaching Effectiveness Program Teaching to
Diversity
  • This University of Oregon website is a workshop
    and class offerings site. The site contains
    workshop notes and materials most appropriate for
    teaching students about diversity at the
    post-secondary level. I found that this site
    addressed some of the issues I raised earlier
    about White identity development and
    colorblindness.
  • Here are some examples of workshops from the
    site What does being White have to do with
    diversity?, The Problem with I Dont See Color,
    and Language and Labels.
  • Each workshop contains information and readings
    about multiple topics and links to websites and
    readings.
  • Some examples of topics within What does being
    White have to do with diversity? include models
    of white identity development, the components of
    white culture values and beliefs, framework of
    multicultural education, references, and selected
    resources (websites and books).

12
Christine Sleeters Websites for Multicultural
Teaching Resources
  • Respected multicultural scholar, researcher, and
    educator Christine Sleeters website has
    extensive multicultural links for educators.
  • The site is divided into four sections places to
    find K-12 books, places to find lesson plans,
    places to find information, and excellent
    professional sites.
  • Among the many professional websites is the
    Commission on Research on Black Education.
  • Also included is a link to Multicultural Pavilion
    which contains articles and other resources about
    multicultural issues.

13
Crosswalks Outreach to Infuse Diversity in
Preservice Education
  • A site for university and college educators,
    Crosswalks conducts research on ways to support
    faculty and programs in making diversity-related
    changes. Crosswalks has also developed a toolbox
    of instructional resources for supporting
    diversity-related changes within the context of
    state and national standards.
  • Another feature of this University of North
    Carolina initiative is its professional
    development resources. In addition to offering
    workshops and training, Crosswalks also makes
    available on its website Crosswalk Talks and Care
    Packages . I especially found the articles and
    resources in Care Packages under Content
    Resources to contain excellent information.

14
Responsive Classroom
  • The Responsive Classroom is an approach to
    elementary teaching that emphasizes social,
    emotional, and academic growth in a strong and
    safe school community. The goal is to enable
    optimal student learning. It is created by
    classroom teachers and backed by evidence from
    independent research.
  • As I toured the website, I noted the many
    research-based practices that have proven to be
    successful in achieving high student performance
    for all children. Teachers will find this site
    especially beneficial.
  • The Responsive Classroom has a monthly
    newsletter. An article in the February 2008
    issue is entitled Getting Past I Cant.

15
Closing the Achievement Gap
  • This policy primer comes from the National
    Governors Association website. It provides
    concise and accurate information about the
    academic achievement gap and would be an
    appropriate source for parents, educators, or any
    stakeholder.
  • The site contains statistics from the National
    Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
    regarding the achievement gap.
  • States where evidence of progress is being made
    are highlighted. Additionally, there is
    information about what some states are doing to
    eliminate the achievement gap.
  • Under options for further action, four other
    topics early childhood education, teacher
    quality, intervention for college, and
    afterschool programs are linked to the policy
    primer and contain more information.

16
Educating Teachers for Diversity Seeing with a
Cultural Eye
  • This book by educator and scholar Jacqueline
    Jordan Irvine, published in 2003, is part of the
    Multicultural Education Series.
  • Since the focus of my research paper is mostly
    about the role teachers play in eliminating the
    achievement gap between Black and White students,
    this book offered me much information directly
    related to teacher education.
  • Some of the topics include Irvines examination
    of the achievement gap, the role of colleges of
    education, the need for caring, competent
    teachers, and a proposal for change in educating
    teachers for diversity.
  • Irvine, J.J. (2003). Educating teachers for
    diversity Seeing with a cultural eye. New York
    Teachers College Press.

17
Through Ebony Eyes What Teachers Need to Know
But Are Afraid to Ask About African American
Students
  • Written by educator and researcher Gail Thompson
    in 2004, this book provided me with lots of ideas
    for curriculum and professional development.
  • Primarily for educators, the book is divided into
    two sections The Basics which includes effective
    instructional practices and classroom management
    strategies and What Teachers Want to Know But Are
    Afraid to Ask which includes topics like Standard
    English.
  • The conclusion contains a three-part, long-term
    professional development plan for educators which
    I found to be helpful. It included self-analysis
    activities and reading research about African
    Americans.
  • Thompson, G.L. (2004). Through ebony eyes What
    teachers need to know but are afraid to ask
    about African American students. San Francisco
    Jossey-Bass.

18
Crossing Over to Canaan The Journey of New
Teachers in Diverse Classrooms
  • Gloria Ladson-Billings, the highly respected
    scholar, researcher, and educator, published this
    book about her research with student teachers in
    the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Teach for
    Diversity program.
  • This text appealed to me because of its emphasis
    on the experiences of the student teachers.
  • Additionally, its theoretical framework, based on
    culturally relevant pedagogy, and its research
    design, a qualitative, year-long ethnographic
    study informed me for my own research.
  • Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing Over to
    Canaan The journey of new teachers in diverse
    classrooms. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

19
Our Challenge
  • The challenge we face is how best to work towards
    eliminating the academic deficits among students
    and ensure that students receive a high quality
    and equitable educational experience.
  • A critical component of achieving this success
    lies with teachers.
  • To be effective, teachers must learn to do more
    than apply new or different teaching strategies,
    they must look at teaching in a new way a way
    that is grounded in an understanding of the role
    of culture and language in learning (Villegas
    Lucas, 2007, p. 29).
  • Research suggests that culturally responsive
    teaching holds the best chance at improving the
    achievement gap between Black and White students.

20
Resources Irvine, J.J. (2003). Educating
teachers for diversity Seeing with a cultural
eye. New York Teachers College
Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (1999). Preparing
teachers for diverse student populations A
critical race theory perspective. Review of
Research in Education, 24, 211-247. Ladson-Billin
gs, G. (2000). Fighting for our lives Preparing
teachers to teach African American students.
Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3),
206-214. Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing
over to Canaan. San Francisco Jossey-Bass. Rosen
berg, P.M. (2004). Color blindness in teacher
education An optical delusion. In Off white
Readings on power, privilege, and resistance, M.
Fine, L.Weiss, L. Powell, L. Wong (Eds.). New
York Routledge. Tatum, B.D. (1994). Teaching
white students about racism The search for white
allies and the restoration of hope. Teachers
College Record, 95(4), 462-476. Thompson, G.L.
(2004). Through ebony eyes. San Francisco
Jossey-Bass. Villegas, A.M., Lucas, T. (2007).
The culturally responsive teacher. Educational
Leadership, March, 28-33.
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