Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Students

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Dreamkeepers Successful Teachers
ofAfrican-American Students
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Professor Gloria Ladson-BillingsUniversity of
WisconsinDreamkeepers Successful Teachers
ofAfrican-American Students

• Researchers conclude that students are less
  likely to fail in school if they feel positive
  about their culture and majority culture.
  (Ladson-Billings, 11)

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What do we mean by the word culture?
Individuals vary within all cultural groups.
There is a dominant culture and many
subcultures.

• Culture is an integrated set of norms by which
  human behaviors, beliefs, and thinking are
  organized.
• Culture is a set of standards and control
  mechanisms with which members assign meanings,
  values and significance to things, events and
  behaviors.
• TEACHERS CULTURAL LENS How do you interpret
  the world based on your cultural experiences?
  What cultural skills, beliefs, values, and
  behaviors do you bring to your interactions with
  the world? How will you view difference?

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Key beliefs and values in mainstream American
culture (Spindler, 1963, 1990)

• 1. Puritan morality (respectability, thrift,
  duty)
• 2. Work-success ethic (hard work defines our
  worth)
• 3. Individualism (leads to self-reliance, free to
  act, and originality)
• 4. Achievement orientation (set higher and higher
  goals)
• 5. Future-time orientation (sacrifice today for
  the future)
• 6. Equality of opportunity (everyone gets a fair
  chance to participate)
• 7. Value of honesty
• 8. Openness of the American socioeconomic
  structure upward mobility is possible based
  on merit
• 9. Sociability

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If students cant read, teachers can conclude
that they have limited abilities. But
generalizations about cultural difference in
learning styles give teachers a different
explanation for failure.

• Native Hawaiian children have a talk story
  style of expressing themselves at home.
• Traditional reading approaches are not as
  effective when teaching young Native Hawaiian
  students to read.
• Teachers who incorporate the talk story in
  reading lessons are more successful.
• Professor Kathy Au (UIUC graduate in Curriculum
  and Instruction) and now teaches at the
  University of Hawaii

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Cultural Mismatch- (Tozer, 421) can occur in
schools for Native American students
(generalizations about a culture)

• In general, the larger Native American culture
  is
• Not a competitive people, but cooperative.
• Values tribal life over acquisition of material
  goods.
• Native American Learning styles
• They learn at home by observation, not trial and
  error.
• Interpreted by teachers as lack of initiative
• They learn respect for elders, limit direct eye
  contact.
• Eye contact expected.

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Teaching Approaches--culturally relevant or
culturally responsive teaching, multicultural
approaches

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vnGTVjJuRaZ8feature
  related 440
• Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings

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Cultural Subordination Theory focuses on the
relationships between the childs cultural group
and the dominant society the power relations
between different social groups.

• Awareness of cultural subordination of some
  minority groups supports a move from a cultural
  deficit model to a cultural difference model in
  schools.
• Cultural Difference Theory
• Cultures are different
• ASSET THEORY OF DIFFERENCE
• One is not better than another
• All cultures contain skills and behaviors
• Recognizes the multicultural aspect of American
  culture
• Seeking success in mainstream culture, while
  retaining other cultural connections.

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According to Ladson-Billings what main views do
culturally relevant teachers hold about learning?
(Tozer, 430 and Ladson-Billings,
33)http//www.youtube.com/watch?vccEu7r2IwM0
340

• CAUTION These look simple, but are complex
  ideas.
• Conceptions of themselves and others.
• Recognize that culture impacts everyones
  learning.
• Conceptions of social relations.
• Social relations impact motivation, why we learn,
  interpretations, how the community views the
  school.
• Conceptions of knowledge.
• Knowledge is constructed, useful, changing,
  linked to experiences.

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Ladson-Billings suggests that all of us learn and
understand through cultural filters.
RECOGNIZING CULTURE AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF
LEARNING

• Recognize the role that culture plays in how we
  see the world.
• The way we read the world is culturally
  mediated.
• Know thyself, and understand others.

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One of the most important theories of Chapter
13is Cultural Difference Theory, which has led
to the development of Culturally Relevant
Teaching Approaches

• Direct classroom implications.
• Asks teachers to examine their own cultural
  filters and how these filters influence teaching.
  
• Addresses how students learn.
• Provides a profile of a culturally competent
  teacher.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vnGTVjJuRaZ8feature
  related 440
• What is culturally responsive or culturally
  relevant teaching?

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Ladson-Billings conducted a one-year study of 8
of the most successful teachers in minority
schools. What was the cultural reference of the
8 teachers in her study? 5 Black 3 White

• 8 teachers
• All 5 African American teachers demonstrated
  close cultural reference with the African
  American community
• 1 white teacher had a bicultural orientation
• 1 white teacher had a African American
  orientation
• 1 white teacher had a white cultural reference
  BUT in school sought out African American
  teachers and encouraged students to share their
  cultural background in the classroom.

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Cultural reference means- the cultural group
that the teacher most closely identified with,
who were her friends inside and outside of
school, what kinds of social activities did she
participate in, which neighborhood and
communities did she frequent.
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Cultural Referents- How integrated in daily life?
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No simple recipe Culturally Relevant Teachers
According to Ladson-Billings (E-Reserves)Two
pages in Chapter 13 See Tozer page 430 and 431
Education that is multicultural and social
reconstructionist Emphasis is on WHAT and HOW
we teach.

• Believe in the intellectual capacity of all
  students, all students are capable of success.
• Hold beliefs about minority students that all can
  learn (and hold them to high expectations).
• See themselves as part of the community in which
  the students live.
• See teaching as giving back to the community.
• Maintain fluid, equitable teacher/students
  relationships.
• Demonstrate a connectedness to all students.
• Develop a community of leaders among students.
• Encourage students to learn collaboratively
• Is passionate about learning.
• Views the curriculum critically.
• Scaffolds or builds bridges that facilitates
  students learning.
• Believes that assessment needs to be
  multifaceted.
• Committed to providing readiness and support
  necessary for learning.

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Why is Ladson-Billings concerned about the
education of minority students? African
Americans still dream of quality education for
their children.

• Achievement gap of minority students
• Poor outcomes for many minority students--higher
  dropout rates
• Resegregation of schools since 1980s (de facto
  separate schools) means greater isolation for
  all students
• Low funding in many schools serving minority
• Few teachers of color (less than 10)
• Lingering effects of cultural deficit theory on
  teachers (no attention to structural
  inequalities, teaching approaches, school
  practices and policies)

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As a researcher interested in teacher education,
Ladson-Billings asked

• Are schools really attending to the education of
  minority students?
• Do cultural differences matter in the learning
  process?
• Are teachers being prepared to work with students
  from different cultural backgrounds?
• She hopes that culturally relevant teaching
  approaches help all teachers work more
  effectively with students from different cultural
  backgrounds.

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Can cultural background and race/ethnicity be
ignored in the classroom?Ladson-Billings
maintains that http//www.youtube.com/watch?vccE
u7r2IwM0 340

• Cultural background and race/ethnicity are part
  of a students identity.
• Given the significance of race and color in
  American society it is impossible to believe that
  a classroom teacher does not notice the race and
  ethnicity of the students (Ladson-Billings, 33).
• Ladson-Billings advocates an awareness of
  cultural differences in planning and instruction.

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What does Ladson Billings mean bydysconsciousnes
s?

• Dysconsciousness means, as teachers, we
  recognize the privilege of some children and the
  disadvantage for other children, but we fail to
  challenge the status quo, or accept PRIVILEGES
  FOR SOME AS A GIVEN OR INEVITABLE
  (Ladson-Billings, 32).
• ENID LEE suggests challenging the status quo in
  schools
• Curriculum changes that study the SOURCES of
  discrimination
• Involving students in social change in their
  neighborhoods
• Giving minority parents more voice in school
  decisions
• Examining who is hired at a school
• Equipping students and parents to combat racism
  and ethnic discrimination.

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Multicultural Approaches to Teaching

• Enid Lee suggests that Anti-Racist, Multicultural
  Education means to examine the biases of our own
  education,
• Examine what is considered normal (Is normal
  excluding some people?).
• Ask Who benefits from the status quo? How can
  more people benefit from social institutions?

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What does this statement mean to you?

• Ladson-Billings believes that culturally
  relevant teaching does not represent a kind of
  separatism, reverse racism, or special privileges
  to the African American community, but rather
  compares culturally relevant teaching to
  middle-class demands on schools to serve their
  communities.

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• Ladson-Billings believes that teachers should not
• treat EQUALITY as
  SAMENESS.

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• Cultural Relevant Teaching
• Not an easy prescriptive method of teaching.

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CULTURAL DIFFERENCE THEORYCultural difference
theory respects and values differences.

• Cultural Mismatch- (Tozer, 421) can occur in
• Subject matter
• Learning styles
• Ways of knowing and demonstrating knowledge
• Attitudes toward authority
• Modes of behavior
• Socializing patterns--Speech Patterns, Manners,
  Values
• When there is a mismatch, then some accommodation
  is needed for learning to occur.