Title: Black Students and White Teachers: Teaching and Learning for Achievement
1Black Students and White Teachers Teaching and
Learning for Achievement
- Created by Cassie Zippay
- For EDCI 6300
- Dr. Beth Christian
- 3/5/08
2Introduction 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.
3Key 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?
4Summary 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
5Historical 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.
6Theories 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.
7The 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
8The 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).
9The 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.
10The 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).
11Teaching 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).
12Christine 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.
13Crosswalks 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.
14Responsive 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.
15Closing 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.
16Educating 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.
17Through 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.
18Crossing 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.
19Our 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.
20Resources 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.