Creating a Diverse Scholarly Community

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Creating a Diverse Scholarly Community

• Christine Sleeter
• California State University Monterey Bay

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Framework for Examining Institutional
Discrimination
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Institutional Level
Individual Level
Individual Level
Rules for distribution
Whose truth
Relationships
Support
Things people work for
Things people work for
Effort Ability
Effort Ability
Symbolic Level
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Equity Excellence in Education, 2005, Vol. 38
(4).

• Christine Sleeter, Bob Hughes, Kani Blackwell,
  Liz Meador, Patty Whang, Claudia Peralta-Nash,
  Linda Rogers, Peggy Laughlin

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This project has been a whole hearted attempt to
give form to all that which I have been given by
way of all my mentors and teachers who not only
taught me about history, cultures, languages, but
most importantly how to think. This project for
me is an attempt to honor and give back a little
of the great gift that the work of dedicated
educators, theorists and researchers. . .have
given me as a second language learner as well as
an educator of second language learners. Their
works have given a voice to the silenced. Their
works have given power to the oppressed. Their
words have lifted the fallen. The job to be done
is great and is yet to be finished. What is most
important though is what has been provided for
all those in the arena of life who are here to
serve others. They have been given the strength
and tools to not only give fish to the hungry
man, as an old Chinese proverb goes, but to teach
the hungry man to fish. (Díaz, 2002)
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The Vision

• Equip teacher leaders from historically
  marginalized communities, with transformational
  intellectual knowledge and frameworks that have
  arisen from within such communities
• Prepare knowledge producers, not just knowledge
  consumers
• Prepare CSU-type grads to stand ground
  alongside UC or Stanford-type grads

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Core program learning outcomes Critical
Questioner. Students will express a critical,
questioning perspective about diverse theoretical
paradigms about teaching, learning and school
reform, including those generated by marginalized
groups, which situate schooling in a larger
historic and political context. Scholar
Students will search, navigate, and critically
consume educational research. Action Researcher
Students will use, apply, design, and implement
research to bring about change and make
improvements in their own professional
environment. Educator Students will
demonstrate their knowledge of and ability to use
the most appropriate culturally responsive
practices that support complex and challenging
learning. Bilingual Communicator Students will
communicate with native speakers of a language
other than English through fourth university
semester proficiency level. Technological
Navigator Students will use technology
critically to access information, to communicate,
and as a means of curricular and pedagogical
support for higher level thinking.
Communicator Students will
communicate clearly and effectively both orally
and in writing, in a manner that commands
professional attention. Social Justice
Collaborator Students will work with communities
of practice on behalf of social justice.
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Who have we served successfully?
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Who have we served successfully?
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Master of Arts in Education, CSUMBProgram
Structure
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Institutional Level
Individual Level
Rules for distribution
Curriculum point of view
Personal relationships
Lots of scaffolding, feedback
Things people work for
Effort Ability
Rigor w/ expectation everyone will succeed
Admission criteria
Symbolic Level
Advertise successes to students
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Curriculum Point of View

• Core faculty 4 white, 2 African American, 1
  Native American, 1 Latina, 1 Asian American
• Cohesive social justice orientation, student
  orientation

• Multicultural Curriculum Design
• Technology as Tool for Inclusion in MC Classrooms
• Biliteracy
• Critical Social Foundations
• Arts as Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
• Pluralism and Politics of Education
• Culture, Cognition and Human Development

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What Counts as Research?
Epistemologies and Research Methods
Mainstream Intellectual Knowledge
Positivism
Phenomenology

• Historically Marginalized Intellectual Knowledge

Narrative research

• Emancipatory knowledge (e.g., Kaupapa Maori
  research)

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Personal Relationships

• Social capital not only build relationships, but
  help students convert relationship into access to
  system knowledge
• Relationships among diverse peers in the classroom

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An African teacher pulled me aside to tell me
about the courses impact on her. In my journal
later that evening I wrote, She said that when
she first came here, she had a lot of biases, but
she kept them under control because she needed
to. But what she has learned is that our
differences are very interesting, and she
appreciates the program for giving her that. . .
. She said that as she grew up, she grew to hate
French people. But now, she hates that her
country had been colonized and hates abuse of
power, but there are things about French people
that she also realizes that she likes. She wants
to go back to fight for education rights of her
own people, but can do that and also find
differences interesting, at the same time.
(December 15, 2003)
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Reflection by White teacher On the first day of
ED 620... professor asked the class if
discrimination still existed in U.S. schools. I
remember thinking that, of course, there were
still problems, but that things have gotten a lot
better recently. Three years later, through
exposure to research and literature written by
minorities, I now realize that I am a White
teacher who wanted what was best for all my
students, but was unaware or in denial of how the
United States educational system marginalizes
people of color. (Pipes, 2002, p. 6)
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Backward Planning the Action Thesis

• Critical Questioner Students express a critical,
  questioning perspective about diverse theoretical
  paradigms about teaching, learning and school
  reform, including those generated by marginalized
  groups, which situate schooling in a larger
  historic and political context.
• Scholar Students search, navigate, and
  critically consume educational research.
• Action Researcher Students use, apply, design,
  and implement research to bring about change and
  make improvements in their own professional
  environment.
• Social justice collaborator Students work with
  communities of practice on behalf of social
  justice. Communicator Students communicate the
  action thesis in a manner that is clear and
  commands professional attention.

Proseminar Professional Literature
Seminar Qualitative Research Methods Capstone
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More Scaffolding

• Action Thesis Example
• Professional Literature Seminar Example

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Master of Arts in Education, CSUMBOn-Going
Challenges

• Program may be viewed as one specialty rather
  than as way higher education should be done for
  everyone
• Academic rigor and strategies for supporting that
  invisible
• Small classes, student-faculty ratio, thesis
  advising seen as too expensive
• Faculty transiency

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For years, I watched my parents suffer as they
worked long hours for small wages and tried to
show my siblings and me to value the importance
of an education. They told, and retold, their
stories of exhausting, brutal days laboring in
the fields and they explained why we should not
follow in their footsteps. Following their
footsteps meant dead end jobs, no formal
education and twelve-hour workdays. These
emotional moments are what caused me to change.
Seeing them suffering physically and financially,
I decided through their encouragement, and my own
initiative, to change my life. Redirecting my
life included taking school more seriously by
studying, reading about important events and
facts for my classes, not running around with
the local gang anymore, and respecting my
parents struggles. . . . Eventually, I became
the first in my family to graduate from a
university. Today, I want to help those from a
similar background to find a way to pursue some
post-secondary education. (Galindo, 2002, p. 3)