The reading by Lisa Delpit, " The Silenced Diologue" was an excellent article about how the white middle-class culture is the one in power, and how this shapes education. When the author got into detail about the culture of power and the five aspects of power, the first one jumped out at me right away. I have always been aware that as a teacher, I am in a position of power over the students. I remember taking a multiculturalism in education course back in college that specifically talked about this very issue. Racism can and will be repeated if a teacher holds that power and prejudice. However, this goes further into things that are not under my direct control like the textbooks that are published, the creators and decision makers of curriculum, the power of the state and federal government to establish educational policy, the authors/creators of the very test which are used to gauge who graduates, who gets into college, who earns credentials, degrees, and who can ultimately be successful in this culture.
One quote that touched me in the article was when the author brought out the point that she has frequently heard schools call poor parents, "uncaring." When parents respond they many times say or show an attitude such that, "it is the school's job." I admit that I am guilty of thinking those exact thoughts and feeling frustrate over the years by parents who seem to hold that attitude. I as a teacher have wanted support and needed support in making sure that these students of mine are successful, and I get angry and frustrated at times when a parent is sending me that message. However, after reading this article and specifically this quote, I had not stopped to think where this idea or attitude was coming from until now. As the author points out what we fail to understand is that if our parents belonged to this culture of power they would transmit these codes and rules to their children. It made me think of what I have tried to establish in terms of my own daughter and value education and do everything in a certain way to ensure that the doors of opportunity are open to her. I know the rules of the game because I have played it already; however, many of our families are immigrants who do not have the information to know what all the codes and rules are, and yes they are going to be unfamiliar with those rules and codes. That made a lot of sense to me. The next time I am tempted to react with that opinion that certain parents don't care, I will step back to think of this article and remember that those parents or families probably are not equipped with the tools, codes, rules, etc to play the game of the culture in power. It makes sense that these families would be teaching another culture to their children that would enable them to survive in their communities.
The last quote that I want to bring up is the following: "In this county students will be juged on their product regardless of the process they used to achieve it." I believe that we are results obsessed as a society, and we value more the final result than the process. How can I take this and teach my students that the process does matter? Do I just arm them with what they will need to know or master in order to fall into the culture of power and teach them to ignore the other pieces?
I am looking forward to our discussion on Tuesday.
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2 comments:
your response makes me think about different avenues for one's philosophy of ed:
-arming students with the knowledge and skills (and values) which will allow them to succeed in an unfair society set by the culture of power
or
-arming students with the knowledge and skills which will allow them to challenge an unfair society and the culture of power
...and i'm not necessarily saying that these sets of knowledge and skills are totally different...
Your comments about parents and their intentions really helped me think about how the larger community of our school is affected by the culture of power, both the one we create and the larger culture of society. I know we always should "assume the best" but working with parents also requires us to examine this school and this community from their perspective in order to understand how they benefit from and struggle with the "rules" and cultural expectations that are in place. As much as we need to learn their "rules" and know their background in order to connect to families, we also need to keep in mind that they might not have access to the "rules" and cultural knowledge that we take for granted and follow every single day. Thanks for your insight!
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