Michael Ruf
Heideweg 1
63925 Laudenbach
Germany
Phone: ++49-9372-3135
Fax: ++49-9372-2302
Email: Michael.Ruf.2000@web.de
Portfolio
Diversity
University of Massachusetts Boston
Graduate School of Education
Program of Critical and Creative Thinking
September 2001
Table of content
0. Overview of the portfolio
4
1. Basics about multicultural education
9
1.1. James Banks - Aims, Characteristics, Approaches
10
1.2. Robert DeVillar - The Rhetoric and Practice of Cultural Diversity in
14
U.S. Schools: Socialization, Resocialization, and Quality Schooling
1.3. Antonia Darder – Creating the Conditions for Cultural Democracy in the
18
Classroom
2. Culture in the classroom
25
2.1. Maurianne Adams – Cultural Inclusion in the American Classroom
26
2.2. Bell Hooks - On Being Black at Yale: Education as the Practice for
30
Freedom
2.3. Judith H. Shulman et al. - Case study – “Fighting for Life in Third
33
Period”
2.4. Suzanne, Wade – Case study “The Dialogue that Might be Silencing”
37
2.5. Lisa D. Delpit – The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in
39
Educating Other People’s Children
2.6. Barbara Gross Davis – Diversity and Complexity in the Classroom:
44
Considerations of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
2.7. Mary Jane Collier – Dialogue and Diversity: Communication across
47
Groups
3. Curriculum transformation
50
3.1. Maxine Green – Multiculturalism, Community, and the Arts
51
3.2. James Banks – Curriculum
56
4. Diversity and critical thinking
4.1. Clara New – Teacher Thinking and Perceptions of African-American
59
60
Male Achievement in the Classroom
4.2. Pamela Moss et al. – Educational Standards, Assessment, and the Search
62
for Consensus
2
5. Whiteness
64
5.1. Carolyn Murray et al. - White Privilege: the Rhetoric and the Facts
65
5.2. Laura Douglas – How I Benefit from White Privilege
71
5.3. Bell Hooks – Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination
73
5.4. Sandra Lawrence et al. - Feeling and Dealing: teaching White students
77
about Racial Privilege
6. Finding a voice
6.1. Beverly Daniel Tatum - Breaking the Silence. Embracing a Cross-Racial
80
81
Dialogue
6.2. Bell Hooks – Writing Autobiography
85
6.3. Courtney Cazden - What is Time Sharing for?
87
6.4. Carol Heller – Writing as a Foundation for Transformative Community
89
in the Tenderloin
7. Attempts of institutions
92
7.1. National Coalition Building Institute
93
7.2. Advice of Grant Ingle (UMass Amherst)
95
7.3. Racial and Ethnic Issues Survey (UMass Amherst)
97
7.4. The approach of Matthew L. Ouellett (UMass Amherst)
99
7.5. Matthew L. Ouellett et al. - Teaching and Learning in the Diverse
101
Classroom: A Faculty and TA Partnership Program
7.6. Commitment to Success Program (Ohio State University)
8. Resources
105
106
8.1. Literature
107
8.2. Internet resources
111
3
Overview of the portfolio
First, basics about multicultural education. Banks, one of the most eminent scholars of
multicultural education, gives insightful introductory information about the aims of multicultural
education (MCE), both for so-called minority and majority students. He argues that MCE is
consistent with Western norms and values, he gives an overview of the different approaches to
MCE and sketches the principles of an ideal multicultural school. A critical analysis of the
rhetoric of the American melting pot is given by DeVillar. By giving historical evidence of the
experience of people of color with the U.S. educational system and speaking about notions of
white supremacy today, he contrasts the rhetoric of pluralism and equality with quite different
facts. He also points to the persistence of segregation and the discrimination of the “model
minority,” the Asian Americans. Darder, an eminent critical pedagogue, provides us with a broad
foundation of basic knowledge. She reflects about the concepts of language, authority, and
equality. Further, she explains good and bad practices and principles in the diverse classroom.
Particularly interesting is her appeal to teachers to think about her or his role and culture.
Second, culture in the classroom. The issue of the (hidden) culture of the classroom is addressed
by Adams. She focuses on the often very cold experience of classroom culture by women. She
explains the paradigms of “cultural deficit” versus “cultural difference,” which are essential for
understanding any debate about multicultural education. Bell Hooks, the fascinating Black
scholar, openly speaks about her experiences of being Black at an Ivy League institution. With
this personal narrative, she explains the concepts of assimilation and integration and the implied
inner contradictions between these two “possibilities.” In an interesting case study, a White
female teacher struggles with a group of students of color in her class (Shulman). This teacher
explains how she positively solved this conflict and what she learned during this process. Even
4
more important are the comments by various observers. It is particularly striking that only the
observers of color see some of the very important phenomena of this case. In another case study
by Wade, a teacher speaks about the difficulty of applying so-called progressive
social-constructivist methods with students of color who have an other cultural background. The
teacher in this example could not understand her problems before she read Delpit’s article about
culturally different interactional and learning styles. Reason enough to scrutinize this text that
gives Black students a voice to speak about their anger in the classroom. Delpit offers a
sociological analysis of this “silenced dialogue,” leading her to the conclusion that students of
color should get explicit instructions how the White norms and rules work. This intriguing and
very controversial allegation is supplemented with a positive pedagogical model, a masterly
Native Alaskan teacher. Very practical and concrete hints and advice how to interact in the
classroom comes from Davis. Speaking briefly about general strategies, tactics against
stereotypes, course content and material, discussions, assignments, and extracurricular activities,
she gives a broad overview about issues to consider and supplements the more theoretical
reflections so far. The existence of different cultures also implies the challenge of adequate
intercultural communication. Collier speaks about cultural identities and strategies for intergroup
communication.
Third, curriculum transformation. Also very personal is the story of Greene who explains her
own journey from first learning the Western canon of knowledge and later being intrigued by
non-Western voices, telling things she never had heard before. She also speaks about potential
damages of culture’s icons, for example on persons who are not represented in the literature
taught in school. By doing so, she gives convincing arguments for transforming curricula which
are usually Eurocentric. Banks introduces basic terms in regard to curriculum transformation,
5
such as curriculum infusion or global education. He explains the canon battle and the four general
approaches to reform a curriculum.
Forth, diversity and critical thinking. Two articles seemed particularly related to the concept of
critical thinking. New explains how teachers think about African-American students. The
teachers attribute their school failure different and encourage them less than they do in regard to
white students. It is crucial to question these false assumptions in order to be a good instructor for
students of color. One often advocated goal in discourses is to find a consensus. Moss criticizes
this ideal due to many reasons, one of them being the masking of difference.
Fifth, whiteness. Speaking always about the people of color implies that whiteness remains
invisible and unquestioned. Scholars and practitioners noticed in the last years that this is wrong.
This realization led to a growing discourse about those in the “majority.” For all who still deny
the privilege of being white, Murray offers convincing evidence of the past and the presence that
to be white means to be advantaged – and often not knowing anything about it. Further, she gives
psychological explanations why whites deny this privilege. However, at least equally important
are the reasons for this denial from a sociological perspective. Douglas gives a long list of
privileges she has as a white person, many of them occurring in everyday life. Generally, one
cornerstone of this privilege is what she is not having to think about or experience. The topic of
whiteness and representation is addressed by Bell Hooks. She narrates the sometimes shocking
representation of people of color, but also how Whites see themselves and are regarded by
Blacks. Further, she proposes the concept of “journeying” as shedding light into the experience of
people. Lawrence examined a college class which had as one of its most important goals the
exploration of whiteness. With different methods such as qualitative interviews, the researchers
found out to what degree the students developed in regard to their “White racial identity,” as
6
proposed by Helms. The article focuses on the cases of five students who were participants of the
class.
Sixth, finding a voice. For all who want to break the spiral of racism, the fear to speak (with all its
disadvantages) is large. Tatum explains the costs of speaking, but also those of remaining silent.
She argues that in order to reach one’s own potential and escape self-alienation, it is necessary to
speak out. Again speaking very personally, Hooks talks about her own process of writing her
autobiography. This was a very liberating endeavor, but also full of struggles. At some points, she
did not know (and still do not) what of her memories were true and which fiction. Looking at the
classroom, Cazden offers reason why the “sharing of time” is an essential activity in the school.
She examined the answers of teachers to stories of the students and categorized them in four
groups, according to their appropriateness. Heller offers us insight in a Women’s Writer
Workshop in the Tenderloin, a part of San Francisco. She also speaks about the struggles to write
in a neighborhood like the Tenderloin, but also the enormous peer support in these groups and the
various functions of these workshops.
Seventh, attempts of institutions. The “National Coalition Building Institute” is a non-profit
leadership organization that offers prejudice reduction workshops and support for community
leaders by conducting prevention-oriented programs. I wrote to several scholars, asking them
about their approach of addressing the issue of diversity in their institutions. A helpful and honest
answer came from Grant Ingle, the director of Human Relations from UMass Amherst. She also
points to telephone surveys which are conducted in Amherst. I summarized some of the most
important facts of the “Racial and Ethnic Issues Survey.” Another very helpful person was
Matthew L. Ouellett, also from UMass Amherst. In his email, he explained his philosophy and
what he regards as the most important issues. Particularly interesting is the “TA and Faculty
Partnership Program” as described in an article he has written himself. This program is a
7
long-term approach with the components of intensive retreat, monthly seminars, team projects
and consultation, and informal events. The goal of this program was to help the instructors to
develop the ability to create an inclusive classroom climate, to foster the teachers’ self-awareness,
and to impact the organizational norms. Ouellett also named the “Commitment to Success
Program” of the Ohio State University as a diversity initiative that promotes long-term strategies
for fostering inclusive teaching and learning.
Eighth, resources. I compiled the literature that I considered useful for addressing diversity in a
university setting. The two books of Musil and the one of the AACU did not find its way into this
portfolio but seem promising for starting to make a campus more diverse. Finally, I made an
overview of some of the resources in regard to multicultural education that can be found in the
internet.
8
1. Basics about
multicultural education
9
Banks, James A. (1994). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. –
chapter 1: “Aims, Characteristics, Approaches” (pp. 1-13)
1. Aims of Multicultural Education (p. 1f)
On the one hand, Multicultural Education (MCE) should affirm
Cultural self affirmation
and help students understand their home and community
and
cultures. On the other hand, it should enable people to free
Liberation from cultural boundaries
themselves from their cultural boundaries. Maxine Greene
asked in “The Dialectic of Freedom” (1988) “What does it
Greene about being a citizen in a free
mean to be a citizen of the free world?” Within this debate she
world
remarks that an important factor that limits human freedom in a
pluralistic society is the cultural encapsulation into which all
individuals are socialized. MCE, thus, should also help to free
from cultural boundaries.
2. The canon debate (p. 2-5)
The movement to infuse content about ethnic groups and
women into the school and university curriculum has been
strongly attacked. The Western traditionalists (writer who
Western traditionalists: MCE disunites
defend the present canon in school curricula) accused
America
multiculturalism to disunite America. Few of the critics bother
to distinguish Afrocentrism from multicultural education.
Representatives from the MCE side fail to stress that the
Multicultural vision consistent with
multicultural vision is consistent with the democratic ideals of
Western democratic ideals
the West. Much of the debate has been taken place in mass
media. Consequently, the debate occurred in a simplistic,
Oversimplified debate in mass media
sound-byte way that generates more heat than light.
Talking about the canon debate, it is important to realize that
Unequal power relation in the canon
there is an unequal power relation between Western
debate
traditionalists and multiculturalists. The first hold the balance
of power, financial resources, and the top positions in the mass
media, schools, colleges and universities. There is empiric
Shakespeare dominates!
evidence that traditional Western writers, e.g. Shakespeare,
dominate the reading lists in high school English courses and
10
college curricula. Concepts such as the Middle Ages and the
Euro-American concepts organize
Renaissance are still used to organize most units in school.
school content
Content about African or Asian culture is viewed within the
European concepts and paradigms. For example, Asian,
African, and American histories are often studied under the
topic “The Age of Discovery.” The Americas are often referred
“The Age of Discovery”
to as the New World.
Marginalized groups demand their voices to be heard. They ask
that the debt Western civilization owes to Africa, Asia, and
indigenous America must be acknowledged. Advocates of
Afrocentric curriculum are merely asking that the cultures of
Africa and African American people are legitimized in the
curriculum. This includes both the contribution to European
Curriculum inclusion of contributions
civilization and the victimization (not only for truth’s sake but
and victimization of Afro-Americans
also in order to understand their conditions as a prerequisite for
social reforms). To reject the West would be to reject important
aspects of their own cultural heritages. Literary works, like
DuBois and Woodson are expressions
from W.E.B. DuBois or Carter G. Woodson are expressions of
of Western cultural experience
Western cultural experiences. Banks cites work that describe
how
African
and
Afroasiatic
cultures
influenced
the
development of Western civilization. Further, Banks suggest
that the topic of the social construction of knowledge should
Social constructed knowledge as
become classroom content. Students should learn that
reflection thinking of particular people
knowledge reflects the perspectives, experiences, and values of
the people and cultures that construct it.
3. Multiculturalism as a “Western phenomenon” (p. 5-7)
Multiculturalists have written little about the intersections of
multicultural content and a Westerncentric canon. MCE itself is
MCE as a product of the West, a child
a “product of the West” (p. 5) – a child of the Civil Rights
of the Civil Rights Movement
Movement led by African Americans (designed to eliminate
discrimination in housing, public accommodation, and other
areas). The leaders (e.g. Rosa Parks or Daisy Bates) strongly
Leaders internalized American
internalized the American democratic ideal stated in documents
democratic ideals
such as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
11
The major goals of cultural revitalization movements (such as
the Chicano movement) and school reforms are the full
Goals of movements are inclusion into
inclusion of the marginalized groups into Western institutions
Western (!) institutions and their reform
and a reform of these institutions towards more democracy –
and exactly not the rejection of Western civilization. The real
threats to national unity are not ethnic differences, but the
Real threads are racial and class isms
deepening racial and social-class schisms. Social-class schisms
also occur within ethnic groups. After the middle-class flight to
the suburbs, low-income African Americans, Asian Americans,
and Hispanics have been left in inner-city communities without
Minorities without their middle-class:
the middle-class members of their groups to provide leadership
“more excluded than ever”
and role models. “They are more excluded than ever from
mainstream U.S. society.” (p. 6)
But also the privileged “majority” students can tremendously
benefit from MCE. The cultural beliefs they learn at home and
in their communities are usually reinforced in schools. Thus,
they seldom have the opportunity to identify and question their
MCE as opportunity for majority groups
cultural assumptions, beliefs, and perspectives. They have few
to question cultural perspective, learn
opportunities to become free of cultural assumptions and
to engage in cross-cultural participation
perspectives
that
are
monocultural.
These
mainstream
and relationships
Americans often have an inability to experience and benefit
from cross-cultural participation and relationships.
4. Approaches to MCE (p. 7-10)
Major theoretical and conceptual work has been done in MCE in the last 20 years. There is evidence that
MCE is becoming institutionalized within U.S. schools, colleges, and universities. The increasing
acceptance is related to various educational, sociological, and demographic developments.
Approach
Description/Major goals
Examples of Practice
1. Curriculum Reform
Changes in or additions to the content of the Celebration of cultural heroes and holidays
curriculum. To transform the canon and Multicultural curriculum guides
paradigms on which the curriculum is based.
Content workshops for teachers and administrators
Textbooks
2. Achievement
To increase the academic achievement of Programs that match teaching styles with learning
minority students.
styles
12
(Cultural
deprivation
paradigm
versus Bilingual-bicultural education programs
cultural difference paradigm)
3. Intergroup Education
Math and science programs for women
To help students develop positive attitudes Prejudice-reduction projects, such as the “World of
toward other groups.
Difference Project”
To help victimized and marginalized groups Desegregated institutions
develop more positive attitudes towards their Cooperative learning strategies and techniques
own group
5. Characteristics of a Multicultural School (p. 10-13)
(1) Teachers and administrators have expectations for all students.
(2) The formalized curriculum reflects the experiences, cultures, and perspectives of all groups.
(3) The teaching styles match the learning, cultural, and motivational styles of the students.
Research indicates that low-income, linguistic minority, Hispanic, Native American, and African
American students have learning, cultural, and motivational styles that differ from the teaching styles
frequently used in schools. These students learn better with cooperative methods. They also benefit
from explicit school rules and learning outcomes.
(4) Teachers and administrators respect the students’ first languages and dialects.
(5) The instructional materials come from different cultural, ethnic, and racial perspectives.
(6) The assessment and testing procedures are culturally sensitive and result in students of color being
represented proportionately in classes for the gifted and talented.
Human talent, as well as mental retardation, is randomly distributed across human populations
(Gardner, 1983).
(7) The school culture and the hidden curriculum reflect cultural and ethnic diversity.
(8) The school counselors have high expectations for students from different groups.
Those counselors also help students to reach beyond their grasp, to dream, and to actualize their
dreams.
13
DeVillar, Robert (1994): The Rhetoric and Practice of Cultural Diversity in U.S. Schools:
Socialization, Resocialization, and Quality Schooling (pp. 25-56). In DeVillar, Robert et al (eds.):
Cultural Diversity in Schools: from Rhetoric to Practice. New York: State University Press.
1. Historical and structural inequality in U.S. society
(p. 25-28)
The text describes the general difference between the
rhetoric and the reality in American society, particularly
the educational system, in regard to handling cultural
diversity. The melting pot rhetoric, embodied in Israel
Zangwill’s play “melting pot” (1909)
Zangwill’s 1909 play “melting pot” is part of the national
rhetoric, but not realized at all. The non-existence of
Inequality visible in school performance
equality is, among other things, visible in the school
of “minorities”
performance of so-called minorities compared with white
Americans. Here, the rhetoric says that success and failure
Belief in meritocracy
is a function of effort (while denying structural inequalities
that exist as the consequence of, among other things,
slavery). Even if “race” as a biological category is an
“race” has been constantly applied
illusion, so the broad consensus among scientists, it has
been applied throughout American past and present. The
“greatest Americans” rejected racial
“greatest Americans,” such as Washington, Jefferson,
equality
Lincoln, Franklin were against the equal participation of
non-whites. The belief in the superiority of the white race
Belief in white superiority
is visible in the whole American history.
2. The experience of African-Americans in U.S.
schools (p. 28-32)
To understand the status of non-whites in schools
nowadays, it is helpful to look into the past and see the
experience of African-Americans in U.S. schools. To give
South: teaching of Black was forbidden
just a few examples, the teaching of blacks was explicitly
forbidden in the South. Even if the situation in the North
was not as bad as in the South, the “mistreatment and
North: mistreatment and insults
insults” of white teachers of black students encouraged the
14
latter to strive for segregated schooling. Fears of
“promiscuous intermingling” dominated the people’s
Fears of “promiscuous intermingling”
thinking (that is, the sexual component played an
important role). In the West, interracial marriage and
West: no interracial marriage
voting was also forbidden. From 1896 to 1954, the
separate-but-equal-doctrine
characterized
the
school
“Separate-but-equal-doctrine”
experience of blacks, resulting in lower quality education.
This segregation remained even after the 1954 Brown vs.
Board
of
Education
decision
that
had
segregation still after “Brown”
forbidden
segregation. To make it short, unequal education today
today’s inequality must be seen under
must be seen under the perspective of European
perspective of European immigration
immigration and its consequences.
3. Today’s notion of racial inferiority of people of
color (p. 32-35)
The notion of a racial inferiority is not a phenomenon of
the past. One can easily see this by scrutinizing the
statements of Lloyd Dunn in 1987, senior author of the
Lloyd Dunn (1987) claimed white
“Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Series,” in regard to
superiority
Hispanic Americans. According to Dunn, Puerto Ricans
and Mexican-Americans are experiencing poor school
performances due to “inferior Spanish language skills.” He
“inferior language skills”
speaks about a general lack of intellectual, language, or
academic aptitude. They fail because “they have not been
“no motivation and dedication”
motivated and dedicated enough to make the system work
for
them.”
He
Mexican-Americans
also
in
points
IQ-tests.
they-did-it-why-can’t-you-argument,
to
the
He
failure
applies
alluding
to
of
failure in IQ-tests
the
“they-did-it-why-can’t-you-argument”
the
success of Asian-Americans. To value education, so Dunn,
is a tradition that Hispanics do not appear to have. To look
at Dunn’s monograph is telling, because there we can find
all the different arguments used to argue that the minorities
themselves
are
responsible
for
their
school
underachievement. Walker (1987) cites these different
Different perspectives of failure of
perspectives: (1) the genetic deficiency position (Jensen
students of color
15
1971), (2) the language-deficit perspective (Deutsch 1963),
(3) the dysfunctional family and cultural systems paradigm
(Moynihan 1967), (4) the field-sensitive learning style
orientation (Ramirez & Castaneda, 1974), and (5) the
low-self-conception model (DeVillar & Faltis 1991).
4. How Hispanic-Americans were/are treated by the
system (p. 35f)
Hispanic-Americans had, and this is a “different” fact now,
Hispanics were denied access to
to constantly challenge official school policy through the
quality schooling
courts to attain access to integrated and quality schooling.
But even in integrated classrooms, the treatment of whites
Also different treatment in integrated
and Hispanics is not the same. Research today shows that,
classrooms
Hispanics are treated differently by their teachers. This
influences their motivation and participation. But there are
also intracultural differences between recent Mexican
immigrants,
Mexican-oriented,
Mexican-Americans,
Intracultural differences within Hispanic
population how they are treated
Chicanos, and Cholo in terms of how their teachers
perceive them. These results show that access is necessary,
but not sufficient.
5. De facto segregation (p. 36)
The author speaks about segregation as being historically
Segregation: historically de jure and
de jure and now de facto. This segregation is accompanied
now de facto
by a move from Hispanic-American culture away from
Move away from mainstream culture
language and cultural expressions and dynamics of
mainstream America, forging and reinforcing its own
language
and
cultural
alternatives.
Consequently,
segregation is more than physical distance, it thwarts
Segregation is more than physical
accurate perceptions, authentic communication, and
distance
cooperation.
6. Necessary changes in schools (p. 37-42)
Research showed that school success depends on getting
School success depends on getting
instructions in one’s own language. Denying the
instructions in own language
16
pedagogical value of bilingual education, it has been
reduced to ist political dimension. The rhetoric of the
primary means for learning is the primary language is not
reflected in reality. Sound, long-term investments have
Necessary changes
been prevented: (1) to teach teachers for meeting the basic
communication and cultural requirements of their students;
(2) to restructure the schools of education (research,
education of teachers and administrators); (3) to restructure
the schools to respond to the heterogeneous student
population; (4) developing new curricula that reflect the
languages, cultures, and experiences of all groups.
Developmental bilingual education
According to long-term and large-scale research, so-called
programs
developmental bilingual education programs (DBE) are
better than English-immersion and transitional bilingual
English-immersion and transitional
education programs. However, for the latter much more
bilingual programs
money is provided.
7. The rhetoric of the Asian “model minority” and of
democracy (p. 42-51)
The authors also respond to the rhetoric of the Asian
“model minority.” Despite their school achievement, they
“model minority” underprivileged in
are underprivileged in regard to getting jobs and having
regard to access to jobs and college
university access. Chan (1991) divides institutional and
seven
seven forms of hostility to
categories: prejudice, economic discrimination, political
Asian-Americans
isolated
hostility
disenfranchisement,
to
Asian-Americans
physical
violence,
into
immigration
exclusion, social segregation, and incarceration.
Within the melting pot rhetoric, the U.S. is seen as a
falseness of melting pot rhetoric
democratic nation: a nation where every group has the
same freedom and ultimate access to opportunities. This is
naïve and inaccurate, both historically and currently. More
realistic is the Anglo-American Conformity Model (see pp.
46-51).
Anglo-American Conformity Model (p.
46-51)
17
Darder, Antonia (1991): Creating the Conditions for Cultural Democracy in the Classroom (chapter 5,
pp.99-128). In Culture and Power in the Classroom. A Critical Foundation for Bicultural Education. New
York: Bergin & Garvey.
1. Rejecting standardized instruction (pp. 99ff)
A critical foundation for bicultural education avoids models for
No how-to instructions -
duplication and how-to instructions. On the contrary, all
practice must emerge from context
educational
practice
must
emerge
from
the
contextual
relationships defined by the very conditions existing at any given
moment within the classroom. An essential step for teachers to Empowerment through interacting with “their
empower students of color is to permit them to interact with what
world”
they know to be their world. This is possible through refusing the
Refusing the role of technicians
role of technicians, that is, using lifeless instructional packages,
bland textbooks, or standardized tests. Instead of silencing
students of color, teachers must create conditions so that the
Creating conditions for students’ voice
students’ voices can find a place in everyday interactions of
public schools.
2. The question of language (pp. 101-107)
Darder begins with explaining the enormous significance of
“language.” Thus, it constitutes a major cornerstone for the
development of voice. The familiar language can serve as a
Familiar language as starting point
starting point from which to engage with the foreign and
unknown elements of the curriculum. E.g., students and parents
Introduction of one’s own language:
can introduce their languages through songs, stories, and games.
This attention can give the language dignity and respect. Such
Dignity and respect
activities can lead to discussions in regard to social attitudes
about language differences, such as typical discriminatory
responses to such situations as when people speak with foreign
accents. In addition, students can be made comfortable when
conversing in their primary language. Bell Hooks: “Learning to
Hooks: Listening to different voices versus
listen to different voices, hearing different speech challenges the
the rhetoric of assimilation
notion that we must all assimilate – share a single similar talk –
in educational
18
institutions.” (p. 103) Furthermore, it is important to learn how
Intersection of language and power
language and power intersect to exclude students of color from
particular social relations. But bicultural students should also
enter into critical dialogues with those outside their cultural
communities. Through these “cross-cultural dialogues,” (p. 104)
Cross-cultural dialogues
students come to better recognize for themselves the manner in
which language works to define who they are, and how language
Language assists to explore possibilities
can assist them to explore the possibilities that have remained
hidden or outside their reach.
“Theoretical language” has traditionally been controlled and
The importance of “theoretical language”
governed by those who have held power in academic circles. In
order to resist conservative forms of language domination, many
Wrong rejection of “language domination”
educators disengage from theoretical language (this view comes
dangerously close to anti-intellectualism). But for creating
Language of theory necessary for
conditions for students to determine their own lives genuinely
determining own lives.
within a multiplicity of discourses, teachers must introduce their
students to the “language of theory,” a language of social
analysis produced to understand how individuals reflect and
interpret their experiences and how they shape and are shaped by
their world. Furthermore, it is not unusual for students of color to
Students of color reject cultural forms which
reject those cultural forms that they associate with hostility and
they associate with alienation
alienation. Consequently, to challenge this anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism are rooted in legitimate
requires the teachers to recognize that these attitudes of
fears
resistance are rooted in legitimate fears. These fears and
responses are strongly fostered by a “legacy of resistance,” which
“legacy of resistance”
is reinforced daily through their personal and institutional
relationships. For example, parents fear to loose their children
Parents fear to loose their children if they
forever if they should become educated. Additionally, these kids
become educated
interact with teachers who have never experienced the language
of theory themselves.
3. The Question of Authority (pp. 107-110)
According to Henry Giroux, authority must be understood as a
Giroux: Authority as dialectical terrain of
dialectical terrain of legitimation and struggle, rather than simply
legitimation and struggle
19
as an absolute, hierarchical, and totalizing force. The authority of
Teacher him/herself is subject to dictates
the teacher must also be seen in the context of the teacher
and conditions
him/herself being consistently subject to administrative dictates
and school conditions that undermine their own power and
authority. Conservative educators see power as a positive force
Conservative educators: power maintains
that maintains order, “get the job done” – whereas liberal
order
educators believe that power corrupts and leads ultimately to
Liberal educators: power corrupts
destruction. These contradicting views can lead to a helplessness
that so many educators express, particularly when they want to
“empower” students. The contradictory assumptions can also
function to perpetuate the status quo, through the manner in
which they sabotage, limit, and distort teachers’ perceptions of
classroom authority and their ability to alter the conditions they
find in public schools. The liberal view can, hidden under the
values
of
subjectivity,
individualism,
and
Liberal view can deteriorate into relativism
intentionality
deteriorate into a crass relativism (some teachers proclaim that
they always consider all ideas generated by their students as
equal). It is an act of irresponsibility when teachers do not
Irresponsibility, when students’ oppressive
challenge the oppressive nature of student ideas when these ideas
ideas are not challenged.
constitute acts of any ism. Teachers must actively use their
Using authority to critically transform
authority to create the conditions for a critical transformation of
consciousness.
consciousness. Teachers embrace the notion of authority in the
interest of cultural democracy.
4. Redefining Fairness and Equality (pp. 110-113)
A new teaching of the concepts of “fair” and “equal” is
Privileged children are seen as mentally
necessary. Poor children receive the least from public education.
gifted.
Students from dominant culture are raised in homes which
provide them with the social, economic, and cultural capital
necessary to meet the elitist and ethnocentric standards. Those
score higher on standardized tests. Hence, they are perceived as
superior and receive a “mentally gifted status.” This status was
The gifted-status was used to appropriate
used as a justifiable rationale for appropriating additional
additional resources
resources to the already privileged. Jonathan Kozol suggests that
now more is asked of those to whom less is given. Higher
20
standards function as an attack on those who have a lack of
Higher standards attack those with the less
resources. Not only are bicultural students perceived as less
resources
intelligent, “but also they are taught through their interactions
Bicultural students are taught how to
with the system to perceive themselves in this way” (p. 112)
perceive themselves
5. The Use of Multicultural Curriculum (pp. 113-116)
Multicultural education is mainly a matter of bringing cultural
By bringing cultural objects to the classroom,
objects to the classroom (they can be easily seen). However,
the complexity of cultural values and beliefs
these objects are problematic because they ignore the complex
is neglected.
subjectivities of cultural values, belief systems, and traditions
that inform the production. Educators must become aware of
Educators must become aware of own
their own philosophical beliefs that inform their practice. (1)
beliefs:
Many racist, classist, and sexual attitudes and behaviors are most
(1) notions of color-blindness and/or
often disguised by faulty common-sense assumptions utilized
melting-pot assumptions are
extensively to assess student academic performance or classroom
common
behavior. Most teachers retain notions of color-blind or
melting-pot assumptions. That is, they believe that all people are
the same in spite of race or culture, all cultures melted together to
form one culture, and that anyone who wants to succeed can
succeed, irrespective of social or economic circumstances. These
assumptions certainly undermine the emancipatory potential of
multicultural curricula. For example, the refusal of students of
Example: Refusal of black student is seen
color to participate in classroom activities is seen as simply a
only as classroom management problem.
classroom management problem and not the act of resistance.
Well-meaning efforts can be unintentional acts of cultural
invasion and further cultural subordination. (2) Teachers must
recognize their limitations with respect to cultural systems from
(2) Recognizing own limits of
which bicultural students make sense of their world. This can be
knowledge of cultural systems of
accomplished by creating conditions for students to voice more
their students.
clearly what constitutes the cultural differences. Teachers also
must take the time to learn about the communities of their
students. Then they are more able to create opportunities for
classroom dialogue. (3) Educators must become aware of the
(3) Awareness of classroom activities,
consequences of some classroom activities. E.g., to make
such as making feathered
feathered headbands and teaching students about the Indians’
headbands
21
contributions to the first Thanksgiving is a form of cultural
invasion that reinforces stereotypical images and grossly distort
the history of a people. (4) No multicultural curriculum can
replace the dialogical participation. According to Gramsci, truly
(4) True participation through
active participation is only possible if the school is related to life.
connection to life
A genuine affirmation of cultural diversity in the classroom
requires the restructuring of power relations and classroom
structures in such a manner to promote the active voice and
participation of bicultural students. Consequently, students can
make their views of life problematic, search for different ways to
think about themselves, challenge their self-imposed as well as
institutionally defined limitations, affirm their cultural and
individual strengths.
To challenge self-imposed and institutionally
defined limitations
6. Challenging Racism in the Classroom (pp. 116ff)
It is necessary that the teacher is well equipped to challenge
incidences of racism when they surface in the curriculum or in
Teacher must be well-equipped to challenge
student relations. The problem is not cultural difference, but it is
incidences of racism
directly related to the responses of the dominant culture to these
differences. Too often, teachers overhear remarks such as “you
nigger,” or just telling them not to fight and that it is against the
Too often “overhearing”
rules to call each other. Instead, the teacher should address the
following questions: Where did they learn the words? What is the
intend behind these words? What are the effects on the victim?
Active addressing of important questions
On the vicitimizer? How could students engage in resolving their
differences in other ways? Dialogues such as this should be
consistently introduced so that the dialogues may come to act in
behalf of all who are oppressed. For bicultural students, the
dialogue must extend further. They must find out how they were
conditioned to participate unintentionally in the perpetuation of
their own oppression.
7. The Culture of the Teacher (pp. 118-123)
In order to understand the daily lived experiences of the group
and the historicity of social forces, it is not enough to read books
22
or attend a seminar. The teacher must invest time and energy into
establishing critical dialogues with people of color. But still, this
learning is situated outside that cultural context, and is therefore
different from the knowledge obtained from living within a
particular
cultural
community.
Even
in
the
state
Learning outside versus inside a
of
particular cultural community
nonconformity, Euroamerican values represent the central
Euroamerican values as reference point
reference point that individuals of the dominant culture move
toward or move away from in the course of their personal and
institutional relationships. The reference point also dictates the
Reference point dictates the subject
subject positions that individuals from the dominant culture
positions
assume.
People of color are often not aware of the manner in which
racism
and
classism
have
influenced
their
Lack of people of color’s awareness
individual
how racism and classism has
development, nor how they have functioned to distort perceptions
influenced their development
of their cultural group within an Anglocentric world. The fact
Bicultural persons can support
that a person is bicultural does not guarantee that she or he
domination themselves
occupies a position of resistance to such domination (e.g. Linda
Chavez). Public schools must work in collaboration with
bicultural educators, students, parents, and their communities.
White teachers must see the injustices that exist in their own
Injustices in the profession of white
profession. For example, often bilingual instructional aides must
teachers
work under White middle-class teachers with less experience.
Rather than creating the conditions for well-experienced
instructional aides to complete their education, large urban
school districts hire teachers from Spain (who have no American
bicultural experience at all). From the perspective of the
bicultural students, it is important for them to establish
relationships with both White and bicultural teachers. Bicultural
Importance of bicultural teachers:
teachers are important because they have a wealth of significant
Bilingual, understand students’
knowledge: they are bilingual, understand the complexity of their
worldviews, knowledgeable about
students’ cultural worldviews, are knowledgeable about their
history, role model
history and literature. They are certainly a model, too.
8. Restructuring Public Schools (p. 123-126)
It is important how the classroom is physically structured and
23
how the learning environment is situated: it must permit free
Physical structure of classroom and
physical movement, allow working in groups, have classroom
situation of learning environment
bulletin boards, curricular activities are created for students to
have opportunities to converse in their home language, students
are actively involved in the development of classroom rules and
in making decisions about classroom activities. But there must
Students’ involvement in decisions
also be done many things outside the classroom: the development
of cross-cultural teaching teams in schools with large bicultural
Cross-cultural teaching teams
student populations; the initiation of professional development
opportunities for all teachers to learn about bicultural pedagogy;
Professional development opportunities
an ongoing collaborative effort with parents and community
members to transform the educational environment; establish
Collaboration with parents and
regular public forums to discuss issues related to bicultural
community members; public forums
students.
24
2. Culture in the classroom
25
Adams, Maurianne (1992). Cultural Inclusion in the American College Classroom. In Border, Laura L. &
Chism, Nancy Van Note (eds.). Teaching for Diversity (pp. 5-17). San Francisco: Jossey-Publishers.
1. The hidden classroom culture (pp. 5-8)
“The traditional college classroom has a distinct culture that
Classroom culture can constrain
often constrains the success of students from other cultural
student success
backgrounds.” (p. 5)
Classroom procedure have a hidden curriculum. For
The hidden curriculum
example, classroom engagement in competitive or assertive
behavior, “talking up” in class, and acceptance of grading
curves by which one’s gain is another’s loss are likely to be
in conflict with cultures that does not endorse individual
success at the expense of one’s peers or that value modesty
over assertiveness. White people believe in the culture
White’s belief in cultural neutrality in
neutrality of the classroom. However, values of European
school versus
immigrants are dominant in the classroom. This academic
European classroom culture
culture rules out nonverbal, empathic, visual, symbolic, or
nuanced
communication.
To
those
not
socialized,
acculturated, or familiar with the ways of higher education,
traditional
classroom
practices
seem
impersonal,
“Impersonal” classroom for non-Whites
competitive, and off-putting.
The teaching-learning discourse in college classrooms is in
itself a cultural manifestation. There are two factors why this
2 Factors hide traditional classr. culture:
traditional culture has remained unnoticed: (1) The mismatch
(1) failure of traditional students not
of the traditional classroom culture to the learning style of
attributed to classroom culture
traditional students was never identified as a frequent cause
of student dropout. Ironically, the issue of classroom culture
did not emerge for general discussion until it was raised by
different cultural values. (2) There is a general absence of
(2) General missing conscious cultural
conscious cultural identity which reduces all cultural
identity
experience to a single dominant norm.
Adams offers important thoughts in regard to the incorrectly
named “model-minority” of Asian-Americans. They face
The “model-minority”:
cruel and unnecessary bicultural dilemmas as they attempt to
Have to face bicultural dilemmas: Must
26
balance learned cultural values of conformity, modesty,
balance values of conformity versus
nonassertiveness, interdependence and cooperation with
independence/individualism
behavioral expectations of assertion, independence, and
individualism. Generally, students from the non-dominant
Misunderstanding of non-dominant
cultural framework can easily be misunderstood by their
cultural students
teachers as underprepared, unmotivated, culturally deprived,
or unintelligent.
As faculty have control in matters of teaching, evaluation,
Faculty are the crucial persons
and curriculum, the call for multiculturalism depends on
faculty acceptance and implementation. The literature on
Incorporation of alternative teaching
women’s socialization and on the educational implications
modes is necessary
Afro-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and Native Americans suggests not
the dismantlement of traditional teaching practices but rather
the incorporation of alternative teaching modes.
2. The Big Chill: Women in College Classrooms (pp.
8-11)
Recent feminist critiques of traditional academic practice
Women’s experience were long
have portrayed a “chilly” experience of discouraging snubs
unrecognized
and hostilities toward women too long unrecognized and
unacknowledged in monocultural classrooms. New research
Rejection of “gender-neutral”
on gender socialization and women’s development reject the
developmental models
notion of a gender-“neutral” student. Current research
described female subjects as more oriented toward affiliation
than separation, preferring collaborative over competitive
achievements. The model of cognitive development most
Perry’s model of cognitive development
widely used among college teachers as a theoretical
was based on research with men
framework for college instructional design – William Perry’s
model of cognitive development – was developed with data
collected primarily from white, upper- or middle-class
American-born men. However, the new consensus on the
existence of different developmental pathways for women
depicts women’s thought as flexible and variable and men’s
Women’s thought as flexible and variable
more linear and sequential. Many other gender differences in
terms of learning and development exist. The consequence
27
are modified learning strategies already used in feminist
Consequence: modified learning
practice that have been endorsed and extended by the new
strategies for women
developmental literature on women’s ways of learning, as
well as the findings related to the chilly classroom for
women of color.
This search for more effective learning contexts for women
New role for the instructor
call also for the transformation of the role of instructor,
especially in matters of authority. The question to be
addressed is whether educational practices favor one
orientation over the other. The acceptance of women’s ways
Similar to the discussion about women:
of knowing as a difference to be responded to parallels in
Students of different cultural
important dimensions the acceptance of ways of knowing for
backgrounds
students from other cultural backgrounds.
3. From Cultural Deficit to Cultural Difference (pp.
11ff)
The situation of Afro-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and Native
Situations of “bicultural” students even
Americans is further complicated than the case of
more complicated than for White women:
Euro-African women, by several additional considerations:
(1) Disagreement whether different
(1) No consensus exists as to which differences matter in
treatment appropriate
terms of learning. There is active disagreement as to whether
the cultural backgrounds of students should be singled out
for attention. (2) There is the danger of creating new
(2) Danger of creating stereotypes
stereotypes. Broad generalizations about culturally different
learning styles can too easily be misunderstood as
euphemisms for deficits calling for remediation or
acculturation of students rather than flexibility and
responsiveness from the college instructor. The identification
Finer distinctions than e.g.
of cultural styles with broadly defined minorities – African-,
Asian-Americans are necessary
Asian-Americans for example – blurs finer differences, e.g.
between Cubans and Puerto Ricans. “It blurs the
complexities for students from biracial families or from
multicultural neighborhoods. It ignores the situation of
students from monocultural communities and prior schooling
for whom the experience of a predominantly white college
28
campus may constitute a first, direct, conscious awareness of
minority status. There are furthermore generational effects
Generational effects and intersections of
and intersections of various differences (ability, religion,
differences
class, etc.). (3) There is the interaction of cultural styles with
(3) Interaction of cultural style with
purposeful survival techniques within oppressive social
survival techniques
conditions. For example, for African-American students,
commitment to strong family responsibilities may express a
value within their respective cultures or reflect a
transformation of community survival strategies into a more
conscious Afrocentric identity.
College faculty would be deeply mistaken to confuse the
Stylistic differences is not the same like
stylistic differences among students with their intrinsic
intrinsic capabilities
capabilities. Learning style reflects a means toward an end
and involves pedagogies that are easily confused with the
actual learning goals themselves. The findings of cultural
differences has led researchers to develop new frameworks
for analyzing the classroom with respect to multiculturalism.
One such framework is the taxonomy of psychocultural
Taxonomy of psychocultural variables
variables for educational practice proposed by Tharp (1989).
(Tharp, 1989)
These variables include elements of social organization,
sociolinguistics, cognitive style, and motivation.
Teachers must become aware of the stages of social identity
Teachers must know stages of social
development by which nontraditional students gradually
identity of non-traditional students
transform their internalized aspects of negative stereotyping,
learned from an oppressive social context into positive
self-concepts.
4. General Principles for Creating the Multicultural
Classroom (pp. 13ff)
Important is the recognition that not all social groups share
“Learning biographies” differ
the same history of relatively positive, prior educational
experience. Important is a shift from passive to active
Pro active student participation
student participation, visual or auditory to verbal modes of
representation. A variable, flexible repertoire of teaching
Pro flexible teaching strategies
strategies enables college teachers to match the cultural
29
styles of students of targeted social groups in their
classroom. This kind of teaching can match individual
learning differences among traditional students as well. The
teacher’s
repertoire
of
flexible
teaching
strategies
This teaching repertoire mirrors the
multicultural value of reciprocity
exemplifies the multicultural value of reciprocity rather than
the multicultural expectation of acculturation.
30
Hooks, Bell (1900). "On Being Black at Yale: Education as the Practice for Freedom" (pp. 62-72). Talking
Back. thinking feminist, thinking black. Boston: South End Press.
1. The role of Black academics (p. 63f)
Black academics are not individually confronted daily with the
Black academics not daily confronted with
horrendous acts of racial discrimination and exploitation that
racism
once served as constant reminders that the struggle to end
racism could not cease. This can lead many black scholars to
Consequence: unmindful of commitment to
become unmindful of the radical traditions established by black
transform society
educators who were deeply committed to transforming society.
Yale once has been a place for the effort to transform the
Yale was (!) a progressive place
institution both in terms of the racial make-up of students and
faculty and in terms of perspectives on knowledge and reality.
This history is no longer remembered or deemed unimportant.
2. Integration versus assimilation (p. 67)
Hooks is very reflective about the issues of assimilation versus
integration and looks at Freire's "Education for Critical
Consciousness." Speaking with Freire, integration with one's
Freire: integration with one’s own context is
own context as distinguished from adaptation, is a distinctly
a distinctly human activity
human activity. Integration results from the capacity to adopt
oneself to reality plus the critical capacity to make choices and
transform that reality. When man's decisions depend on
external prescriptions, he is no longer integrated. The integrated
person is person as Subject. In contrast, the adaptive person is
person as object. If man is incapable of changing reality, he
“Adaptive person” is person as subject
adjusts himself instead. Adaptation is behavior characteristic of
the animal sphere; exhibited by man, it is symptomatic of his
dehumanization.
While assimilation is seen as an approach that ensures the
animals make adaptation
human adaptation is symptomatic of his
dehumanization
successful entry of black people into the mainstream, at its very
core it is dehumanizing. Hooks mentions personal encounters
with black students who reported that they are overwhelmed at
feelings of alienation and despair as a
times by feelings of alienation and despair, that they feel a loss
consequence of trying to assimilate
31
of any sense of identity and meaning. Much of this pain is
evoked by the effort to assimilate.
3. Inner contradictions: assimilation versus remaining black
(p. 67f)
Hooks mentions an example where the contradictory longings
Contradictions of assimilating and
of assimilating on the one hand and remaining engaged with
remaining with black experience
black experience on the other hand becomes overt. A black
student is hanging with his white friends in downtown New
Haven. When a group of black teens pass, the white guys insult
them enormously. One part of the black friend of the whites is
One part: shocked by racism
shocked by that racism and recognizes that caring and sharing
in friendships has not altered their racial hatred. The assimilated
Assimilated part: notices gestures of
part of him notices that the comment was made as though he
inclusion
was not black but just like his white peers, a gesture of
inclusion in their whiteness affirming that he has successfully
assimilated. It is this part that says nothing, that suppresses. On
Assimilated part “says nothing”
the surface, it seems that he has coped with this situation, that
he is fine, yet his psychological burden has intensified, the pain,
Pain and confusion has intensified
confusion.
32
Shulman, Judith H. & Mesa-Bains, Amalia (eds.) (1993). Diversity in the Classroom. A Casebook for
Teachers and Teacher Educators (pp. 45-53: “Case 6 – Fighting for Life in Third Period”). Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1. The Case
An experienced White, middle-class woman starts to teach in a
Experienced White teacher in a very diverse
public school (30 percent African-American, 55 percent
school
Hispanic, 15 percent White). She has no problems with two
classes, but the third class provides her with tremendous
problems. With a big enthusiasm she claimed the “new high
She proclaims the “new high school”
school” in the first lesson, what was at once rejected by some of
the students. To sum her problems in teaching the class up, four
The “Gang of the four” gave her a hard time
students gave her a hard time, whom she called the “Gang of
Four,” all of them Black. She felt she had run into everything
All her “expectations” were fulfilled
she “had heard about the ghetto: crude, foul language, rudeness,
low achievement, blatant sexuality, continual talk of violence,
guns, drugs.” (p. 45) Very honestly, the teacher admits that the
Blackness as first barrier
blackness of the students seemed at first to be the barrier. In
order to gain control, the teacher sought help from many
Helpful resources
recourses: parents, counselors, other teachers; she wrote
discipline referrals to vice-principles and sent notes football
coaches; she had to call the security force to have unruly
students removed. She also got to know the children better,
She “managed” situation, also utilizing the
what their “weaknesses” are, how she could employ pressure to
students’ “weaknesses”
gain some control over them. Thus, she “managed” the
situation, but only on a superficial level.
She disliked the class and the class did not appreciate her. She
Honesty at last
finally tried something quite different: to talk totally honestly to
the class. And she let student groups answer three questions (p.
Three questions!
47): (1) What kind of activities make an English class a good
one? (2) What are the responsibilities of a teacher toward the
class? (3) How can the students help make the class a good
one? The answers were quite astonishing: she students wanted
Students demanded more authority
more authority, more control. She should throw students out
33
who did not follow, and say clearly what is to do. From this
Then, everything developed positively
moment, everything developed positively, and finally she
“performed a rap” she wrote with the Gang of Four as back-up
rhythms.
Looking retrospectively, she remarks to have learned the
Principles she learned:
following principles:
(1) Always establish control first, regardless the students you
(1) Control first
have.
(2) Students of color do not fear or resent white teachers,
(2) students of color do not resent white
because they are used to them. “They become individuals
teachers
to you – real people.” When she sees people of color in the
street, those do not look different to her.
(3) Race and poverty are not necessarily synonymous. Many
(3) race is not equivalent to poverty
Blacks and Latinos come from good homes where there is
fine support.
(4) Poverty is the real enemy. She wants to help students get
(4) “poverty mentality”
over the “poverty mentality” – the apathy, laziness,
hopelessness.
2. Comment by Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of
Wisconsin
Ladson-Billings respects the teacher’s honesty and that she
went to an inner-city and diverse school. She agrees with what
the teacher had learned, that control must be established
Agreement with the role of control
excluding doubts. By admitting the thread through the students’
blackness,
the teacher fortunately did not
employ a
No race-blindness
race-blindness (what many teacher do). It is also good that she
was willing to learn from the students, and not having a
No “missionary” attitude
“missionary” attitude towards the work with the “poor
unfortunates.”
3. Comment by Karen Desser, Teacher
The teacher, with her “pep talk” at the beginning of the year,
Teacher first did not value the class
was entering the students of her class, but telling them that she
did not find value in it. If she was really interested in
34
empowering them, she needed to learn how to allow them to
make their own value judgements.
4. Comment by Morgan Marchbanks, Mellon Fellow
Marchbanks describes herself as an African-American woman,
a student, and a single mother. She was offended by the
depiction of Veronica. She was stereotypical caricatured as a
Critique of the stereotypical characterization
loose black woman. “Stout, black, stuffed into a red-flame
of the black female student
dress, Veronica sauntered slowly, insolently past me and took a
seat as conspicuously as possible.” (p. 52) According to
Marchbanks, this description incorrectly equates her black skin
and tight red dress to insolence. She is very familiar with this
Old sexually permissive image of Black
sexually permissive image of Black women. The description of
women
the Gang of Four is also stereotypical. It not only refers to their
inappropriate behavior, but also to “rapping, dancing” African
Also stereotype of “rapping, dancing”
Americans. This easy, ethnic/cultural categorizing is dangerous
African Americans
because it limits individual potential.
5. Comment by Heather Ramirez, Mellon Fellow
As a Mexican-American woman, she considers the case
narrative in regard to the depiction of the successful Latino
About the Latino student who is
student. He is top-achieving despite the fact that his parents are
top-achieving despite his parents not
not speaking English. This implies the assumption that
speaking English
non-English speaking parents hinder the success of their
children. “This is incorrect.” (p. 52) In Latino culture, the
family is the social unit and provides the necessary support for
the child to excel. If the parents do not understand the
American school system, the school has to inform the parents.
It is the obligation of the school to explain
the system
6. Comment by Marchbanks and Ramirez
The focus on racial and cultural differences overshadows the
importance of socio-economic factors. The teacher also
Teacher is race-blind!
employs a race-blindness. This implies that racial and cultural
realities must be avoided to allow the teacher to feel
comfortable with the students. This blindness not only forbids
Blindness forbids seeing the whole person
35
us to see the whole person with his/her own cultural heritage,
with cultural heritage
but also misinterprets socio-economic issues. The teacher
blames a “poverty mentality.” This label can be a dangerous
“poverty mentality” (dangerous weapon) as
weapon. Society regards it as an inherent characteristic rather
survival mechanism, not inherent
than a survival mechanism to escape the harshness of everyday
characteristic
life. Students hide behind a veil of hopelessness in order to
cope with the bleak reality of limited opportunities. Students
loose of hope because educators do not
often lose hope because they do not expect the educator to offer
offer a means to change
them a means to change their situation.
36
Wade, Suzanne (ed.) (1999). Inclusive education. A Casebook and Readings for Prospective and
Practicing Teachers (pp. 115-120 “Case 2 – The Dialogue That Might Be Silencing). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1. Teacher wants to use social-constructivist methods
The case is about a class of working-class students, first grade,
Working-class
three of them African-American. The teacher is a graduate
African-Americans
students,
three
student in mathematics education. Thus, she wants to apply the
“modern” social-constructivist methods that are supposed to
Class adopted social-constructivist methods
foster student learning. After initial problems, the class adopts
to this new form of class interaction. The teacher wants to
promote a “authority for knowing,” where the students think
“authority for knowing”
their answers through instead of looking to her and asking
whether they are correct. She wants to cultivate a collaborative,
collaborative, sense-making environment
sense-making environment by subtly communicating that
mathematics is a group process.
2. Silence of students of color
She was successful (!) – with the exception of the three
African-American students. Those often raised their hands, but
African-Americans did not answer
then remained silent, particular in regard to “why” questions.
why-questions
The teacher could not attribute this phenomenon to the lower
ability of these students.
3. Explanation of Lisa Delpit
She finally read an article that offered her a solution to her
misunderstanding.
Lisa
Delpit’s
(1988)
“The
Silenced
Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue”
Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s
Children”
claimed
that
some
progressive
pedagogical
Progressive pedagogical approaches that
approaches can be disabling to African-American students. She
disable African-American students
contrasted very directive teaching approaches with those in
which the teacher in less in control and the children are given
more intellectual autonomy. She referred to patterns of
interaction that are unfamiliar to African-Americans but are
Patterns of interaction only familiar to
37
shared by White, middle-class children as “the culture of
Whites
power.” According to Delpit, parents of Black children “want
Black parents want the teachers to teach
to ensure that the school provides their children with discourse
their children these patterns
patterns, interactional styles, and spoken and written language
codes that will allow them success in the larger society.” (p.
119) But how should she do this – through direct instruction?
But such a direct approach contradicted her beliefs in how
“Direct approach” contradicted her beliefs of
learning functions. Does the constructivist approach apply only
how learning functions
to White middle-class people? Another example: “Would you
like to sit down now?” is easily understand by Whites in its
indirect-ness, but African-Americans, who are not part of this
culture, usually don’t know. Finally, even more questions arose
Finally more questions than initially
for the teacher how to continue her teaching.
38
Delpit, Lisa D. (1988): The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s
Children. In Harvard Educational Review, vol. 58(3), pp. 280-298
1. The anger of Black students (p. 280f)
Delpit’s article starts with quoting Black students of their fury
in regard to their treatment by White teachers resp. Professors:
“...I’m tired of arguing with those White people, because they
“Whites won’t listen”
won’t even listen. (...) It seems like if you can’t quote Vygotsky
or something, then you don’t have any validity to speak about
your own kids.” They are annoyed if the moment in class comes
annoyed of speaking about the “Black
when they have to speak about “The Black Issue.” Whites often
issue”
listen, but they don’t hear. “Please tell those people, just don’t
help us anymore.” If Blacks speak about their own experience,
Blacks’ experiences are “just personal
White professors often say that this is just a personal experience
experience”
and quote some research. Further, Whites are very seldom
aware that the dialogue has been silenced. They often assume
Whites interpret silence as agreement
that their non-White colleagues, in the last instance, agree with
their logic.
2. Blacks are left out of the dialogue (p. 281f)
Delpit wrote an article in 1986 about the process-oriented
versus skill-oriented approach in teaching writing. She also
spoke about the estrangement she experiences when the
progressive movement dismisses her as too “skill oriented.”
The responses depended heavily on the race of the respondents:
Responses on an article by Delpit
whereas Whites wanted to talk more about the questions in
depended on race
regard to the different approaches, all respondents of color
“have spoken passionately on being left out of the dialogue
about how best to educate children of color.” (p. 282). Delpit
Why communication blocks when all have
asks how these communication blocks can exist if both parties
same aims?
have the same aims.
3. The five aspects of power (p. 282-284)
Delpit proposes five aspects of power:
39
(1) Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.
This includes: teacher, textbooks, curriculum, state
(2) There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is,
there is a “culture of power.”
This means linguistic forms, communicative strategies,
(1) power enacted through teacher,
textbook, curriculum
(2) “culture” exists of how to be successful
in class (interaction and communication
forms, etc.)
presentation of the self; that is, ways of talking, ways of
writing, ways of dressing, ways of interacting.
(3) The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the
rules of the culture of those who have power.
(3) school is built upon culture of middleand upper class
Children from middle-class homes are better in school because
the school is built upon the culture of the upper- and
middle-class. Children with other backgrounds operate within
perfectly wonderful and viable cultures but not cultures that
carry the codes or rules of power.
(4) If you are not already a participant in the culture of power,
(4) being told the rules makes acquiring
being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes
power easier
acquiring power easier.
Members from any culture transmit information implicitly to
implicit transmission of information within
co-members. When implicit codes are attempted across
culture
cultures, communication frequently breaks down. Each culture
then says: Why don’t those people say what they mean? Delpit
“Why don’t they say what they mean?”
herself found it much easier when some kind soul directly
informed her about such matters as appropriate dress,
interactional style, embedded meanings, and taboo words or
“nobody has the leisure of a lifetime of
actions. “Unless one has the leisure of a lifetime of ‘immersion’
‘immersion’”
to learn them [rules of the culture of power], an explicit
presentation makes learning immeasurably easier.” (p. 283)
(5) Those with power are frequently least aware of – or least
those without power are most aware of it
willing to acknowledge – its existence. Those with less
power are often most aware of its existence.
For liberal and radical educators, admitting their power is very
liberal educators have problems admitting
uncomfortable. They do not see themselves having power.
power
However, by virtue of their position, their numbers, or their
access to that particular code of power of calling upon research
to validate one’s position, the White educators had the authority
40
to establish what was to be considered “truth.” The mistake is
to make rules explicit does not mean to act
to think that to make any rules or expectations explicit is to act
against liberal principles
against liberal principles.
While the first three are by now basic tenets in the literature of
(4) and (5) has seldom been addressed
the sociology of education, the last two have seldom been
addressed.
4. Differences between White and Black teachers (p.
284-293)
The reading program “Distar” is a good example for different
“Distar” shows different views about
views about instructions. While research showed that children
instruction
learned to read with it, liberal educators rejected it due to their
direct instruction, the explicit control exhibited by the teacher,
as fascist. With the following examples of statements of White
liberal educators, Delpit shows the differences between White
and Black teachers.
(1) “I want the same thing for everyone else’s children as I
want for mine.” (p. 285f)
Some come with more “cultural capital” to school than others.
Black parents want their children to be taught the discourse
patterns, interactional styles, etc. that will allow their children
access in larger society. When White liberals introduced
“dialect readers” in the school, Blacks saw this as preventing
Blacks saw “dialect readers” as preventing
their children to learn the aspects of the culture in power, thus
their children to learn culture in power
dooming them to a permanent outsider caste. Delpit examined
Distar and a progressive program that focused on higher-level
Progressive learning program: opportunity
critical thinking skills. In the latter, an opportunity for those
for those who already knew the content
who already knew the content to exhibit was provided, or at
most to build on new concept onto what was already known.
On the other hand, Distar was successful because it taught new
Distar taught new information to those who
information to children who had not already acquired it at
did not acquire it at home
home. Delpit does not advocate a “cultural genocide,” that the
schools attempt to change the homes of poor and non-White
This is not about “cultural genocide,” the
children. The parents transmit another culture that children
parents continue transmitting another
must learn at home in order to survive in their communities.
culture
41
(2) Support of child-centered, process approaches, in order to
allow a democratic state of free, autonomous, empowered
adults, and because research supports these methods. (p.
286-288)
People of color are, in general, skeptical of research because it
Historical skepticism of Blacks in regard to
has found them genetically inferior, culturally deprived, and
research
verbally deficient. Often students of color are found
Accountable for rules which no one taught
accountable for knowing a set of rules about which no one has
ever directly informed them. Teachers do students no service to
suggest that the product is not important. When in the process
Student of color consider process approach
approach students write essays and then assemble into groups
as wasting time
to edit each other’s papers, students of color feel like wasting
time, not learning anything, lacking structure and the more
formal language.
Delpit attributes the teacher’s resistance to exhibiting power in
Teachers’ problems with exhibiting power
the classroom to their assumption that this would disempower
their students. However, she makes two qualifier: (a) Teachers
Teachers not the only experts
cannot be the only experts; (b) it is also important to work with
Positive elements of process approach
the process approach. E.g. to introduce elements of “real
audiences.”
(3) “The Black teacher is so authoritarian.” (p. 288-291)
First, commands of Whites are more indirect, but still
Indirect commands are still commands
commands, such as “Isn’t it time for your bath?” They
represent true power, and with true consequences for
disobedience. Black parents then say: If you just tell them what
“Just tell them what to do!”
to do, they’ll do it! Second, Blacks see the issue of power and
different concept of authority
authority different than Whites. Blacks expect authority to be
Blacks: must be earned
earned by personal efforts and exhibited by personal
characteristics. By contrast, Whites expect one to achieve
Whites: role
authority by the acquisition of an authoritative role. Thus, the
Black teacher “earns” authority: through exhibition of personal
power, establishment of meaningful interpersonal relationships,
etc. By contrast, White teachers have many more options of
White teacher’s power is more veiled
behavior at her disposal. The power he/she holds may be veiled
in indirect commands. There are different attitudes in different
42
cultures about which characteristics make for a good teacher. It
The “good teacher” is culturally different
is impossible to speak about a good teacher without taking
issues of culture and community context into account.
(4) “It is not they, the children, who must change, but the
schools.” (p. 291-293)
Delpit speaks about the case of a young Native American
case of a Native American teacher student
teacher student, who was gifted but lacked qualification in
formal English. The response of Delpit was that she must be
taught proper English and not having done so was the failure of
the system (she was the victim). To ask as if power does not
To deny power means to keep the status
exist is to ensure that the power status quo remains the same.
quo
To imply that language doesn’t matter (because of plurality) is
to ensure the failure of the students. If a person wants to be on
the game, then there are games that must be played. Delpit does
Games that must be played
not believe that political change toward diversity can be
Impossibility of political change from the
effected from the bottom up. She rejects the idea that, if we
bottom up!
accept and encourage diversity within the classrooms of
children, then diversity will automatically be accepted at
gatekeeping points.
5. A model of a teacher (p. 293-297)
As a positive model she mentions Martha Demientieff, a
masterly Native Alaskan teacher. She teaches both “Heritage
Masterly Native Alaskan teacher
Language” and “Formal English.” She encourages her students
that it is better to learn two ways to say things. Even if the
“two ways to say things”
Heritage Language feels as the ideal way to convey things,
other people judges them by the way they talk or write. By
others judge the way one talks
making translations and back translations from one to the other
language, the students learn the arbitrariness of language
learning the arbitrariness of language
standards, to learn to write for different audiences and about
standards
aspects of power.
Massey et al. (1975) have published in “Racism without
Massey “Racism without Racists”
Racists” that oppression can arise out of warmth, friendliness,
and concerns.
43
Davis, Barbara Gross (1999). Diversity and Complexity in the Classroom. Considerations of Race,
Ethnicity, and Gender. From Jossey-Bass: Tools for Teaching.
www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/diverse.htm
(1) The problem
Changes in the demography of the applicant pool and college admissions policies are bringing about a
measure of greater diversity in entering classes. However, once the students are on campus, they feel
treated as unwelcome outsiders, and they describe having encountered subtle forms of bias. Some students
of color call this “the problem of ignorance” or the “look through me” syndrome. They talk about white
students “taking over the class,” how their value and perspective is not appreciated. The consequences are
alienation and the hindering of personal, academic, and professional development. Generally, research on
the best practices of multicultural education is limited and the topic is complicated, confusing, and
dynamic.
(2) General strategies

Recognize own biases and stereotypes, e.g. do you assume that ethnic minorities get into the program
because of special admissions programs?

Treat each student as an individual and do not project your experiences with, feelings about, or
expectations of an entire group onto any one student. Though, group identity can be important for
some students.

Rectify any language patterns or case examples that exclude any groups. (e.g., use “he” and “she,”
avoid comments that assume heterosexuality, use case studies from a variety of cultural and social
contexts)

Use the right terms to name certain groups (e.g., African-Americans instead of Blacks, or
Japanese-American instead of Asian-American; important: what terms do the groups prefer
themselves?)

Get a sense of how students think about the classroom climate (e.g., through asking for feedback)
(3) Tactics for Overcoming Stereotypes and Biases

Gain a general knowledge about the different groups (avoid offending out of ignorance); know what is
appropriate behavior and speech in cultures different from your own.

Have high expectations of everyone (self-fulfilling prophecy) regardless their background

Do not protect any group! This undermines students’ self-esteem and their view of their abilities and
competence
44

Recognize the complexity of diversity (e.g., avoid generalizations from studies on African-American
students)
(4) Course Content and Material

If possible, select material whose language is gender-neutral and free of stereotypes.

Aim for an inclusive curriculum: readings should reflect new scholarship about previously
underrepresented groups; discussing the contributions made to the field by women or by various
ethnic groups and examining the obstacles these pioneering contributors had to overcome. However,
the danger is to place these groups as special topics. Instead, try that one group’s experience is not
held up as norm or the standard against which everyone else is defined.

Bring in guest lectures from different ethnic groups to make presentations.
(5) Class discussion

Emphasize the importance of considering different approaches and viewpoints.

Step in if some students seem to ignore the viewpoints of others.

Encourage all students to participate. You can prevent any one group of students from monopolizing
the discussion by your active solicitation of alternate viewpoints.

Professors tend to evaluate positively students who question assumptions, challenge points of view,
speak out, and participate actively. However, some of your students were brought up to believe that
challenging people who are in positions of authority is disrespectful or rude.

Speak up promptly if a student makes a distasteful remark even jokingly.

Avoid singling out students as spokespersons, that is, to let them speak as representatives for their
group (this ignores intra-group differences and reinforces the idea that every member of a minority
group is an authority on his/her group).
(6) Assignments and Exams

Ask ESL specialists for advice about how to grade papers and for information about typical patterns of
error related to your students’ native language.

Suggest to form study teams to meet outside class (students of color are sometimes left out of informal
networks). Thus you can overcome some of the out-of-class segregation common on many campuses.

Assign group work and collaborative learning activities (greatest understandings of diversity often
occur as side-effects)

Give assignments and exams that recognize students’ diverse backgrounds, such as term projects to
explore the roles, status, contributions, and experiences of groups traditionally underrepresented.
45
(7) Advising and Extracurricular Activities

Meet with students informally, encourage them to come to office hours

Encourage students to explore perspectives outside their own experiences. E.g., encourage them to
study literature, history, and culture of other ethnic groups.

Help students to develop departmental organizations (e.g., an undergraduate association)

Provide opportunities for all students to get to know each other (research shows that both
African-American and white students would like greater interracial contact).
46
Collier, Mary Jane (1995): Dialogue and Diversity. Communication across Groups. In Harris, Dean A.
(ed.). Multiculturalism from the Margins. Non-Dominant Voices on Difference and Diversity (pp.
155-173). Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey.
1. About Communication (pp. 155-158)

Questions about communication are questions about identity

Who I am depends upon who you think I am, I should be, and how you behave toward me.

As communicators, we tend to assume that others understand what we say and do in the way that we
want them to do. But words and nonverbal cues connote different things to different people.

Nonverbal cues like tone of voice, inflection, silence, eye contact, and body language are also
indicators or relationship status. They indicate who has the greater power in relationships.

Every behavior occurs in a cultural context and will be interpreted according to the listener’s cultural
background.
2. Groups of Identity (pp. 158-164)

Cultural identities is something that endures, e.g. people cannot become Chinese American like they
can change a religion or move to a new place
(1) Each person is a combination of many identities. To behave toward someone as though that person has
just one identity (e.g. Irish) is unfair and can lead to misunderstandings (is that person Catholic or
Protestant?)
(2) One person is more than just ‘homeless’ or ‘Chinese,’ the identity that you think is important for the
other may not be the same that the other person thinks is important.
(3) Identities are formed through communication with others. There are two processes involved: a)
avowed identity: the identity who we choose to be. b) ascribed identity: how others view us. An
individual cannot take on or enact a cultural identity unless people who are already members of that
group accept him or her into the group and communicate their acceptance. “Cultural identity is group
identity and is based on both avowed and ascribed processes.” (p. 161) To stereotype has
psychological advantages, but we make some dangerous assumptions about the similarity of everyone
in a group and overlook individual differences.
(4) Cultural identities include both change and continuity.

Differences in regard to communication styles exist between different nations:

Edward T. Hall differentiates between high and low context cultures: a) high-context culture:
members are more indirect, letting the context speak for them. Members use fewer words and allow
47
the environment, the status of the persons who are present, their appearance, and tone of voice to
convey the message. The listener must then draw conclusions based on the nonverbal cues.

Another category is the extent to which the group is relationship oriented. Sometimes, the group’s
competitive achievement orientation is seen as the opposite of relationship orientation. Here, identities
are negotiated through job performance, completing tasks, and social performances like telling stories.
Edward Stewart has described the United States as a “doing” culture rather than a “being” or
“being-in-becoming” culture.

Researchers identified styles that characterize particular ethnic cultural identities: African Americans
value directness and assertiveness, emotional expression, authenticity (what is a result of almost four
centuries of slavery, exploitation, continuing racism, socioeconomic struggle, and pride. Mexican
Americans emphasize relational trust and establishing a supportive climate and positive relationship
prior to dealing with the task.

In summary, recognizing the behavior others as a product of cultural style can be useful. This can limit
quick negative judgements.
3. Intercultural Communication Competence (pp. 164ff)

Competent communication requires that group members follow the norms that apply to the situation.

“Intercultural competence is when both people ascribe and validate the identities that the other person
is avowing.” (p. 164) One must first find out how the other wants to be identified and then how to
appropriately reinforce the other’s identity.
a) Cues and Labels of Identity
Is a label necessary at all? Most people object it. Groups usually prefer to name themselves (African
Americans) rather than using the label imposed by members of other groups (colored, Negro). One
can ask insiders to talk about their understandings and preferences.
b) Power issues
We must be aware that all communication occurs within a context. Members of groups who
experienced discrimination may fear that the dominant group withholds resources. The group in power
gets to make the rules about how resources are distributed.
4. Intergroup politics (pp. 166-168)

Every ism is based on overgeneralization and negative stereotyping. Isms polarize and are destructive
to relationships. “Defensiveness” usually begets more defensiveness. A way to avoid this
defensiveness may be to talk about the personal consequences of sexism or racism. Dialogue about the
privilege that accompanies being male (white, heterosexual, etc.) can also be beneficial.
48
5. Strategies for Interethnic or Intergroup Communication (pp. 168-173)

Ask someone what the rules are, what you are expected to do; observe the nonverbal and verbal
patterns? If you make conversational mistakes, you can explain your behavior.

Acknowledge the Politics and Power Issues: In Stud Terkel’s “Race,” an African American explains
that being Black in the United States is like owning and wearing one pair of ill-fitting shoes. If you are
European American, acknowledge your privilege. Instead of opposing affirmative action,
acknowledge that you are privileged because the values that are taught and reinforced in all forms of
the educational system, the media, and the political and justice system reflect your values. The best
thing to say is “You are right. I do benefit from my race, sex, and class, every day.” Communicate
your view that racism, sexism, homophobia are pervasive and violate the human rights of U.S.
citizens.

Avoid ethnocentrism: Documents such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights reinforce the right of
the individual. This presumes that autonomy, authenticity, and freedom are the zenith of human
development.

Presume appropriate similarity and difference: there are three things you should never say: (1) I never
even notice that you’re Black. (2) You’re different from most Black people. (3) I understand what you
are going through as a Black because I am (Jewish, Italian, etc.)
49
3. Curriculum transformation
50
Greene, Maxine (1992). Multiculturalism, Community, and the Arts. In Dyson, Anne Haas & Genishi,
Celia (eds.). The need for story: cultural diversity in classroom and community (pp. 11-27). Urbana,
Illinois: National Council for Teachers of English.
1. Narratives support personal development
Greene mentions the book “Lucy” by Jamaica Kincaid. Lucy
was an au pair girl from Antigua coming to NYC to the
liberal Mariah and her family. Lucy had to memorize and
“Lucy”: Her childhood experiences
recite a poem about daffodils by a long-dead poet. She grew
forced her to hate daffodils
up being a colonial in the British Empire, compelled to read
and admire traditional English poets, which represented all
that was imposed to her. Whenever she then saw daffodils,
she saw sorrow and bitterness. On the contrary, Mariah just
saw the beautiful flowers. Is there some fixed standard against
which Lucy’s response must be weighed? Greens suggests
A space for her reality must be created
that we must make space for a reality like Lucy’s. We must
be concerned for pedagogies required for economic survival,
but we need also pedagogies that enable persons to become as
persons, developing in networks or relationships.
Many have discovered that the best way to do so is to try it
against the background of the students’ own life stories, their
own narratives. Narratives are “the means by which we
Narratives to give meaning to events
gradually impart meaning to the events of our lives.” (p. 14) It
is not only the events that must be recaptured, it is the
landscape against which the activities have taken place.
2. When Greene discovered the “great tradition”
Greene remembers her own introduction into the so-called
The “great tradition” showed Greene
great tradition which she saw as something larger, more
“new ways of being”
radiant, more complex, more revealing than the petit
bourgeois life of her family. There was something tempting
and strange in what she saw as possible ways of being in the
world beyond her ordinary life. She did not realize at that
She did not see the Euro-centric nature
time that this canon was still only the Euro-centric one, made
of this canon
51
by powerful and authoritative white men.
Though, these texts opened channels in her consciousness.
She wanted to plunge out the commonplace, and perhaps to
transmute it into an alternative reality (so she read for
example Dickinson, Brontes, Eliot, Flaubert, Hawthorne,
Melville, James, Hemingway, Fitzgerald). It took her a while
till she realized what Woolf pointed out in “A Room of One’s
Own.” In fiction, women where as great as men, but in fact
they were locked up, beaten, and flung around the room.
Women: locked up and beaten
Tillie Olsen spoke about literary history as “dark with
The “dark silence” of literary history
silences.” Greene felt like Kincaid’s Lucy: two-faced. To
speak in the tone of male colleagues and not her own
existential, semiliterary style.
Similarly to literature, there were experiences in museums
Women as objects in museums
seeing Cezanne, Monet and others of the “great tradition.”
She then tried to flood domains of teacher education with talk
about these images, and just realized later how women were
rendered, objects to be looked at. Berger claims in “Ways of
Berger: different depiction of women
Seeing” (1984) that even today in advertising, journalism,
today
television women are depicted differently than are men. She
could not see that, largely because she wanted to join the
great canonical community.
3. The potential damage of representations
Further, Greene mentions Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
(1972). A little black girl was brought up in a school were the
basal reader “Dick and Jane” was imposed to all the students.
“Dick and Jane”:
To begin with, this book was irrelevant to the girl. But more
(1) Irrelevant
importantly, she now wanted to have blue eyes and look like
(2) Little girl wanted to have blue eyes
Shirley Temple, because just then her human reality would be
acknowledged. It takes time to realize the damage done by the
The damage of culture’s icons
culture’s icons, especially those who know no way of naming
them and are offered no way of confirming their own
identities.
52
4. New voices
Greene mentions Lee’s “Do the right thing.” None of the
Spike Lee’s “Do the right thing”
different ethnic groups depicted there are right or wrong, we
are left being unable to choose between the examples of
Malcolm X and M.L. King.
West (1989) writes of the need to examine all Eurocentric or
To examine discourse in relation to
patriarchal discourse in relation to the resistance of black or
resistance!
other long-silenced people. “Black cultural practices emerge
out of an acknowledgement of a reality they cannot not
know.” Facts like not having to eat, not to have shelter, not to
Black cultural practices
have health care is all infused into the strategies and styles of
black cultural practices.
Greene mentions means that revealed the way blacks were
How Blacks think about themselves:
thinking about themselves. The dolls experiment by Kenneth
(1) Dolls experiment
Clark demonstrated the damage done to black children’s
identity by separation and exclusion over the years (the
children selected the white ones as more beautiful). Cole’s
(2) Cole’s “Children of Crisis”
“Children of Crisis” (1967) made readers comprehend what
black southern youngsters felt about themselves. E.L.
(3) E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime”
Doctorow wrote in “Ragtime” (1975), referring to New
Rochelle in 1906, how social life looked like. “There were no
Negroes. There were no immigrants.”
5. Filling the knowledge gaps
Because of her own blindness, she needs to look back on her
Importance to grasp one
own landscape as a teacher. Everybody is socialized in a
“embeddedness”
particular social setting. One must grasp that; this is at least as
necessary as taking more and more books on diverse cultures
out of the library (although that is essential too). Greene saw
the astonishing gaps in her past readings. For example, there
were these “China Men,” who chopped trees and laid railroad
tracks in the dust of the Sandalwood and Sierra Nevada
“China Men”
mountains. Greene knew about the Chinese Exclusion act
before, but not what they really entailed. She cannot
understand why she was not even curious about the men who
53
built the tracks.
Other authors she was lacking in the things she learned were
Amy Tan, Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriela Mistral,
How Greene encountered new
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Their visions, realities and ideas of
perspectives
time and death and history were just missing. Greene does not
suggest to replace one tradition by the other or establish new
hierarchies. Cynthia Ozick writes about the transforming
effects of memory. She speaks of dead writers who seem to
Transforming effects of memory
contain our experience when we turn to them. “Those at the
center can imagine what it is to be outside. (...) We strangers
can imagine the familiar heart of strangers.” (p. 20)
When Greene speaks about Ozick, Morrison or “The Mambo
“We strangers can imagine the familiar
heart of strangers.”
Kings Sing Songs of Love,” she is not suggesting that the
students should read the literature relevant to their own group
or that it is necessary. But she suggests that teachers break out
of the confinements of monologism, open themselves to
Create possible ways of being
pluralism, become aware of more possible ways of being. As
texts are generally open to multiple interpretations, the reader
may be provoked to look through multiple perspectives while
the reading is progressing. Booth (1988) wrote that every
student should at least respect the powers of two contrasting
ways of looking.
Students should take at least two
perspectives
6. Plurality versus conformity in a multicultural setting
Greene sees a general conflict between individualism and
overwhelming social conformity. Multiculturalism sharpens
Individualism versus conformity
that dilemma when the distinctiveness and passion of multiple
Diversity: Dilemma gets sharpened
voices are attended to, and the need for conformity becomes
urgent. Multicultural approaches must allow for the
continuing expansion of the culture’s conversation. “They
have to allow for a variety of ways to initiate different
strangers into that conversation,...” (p. 24) Thus, several arts
should be included in the new curriculum. By releasing
Several arts into the curriculum
imagination, they can free persons to break with the
Releasing imagination
taken-for-granted, with what appears to be “normal” and
54
unchangeable. Through art experiences and storytelling
teachers should find connection points to their students.
Storytelling as connections between
Further, students should have more time for telling their
teachers and students
stories, sharing them with all of those around.
55
Banks, James A. (1994). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. – chapter
2: “Curriculum” (pp. 15-29)
1. Curriculum infusion versus transformation (p. 15)
To begin with, it is important to distinguish curriculum infusion
and curriculum transformation. In case of infusion, the students
Curriculum infusion:
view the experiences of ethnic groups and women from the
Traditional Western viewpoint
perspectives and conceptual frameworks of the traditional
Western canon. In case of a curriculum transformation, a
Curriculum transformation:
paradigm shift occurs. The students and teachers see the
View from perspective of different
American and world experience from the perspectives of
groups
different racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender groups. Columbus
arrival in the Americas is no longer a “discovery,” but a cultural
Columbus’ discovery or encounter?
encounter or contact. Women’s experiences are then not an
Women’s experiences through
appendage to the experience of men, but are viewed “through
women’s eyes
women’s eyes.”
2. Multicultural versus global education (p. 17f)
“Global education” is to help students to develop cross-cultural
Global education: for cross-cultural
competency in cultures beyond our national boundaries and the
competency outside national borders
insights and understandings needed to understand how all
peoples living on the earth have highly interconnected fates.
Citizens with an understanding for the cultures within their own
nation are probably more likely to function effectively in
cultures outside of their nation. MCE and global education
share important aims. However, global education can hinder
Global education can hinder teaching
teaching about ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States.
about diversity in the U.S.
Some prefer teaching about Mexico than about Mexican
Americans.
3. Some facts about Mainstream curriculum (p. 19)
Applebee (1992) found that of the 10 most frequently assigned
1 of the top-ten high school books was
required book-length works taught in high school, only one title
written by a woman, 0 by a person of
was by a female author and none were by a writer of color.
color!
Works by Shakespeare, Steinbeck, and Dickens led the list.
56
Furthermore, present reading lists were very similar to past
ones. Many teachers use anthologies as a mainstay of their
Similar result for anthology selections
literature programs and 21 percent of the anthology selections
were written by women and 14 percent by authors of color.
4. The Canon Battle: Special Interests versus the Public
Interest (p. 22ff)
The neo-conservatives have founded two organizations to resist
MCE: the Madison Center and the National Association of
Scholars. On the other site, multiculturalists also founded two
national organizations to defend and promote ethnic and
“Teachers for a Democratic Society”
cultural diversity: Teachers for a Democratic Society and the
and “National Association for
National Association for Multicultural Education.
Multicultural Education”
A clever tactic of the neo-conservatives is to define their own
Neo-conservatives defined minority
interests as universal and in the “public good” and the interests
interests as particularistic “special
of women and people of color as “special interests” that are
interests”
particularistic. But who formulates the criteria for determining
But who defines “public interest”?
what is a special interest? History is full of examples of
dominant groups that defined their interests as the public
interest. Only a curriculum that reflects the experiences of a
Only the reflection of all experiences is
wide range of groups in the U.S. and the world is in the national
consistent with the public good
interest and is consistent with the public good. Any other kind
of curriculum reflects a special interest and is inconsistent with
the needs of a nation that must survive in a pluralistic and
highly interdependent world.
5. How to enable important “knowledge experiences” (p.
27f)
Students can examine their value commitments with the
following material. Sara Lawrence Lightfoot’s “Balm in
“Balm in Gilead”
Gilead: Journey of a Healer,” a powerful biography of her
mother, one of the nation’s first African American child
psychiatrists; Banks’ historical overviews of various U.S.
Overview of U.S. ethnic groups
ethnic groups in my book, “Teaching Strategies for Ethnic
Studies”; “Eyes on the Prize,” the award-winning video history
“Eyes on the Prize”
57
of the Civil Rights Movement; and “Eye of the Beholder,” a
“Eye of the Beholder”
videotape that uses simulation to show the effects of
discrimination on adults.
Banks then asks his students questions: How did the material
Questions for clarifying the students’
make you feel? Why do you think you feel this way? How
values regarding these materials
interracial are your own personal experiences? Would you like
to live a more interracial life? What are books you can read or
popular films you can view to act on your commitment?
6. Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform (p. 24-27)
4. The Social Action Approach
Also called the “decision-making approach,” it enables students
to pursue projects and activities that allow them to take
personal, social, and civic actions related to the concepts,
problems, and issues they have studied.
For example, after having learned about the “Westward
Movement,” they might decide that they want to learn more
about American Indians and to take actions to depict them in a
more accurate and positive way. The students might compile a
list of books written by American Indians for the school
librarian to order.
3. The Transformation Approach
It changes the canon, paradigms, and basic assumptions of the
curriculum and enable students to view things from different
perspectives.
Example: “Westward Movement” or “The Age of Doom”?
2. The Additive Approach
Cultural content, concepts, and themes are added to the
curriculum without changing its basic structure, purposes, and
characteristics. Often accomplished by addition of a book, a unit
or a course without changing its framework.
Most of the ethnic groups and women added to the curriculum
have values and roles consistent with those of the dominant
culture. Those who challenged the status quo are less likely to
be selected for inclusion.
Example: Sacajawea is more likely to be selected than
Geronimo. She helped Whites to conquer Indian lands, whereas
Geronimo resisted the takeover of Indian lands by Whites.
1. The Contributions Approach
Content about ethnic and cultural groups are limited to holidays
and celebrations, such as African American History month.
Often used in primary and elementary grades.
58
4. Diversity and
critical thinking
59
New, Clara A. (1996): Teacher Thinking and Perceptions of African-American Male Achievement in the
Classroom. In Rios, Francisco A. (ed): Teacher Thinking in Cultural Contexts (pp. 85-103). New York:
State University Press.
1. Attribution of school failure of African-Americans
The suspension rate of African-American Students are twice as
Doubled suspension rate for Blacks
big as the one of most other ethnic groups. Traditional
Traditional perspectives:
perspectives (beginning in the 60s) stressed factors such as the
Responsibility on the site of the students
inability to learn, the lack of intrinsic motivation, low
socioeconomic status, the absence of parental interest and
support, hyperactive, aggressive behavior, disrespect and
disdain for the values of education. “These theoretical
Critique of traditional position
perspectives posit the African-American culture as monolithic
and one whose legacy produces flaws in the personality of the
youth.” (p. 87) Less prominent in number and attention are
Less research focus on negative perceptions
studies
of teachers about African-American students
that
explore
possible
differences
between
African-American students’ perceptions of themselves versus
teacher-held perceptions of the same. Those tend to be negative
and the expectations minimal.
2. Treatment depends on assumptions
One psychological experiment showed that students can
Students can perceive teachers’ low
perceive whether the teacher has high or low expectations. Thus
expectations – “expectancy detection effect”
an expectancy detection effect was found – demonstrating the
deductibility of teacher’s expectancy-related behavior. Another
study showed that, in an inner city kindergarten, African
Treatment according to perceptions of
American children were treated differently based on the
socio-economic status
perceptions of their socio-economic status and her expectations
for their academic success. Accordingly to these expectations,
children received different attention, etc.
3. Discouraging African-Americans
African-Americans experience many hostilities from American
Black’s “Definition of Reality” influences their
society, thus a “Definition of Reality” (p. 90) results from this
work for school
60
discouraging process. Consequently, they devote less energy
and time to schoolwork. Additionally, avoidance of intellectual
competition is rooted in fear.
4. Teachers’ thinking in regard to minority students
Two case studies (p. 91-96) shows the thinking of white
teachers about African-American students. Reasons for the
Reasons for misconduct are “easily found”
“misconduct” of the child are found quickly and in large
numbers: living with grandmother, speech disorder, inability to
follow directions, slow learner, “retarded.”
Teachers in the case studies showed the following things in
Six commonalities in teacher
common (p. 98-101): (1) Inability to identify any relationship
behavior/thinking
between what they were thinking and the student behavior. (2)
They viewed the student behavior as totally inappropriate –
regardless the context of the student’s behavior. (3) They saw
little hope for future attainment. (4) They revealed miniscule
comprehension of their behavior. (5) They evaluated their
behavior collectively, thinking it aberrant, and stemming from
sources beyond the classroom. (6) Each teacher thought that
conformity in response to tasks and teacher instruction
guaranteed equal treatment for all students.
5. Conclusion (pp. 101ff)
Teacher preparation programs are totally necessary. Further
investigation of teacher thinking, focusing specifically on
working with culturally diverse students, is necessary.
Teacher preparation very necessary
Further inquiry of teacher thinking necessary
61
Moss, Pamela A. & Schutz, Aaron (2001). Educational Standards, Assessment, and the Search for
Consensus. In American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 37-70
1. Consensus not “the only game in town”
In this article, Moss and Schutz question the ideal of using
methods in negotiations to reach a consensus. Concretely, they
examine how teams of experienced teachers come to
How teams of educators develop
conclusions about educational assessments. As the consensus
assessments
processes they criticize are based on Habermas’ “discourse
ethics,” the authors question his consensus-seeking discourse
Critique from a pluralist perspective
from a pluralist perspective on ethical decision making that
“doesn’t make consensus the only game in town.” (p. 39) In the
case study (p. 42-49) they present, it is clear that the apparent
“consensus” has clear and fundamental weaknesses. If they had
If talked more, they might have
talked more, the teachers might have achieved a richer and
achieved a better agreement
deeper level of agreement. Also the areas of discussion of
seemingly straightforward agreement and disagreement are not
Seemingly straightforward outcomes
are also not clear-cut
as clear-cut as they might seem.
2. Critique of Habermas’ Discourse ethics
There are three major points of critique of Habermas’
Discourse ethics (p. 55f).
(1) In real inquiries, agreement is not the essential goal of
understanding,
but
a
fortunate
by-product.
(1) agreement not always the goal
When
participants do agree, they do not necessarily interpret
agreement can also be based on
expressions in the same way, agree on a norm for the same
differing interpretations or reasons
reasons, or arrive at a clear consensus based purely on the
force of the better argument.
(2) Norms generated through practical discourse can be too
(2) agreement can be too general
general and abstract “to deal with the controversies that
arise... over concrete questions of justice and action.”
(3) At this point, mulitculturalism comes into play: the
(3) goal of consensus can mask
single-minded goal of consensus risks masking diversity.
diversity
The “stated outcome can gloss over consequential
62
differences that were not overcome in the dialogue that led
to the standard’s creation (...) and because the privileging
of agreement (and the exigencies of time) can induce
participants to assume too quickly that they mean the same
quick assuming of meaning the same
thing or agree for the same reasons without exploring their
disagreements” (p. 56). Hoy (1994) remarked that thinking
what all ideal judges would say (as suggested by
thinking “what all judges would say”
Habermas) is such an empty notion that it can easily be
used to reinforce one’s existing beliefs. Apple (1992)
suggests that the results of a consensus-searching attempt
ultimately provides only vagueness so that powerful groups
vagueness so that those who would
or individuals who would otherwise disagree can fit “under
disagree can fit “under the umbrella”
the umbrella.”
3. The alternative: hermeneutic conversation (Gadamer)
Habermas’ model assumes the belief that rational consensus is
possible as the only way to morally justify norms and laws to
which all are held accountable. The authors reject this notion
and propose an alternative: the hermeneutic conversation
Hermeneutic conversation
(based on Gadamer). There, agreement is seen only as one of
many possible outcomes of an interaction where the primary
goals are for participants to understand and learn from their
Primary goal is to understand the other
differing perspectives. In other words, the goal is not agreement
for the mere sake of agreement. Bickford remarked that the
More communication leads t more
more we communicate about a thing, the more our perspectives
diverging perspectives
may diverge. For Gadamer, the “art” of conversation is not the
art of arguing against the other person, but the art of
“art of questioning”
“questioning” to bring out the strengths in the other’s argument.
“An approach to dialogue that values dissensus is important
to value dissensus is true to diversity
because it is true to the diversity resident in the community of
participants.” (p. 58)
63
5. Whiteness
64
Murray, Carolyn B. & Smith, Owens, J. (1995): White Privilege: The Rhetoric and the Facts. In Harris,
Dean A. (ed.). Multiculturalism from the Margins. Non-dominant voices on difference and diversity (pp.
139-153). Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey.
1. Some facts about white privilege today
White males occupy the most powerful and privileged positions
in U.S. society. Ironically, they are unaware of their privilege
Unawareness of privilege and believe in
and believe in meritocracy. Just a few numbers: white males
meritocracy
constitute 40% of the population, but 77% of the Congress
Factual evidence for privilege
members, 92% of the state governors, 70% of tenured college
faculty, and 90% of the daily newspaper editors.
2. History of white privilege
The authors give historical evidence of the white privilege (pp.
140ff). The white male could maintain his privileged status by
"legally" controlling access to ownership of property, what is
“Legally” control over ownership of property
the dominant factor to distinguish class in the U.S.. Laws
played an important role: The "Land Grant Act" (turn of 19th
Land Grant Act (turn of 19th century)
century) ensured that land ownership in the Mid west was
limited to whites. Policy prohibited Blacks to participate in the
"Free Soil" movement; they could not move to Indiana, Illinois,
and Oregan. The land give-away program, the "Homestead
Homestead Act (1892)
Act" of 1862 was not meant for Blacks, again. The National
National Labor Relations Act (1935)
Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 gave white workers many
rights. It enabled white fathers, for example, to establish a
privileged status for their sons. They could guarantee them by
law highpaying and skilled jobs at their respective places of
employment. Another mechanism was the "equal division of
Equal division of labor and seniority
labor and seniority." When work was slow, employees were
laid off according to seniority and vice versa. That is, the last to
be laid off were the first to be rehired. Consequently, this
practice was against African-Americans. They were last to be
hired during the period of prosperity and the first to be fired
during the period of austerity. A prejudice is, that white males
65
achieve positions as craftsmen and artisans because of their
racial superiority. Right is that the federal government granted
them exclusive rights to job training.
Exclusive rights to job training for white
craftsmen and artisans
3. Discrimination today
Evidence exists also today. Discrimination in employment
Systematical, covert discrimination
operates systematically, though covertly. E.g., employers
Recruiting practices
commonly recruit in white neighborhoods. In schools, tracking
Tracking
is a crucial factor. Non-whites are disproportionately placed
into the lower tracks. Whites are treated better by banks and
Banks and legal system
savings and loans institutions, and by the justice system.
4. Why (psychologically) Whites deny their privilege
There are many psychological mechanisms that contribute to
the denial of whites of their privilege (pp. 144f):
(1) Egocentrism in the Distribution of Resources
An explanation of whites’ unawareness should include relevant
aspects of human cognition. One of them is “egocentrism”: One
concludes that one’s contribution is greater that it actually is,
“I deserve more than you!”
and he therefore deserves a larger share of the rewards.
Furthermore, people are much more sensitive when they
Sensitive when not getting enough
receive not enough instead of too much.
(2) The Victim's Disposition
The “fundamental attribution error” says that people tend to
attribute the behavior of others to their personality (they are
Attributing other’s behavior to personality
‘that kind of person’) instead of the many situational factors.
Consequently, social conditions impacting the undeserving
poor are ignored and instead they are blamed for a lack of
Thus, social conditions are ignored
character.
(3) Self-justification
The “just world-hypothesis” claims that there is a belief that
justice always triumphs, with the good guys being rewarded.
Belief that the “good” wins anyway
According to the “victim-derogation” hypothesis, people often
think that the victims of their unfair tactics actually deserve the
“Victims deserve their treatment”
treatment they are receiving. Both the just world-hypothesis
66
and the victim derogation result in “self-justification.” This
helps to avoid thinking of being immoral (e.g. depriving others
Consequence: self-justification
from a decent education) and negatively stereotyping people of
color.
5. Stereotyping
Much of the literature on social cognition focuses on
“stereotypes” (p. 145ff).
(1) Bias Perceptions in the Formation of Social Groups
In-groups and out-groups facilitate the development of
self-identities. In sum, people are who they are because they are
In-groups versus out-groups
not like others. This has produced categorization error, that is,
the
overestimation
overestimation
of
of
in-group
between-group
similarities
differences.
and
the
Another
Overestimation of intergroup differences
phenomenon is ethnocentrism, the evaluating of one’s own
group as better than the out-group. There is a close relation
Ethnocentrism
between stereotypes and prejudices: the former are the beliefs
that fuel the fires of the latter.
(2) False Consensus Bias
According to the “false consensus bias,” people believe that
their values, beliefs, and responses are common, appropriate,
“My beliefs are appropriate!”
and based on circumstances. Whites think that their lives are
ideal, so that even when they work to benefit others, their
Continuous attempt to transform others into
purpose is to facilitate the transformation of those others into
whites
becoming more like whites.
(3) Information Processing Bias
Pre-existing stereotyping, if allowed to go unchallenged, acts as
a filter for the new information.
Filtering new information
(4) Self-Serving Function of Prejudice and Reliance upon
Stereotypes
Prejudices serve clear functions: bestowal of rewards to those
Prejudices serve functions
who express prejudices; ego enhancement resulting from a
person’s belief that his culture is the correct ones; providing a
rationale for maintaining power.
67
6. The sociological perspective
The literature about social cognition is insightful, however
short sighted. Their proponents want to make us belief that
Human cognition does not occur in a
human cognition occurs in a vacuum, and that racism is an
vacuum
individual act instead of a systematic bestowal of power. On the
contrary, stereotypes are shaped and determined by societal
thought. The group in power defines who is superior and what
Powerful groups define what of a group is
characteristics are emphasized in each group. The stereotypes
emphasized
that become part of one’s cognitive schema are the ones
expected, socially sanctioned, and positively reinforced. Some
Stereotypes become socially embedded
groups are negatively stereotyped until these beliefs become
part of the culture. “The dominant group and even the
Internalization of the stereotype
stereotyped group internalize these stereotypes to various
degrees.” (p. 148) Behavior against out-group members can be
modified or totally eliminated. Definitional power can be
employed to change or create images.
(1) The Educational Agenda
Schooling in America teaches to believe that the privileged
“Rightness of privileged status”
status is morally right, due to objective means. It is not only to
teach the wrong things, it is also what content and attitudes are
taught. For example, the book “multiple intelligence” states that
the development of logical scientific thought is an invention of
the aftermath of the Renaissance. The connotation, clearly, is
that intellectual sophistication is a European phenomenon. A
Intellectual sophistication as a European
close study of the pyramids, for example, would reveal its
phenomenon – what about the pyramids?
greatness. Additionally, when great non-European civilizations
are presented, they are ‘whitenized.’ For example, Egyptians
Whitening of great non-Europeans
are presented as looking like Elizabeth Taylor. There has been a
progressive Europeanization of human consciousness and
culture; it is the transformation of the cultural consciousness of
Europeanization of human consciousness
the world’s people by Europeans through ‘education,’ religion
a. culture through religion, education, media
(i.e. indoctrination), and the media (i.e. programming).
(2) The Social Sciences Agenda
It is interesting to see the interplay between scientific discourse
and exploitation. The social sciences legitimized exploitation
68
by claiming the inferiority of people of color. The social
Interplay between science and exploitation
Darwinian theory reached significance in its concept of ‘white
man’s burden’ and ‘manifest destiny.’ These concepts made it
the responsibility of whites to control and dominate the
“White man’s burden”:
‘inferiors.’ Furthermore, we are focusing our attention on the
responsibility to control and dominate
effects – the victim’s responses such as broken homes or absent
fathers – than on the causes: racism, discrimination,
Focus on effects, not causes
segregation, and powerlessness of the victims.
(3) Culture: The Hidden Agenda
“The structure and patterns of most Western institutions and
social interaction are supported by several assumptions which
lie at the basis of traditional Western culture.” (p. 150)
Successful social adjustment is the process of learning the
habits, norms, and ways of thinking essential for fitting into the
society of one’s culture. Since culture as a rule is widely
Successful social adjustment
accepted, there is little reason to discuss it. Components of
Western world view are:
(I)
The individual is the primary unit.
(II)
Competition is the driving force in society.
(III)
Orientation toward action (control over environment).
(IV)
Emphasis on (scientific) objectivity.
(V)
Emphasis on status and power.
Western worldview!
“Dualism” (p. 151) is the belief that the universe is comprised
a) Dualism: universe made of good and
of opposing good and evil forces. Good is equated with mind,
bad!
rational, just; evil with body and emotional. Western social
science is considered as superior. Furthermore, Western
b) Hierarchical thinking
cultural thinking is hierarchical. Many people of color
People of color emphasize:
emphasize at least one non-rational quality: (1) more intense
(1) emotional expressiveness
emotional or aesthetic expressiveness, (2) rhythmic music and
(2) music and dancing
dancing, (3) naturalistic religions and medical practices. Some
(3) naturalistic religions and medicine
people of color manage to gain status, but only if they adopt the
Status only through adopting to Western
value orientation of Western culture! In sum, white arrogance
culture
and self-righteousness logically springs from dualistic and
hierarchical thinking. It is not common that a culture thinks it
Arrogance and self-righteousness comes
should control the inferior. Notions as the ‘white men’s burden’
from dualism and hier. thinking
69
and practices as missionary imperialism are derived from
dualism and hierarchical thinking.
70
Douglas, Laura (2001). How I Benefit from White Privilege. In The Black World Today (03/24/2001)
Laura Douglas, a white middle class woman, reflects about her privilege being white. One cornerstone of
this privilege is what she is not having to think about or experience. On the other hand, people of color are
forced to think about race and racism whether they want this or not. She gives an extended list of these
privileges of which I will give some extracts.
(1)
In a very general sense, she can expect to be treated in a friendly way wherever she goes. She
does not have to feel that people are merely tolerating her.
(2)
She does not have to “watch herself” to be not friendly enough or too friendly (“Why is she so
friendly?”)
(3)
If she is treated by other members of the society in a disrespectful way, she does not have to
(stressfully and emotionally) figure out whether there is a racist element or not. She always
knows that it is about her directly. Whatever it is about, it is not about color.
(4)
She lives in the dominant society where the accepted norms are exactly what she grew up with.
She sounds more intelligent to other whites than blacks do because her normal speech patterns
are the patterns of the dominant society. She speaks in a way that is associated with intelligence.
(5)
She does not have to hear things such as “how articulate you are.” People expect her to be
well-spoken.
(6)
In school, teachers always expected her to do well, so she was pushed to do better. She never felt
had written her off as a waste of time.
(7)
As being the director of the department, she never had to face the situation of being mistaken for
the secretary. She never had to face the issue of how to behave so that the person who made the
mistake isn’t so embarrassed that it impedes what they need to accomplish together.
(8)
When she is meeting people for the first time, she never has to worry how they are taking it when
they see that she is white.
(9)
She goes home at night that is essentially the same world she works with. She does not have to
figure out how she could get along both in her own sub-culture and in the dominant culture at the
same time. She does not have to constantly figure out how to negotiate the two and the going
back and forth between them.
(10)
If she wants, she can live her life pretty much under other whites. She is not forced to work
somewhere (in order to make a living) where everybody else is of another ethnicity, culture, or
nationality.
71
(11)
She is thinking about her outfit, she never has to play down the essence of what she is to try to
get along in the dominant society. She never had the problem of “I’d better not look too
Eurocentric or I might be able to keep my job!”
(12)
She can dress poorly, look like hell, and still not have to worry that she’ll be mistaken for a
derelict or a criminal.
(13)
Her facial expressions, the shape of her body are this society’s accepted standards. Thus, she
never felt that her hair, features, some body characteristics are seen by their very nature as ugly
because of their European quality.
(14)
There aren’t a lot of stereotypes about her ethnicity. She does not have to be worried about
people assuming she is stupid, low class, over-sexed.
(15)
When she had drug problems in her youth and dealt with them, she got off scot-free whereas
there are persons of color who are doing 30 years or more for that.
(16)
She gets along with many things because being a white petite woman she appears very
unthreatening. She can walk up to persons on the street and ask for directions without their
feeling suspicious that maybe she has an ulterior motive. She can approach people unexpectedly
from behind or jump into an elevator at the last moment and not have to read fear in their eyes.
(17)
If something happens to her on the street, she can expect the people to help her, and not that they
think there is something wrong with her, that she is on drugs or drunk.
(18)
She can call the police with little fear that she may end up being the victim.
(19)
She can easily access basic news about things of particular interest to my community and her.
She does not have to find special avenues to get information about things of relevance for her
because the mainstream press and media either don’t report on them or report on them in a biased
way.
(20)
Pretty much of what is considered the important art of the world is about the people who were a
lot like her.
(21)
She admits that until a few years ago she felt that many Black people were too sensitive about
racism; that they sensed slights where there weren’t any. This means that in her white arrogance,
she knew even better than a person of color what a racist incident was and wasn’t.
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Hooks, Bell (1992). Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination. In Black Looks: race and
representation (pp. 165-179). Boston: South End Press.
1. Representations of Whites from the beginning of slavery
Although there has never been any official body of black people
in the U.S. who studied whiteness as anthropologists or
ethnographers, black folks have since slavery shared in
conversations with one another knowledge of knowledge. This
way of knowing was not recorded fully in written material, but
Slaves’ talk about Whites as survival strategy
helped to cope and survive in a white supremacist society.
Systems of oppression coerce black folks to internalize negative
Internalization of negative perceptions of
perceptions of blackness. Yet, blacks who imitate whites
blackness.
continue to regard whiteness with suspicion, fear, and even
Blacks’ fear of whiteness
hatred.
2. Unbalanced representation of Blacks and Whites
Hooks found much material how white folks perceive blackness,
Much material how whites perceive blackness
but very little expressed interest in representations of whiteness
Few explicit perceptions of whiteness
in the black imagination (p. 166). Black cultural and social
critics allude to such representations of whiteness, yet only a
few have dared to make explicit those perceptions of whiteness
that they think will discomfort or antagonize readers. James
Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village”:
Baldwin’s collection of essays, “Notes of a Native Son” (1990),
Whites painted in black were sold as slaves at
explores these issues with clarity and frankness. In his essay
a yearly ritual
“Stranger in the Village,” he speaks about his response to the
yearly ritual in a Swiss village of painting individuals black who
were the positioned as slaves and bought so that the villagers
could celebrate their concern with converting the souls of the
“natives.”
3. The “inability” of Blacks to see
In classroom discussions, Bell Hooks often experienced white
White students’ disbelief in classrooms when
students disbelief, shock, and rage, as they listen to black
they hear black voices
students talk about whiteness, when they are compelled to hear
observations, stereotypes, etc. that are offered as “data” gleaned
73
from close scrutiny and study. The reason for their rage often is
Whites’ belief in different-blind looking
their believe that all ways of looking that highlight difference
subvert the liberal belief of universal subjectivity. Many whites
are shocked to see that black people think about whiteness
Whites think the “other” lacks the inability to
because racist thinking perpetuates the belief that the “other”
see
lacks the ability to comprehend, to understand, to see the
working of the powerful. An effective strategy of white
Slavery: Punishment for the “looking slave”
supremacist terror during slavery was to punish blacks for
looking, for appearing to observe the whites they were serving.
To be fully an object then was to lack the capacity to see or
recognize reality. Sallie Bingham (1991), growing up in a
Bingham recalls her childhood:
Kentucky household where black servants lived in the same
“Blacks (…) were simply invisible…”
dwelling with the white family, recalls in her autobiography
“Blacks, I realized, were simply invisible to most white people,
except as a pair of hands offering a drink on a silver tray.” (p.
168)
4. How Whites see Whites
Richard Dyer claims in his essay “White” the fantasy of how
White fantasies about whiteness:
whites see their own whiteness. It is said in textbooks that there
Associations with light, thus safety
are inevitable associations of white with light and therefore with
safety, and black with dark and therefore danger, and that this
explains racism. “Socialized to believe the fantasy, that
Whites’ believe that blacks perceive
whiteness represents goodness and all that is benign and
whiteness similarly like they do.
non-threatening, many white people assume this is the way
black people conceptualize whiteness.” (p. 169)
5. Blacks’ silence and stereotypes
Collectively black people remain rather silent about the
representation of whiteness in the black imagination. Lorraine
Stereotypes about whites:
Hansberry identifies particular stereotypes about white people
dirty, cruel, cold, passionless
that are commonly cited in black communities (p. 170). It is
known in the ghetto that white people are dirty, inherently
‘cruel’ (who else then Europeans could put people into ovens
scientifically), smart, and anything but cold and passionless.
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Stereotypes are one form of representation. They are an
Stereotypes exist when more accurate
invention, a pretense that one knows when the steps that would
knowledge cannot be gained
make real knowing possible cannot be taken or are not allowed.
6. The concept of “journeying”
Hooks recalls her memories of growing up in the social
The threatening appearance of whites in
circumstances created by racial apartheid. She speaks about
Hooks’ living-room
whites who came across the tracks, and made black children
unable to speak. She wonders whether they understood how
threatening their whiteness appeared in their living-rooms.
Grace Halsell explains in “Soul Sister” (1969) the terror she felt
Halsell: experienced terror after she changed
after changing her skin to appear “black” and going to live in
her skin color!
the south and her altered sense of whiteness. White people now
seem to be “rather the ‘enemy’ arrayed in large numbers against
me in some hostile territory.” (p. 171)
To bear the burden of memory one must willingly journey to
Journey to places long inhabited
places long inhabited, all knowledge of which has been
suppressed. “So institutionalized is the ignorance of our history,
our culture, our everyday existence that, often, we do not even
know ourselves.” (p. 172) James Clifford celebrates the idea of
Clifford: the idea of “journeying”
“journeying.” Travel suggests profane activity, following public
Term “travel” can wake an “imperialist
routes and beaten tracks. How do different populations, classes
nostalgia”
and genders travel? For some, clinging to the conventional sense
of travel allows them to remain fascinated with imperialism,
what Renato Rosaldo calls “imperialist nostalgia.” Theories of
travel must include rites of passage, immigration, enforced
Rites of passage, immigration, enforces
migration, relocation, enslavement, and homelessness. Theory is
migration, homelessness
always written from a “where.” And this where is less a place
than itineraries, histories of dwelling, immigration, exile,
Itineraries, not a place
migration.
Hooks explains that to tell her travel story she must name how it
Hooks’ personal examples of travelling
is to be treated when leaving Italy as being criminal, how to
move from a racial segregated southern community to a
prestigious white university setting. To travel, it helps to link
Linking personal experience with collective
individual experience to the collective journeying of black
journeying
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people. Foucault posits memory as a site of resistance. Jonathan
Foucault: memory as site of resistance
Arac claims that the process of remembering can be a practice
which transforms history from a judgement on the past in the
name of a present truth to a “counter-memory” that combats our
“Counter-memory”:
current modes of truth and justice, helping us to understand and
Change the present by placing it in a new
change the present by placing it in a new relation to the past.
relation to the past
7. Self-discovery through telling of one’s story
Hooks speaks about her personal memories, about her journeys
“across town” to visit her grandmother in a predominantly white
area. She had to “pass that terrifying whiteness,” white faces on
the porches staring us down with hate. This terror is most
Terror of whiteness depicted in fiction writing
vividly described by black authors in fiction writing, particularly
the recent novel by Tony Morrison, Beloved. One figure is this
Morrison’s “Beloved”:
books means that there “is no bad luck in the world but white
No bad luck but white folks
folks.” (p. 175)
The telling of our history enables political self-discovery. Black
people still feel the terror of whiteness, but are unable to
articulate it because it is easy to silence by accusations of
Accusations of reverse racism
reverse racism or by suggesting that black folks are merely
evoking victimization to demand special treatment. Hooks
“Demanding special treatment”
speaks about a conference of Cultural Studies. The like-minded,
Left-progressive intellectuals who mirror white
progressive intellectuals that attended the conference mirrored
supremacy at a conference
white supremacist hierarchy both in the way they were
speaking, how bodies were arranged on the stage, of who was in
the audience.
8. Dehegemonizing discourses
Gayatri Spivak is asking for that the hegemonic discourses, and
the holders of hegemonic discourse, should dehegemonize their
Holders of hegemonic discourses should
position and themselves learn how to occupy the subject
reposition themselves
position of the other. This process of repositioning has the
power to deconstruct practices of racism and make possible the
disassociation of whiteness with terror in the black imagination.
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Lawrence, Sandra M. & Bunce Takiema (1996). Feeling and Dealing: teaching White
Students about Racial Privilege. Teaching and Teacher Education 12 (5) (pp. 531-542).
1. About the study and theoretical foundation
Lawrence and Bunce conducted a study to examine the influences of the participation of teacher students
in an undergraduate education class “Race, Class, Culture and Gender in the Classroom.” Among other
issues of multicultural education, creating an awareness of whiteness is one of the most important goals of
them. Their inquiry is based on the model of White Racial Identity Development of Janet Helms (1990).
Through the application of different qualitative methods, such as interviews, informal journal papers, and
formal papers, the researchers wanted to find out whether the subjects developed further in terms of racial
identity. Helms differentiates six stages of development: (1) Contact stage, (2) Disintegration stage, (3)
Reintegration stage, (4) Pseudo-Independent Stage, (5) Immersion/Emersion Stage, and (6) Autonomy
Stage (these phases are explained in detail in Tatum’s “Why are all the Black Kids sitting together in the
cafeteria?”
2. Goals of the class
Concretely, the course had three goals: (1) to make race visible and thus work against a “color-blind
orientation”; (2) to show how racial dominance is maintained; (3) to let the students understand the
benefits of anti-racist educational practices for all students. The class worked with many readings, films,
and field experiences for trying out multicultural and anti-racist pedagogy (see p. 533).
3. The method of the study
The study focused on five white women (all students were female; more concretely, one woman had an
African-American great-grandfather). Interviews were conducted before and at the end of the semester.
All data (also the weekly papers) were coded, categorized and analyzed qualitatively with attention to
behaviors, expressions, and attitudes described in Helms’ theory of white racial identity development.
4. Individual learning experiences
The experiences and developmental processes of the five case studies were quite different from each other,
what I will summarize very briefly:
Person A: Entered the class with basic mistrust of people of color but did not consider herself as
prejudiced due to her many friendships. She initially felt guilty when hearing about the advantages of
white people. But instead of considering racism as a system of advantage based on race, she applied the
definition that focuses on personal prejudice and discriminatory behavior. Being a disenfranchised
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working class woman, she concealed her class status whenever possible (by the way, a move that her
white privilege would allow her). Her claim of “being discriminated too” also echoed what Roman (1993)
has labeled “white defensiveness.”
Person B: At the beginning, she was unaware of the extent of racial oppression and her own racial
privilege – she considered the problem of racism lying with others. After the course, she mentioned that
she was “getting fed up” by the issues. She said that she had to learn that race was only one part of her
identity. By doing so, she relegated race to a lower priority and thus denying the effect of race.
Person C: She also believed initially to be free of racist attitudes and behaviors. She described her
process of an “awakening” from many years of living in blinders. “I never realized how many times a day
a non-white person is made to notice their race.” The influence on her was strong enough that she is not
inviting particular people to her house any more. Now that she knows, she cannot go back. She resolved
to speak up against stereotypic, racist, ethnic, or gender-biased jokes.
Person D: She was most of the years silent about her African-American great-grandfather. Now she
wanted to claim her heritage and make alliances with others of African descent. Susan’s prior
non-recognition of her white advantage prevented her from seeing the structural inequalities, and also
prevented her from seeing the obstacles in making connections with or gaining acceptance to communities
of color. During the course, she had quite different feelings of guilt. Despite her Black heritage, she had
“chosen the easy way out.” Thus, she did not try to deny her own complicity with racism. She reported
that in the class she also learned what she had to do now. For example, she now objects racist jokes.
Person E: She had attended many classes in regard to race before. She described herself as being totally
aware of her white privilege. She learned more about institutional racism. Further, she realized that there
are very few role models for people working at being anti-racist allies. She said to a friend “maybe we
could be the new positive role models.”
5. Shared learning experiences
In addition to these individual reports, all five students shared some experiences and learned the same
lessons (p. 536f): they referred to learning about the extent of racism, differential treatment due to race,
the notion of passive racism, and how the experiences of people of color have been distorted by omissions
and stereotypes. One class which seemed to be pivotal for all students involved the reading of Peggy
McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989). During the class, students read
individually aloud from index cards each of which contained one of McIntosh’s 25 acknowledged
privileges. All participants reported feelings of guilt, shame, anger, sadness, and confusion. They felt
naïve, bad, and disappointed.
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6. Conclusion
All seemed to move along Helms’ model. None was still in the Contact stage. However, two students did
not move far along the continuum. The question surely is what kind of multicultural teachers those will be
who are still on a low level of racial development. Three students moved to high levels. However, it is
unclear whether this will be a long-term effect.
To sum up, the class can help white students in their racial development. However, one single course has
its limitations. For example, just a few of the students challenged more institutionalized forms of
oppression or joining in alliance with people of color to challenge racist policies and practices. One course
can initiate the process of racial identity development according to Helms, but it cannot do it all.
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6. Finding a voice
80
Tatum, Beverly Daniel (1999). Breaking the Silence. Embracing a Cross-Racial Dialogue
(pp. 193-206). In “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other
Conversations about Race. New York: Basic Books.
1. The Fear to Speak (pp.194-200)
Fear is a powerful emotion that often paralyzes to speak about
Fear paralyzes
racial issues. White students are afraid of their own ignorance,
White fear of ignorance and naive
because of their limited experience with people of color they
remarks
will ask a naive question or make an offensive remark. Tatum
once told a White woman that she should not fight for the
Whites should fight for themselves
people of color, but to fight for herself. She had been damaged
by racism, too. So, if she speaks because she “need to speak,”
then it would be less important whether the people of color are
appreciate of her comments. Another white Woman fears
Fear of being vulnerable
opening herself to vulnerability. Rather than publicly admitting
her weakness, her ignorance, she remains silent.
Christine Sleeter began to notice the White silence about racism
White silence about racism
when she was having dinner with a group of colleagues of
color. While they were speaking a lot about race-related issues,
she never had experienced something similar with White
people. On the contrary, White people often speak in a kind of a
Racial communication code of Whites
racial code, using communication patterns with each other that
encourage
a
communication
kind
of
patterns
White
include
racial
bonding.
race-related
These
asides
in
conversations, strategic eye-contact, jokes, and other comments
that assert an “us-them” boundary. These kinds of interactions
The creation of us-them lines
seem to serve the purpose of defining racial lines, and inviting
individuals to either declare their solidarity or mark themselves
Danger of isolation in case of deviance
as defiant. In case of strong deviance, one can lose the other
individual’ approval, friendship, and company.
When your boss makes racial commentaries, what are your
Cost of speaking
costs of speaking? On the other hand, you can ask what are the
Cost of silence
costs of not speaking – on a personal level? One White woman
talked about the struggle of Whites to speak about racial issues
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in school (“like struggling for the words”). The students of
Student of colors more experienced
color seemed well aware of what to say and of what they
with racial issues
wanted to express. It seemed that these students had dealt with
the issue long before she ever thought about racism. Tatum,
however, remarks that it is not easy for people of color to speak
about racism, though. An Asian American woman said that
Difficulty of speaking about
sometimes Whites need to break away from that familiar and
experienced racism
safe ground of being neutral or silent; that they need to take
bigger steps and more risks. The Asian American woman says
that she is taking risks when she is sharing her experiences, too.
To tell embarrassing stories is not fun at all.
However, to remain silent means to disconnect from her own
experience, to swallow and to internalize her own oppression.
The award-winning video “The Color of Fear” shows a
Silence leads to disconnecting from
own experience
“The Color of Fear”
powerful example of racial dialogue between a multicultural
group of men. One of the most memorable moments in the film
The shouting of Victor
is when an African-American man begins to shout angrily at a
white man, who continually invalidates what Victor has said
about his experiences with racism. After watching the video,
and Asian American woman said: “Victor really said it all.”
“Victor really said it all.”
One White woman said that she acknowledged the need for
Whites need to understand the anger of
White students to listen to minority students when they express
people of color
anger against the system which has failed them without taking
this communication as a personal attack.
2. The Costs of Silence (pp. 200-203)
The costs of personal, cultural, and institutional racism is the
Racism leads to loss of potential and
loss of human potential, lowered productivity, and a rising tide
more fear/violence
of fear and violence. On the individual level, racism clouds our
It clouds vision and distorts perception
vision and distorts our perceptions. It alienates us not only from
others but also from ourselves.
Jean Baker Miller reflects about the process of self-alienation.
“Miller about self-alienation”
When we do not feel heard, we feel invalidated, and we are
Can we choose the people we spend
disconnected to others. If there are others available, we choose
our time with?
these alternative people to spend our time with. But if
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disconnection means “condemned isolation,” we will do
everything in order to remain in connection with others. That
Denying own experiences with racism
can imply denying our own experience of racism, selectively
screening things out of our consciousness so that we can
Selective screening of consciousness
continue our relationships with reduced discomfort. This can be
Continuation of relationships can lead
an important coping strategy sometimes, but also lead to
to internalized oppression
internalized oppression.
The consequences of remaining silent are damaging for Whites,
too. There are contradictions between parental attitudes and
behaviors, or between messages about meritocracy and visible
Contradictions that are difficult to
inequalities. Those are difficult to process in a culture of
process in a culture of silence
silence. In order to prevent discomfort, Whites learn not to
The learning of not noticing
notice. But in not noticing, one loses opportunities for greater
insight into oneself and one’s experience.
According to Miller, there are five advantages of a
Five advantages of growth-producing
relationships
growth-producing relationships: increased zest, a sense of
empowerment, greater knowledge, an increased sense of
self-worth, and a desire for more connection. Many describe the
Different experiences with breaking the
process of breaking the silence as wonderful, setting free of
silence
energy, whereas others named it a state of constant dissonance,
putting oneself in a very vulnerable position.
3. Finding Courage for Social Change (p. 203-206)
Tatum speaks about the importance of role models to be an
Role models
effective agent of change. For her, those are biblical figures.
Further, people who were active in the civil rights movement.
Many people express the hinder “that they do not know
Common hinder of ignorance
enough.” Those are not a minority at all. “We all have been
miseducated in this regard.” (p. 203) Educating ourselves is a
Self-education
very important step. It is possible to learn the history we were
To learn what was omitted
not taught, we can watch the documentaries we never saw in
school. Further, we are surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses”
“cloud of witnesses”
who will speak if we let them.
Everyone has some sphere of influence in which they can work
everyone has some sphere of influence
for change. For example, as parents I can influence what my
83
children are reading, care about what discussions are going on
in the classroom. Or, I can write to broadcasters protesting
programs which reinforces stereotypes.
Many people fear that they make mistakes. Tatum states that
mistakes and how they get forgiven
she made many mistakes in her career. However, a sincere
apology and a genuine desire to learn from one’s mistake are
usually rewarded with forgiveness. According to Parker
Palmer, “right action” requires only that we respond faithfully
“right action” when one responds to
to our own inner truth. Community support, certainly, is
inner truth
essentially important.
community support
84
Hooks, Bell (1989). Talking Back: thinking feminist, thinking black (pp. 155-159, “writing
autobiography”). Boston: South End Press.
1. Writing to get rid of the past
Bell Hooks reflects on her own process of writing her
autobiography. She narrates the essential importance, but also
Importance and struggle of writing
the struggle of writing about her life. She does not use a typical
No academic style
academic writing style in this explanation, but uses her own
strong voice. She says that “telling the story of my growing up
years was intimately connected with the longing to kill the self
“longing to kill the self I was”
I was without really having to die.” (p. 155) By writing, she got
rid of the past that had a hold on her and kept her from the
past kept her from the present
present.
2. Unwillingness to tell family secrets
At the beginning, she had tremendous problems with the
writing. She interpreted that fact first to her inability to let go of
the past, that she had become attached to the wounds and
Being attached to wounds of childhood
sorrows of her childhood. She then realized that she did not
want to be the traitor who tells the family secrets. That would,
Not telling family secrets
so her feeling, damage a bond of secrecy in her family. The
longer she waited to start writing, the further removed from
The fading of memories
those memories she was becoming. Meeting some people then
Meeting people as catalysts
reminded her on some of the occasions of the past, functioned
as catalysts.
3. Autobiography and Fiction!
Once the remembering of one event was evoked, yet she was
Insecurity whether things really happened
not sure whether this event really had happened. She recalled
an incident where the car stopped on the tracks and her father
left her sitting there while he tried to repair it. She was so
terrified that something like that could happen, that it perhaps
played itself out in her mind as though it had happened. This
and other lacks of clarity led her to realize that an
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autobiography is a very personal storytelling – a recounting of
Autobiography as very personal storytelling
events “as we remember and invent them.” (p. 157) So she
started to think about her work as both fiction and
autobiography, what Audre Lorde calls bio-mytography. It was
Lorde: “bio-mytography”
less about accuracy, but more about the spirit of a particular
Spirit of a particular moment mattered, not
moment.
accuracy
4. The Liberation of Writing
This writing was a way for her to find again aspect of self and
Finding certain aspects of the self again
experience that may no longer be an actual part of one’s life but
is a living memory shaping and informing the present. Hooks
Hooks had to tell her autobiography to
misses the visits at her grandmother’s house, where she and her
grandmother
playmates had to tell their autobiography. Thus her writing is
even more important. The act of making her memory present,
Bringing memory present
bringing it into the open was liberating for her.
5. “Overview of consciousness”
Reading the finished manuscript, she felt to have an overview,
not so much of her childhood, but of those experiences that
Experiences deeply imprinted in
were deeply imprinted in her consciousness. Those left out,
consciousness
were important, too. For example, she was shocked that she
What was left out was equally important
hardly mentioned her five sisters. At the end, she felt that
Gloria (her pseudonym) was not longer the enemy within. She
“Gloria” not longer the “enemy within”
had reclaimed that part of her she had long ago rejected, left
uncared for.
86
Cazden, Courtney, B. (1992). What is Time Sharing For? In Dyson, Anne Haas & Genishi, Celia
(eds.). The need for story: cultural diversity in classroom and community (pp. 72-79). Urbana,
Illinois: National Council for Teachers of English.
1. Reasons for “ Sharing Time” (p. 72f)
There are several reasons why “Sharing Time,” a routine event in many primary grade classrooms, is of
special interest. (1) It may be the only opportunity for children to create their own oral texts. (2) It is the
only official classroom activity when out-of-school experiences are acceptable topics of school. (3) It is of
interest as a context for producing narrative – perhaps the most universal kind of text.
Given this importance, what is the role of the teacher? Cazden reports what she has learned in her research
about the kinds of responses that teachers make.
2. Four categories of teachers’ responses (p. 73-77)
The responses of teachers can be placed along a dimension of the extent to which teacher and child share a
sense of appropriate topic and appropriate way to tell about it. Cazden ordered the responses into four
categories.
(1) Cases where the teacher has clearly understood the story and simply comments or asks a question for
further information (closest to the appreciation end).
Example: Carl tells a story about his father and that he won some money. The teacher responds “Tell
us what he’s gonna do with it.”
(2) Response that leads to an extended collaboration between questioning teacher and reporting child that
results in a more complete story about an object or event.
Example (modified):
Mandy:
We made candles.
Teacher: You made them?
Mandy:
I tried it with different colors, but one just came out. I don’t know this color.
Teacher: This is neato. Tell the kids how you do it from the start. Pretend we don’t know anything
about candles.
With this request, the teacher was speaking from an implicit model of literate discourse – the way one
should write to an unseen audience. Generally, Mandy was encouraged not to rely on shared
background knowledge.
(3) A question that expresses the teacher’s perplexity, her inability to keep track of the thread of the story
as the child tells it.
In these cases, teacher claim that the children have another timeframe, that it is different to make a
connection when a child suddenly speaks of an event that occurred months ago.
(4) A response that shifts the topic to one the teacher either understands better or values more highly.
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Example (modified):
Nancy:
I went to the Old Ironsides (led by a series of teacher questions, Nancy explains that Old
Ironsides is a boat and that it’s old.) We also spent our dollars and we went to another big
shop.
Teacher: And what did you learn about Old Ironsides?
Nancy:
(Led by teacher questions, Nancy supplies more information about the furnishings inside
and the costumes of the guides, and then tries to shift focus again) I also went to a fancy
restaurant.
Teacher: Aha. Very good.
Nancy:
And I had a burger and...
Teacher: (interrupting). All right. Arthur’s been waiting and then Paula.
In this example, the topic shift of the teacher is not due to a lack of comprehension, but rather a
conflict between child and teacher about the highlights of a family outing.
3. Narratives and cultural difference (p. 77f)
Narratives are a universal meaning-making strategy, but there is no one way of transforming experience
into a story. The British educator Rosen suggests that we learn the story grammars of our society, our
culture. “Differences of cultural background and differences in age between teacher and child will affect
how the raw tape of experience is edited and transformed.” (p. 77) Sometimes, a teacher’s comment reveal
these differences. For example, “Tell us something that is really special for you, that you would like to
share with us, but we don’t want to hear about TV shows and regular things that happened.” But how is to
say what is important, different, special to someone? Don’t our finest writers often make stories out of the
most ordinary events of daily life?
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Heller, Carol E. (1992). Writing as a Foundation for Transformative Community in the Tenderloin
(pp. 221-236). In Dyson, Anne Haas & Genishi, Celia (eds.). The need for story: cultural diversity in
classroom and community (pp. 11-27). Urbana, Illinois: National Council for Teachers of English.
1. Change in the Tenderloin (p. 221f)
The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in San Francisco, where
“better people” usually do not go. Drug users, welfare
Social conditions in the Tenderloin
recipients, mental health patients, and homeless people can be
found there. However, positive shifts, often not noticed
Positive changes through writers,
immediately, occur in this neighborhood. Poets and writers who
supported by writing groups and public
are living or working there contribute to these changes.
readings.
Supported by community-based writing groups and public
readings, they are telling their stories about their histories and
imaginations and are talking about the social conditions of the
Tenderloin and the wider world. In doing so, they are building
Community building
community, for example through gatherings that faster critical
reflection of social circumstances.
2. The struggle of writers (p. 222)
Eminent authors, such as George Orwell or Leo Tolstoy, have
Authors about the struggle to write
written about the eminent struggles that poor people face in
order to write. According to Orwell, writing needs security,
Orwell about necessary conditions for
silence, a sense of safety and order – and nobody can find these
writing
prerequisites in the Tenderloin. Orwell writes in one novel, “He
couldn’t cope with rhymes and adjectives. You can’t, with only
two pence and a halfpenny in your pocket.” However, in the
“Compensation” through other
other
conditions in the Tenderloin
The “Tenderloin Reflection and Education Center,” an
Tenderloin Reflection and Education
Tenderloin,
creative
spirits
are
providing
each
nourishment in groups and gatherings.
3. Writing workshops in the Tenderloin (p. 223)
independent
learning and
resource
center, sponsors a
Center
storytelling and culture group, an artists’ and activists’ group,
and a workshop particularly for women writers. In the writing
Women’s Writing Workshop
89
workshops, participants share their stories, give peer support,
1) writing skills
experiment with language. Further, the workshop is a space for
2) social discussions
social discussions and the planning of intersecting with
grass-roots politics. The director of the center says that many
People fallen through cracks has much
participants have fallen through the cracks. But in spite of that,
to say
or through that, they have so much to say.
Two examples of participants whose life was significantly
influenced by the workshop are Leona and Cleo. Leona, a 76
Leona: founded a nationwide group of
year old widow, started with writing poems about daily life,
elderly citizens
finally being the head of a nationwide group of elderly citizens
in protest against the sale of subsidized housing. Cleo, once
Cleo: published newsletter by
homeless, started in the workshop to belief in the power of her
homeless people
written word and then published a newsletter of poems, stories,
and articles by homeless people.
4. Multifunctionality of writing workshops (p. 223-232)
One might see the workshop through a lens focused on literacy
Not only literacy activity
activity. Yet, in this setting many more levels of support and
education can occur simultaneously. These levels of support
were
highly built
upon
the
workshop’s
Nine levels of support
philosophical
foundation that writing is not looked upon as separate from real
life. The levels of support included (1) building writing skills,
(2) sharing life stories, (3) telling of “mirror stories,” (similar
“mirror stories” break silences
stories inspired by others) which often leads to the breaking of
silences, (4) boosting self-identity and self-esteem, (5) raising
consciousness and political awareness, (6) sharing information
and resources, (7) building an internal community, (8) pure and
simple teaching and learning, (9) supporting each other to take
action.
These kind of settings were called “cultural forums” by Bruner
Bruner: “cultural forums”
where storytelling is encouraged and granted validity as a mode
of knowing. Greene gives them the name “social harbors,” a
Greene: “social harbors”
place where people meet and move into relationships that may
enable them “to become, to desire, to reach beyond
themselves.” (p. 225) Heller narrates a few examples of what
90
happened in the writing workshops (pp. 226-232).
5. Community building and the role of the affect (p.
233-235)
Bell hooks states a powerful sense of the “margin.” She does
Hooks about desirable marginality
not speak of a marginality one wishes to loose, but rather a
space that can tell stories and unfold histories. The workshops
clearly built community. It’s strength was the unwillingness to
create false oppositions between the emotions and the intellect.
No emotion – intellect opposition
On the contrary, the affect is seen as a fundamental ingredient
of what Dyson describes as the deeply layered “embeddedness”
of powerful learning settings. Cazden speaks about a
The function of “classroom intimacy”
“classroom intimacy” that is crucial for the students’ emotional
and intellectual well-being.
91
7. Attempts of institutions
92
Briefing about
National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI)

Founded 1984, headquarter in Washington, D.C., non-profit leadership organization

Goal: to eliminate prejudice and intergroup conflict in communities throughout the world

Community leaders get trained to work together as a resource team, offering
prevention-oriented programs (currently 50 city-based leadership teams).

Examples for empowering teams to find local solutions:
 Switzerland: Program against anti-Semitism. NCBI trained Jews and Allies to conduct
workshops in churches and schools to reduce anti-Semitic prejudices
 Local example: In Boston, a team of 25 State Workers was trained to lead “welcoming
diversity programs” for 2.500 workers in the Massachusetts Department of Employment
and Training.

Book “Healing into Action” (Cherrie Brown & Mazza, George, J (eds.) (1997))
 Testimonials: “practically organized to be used for training,” “for those who want
guidance into inter-religious, inter-ethnic dialogue

Offers “Leadership Training Institute,” 5 days for $800

Contact:
National Coalition Building Institute
1120 Connecticut Avenue , NW
Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-785-9400
Fax: 202-785-3385
Email: mcbiinc@aol.com
Website: www.ncbi.org

Philosophy:
 Feelings of guilt only holds prejudice in place
 In order to shift attitudes, personal stories must be heard
 Skill training leads to empowerment
 NCBI trains how to build support teams for leaders

NCBI “Prejudice Reduction Workshop”:
93

Helps participants celebrate their similarities & differences

Identify the misinformation (records) that they have learned about other groups

Identify and heal from internalized oppression

Claim pride in their own identities

Learn about personal impact of discrimination through the telling of individual stories, gain
empowerment by learning concrete tools for changing bigoted comments and actions
94
Briefing about
Advice of Grant Ingle via email (07/23/01)
(Director of Human Relations at UMass Amherst) how to respond to diversity
1. Response to diversity
Ingle uses periodic high tech phone surveys of students, faculty and staff to monitor campus climate and
other information to develop preventive interventions before they become crisis. The surveys are available
at
http://WWW-SARIS.ADMIN.UMASS.EDU/saris/pp_home.html
2. Faculty development
According to her experience, faculty are “terrible managers and supervisors, and when it comes to the area
of diversity, they do even worse.” It is necessary to teach faculty to manage and having them responsible
for managing others as part of their career path. The problem is that the faculty often see themselves as
educated on all matters and resist the notion of learning anything else.
3. The strategy of UMass Amherst
Amherst tries to build a system for supporting “all” managers and supervisors regarding issues of
community, diversity and social justice, a system which places more responsibility at the department level
for these issues, but which also provides department heads with appropriate support (consultants,
information on their department’s performance in these areas, financial resources, etc.).
Furthermore, “direct, personal exploration of the issues of diversity in a group setting” is very important.
4. Recommended further contact person
James Anderson
Vice Provost
North Carolina State University
email: james_anderson@ncsu.edu
phone: 919-515-3037
He specialized in issues of diversity and faculty.
95
5. Contact
Grant Ingle
Director of Office of Human Relations
Phone: 413-545-0851
Email: ingle@admin.umass.edu
96
Project Pulse. Student Affairs Research, Information and Systems (SARIS).
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Racial and Ethnic Issues Survey
http://WWW-SARIS.ADMIN.UMASS.EDU/saris/pp_home.html; Link Spring 1999: "Racial and Ethnic
Survey"
1. Telephone survey
One way of UMass Amherst to address racism and diversity is to conduct telephone surveys in order to
examine racial and ethnic issues on campus. The survey is comprised primarily of questions about
students' personal experiences with harassing behaviors on campus. In the following I will list the most
striking results of the survey. They show that students from different races experience the issues of racism
and ethnicity in regard to some issues enormously different. The survey gives evidence that although
improvements occurred in the last decades, problems are still serious and that universities are challenge to
combat racism. If I present only the numbers for White and Black students, it is to show the highest
differences in numbers. Figures for Latinos and Asians are somewhere in between then.
2. Results

Asian (30%) and Black students said that they would recommend UMass to other students of their
same race group in significantly smaller proportions than Latino or White (62 %) students.

White (70%) students were significantly more likely than Asian, Black (40%), or Latino students
to report feeling "very safe."

Black ( 39%) students are more likely to hear stereotyping, negative remarks or jokes that put
down members of their racial or ethnic group by course instructors than other racial/ethnic groups
(White: 20%).

37% of Black students reported having witnessed a situation where course instructors failed to
challenge "negative remarks made by students in class about members of their racial/ethnic
group," whereas only 25% of White students did (significant at the .01 level).

Black students were twice likely as Asian or Latino students and five times as likely as White
students to report having been singled-out by course instructors.

The proportions of students who reported instructors making derogatory comments to them
because of their race and ethnicity differs: 9% of Blacks, 8% of Latinos, 8% of Asians, 2% of
Whites.

12% of Asians reported to be physically confronted or assaulted by other students because of their
race/ethnicity, and 10% of Latinos, 9% of Blacks, and 4% of Whites.
97

From the Black students, 13% reported that they felt "very confident" and 40% "somewhat
confident" about the university's ability to respond effectively to specific incidents of racial and
ethnic harassment, whereas of the White students 18% felt "very confident" and 58% felt
"somewhat confident."

Black (51%) and Latino students were significantly more likely than White (29%) or Asian
students to say they would be "very likely" to report a harassment experience.

When asked what office or agency they would go to complain about racial or ethnic harassment,
the top choices of Asians, Blacks, and Latinos were campus programs oriented toward their
racial/ethnic group (e.g. United Asia, ALANA), whereas Whites preferred to go to the UMass
police and the Dean of students.
98
Briefing about
Advice of Matthew L. Ouellett via email (08/01/01)
(“Center for Teaching” at UMass Amherst) how to respond to diversity
1. Philosophy of “multiple points of entry”
Ouellett’s “Center for Teaching” (CFT) responds to diversity from a philosophy of multiple points of
entry. This means that he seeks to offer instructors resources and learning opportunities ranging from low
risk, low investment to high risk, high investment endeavors:
Low risk: reading articles, attending short workshops where participants can pace their contribution
according to personal comfort, watching teaching development videos.
High risk: Having a teaching consultant observe you teach, participate in a year-long seminar focused on
transforming a course, attending a workshop focused on self development and reflection.
2. Four key domains for competency
There is no predictable trajectory of development for the faculty. It also depends on where the instructor
starts in his/her development. However, there are four key domains for competency:
(1) self awareness/reflection on one’s own identity and how this informs how and what one teaches
(2) student awareness, that is, strategies for getting to know the students
(3) pedagogy choices, that is, choosing teaching methods so as to accommodate student learning styles
and to create more inclusive learning environments.
(4) Core content, that is, reviewing the core concepts, theories, perspectives, and knowledge base of the
discipline to ascertain whether the course encourages multiple perspectives, critical thinking, and
understanding of the experiences of those different from oneself.
3. Most important issues in teacher education which attempts to promote diversity
(1) To promote opportunities for all of us to be more self reflective, that is, to articulate and explore what
are our values and beliefs about differences (both our own and those of others) and how these
influence our values and beliefs (e.g., have we ever had a meaningful friendship with someone from
another race?)
(2) To practice asking each other better questions. This means, we too often assume we really understand
both what another person is saying and why they are making points that they are making.
99
4. Recommended further contact person
Esther Kingston-Mann
Center for Improvement of Teaching
UMass Boston
Wheatley 05-00013
Phone: 617-287-6543
Email: esther.kingston-mann@umb.edu
Website: http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~teachist
Website of the “Center for Improvement of Teaching”:
http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~cit/home.htm
(he describes this center as a “fantastic resource”)
5. Contact
Dr. Mathew L. Ouellett
Associate Director
Center for Teaching
301 Goodell
University of Massachusetts Amhert
140 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9272
Phone: 413-545-1225
Fax: 413-545-3829
Email: mlo@acad.umass.edu
Web: www.umass.edu/cft/
100
Ouellett, Mathew L. & Sorcinelli, Mary Deane (1995). Teaching and Learning in the DiverseClassroom:
A Faculty and TA Partnership Program (pp. 205-217). In To Improve the Academy, Vol. 14.
1. Initiatives in regard to diversity within the UMass
Amherst context (pp. 205ff)
The authors worked at UMass Amherst in order to develop and
implement a new TA and faculty development program that
creates linkages among the domains of teaching, learning, and
diversity education. Historically, UMass Amherst already
Two obligatory courses on social
implemented a curriculum revision which established the
diversity at UMass Amherst
obligation for students to take two social diversity courses.
However, the need of teaching assistants and faculty members
How to teach these classes?
for support and skill development to teach those courses had
never been addressed. Instructors had little opportunity to
experience these kind of classes themselves. To respond to
Collaboration: Center for teaching and
these needs, the Center for Teaching (CFT) and the Graduate
Grad. Student Senate
Student Senate cosponsored a three year grant to develop a new
TA and faculty development program.
In the initial phase, in-depth interviews with stakeholders from
across the campus helped to find out the needs of TA and
Finding out the needs of faculty and TA
faculty. Based on their variety of ideas and suggestions,
Ouellett and Sorcinelli decided that their efforts should include
several tiers of activities and materials that would provide
multiple entries into the topic. They sketched their ideas on a
“Low-risk” and “high-risk” activities
continuum from “lower-risk” to “higher-risk” activities. The
first group of activities focused on experiences and needs of
others, whereas the second one included activities such as self
reflection or personal disclosure. Concrete initiatives with
relatively “low risk” were self-contained workshops “Social
Initiatives: (1) Self-contained
Diversity Issues in the Classroom,” and “Cross-Cultural
workshops, (2) luncheon seminar
Teaching and Learning” at the TA Orientation Day, a luncheon
series, (3) production of material
seminar series for TAs, and the production of print and video
resources focusing on teaching and learning (T&L) in diverse
classroom. The cornerstone of the initiatives also had the
Cornerstone:
101
highest risk factor: the intensive and year-long “TA and Faculty
TA and Faculty Partnership Project
Partnership Project.”
2. The TA and Faculty Partnership Program
A group of nine TAs and nine faculty members participated.
Selection of participants
Those were selected to represent a variety of academic
disciplines, different levels of seniority, both genders, and
racial balance.
2.1. Goals (p. 208f)
The program had four goals: (1) To increase the ability to
Goals/topics:
create inclusive classroom climates. The program planer
(1) Create inclusive climate
believed that the best way to address the students’ needs is to
deal with the beliefs and experiences of the instructors. (2) To
(2) Foster teachers’ self awareness
enhance the teachers’ self awareness in order to cause empathy
and greater sensitivity to the feelings and concerns of typically
underrepresented students. One element of this goal is the
teachers’ reflection on how their own social identity inform
their perspectives. (3) To discuss the impact that organizational
(3) Impact of organizational norms
norms and values have on diversity issues. What values are
overtly or covertly maintained by the institution and manifested
via departments. (4) To encourage the participants to make a
(4) Encourage commitment
long-term commitment to enhance their skills in the diverse
classroom.
2.2. Elements (p. 210-212)
(1) Immersion experience: In a two-day retreat, the general
(1) Intensive retreat for trust building
goal was to build team relationships and group trust
quickly. A shared vocabulary around diversity issues and a
group identity was established. Several models of social
Models of social identity development
identity development (with applications to the college
classroom) were introduced. Participants shared their own
Sharing of experiences
backgrounds and experiences. The retreat modeled three
cornerstone
concepts:
collaborative
facilitation,
role
modeling how to participate and effectively sustain difficult
102
dialogues, and commitment to cooperative learning.
(2) Seminar series: The group met on a monthly basis for an
(2) monthly seminars with informal
informal dinner, followed by a 2½ hour seminar on selected
dinners
issues related to diversity in the classroom. Topics on social
topics of social justice and skill-specific
justice were balanced with skill-specific topics. Direct
topics
lecturing from experts was little. The main focus was to
elicit the experience of participants and then to provide key
information in brief lectures, handouts and referrals.
Dialogue made up a large amount of the time. At the end of
Dialogue
each seminar, formative evaluations were conducted that
helped to plan the subsequent sessions. Retreat and
seminars were intended to foster change on two levels:
Foster change on two levels:
first, on the organizational level, to enhance participants’
(I) Organizational level
general awareness of the dynamics of social group
oppression (e.g., that “minority groups” know much more
about “majority groups” than vice versa); second, on the
(II) Individual level
individual level, by asking participants to articulate the
personal implications of theories of T&L in the diverse
classroom.
(3) Team projects and consultation: The staff from CFT
(3) different forms of team projects and
worked closely with each team to define goals for their
consultation from CFT staff
discipline-based project. For example, one team asked the
CFT to offer a set of workshops on T&L in the diverse
classroom. Another team, asked for help in order to explore
specific personal questions.
(4) Social Dinners: the informal socializing and networking
(4) importance of informal dinners
over the “working dinners” became crucial in maintaining
group cohesion and an amiable climate. At the end of the
year, there was a “signpost” event where all shared what
they had learned with colleagues.
“Signpost” event, where participants
shared what they learned
2.3. Lessons learned (pp. 212-215)
Informal feedback from individual participants was gathered
various forms of feedback
almost weekly, formative evaluations were made at the end of
every activity, and a summative evaluation was performed at
103
the end of the program.
(1) Define “diversity” – in this case, diversity was defined as
(1) Diversity-definition
“reflecting all the elements of one’s social identity where
issues of power and prejudice come into play (...) as well as
issues which are specific to the classroom, such as
academic preparation.” (p. 213)
(2) Model collaboration – the project was a collaboration from
(2) Collaboration from the beginning
its inception; the fact that facilitators were diverse
possessed symbolic power and also provided role models.
(3) Start with commitment, not expertise – a genuine interest of
(3) Commitment, not expertise
the participants in diversity issues was more crucial than
those who were experts on diversity.
(4) Create multiple points of entry – remark: participants
(4) Entries for everybody
consistently and falsely sorted themselves into two groups:
those who taught subjects where diversity issues are part of
the curricular content (e.g. English, the Writing Program)
and those who considered their subject matter as being
“neutral.”
(5) Avoid any hint of political correctness – participants came
(5) PC can harm
with a defensiveness, probably as a reaction to prior
experiences of not-so-subtle attempts to bully people into a
specific ideological stance.
(6) Expect resistance – group process requires a careful balance
between cognitive outcomes and affective outcomes.
(7) Be prepared for complex TA/faculty dynamics – e.g.
(6) Balance between cognitive and
affective outcomes
(7) Complex faculty/TA dynamics
faculty talked a lot more.
(8) Honor personal stories – the most powerful learning
(8) the crucial role of personal stories –
experiences were the sharing of stories and experiences. It
avoid “overprogramming”
is important not to “overprogram.”
(9) Locate the program in an organizational context –
(9) locate program in org. context
resistance to the expectation that this program can solve all
problems suddenly.
104
Briefing about
Commitment to Success Program – The Diversity Connection
(Ohio State University)
1. The CSP Project Overview
The Commitment to Success Program (CSP) is a diversity initiative that grew out of a collaboration
among the Offices of Academic Affairs, Minority Affairs, and the Faculty and TA Development (FTAD).
The FTAD office offers comprehensive multicultural instructional services to help faculty and TAs meet
the needs of an increasingly diverse campus community.
Using such methods as focus groups, unit and classroom based climate assessment surveys,
classroom observations with feedback, and a review of curricular materials, consultants can assist
with the development of long-term strategies and action plans for fostering an inclusive teaching
and learning environment for all students.
2. Contact
Website: http://www.osu.edu/education/ftad/CSP/index.htm
Dr. Thea Ford
Email: ford.232@osu.edu
Dwight L. Varnum, Ph.D.
Phone: 404-752-7083
Email: varnum.1@osu.edu
105
8. Resources
106
(A) Diversity – Literature

AACU (Association of American Colleges and Universities) (1998). Diversity Blueprint: A Planning
Manual for Colleges and Universities.
“Comprehensive, detailed guide addressing creating, expanding, and institutionalizing campus-wide
diversity initiatives. The manual explains principles and priorities that are crucial in creating a diverse
environment, as well as the legal decisions and research that have brought national attention to the
issue of diversity. Topics include how to begin diversity planning, the complexity of handling external
influences to the campus, affirmative action, curricular transformation, faculty/staff hiring and
retention, and building campus-wide support. Created in collaboration with the University of
Maryland, College Park” (123 pages).

Adams, M. (ed.) (1992). Promoting diversity in the college classrooms: Innovative responses for the
curriculum, faculty, and institutions. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 52. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ouellett refers to this book in his article “Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom: A Faculty
and TA Partnership Program.” It seems that Adams’ book contains concrete models of innovative
college programs which successfully attempted to foster diversity in the classroom.
Two of the chapters are Marchesani, L & Adams, M: “Dynamics of Diversity in the
Teaching-Learning Process: A Faculty Development Model for Analysis and Action” and Hunt, J.A.,
Bell, L.A., Wei, W., Ingle, G.: “Monoculturalism to multiculturalism: Lessons from three public
universities.”

Banks, James A. (1994). An Introduction to Multicultural Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
This is a basic book for people to deal with diversity (Banks is one of the main authors in this field).
Very promising seems chapter two, “Curriculum Transformation” and chapter seven, “Multicultural
Benchmarks.”

Border, Laura & Chism, Nancy Van Note (eds.) (1992). Teaching for diversity. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Chapters: “Stirring it up: the inclusive classroom,” “Improving the climate: eight universities meet the
challenges of diversity.” The book general seems quite helpful for the given task. It also includes a list
of programs and contact persons who addressed the challenge of diversity (p. 106ff). It seems to be
worthwhile to contact these people.

Darder, Antonia (1991). Culture and Power in the Classroom. A Critical Foundation for Bicultural
Education. New York: Bergin & Garvey.
This profound and convincing book is an essential theoretical framework for thinking about “culture”
in the classroom. Based on critical theory, it provides basic theoretical knowledge about the
connection between power, culture and pedagogy. The chapter five, “Creating the Conditions for
Cultural Democracy in the Classroom” seems very promising, but also the rest of the book seems
quite insightful.
107

Devillar, Robert A. & Faltis, Christian & Cummins, Jim (eds.) (1994). Cultural diversity in schools:
from rhetoric to practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Seems very promising. Some of the chapters: Rhetoric and practice of cultural diversity in U.S.
schools: socialization, resocialization, and quality schooling; Cooperative learning in the culturally
diverse classroom; Responding successfully to cultural diversity in our schools: the teacher
connection.

Dyson, Anne Haas & Genishi, Celia (eds.) (1994). The need for story: cultural diversity in classroom
and community. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English.
Includes, among others, the following chapter: “Ways with stories: whose stories are told? Whose
stories are heard?” Thus, it might address the topic of literature for the syllabus.

Friedman, E., Kolmar W., Flint C., Rothernberg, P. (1996) (eds.). Creating an Inclusive College
Curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.
This book was recommended by Pamela D. Sherer and Carol Harvey at the AAHE Diversity &
Learning National Conference 2000 as a “Diversity Resource for Faculty Development”

Gallos, J. & Ramsey V. (1997). Teaching Diversity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This book was recommended by Pamela D. Sherer and Carol Harvey at the AAHE Diversity &
Learning National Conference 2000 as a “Diversity Resource for Faculty Development”

Grant, Carl A. & Gomez, Mary Louise (1996). Making Schooling Multicultural. Campus and
Classroom. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
The book is structured into four parts: (1) An Introduction to Multicultural Teaching; (2) Curriculum,
Instruction, and Assessment; (3) The subject matters (the biggest part); (4) the classroom and the
community. For the given task, part two, with chapters such as “A Multicultural School Curriculum”
and “Instructional Pluralism: A Means to Realizing the Dream of Multicultural, Social
Reconstructionist Education,” seems most promising.

Harris, Karen R. & Graham, Steven & Deshler, Donald, D. (eds.) (1998). Teaching every child every
day: learning in diverse schools and classrooms. Cambridge: Brookline Books.
This book is about “self-renewal: one school’s approach to meeting the challenge of student
diversity.” It seems, as if the main focus is diversity in terms of ability.

Hooks, Bell (1989). Talking Back. Boston: South End Press.
Chapters: 1. Introduction : some opening remarks -- [ch.] 2. Talking back -- [ch.] 3. "When I was a
young soldier for the revolution" : coming to voice -- [ch.] 4. Feminism : a transformational politic -[ch.] 5. On self-discovery -- [ch.] 6. Feminist theory :a radical agenda -- [ch.] 7. Feminist scholarship :
ethical issues -- [ch.] 8. Toward a revolutionary feminist pedagogy -- [ch.] 9. Black and female :
reflections on graduate school -- [ch.] 10. On being black at Yale : education as the practice of
freedom -- [ch.] 11. Keeping close to home : class and education -- [ch.] 12. Violence in intimate
relationship : a feminist perspective -- [ch.] 13. Feminism and militarism : a comment -- [ch.] 14.
Pedagogy and political commitment :a comment -- [ch.] 15. Feminist politicization : a comment -ch.16. Overcoming white supremacy : a comment -- [ch.] 17. Homophobia in black communities -[ch.] 18. Feminist focus on men : a comment -- [ch.] 19. "Whose pussy is this" : a feminist comment -108
[ch.] 20. Black women writing : creating more space -- [ch.] 21. Ain't I a woman: looking back -- [ch.]
22. Writing autobiography -- [ch.] 23. To Gloria, who is she : on using a pseudonym -- [ch.] 24.
Interview -- [ch.] 25. Black women and feminism.

Kingston-Mann, Esther & Sieber, Tim (2001). Achieving Against the Odds: How Academics Become
Teachers of Diverse Students. Temple University Press.
Kingston-Mann is at UMass Boston and was recommended by M. Ouellett.

Lawrence, Sandra M. & Bunce Takiema (1996). Feeling and Dealing: teaching White Students about
Racial Privilege. Teaching and Teacher Education 12 (5) (pp. 531-542).

McIntyre, Ellen & Rosebury, Ann S. & Gonzalez, Norma (2001). Classroom diversity: connecting
curriculum to students’ lives. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
The chapters are linked to concrete subject matters and projects done by teachers. Two examples: In
chapter two, “Connecting Cultural Traditions,” a teacher describes how she tried to acquire knowledge
of local norms from her students’ homes in Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. She designed activities for her
students that connected traditions from the Zuni culture and at the same time improved her students’
writings skills. In chapter seven, “Agricultural Field Day,” the authors explain their visits to rural
Kentucky in order to better understand the children and the funds of knowledge they brought with
them. As a result, the teachers constructed a series of reading, writing, and mathematical lessons
around an “Agricultural Field Day.” Thus, they used the students’ knowledge as the basis for their
ongoing curriculum.
The book seems less theoretical but more some reports of practitioners. Generally, not one of my first
priorities, seems “thin.”

Morey, A. & Kitano M. (1997). Multicultural Course Transformation in Higher Education: A Broader
Truth. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Musil, Caryn McTighe et al. (2000). A Diversity Research Agenda.
“Arguing for the importance of further research about the impact of diversity and higher education,
this volume suggests key theoretical frameworks critical when investigating diversity. It also identifies
specific areas in the field of diversity research and assessment in which more study is needed” (40
pages).

Musil, Caryn McTighe et al. (1999). To Form a More Perfect Union: Campus Diversity Initiatives.
“Charts the efforts of colleges and universities to move from the rhetoric of inclusion to the practice of
equity. Etching a portrait of the new academy as it is transformed and reinvigorated by diversity
initiatives, the monograph maps the emerging trends in diversity work and insights gained in the
process” (62 pages).

Obiakor, Festus E. (2000). It Even Happens in “Good” Schools: Responding to Cultural Diversity in
Today’s Classrooms. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.
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
Ouellett Mathew, L. & Sorcinelli Mary Deane: TA training: strategies for responding to diversity in
the classroom. In Marincovich, Michele; Prostko Jack; Stout Frederic (1998) (eds.). The Professional
development of graduate teaching assistants. Boston: Anker Pub.
Mathew Ouellett is the Associate Director of the Center for Teaching at UMass Amherst. He was
recommended by M. Svinicki and M.D. Sorcinelli

Rios, Francisco (ed.) (1996). Teacher thinking in cultural contexts. Albany: State University of New
Yoork Press.
This volume includes chapters such as “Maureen D. Gillette -- Teachers' principles of practice for
teaching in multicultural classrooms,” “Patricia L. Marshall -- Using a constructivist approach to
challenge preservice teachers' thinking about diversity in education’” “Alfredo J. Artiles -- Teachers',
administrators', and staff's implicit thinking about ‘at-risk’ urban high school Latino students.” It
seems that this texts deal with the wrong mental constructions and assumptions of teachers. Thus, they
perhaps could be included in CCT601.

University of Massachusetts Boston (1999). A Diversity Initiative: How Diverse Undergraduates
Become Researchers, Change Agents and Members of a Research Community.
This book is available free of charge from the office of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching
(CIT) on the 5th floor of Wheatley.
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Diversity – Resources in the internet
(1) Multicultural supersite
(by Paul Gorsky)
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/education/multi/
Paul Gorsky wrote his dissertation about “Racial and Gender Identity in White Male Multicultural
Educators and Facilitators - Toward Individual Processes of Self-development.“ He works at the
University of Maryland, where he coordinates the „Student Intercultural Learning Center“ and the
„Intergroup Dialogue Program.“
The webpage contains the following categories: (1) Defining Multicultural Education; (2)
Multicultural Philosophy Series; (3) Curriculum Transformation; (4) Promising Practices; (5)
Intercultural Activities; (6) Discussion Forum; (7) Multicultural Library; (8) Multicultural SuperLinks.
(2) Multicultural Pavilion
(Resources and Dialogues for Educators, Students, & Activists)
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/multicultural/
This site is also created by P. Gorsky
The webpage contains the following categories: (1) Teacher's Corner (resources for teaching and
learning); (2) Research Room (original essays and articles); (3) Awareness Activities (engaging
intercultural activities); (4) Discussion Forums (join Internet-based dialogue forums); (5) Quotations
and Proverbs (index of informative, inspirational ideas); (6) Join the Listserv (400+ educators in
electronic dialogue); (7) Multicultural Paths (vetted index of related Web sites); (8) Defining
Multicultural Education (detailed conceptualization and definition); (9) E-Learning/ Digital Divide
(multicultural education and the Internet); (10) Lists, Tools, and Fact Sheets (FREE
printable/downloadable resources); (11) Voices! Poetry E-Journal (read, or contribute, original
poetry); (12) Multicultural Song Index; (index of songs for initiating dialogue); (13) Multicultural
E-Rolodex (progressive education organizations); (14) Multicultural Supersite (another site by Paul
Gorski).
(3) National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
(Advocates for Educational Equity and Social Justice)
http://www.nameorg.org/
The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) was founded in 1990 to bring together
individuals from all academic levels and disciplines and from diverse educational institutions, and
other organizations, occupations and communities who had an interest in multicultural education.
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NAME is committed to a philosophy of inclusion that embraces the basic tenets of democracy and
cultural pluralism. NAME celebrates cultural and ethnic diversity as a national strength that enriches a
society and rejects the view that diversity threatens the fabric of a society.
The webpage contains the following categories: (1)Annual Conference; (2) Board of Directors; (3)
Committees; (4) ListServ; (5) Membership; (6) National Office; (7) Publications; (8) Resources; (9)
State Conferences; (10) State Chapters; (11) LINKS.
The 11th Annual International Conference takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada (November 7-11, 2001)
with the Theme “High Stakes: Achievement, Assessment and Advocacy Through Multicultural
Education.” Featured speakers include Victor Lewis (from “The Color of Fear”), Hugh Vasquez (from
“The Color of Fear”), Christine Sleeter, Carl Grant, Jack Levy, Catherine Wong, Paul Gorski, Rose
Duhon-Sells (Founder of NAME).
(4) Intergroup Relations Center
(Resources & Links; Arizona State University)
www.asu.edu/provost/intergroup/resourcesmain.html
“The Intergroup Relations Center, which opened its doors in August 1997, is the result of the vision of
Students Against Discrimination (SAD). After a series of campus incidents involving hatred and
discrimination, ASU students representing many different backgrounds mobilized in the Spring of
1996. They proposed the concept of the Center to administrators as a permanent and pro-active way of
addressing issues of diversity and intergroup conflict. It is because of their efforts that the Intergroup
Relations Center exists to bridge the gap of intergroup knowledge and understanding between and
among the many groups at ASU.”
The webpage contains the following categories: (1) IRC on-line resources; (2) local/national diversity
links; (3) by campus affiliation (information sorted for student/ faculty/ staff/ all campus); (4) by
social/group identity (information sorted about age/ class(socioeconomic)/ dis/ability/ gender/sex/
nationality/ race/ethnicity/ religion/ sexual orientation/ veteran status).
(5) DiversityWeb
(an interactive resource hub for higher education; from the University of Maryland and “Association
of American Colleges and Universities (AACU)”)
www.diversityweb.org
“AACU (founded in 1915) is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening
undergraduate liberal education. The annual conference (January 23-26, 2002; Washington, DC) will
be about ‘Changing Students in a Changing World - Culturally Diverse, Economically Divided,
Globally Interdependent.’”
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“AAC&U projects and publications assist colleges and universities in their efforts to diversify and
internationalize the undergraduate curricula, develop international exchange programs, and integrate
diversity issues into institutional planning, faculty development, and co-curricular activities and
community partnerships.”
“Through print and electronic resources, AAC&U seeks to disseminate best campus policies and
practices regarding diversity. By funding research internally and enlarging campus research capacities
externally, AAC&U strives to educate a broader public about the value of diversity for student
learning, educational missions and civic commitments.”
DiversityWeb features articles, discussion forums, model syllabi, etc. that are useful to both faculty
and administrators.
Resources on DiversityWeb are organized around seven Campus Diversity Priorities: (1) Research,
Evaluation, and Impact; (2) Faculty and Staff Involvement; (3) Campus-Community Connections; (4)
Curriculum Transformation; (5) Student Involvement and Development; (6) Political and Legal
Issues; (7) Inst. Vision, Leadership, & Systemic Change.
(6) “Democratic Engagement and Civic Responsibility”
by “Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU)”
www.aacu-edu.org/KnowNet/civic.htm
AACU places all its diversity work in the context of its larger mission of extending the advantages of
a contemporary liberal education to all students and transforming liberal education to serve the needs
of a diverse democracy.
The webpage contains the following categories: (1) Civic Goals for Higher Education; (2) Engaging
Diversity as a Societal Commitment; (3) Campus Missions and Models; (4) Teaching and Learning;
(5) Scholarship and Faculty Work; (6) Research on Higher Education and Civic Engagement; (7)
Sponsoring Organizations; (8) Related Academic Organizations; (9) Related Non-Academic
Organizations; (10) Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER).
The resources (4)-(6) were recommended by Pamela D. Sherer and Carol Harvey at the “The American
Association for Higher Education (AAHE) Diversity & Learning National Conference 2000” as a
“Diversity Resource for Faculty Development” (the mistakes in the web addresses are corrected).
(7) University of Massachusetts Boston – Diversity Requirement
(Diversity Web; Institution profiles; curriculum transformation)
http://www.diversityweb.org/Profiles/divdbase/umb/ct.html
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This website speaks about Curriculum Transformation at Umass Boston and the requirements for
getting the status “diversity course.” All undergraduates at UMass Boston are required to take courses
that address human diversity as a major theme.
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