How to Counter Hegemony

How to Counter Hegemony Applications for Science and Math Classrooms A Collaborative Project for EDU 500/LIT 500 by Ben Ariola, Samantha Elias, Elizabeth Piatt, and Karen Springer

Creating a Classroom Foundation • Set of classroom principals posted on the wall year-round for all students to see. • Creates a community of responsibility and respect for all students. • Makes all students equals. -from the Social Justice High School

Creating Community – Getting to know students Teacher’s Notes: This survey helps to draw out student knowledge, community values, and cultural ties. This serves as a means for the beginning of transformational teaching – knowing your students. Interviews provide an opportunity to make each student feel understood and valued. It is a chance for you to publicly affirm each one. • Preferences Survey administered when gathering personal information at the beginning of the year • Student Interviews – a few minutes to make each student famous in the classroom. 1-2 interviews per day for the first month. • Mystery Student Ice Breaker

Kinds of Survey/Interview Questions • Who’s your hero/mentor? Favorite historical figure? • Favorite band? Favorite song? Favorite subject? • Do you have a job? Are you trying to get one? • What do you like to do when you don’t have to do anything? • If you could give $1000 dollars to anyone, who would it be? • If you could give $10,000 to any cause, what would it be? • List 3 things that you are good at. • When you watch the news, what really gets to you? • What is one thing you would change about school? Why? • What is one thing that you think is unfair in this school? • What is one thing that you like about this school? • Are you a person who likes to be in the middle of things? Or more watching things? • Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Who has some more ideas?

Creating Community Teacher’s Note: This survey is anonymous, giving students an opportunity to express their opinions. It continues to give the teacher knowledge of the students and opens the topics of social justice. The information can be compiled statistically and presented or can serve a project for student to do. • Survey provides a break down of opinions for each student. • Can be used in any classroom, despite content. • Can be used as a conversation starter for open dialogic discussions that will occur throughout the year.

Take a few moments, Look over the survey – What do you think? Any more ideas?

Student Choice Research Project Teacher’s Note: Students struggling to identify their own topic can be directed to a series of problems that apply the subject to social justice issues. By seeing a list, students are prompted to prioritize their concerns and find one that is most important to them. • Student perspective and choice • Students can identify personal topics, related to science • Uses student interest • Legitimizes student knowledge • Makes the curriculum negotiable, students have control over their own learning. • Must engage with a problem affecting them that reflects upon social and cultural forces.

Possible Research Topics • What is AIDS and why is it so hard to find effective treatment? • Medical Marijuana? Recreational Marijuana? What’s the big deal? • Eastern vs. Western treatment for… • Superkids – Athletes on Steroids • Near Perfection – the biology of beauty • Who’s eating tainted meat? Statistics and Chemistry in food distribution. • The new Geography – food deserts, farming for technology, and more. • Who prepared the WWII bombs? Under the Manhattan Project. • Mexican Migrant workers. Dying to work… • The Genetics of… • Reward Deficiency Syndrome

Using current issues in class • Provides alternate texts for students (newspaper articles, journal article, magazines) • Can be used to apply what is learned in the classroom outside of school (homework), and to provoke conversations the following day. • Forces students into seeing a viewpoint that’s not their own.

Use of Supplementary Texts • Give texts that have different view points • Include texts from varied culture, class, gender, race • Show how different cultures view certain aspects of science. • Include continental science and ethnoscience Teacher’s Note: This has multiple purposes – It gives value to the knowledge of different groups. It validates the contributions of different groups. It shows that all people are alike in their quest to learn and make things better. It points out to students social injustice as they observe how different scientists have been treated by society.

Examples ofSupplementary Texts • The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould – dismantling of the IQ industry • Genes, Peoples, and Languages by Luigi Luca Svalli-Sforza • The Facts of Life by C.D. Darlington (1953) • The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean (Maria Goeppert’s story)

Dialogical Discussions • Setup • Group works collectively to construct knowledge and understanding of rich text that is subject to various interpretations • Initiated by open question critical to understanding • Ground Rules • Speak Respectfully • Use authentic questions • Practice Uptake • Think Deeply – Analyze, Generalize, Speculate • Use words like “agree, disagree, could, if, how”

Supplemental Movies • Awakenings-Abelism • What the Lord Made- Racial Injustice • October Sky- Classism • Erin Brockovitch- Classism and Corporate Injustice • Lorenzo’s Oil – Medical Injustice • GATTACA – Eugenics and beyond

Connection to Social Action • Students can take their authentic learning and their voice and determine a course of action. • Examples: • Making pamphlets to distribute. • Contacting school boards/administration concerning issues. • Informing younger students about their stance on an issue.

Example of a Lesson Topic: Facing Cancer • Research assignment to use when learning about mutations/cancer Goal of the Assignment • Arm the students with the tools and knowledge to face cancer and consider the kind of social changes necessary to address both its causes and effects. • Make students understand that cancer is a disease of societal inequity, genetic predisposition, and personal choice. • Guide students to a place of hope and activism

What does it look like? • Students will look at specific communities and see which cancers are most common in that community. • Look into the disparities and related risk factors • Students will brainstorm ways to decrease cancer inequities.

Students will be asked to determine if risk factors are related to behavior, genetics, workplace safety, environmental safety, or access to health care. • Different between communities • Then consider if these risk factors affect cancer incidence, mortality, or both.

Students will compare information from National Cancer Institute (NCI) graphs that show incidence and mortality as they related to race/ethnicity and cancer time. • Students would use information from the Intercultural Cancer Council.

Social Justice Discussions in Mathematics • Connecting daily objectives to real world topic • Current Events Board • Looking at class data after quiz or test • Social Action Project • Math Problems that rely on students’ community knowledge

Specific Activities for Math • Find how much a family needs to survive, live comfortably, etc… • Predict using A = P(1 +/- r)^t. Compare to growth/decline in resources. • Use combinations to see how the lottery works. Understand the damage that ridiculous odds can have on people/families. • Growth rates of people in poverty, jail, etc… Use this information to better understand world. • Basic Family Budgets • Population Growth and Decay • The Lottery • Percentages and Growth Rates

Counter-Hegemony Activity Median Monthly Earnings by Tenure and Experience: 2008

Median Monthly Earnings by Experience: 2008 Men Women

Men

Women

Discussion Questions 1.Draw the line of best fit for each scatter plot. 2.Based on the line of best fit, what would be the median monthly income for a man with 24 years experience? A women with the same amount of experience? a. Male earnings = b. Females Earnings = 3.What might account for this discrepancy? Can you think of any reasons that would explain why this occurs?

How to Counter Hegemony