Post 4: The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

 

Christine E. Sleeter, The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies.

Connection:

In The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies, Christine E. Sleeter discusses the importance of Ethnic Studies for all students, but especially those of color. She explains how the traditional curriculum in the U.S. teaches history from a biased Euro-American perspective, lacking diversity of representation. She also points out a lack of connection being made between past systems of oppression and contemporary race relations. This harms students of color, whose awareness of this bias often contributes to their disengagement and even distrust of their education. Sleeter proposes Ethnic Studies as a solution to this issue, offering students a deeper look into history from a multicultural perspective. This reading connects to Khan’s The Broken Model in which he discusses how the education system was designed to stifle deeper inquiry and independent thought, as “...order trumped curiosity; regimentation took precedence over personal initiative.” This is related to Sleeter's discussion on the Euro-American bias in the current education system, which presents history as disconnected, following one perspective that glosses over the harsh realities of the past and avoids relevant discussion on their connection to today. In doing this, students lose engagement as it fosters no deeper inquiry or connection for students to research and explore, unlike Ethnic Studies, which encourages students to take a more critical look at the perspectives of history, its systems, and societal impacts, both past and present. This encourages active engagement from students, now relating to and understanding the relevance of what they are learning. This also connects to Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit-Oriented Schools to Asset-Based Models by Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini. In this reading, the authors discuss how students lose assets for success as they progress through the grades, as they are provided with fewer resources and asset-building opportunities to grow. They stress the importance of personalized instruction to support students' learning by identifying individual skills, talents, and interests and using them to support their growth, academically, socially, and emotionally. This is related to the reading on Ethnic Studies, as when surveyed, many students expressed an interest in learning the history surrounding their own and others' cultures. Appealing to this interest, courses in Ethnic Studies are successful, with classrooms of highly motivated and engaged students.

Comments:

One quote that stood out to me was “At the secondary level, 79 percent of the named people were White, mostly either U.S. presidents or famous artists and authors”. Growing up with an interest in art, I was always baffled that all the biggest artists throughout history were men. Every household name, dominating every medium, style, and movement, across the board, was men. I struggled to understand why this was, as the implication that men were somehow inherently ‘better’ or more creative than women never sat right with me. Now, as an art education major, I have taken many art history courses, which have opened my eyes to the historical context that limited the opportunities and diminished the value of women artists and their work due to societal bias, perceptions, and gender roles. This context affirmed what I had initially suspected: artistic ability was not connected to gender, but at the time, success was, resulting in the disparity of representation.

For anyone interested in reading more about how this topic relates to art history:

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-4201/