December 10, 2014 - 22:08
To understand what innovation in education can be, it is important to understand where the need for innovation comes from. The word itself implies a process of making something new and better, and is often attributed to using some new tool that previous did not exist. Thus, the idea of innovation in education is often connected to the use of more advanced technologies in the classroom and as a tool for learning. However, the form of education that we are referring to in our framing of the word ‘innovative’ is not reliant on utilizing a previously inaccessible resource, but is rooted in exploring the relationships between people, and how an educational space can be changed depending on how we choose to, and are able to, think and interact. During our panel of Innovators in Education, Grace Cannon described how they are working hard at the Project LINC School to create connections with real-world professionals to give students opportunities to receive feedback on schoolwork from people who work professionally in a field that is related to their coursework. Our class recognized a parallel between the nature of this program and the centuries-old tradition of apprenticeship. In this way, innovative education is dependent on looking back as we look forward, rather than trying to start fresh and new.
The ‘traditional classroom’ that is often represented in television and movies is one in which the teacher is responsible for teaching specific things and students are responsible for learning them. This model is a very simplistic and limiting learning model, and serves to illustrate several steps in the educational process in which innovative thinking can be used to bridge the gaps between the learner and their learning. Not only de we need to consider who we are teaching, but we also need to think consciously about what we are teaching, why and how it is being taught, what the relationship is between the educator and the student, and how the particular learning environment navigates the omnipresence of requisite course material and standards implemented by schools, larger policies, and standardization.
This semester, I have become particularly interested in how to make room for and properly acknowledge different identities in the classroom, particularly racial and ethnic identities. It is apparent that the standardized requirements for U.S. history do not educate about the histories of different races, and when they do extend beyond the white view of history, it is done ambiguously. In Vasquez Heilig, Brown and Brown’s “The Illusion of Inclusion”, they say that while histories of people of color do exist in high school courses, they often “provide no clear indication that these people or issues were associated with distinct racial projects or societal activities directly involving and implicating the social category of race. In this way, the standards render race invisible” (413). We do not live in a post-racial society, but rather a society in which your race plays a huge role in every aspect of society you navigate. Education focused on the histories of people of color is largely denied in the American curricula. People of color are not accounted for in standardized social studies curricula to the extent that white people are, in that they dominate this historical narrative of the U.S. Therefore, consciously accounting for and legitimizing these identities in the classroom is crucial.
“If students are to have an equal opportunity to identify with school, two types of differences need to be taken into account: culturally derived differences – often called cultural or ethnic differences – and imposed status differences – often called racial differences” (Markus 65).
While it is important to make room for racial and ethnic identities in the classroom, the methods of doing this properly are complex, and something I find difficult to navigate. Markus goes on to outline how cultures of different ethnic and racial groups have unique values that may explain certain behaviors of students. While Latino American contexts are centered on family and do not require independence, “African American contexts emphasize independence and self-expression” (77). Understanding contexts such as these that individual students may be coming from can be critical in providing accessible education. But there is a fine line between when thinking within these contexts is helpful, and when they can be damaging and further alienating of students whose histories are not being taught in school.
This issue is most clearly demonstrated in the prominence of the Model Minority Myth. The sociocultural contexts that Markus outlines for Chinese Americans, particularly “knowing one’s place in the social order, and a general orientation toward meeting the expectations of others” (73), echo the expectations that are created for Asian people in America. For Seo, these expectations led her to be told that she wasn’t “Asian enough”, and has faced perpetual discrimination throughout her teaching career. The disadvantages that people of color face as a result of being stereotyped to these cultural contexts makes me hesitant to appreciate the benefits that taking these contexts into account could have in a classroom. While it can be advantageous to a student who does fit a cultural context for their teacher to recognize how their beliefs and values might be affecting their education, this practice can easily turn sour if inaccurate assumptions and expectations are created as a result. “Before any changes can occur, it is necessary for the Caucasian majority to first recognize that many of their preconceived ideas of Asian Americans and African Americans are steeped in falsehoods, not truths…. The maintenance of these negative and inaccurate images, whether perceived to be positive or negative, provides for the ideological justification of oppression on the basis of race, class, and gender” (Seo and Hinton 7).
I’m challenged by these two opposing concepts in terms of innovative education. It is clear that the identities of people of color are not made visible in curricula, and that in these situations it is up to the teacher and their interactions with students to account for non-white learner’s identities. How can teachers actively work to account for cultural, ethnic, and racial identities without contributing in some way to negative and pervasive stereotyping?
Works Cited
Vasquez Heilig, Julian, Keffrelyn D. Brown, and Anthony L. Brown. "The Illusion of Inclusion: A Critical Race Theory Textual Analysis of Race and Standards." Harvard Educational Review Fall 82.No. 3 (2012): 403-39.
Markus, H. (2008). Identity Matters: Ethnicity, Race and the American Dream. In Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference (pp. 63-98). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Seo, Byung-In, and Dawn Hinton. "How They See Us, How We See Them: Two Women of Color in Higher Education." ProQuest.