Selecting among all the great articles we’ve read throughout this semester, it was difficult to boil it down to the three most meaningful ones.
Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini’s Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit-Oriented Schools to Asset-Based Models was personally meaningful to me as it provided clarity to my K-12 experiences and validated my academic struggles. Education typically takes on a "one-size-fits-all" approach, so those who don't fit will either sink or spend so much time learning to swim that they can never really catch up. Then those who fall behind are blamed, which the authors point out is flawed, as all students are capable; it's a matter of discovering each student's assets and using these to support their learning.
Another reading that stood out to me was Lisa Delpit’s, The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children, as it provides a perspective on how communication and authority roles may be understood differently depending on students' culture or upbringing. It’s important to be mindful of these factors to prevent perpetuating the same old "one-size-fits-all" approach that quickly punishes students who don't fit the mold. Another impactful aspect of Delpit’s writing can be summarized by this quote: “They must be encouraged to understand the value of the code they already possess, as well as to understand the power realities in this country. Otherwise, they will be unable to work to change these realities”.
Finally, I found Patrick J. Finn’s Literacy with an Attitude to be eye-opening on the unfortunate realities of our education system, which is designed to ensure power remains in the hands of those who have it. Comparing the organization and values between what he refers to as "empowering education" and "domesticating education", the difference is as obvious as its aims: to preserve society's workers by teaching students from working- and middle-class families the skills they need to be good followers, rather than leaders. Educators must examine the qualities of this empowering education and find ways to promote independent thought, creativity, and problem-solving in our classrooms so all students have a chance to succeed in this competitive world.
I also have a strong reaction to the Delpit and Finn pieces we studied in class, and will likely reflect about those pieces as well in my own final reflection. I think approaching our teaching in a manner specific to the context of the classroom socioeconomically can be a benefit, if we are able to navigate the culture of the school while including activities and discussion which can incorporate Delpit's silenced dialogue as well as the encouragements of Finn to teach a more empowering literacy. Rather than viewing schools by a single standard, we do well to understand the various perspectives and relationships to power and authority that Finn and Delpit both identify, so we can empower all students rather than perpetuating class divides in schooling.
ReplyDelete