Teachers ask themselves these questions : What are the learning styles of my students?

1. Summary-- Chapter 13 and Lee, Ladson-Billings, and Kohl Readings What theories contribute to answering these complex questions about teaching and learning? Teachers ask themselves these questions: • What are the learning styles of my students? • How can I learn more about my students? • Why do students behave this way? • Why do students fail to read? Fail to achieve in school? • What interventions might have a positive impact on student performance? • How do conditions in the larger society shape my thinking and my students’ thinking? At an institutional level: • How can schools change the outcomes for students? • How can schools change the general pattern of social reproduction?

2. What are the main goals of a critical educator like Ladson-Billings? Make schools work well for all students. Critical theory: Explains social inequalities based on subordination of oppressed groups, historically the dominant group has the power to set standards and control institutions. Result has been unequal power relations and this effects how oppressed groups experience institutions and are perceived by society. Critical Theory challenges: Negative stereotypes Cultural deficit views Political, social, and economic arrangements in the larger society that cause inequalities in all aspects of life. Oppressed groups’ response to subordination (resistance)

3. What are the main goals of a critical educator like Ladson-Billings? Make schools work well for all students. What would a culturally relevant teacher do? • Address the impact of cultural differences on students learning. • Work to create positive relationships with students, parents, and the community. • Equip all students with high level academic and social skills. • Equip students to change their lives (modeling these efforts in school). • Make connections between students and their community, national, and global identities. (Ladson-Billings, page 34) • Change the curriculum to be more inclusive of and value the contributions of all groups. • Examine and change discriminatory school structures. • Address the impact of student resistance on students’ school engagement.

4. How does culture matter according to Ladson-Billings’ theory of culturally relevant teaching?Be prepared to address her views on Exam 2. • How does cultural difference impact learning? • How does cultural deficit theory influence teachers, school policies, and practices? • How does subordination of cultural groups in the larger society influence those groups’ school experiences? • How urgent is the problem?

5. Why is Ladson-Billings concerned about the education of minority students? African Americans still dream of quality education for their children. • Achievement gap of minority students • Poor outcomes for many minority students--higher dropout rates • Resegregation of schools since 1980s (de facto separate schools) means greater isolation for all students • Low funding in many schools serving minority • Few teachers of color (less than 10%) • Lingering effects of cultural deficit theory on teachers (no attention to structural inequalities, teaching approaches, school practices and policies)

6. What do we mean by the word culture? Individuals vary within all cultural groups. There is a dominant culture and many subcultures. • Culture is an integrated set of norms by which human behaviors, beliefs, and thinking are organized. • Culture is a set of standards and control mechanisms with which members assign meanings, values and significance to things, events and behaviors. TEACHER’S CULTURAL LENS How do you interpret the world based on your cultural experiences? What cultural skills, beliefs, values, and behaviors do you bring to your interactions with the world? How will you view difference?

7. Enid Lee suggests challenging the status quo in schools by: • Changing the curriculum to address lives and interests of all people. • Involving students in social change in their neighborhoods • Changing discriminatory practices within the school • Giving minority parents more voice in school decisions • Examining who is hired at a school • Equipping students and parents to combat racism and ethnic discrimination.

8. Enid Lee suggests how to implement a more multicultural, anti-racist education. Implement in stages: Surface stage—more expressions of culture within the school and begin to transform the curriculum Transitional stage—create units of instruction on that address different cultural groups Structural changes—integrate units on different cultures into the regular curriculum Social change—create a curriculum that helps to lead changes outside the school (Such as media literacy studies-- how does the media portray different people? Study health conditions of a neighborhood)

9. Tozer Chapter 13 and Kohl article: How do you understand resistance theory? Spend 3 minutes collaborating and be ready to share your ideas. Address these questions: Why do students resist school and learning? How do Kohl and Tozer explain the positive impact of resistance? What are the negative effects of resistance?

10. An example in Kohl showing why somestudents resist school (26). • Kohl was consulting for a school in San Antonio that had a large Mexican American population with a high failure rate. • Few Latino teachers, no Latino administrators. • He observes in a History Class—a Lesson on “The first people to settle Texas” (arrived from New England and the South…) • Kohl challenged the textbook’s assumptions, and then engaged students in conversation about racism within the textbooks and the school.

11. Resistance Theory (Tozer, 424 and Kohl)Students reject negative environments and reject opportunities in schools in order to preserve their identity and cultural connections. • When students experience discriminatory practices, some students retreat into a posture of resistance, a conscious refusal to learn. • Cooperation in schools means capitulating to an alien culture. • Resistance in school is “self-destructive” at one level--a foregoing an education; but it preserves the integrity of subordinate cultural identity.

12. According to Kohl what is meant by: • Failing to learn? • Tried and failed for different reasons—teaching approaches, materials, readiness skills. • Not learning? • Willfully choosing not to learn because of a challenge to self-respect, self-identity, cultural integrity, or loyalty to family or group. Kohl acknowledges the essential role of free will in learning.

13. Resistance by many students is a response to subordinate status in society and school. • Deciding to actively not-learn something involves closing off part of oneself and limiting one’s experiences (Kohl, 106). • As a teacher, Kohl assumes that there are complex factors behind apparent failure to learn, which could be used to transform the situation into positive learning (Kohl, 107). • Kohl concludes that–teachers need to understand why “not-learning” occurs, and education needs to be built on the hard truth of the experiences of our students in society (Kohl, 120) • Teachers should seek ways to address discrimination and racism as it connects to the students’ lives, as it functions in schools and operates throughout the curriculum.

14. Cultural Difference Theory Supports a Pluralist Approach to Curriculum for all students.Today, content is more inclusive of diverse experiences, generally--added but not integrated, still a long way to go.