Awakening Hibernating Minds: Creating Spherical Learning Environments

1
Awakening Hibernating Minds Creating Spherical
Learning Environments

• Pamela Althea Joyce, PhD
• School Hazard ZoneBeyond the Silence/Finding a
  Voice
• Peter Lang Publishing
• 2008

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A Spherical Journaling Experience

• A Learning Tool
• To explore teaching practice - (with rigor
  including and beyond the scope of academics to
  lived experiences)
• To explore key questions (about minority
  underachievement)
• To find ways to go beyond the school walls
  (address a broader scope - ex. use of power,
  school reform, politics, racism)
• SPIRALING Themes/Patterns Emerged
• 7 themes have a negative affect on minority
  achievement
• 3 themes have a positive affect on minority
  achievement
• TEACHERS/STUDENTS/SCHOOL POWER HOLDERS/PARENTS

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Awakening Reframing Mindstrapped in the
achievement gap

• Hibernating Minds
• Labels (stick)
• Deficit mindset (dominant)
• Kunjufu (1984) calculates that if we multiply
  years of schooling by the average 6-hour day,
  30-hour week, we get a sum of 22,800 hours. He
  suggests on the basis of these numbers that
  children spend large amounts of time in school,
  and how they feel about themselves can easily be
  determined within these 22,800 hours (p. 31).

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Tap Into Your Own Personal Network sphere of
influence(Tatum,1997)

• Self
• School
• Society
• The education and welfare of millions of children
  are at stake, and if a crisis were perceived,
  would not drastic measures be taken to alleviate
  the suffering, unlike the actions taken following
  an earthquake or a hurricane? Noguera, 2003, p.4
• DO WE HAVE A CRISIS?
• DO WE HAVE HIBERNATING STUDENT MINDS?

5
SELF Inner Influences Power is within Self

• Theme 1 teacher self-empowerment/self-awareness
• Theme 5 - Teacher student/parent advocate
• Theme 3 - Internalized Oppression

6
SCHOOL Inside Influences Power is within the
school

• Theme 6 - Power Factors
• Theme 7- Deskilling of teachers/Acceptance of
  the norm
• Theme 8 - Lift and Platform
• Theme 9 - Lack of administrative support

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SOCIETY/SCHOOL Outside Influences Power is
within society

• Theme 2 - academic/racial/social inequalities
• Theme 4 - Inability to navigate the
  system/Inability to connect inside and outside
  forces
• Theme 10 - Student Labeling

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Cognitive Illness (Kincheloe, 2000) Take
off the Blinders!

• Teachers
• Deskilling of teachers
• Top/down leadership
• Poor school climate
• Limited voice
• Constant changing of what works
• Sabotaging efforts
• Affirming minority academic performance
  hinges on the ability of minority students to
  successfully navigate the intricacies of the
  system through the use of voice in their
  AVAILABLE personal sphere of influence (Joyce,
  2006)

• Students
• Tracking
• Standardized testing
• Inappropriate academic support systems (punitive)
• School culture often promotes an ideology of
  disempowerment of students and parents of color
• Find a cure
• Keep a Critical Reflective Journal
• Maintain Critical Consciousness

9
Coming to Voice (Freire, 1970) Go Beyond
the Silence/Find a Voice!

• Persistent
• Collaborate
• Scaffold to change (Vygotsky, 1978)
• Search for democratic practices - (Michelli,
  2005)
• Use non-conventional supports
• Seek possibilities-(Greene,1995)
• Use voice/dialogue (Freire, 2004)
• Listen to the silenced dialogue (Delpit,1995)

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What are Spherical Learning Environments?
(Joyce, 2008)

• The collective efforts of self, school, and
  society, which result in expanded options for
  minority student learning
• Positive spaces that surround students of color
• Affirming and sustainable influences that envelop
  learning experiences and form protective cocoons
  for minority student
• Spherical Learning Environments require
• ACTION STEPS!

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Action Steps

• Build effective achievement networking teams
  (self, school, and society)
• Join school committees that can bring about
  effective change
• Seek community opportunities for students and
  parents
• Be mindful - work inside and outside school walls

• Initiate teacher journaling groups
• Set up parent support groups and promote parent
  leadership
• Start student leadership programs
• Awaken Hibernating Minds in the
• School Hazard Zone!

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Empower Students In Multiple Ways!

• Read School Hazard Zone
• Awaken hibernating minds!
• Affirming minority academic performance hinges
  on the ability of minority students to
  successfully navigate the intricacies of the
  system through the use of voice in their personal
  sphere of influence (Joyce, 2006)