Class in the Classroom

1. Class in the Classroom The Effects of Classism on Educational Development

2. “Class is rarely talked about in the United States; nowhere is there more intense silence about the reality of class differences than in educational settings. Significantly, class differences are particularly ignored in classrooms.” • hooks, bell. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.

3. Problems and Issues • Barriers and limitations in education • Socially excluded/marginalized students • Social exclusion that influences policies • Biased policies manifested in current education curricula • Largely middle-class ideals are mirrored in current school curricula

4. “Bourgeois values in the classroom create a barrier, blocking the possibility of confrontation and conflict, warding off dissent. Students are often silenced by means of their acceptance of class values they teach them to maintain order at all costs”. • hooks, bell. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.

5. Students have assimilated this censoring process that middle class values in the classroom promote. • These bourgeois values basically undermine the democratic exchange of ideas that is supposed to take place in a true democratic classroom.

6. Teaching strategies, philosophies, and curricula need to fit the societal need, which is today comprised of a diverse population.

7. Research Procedures • Survey • Sample is selected from individuals who have experienced societal marginalization • Ten questions on social and economic class issues • Participants expected to reflect on their past educational experiences • Current relevant theory will be applied to qualify all information disclosed

8. Quotes: • When did you realize you were associated with a particular class? • “I realize that I was in a different class level than other people when I realized that my parents were much different people from my teachers in the way they dress and their speech. That perspective about the world seemed totally different. Morally we all seem to maintain the same qualities, however I became increasingly aware that there were different levels of material attainment and the human person. I began to pander myself after my teachers around the second or third grade.”

9. Analysis • Teacher and institutional influence is clear. • Quote is consistent with research on class that suggests that students who are from poor and working class families are never taught about the relevance of their prescribed class in relation to the capitalist structure. They are often unaware of what class they belong to and, therefore, not provided with the skills to transcend class level. • Knowledge of more powerful groups are imposed on the working class and the poor. • Anyon, Jean. (1981). Social Class and School Knowledge. New Jersey: Rutgers.

10. Critical Theory • School is an introduction to social life. • Forms of knowledge favor specific visions. • Schools function in ways that maintain class hierarchies that reproduce inequality. • Current curricula and institutional practices promote social control.

11. Suggestions: • Look at the reality of schools’ current curricula and pedagogical practices as supporting social reproduction. • Empower the powerless through practices that are consistent with critical pedagogy and multicultural education. • Use multicultural education development strategies to create a universal and equitable curriculum. • Promote a true democratic classroom structure and overall school culture.