What thoughts pop into your head when you see these pictures?

1. What thoughts pop into your head when you see these pictures?

5. Who is better with Math?

8. Stevens High School

9. North Middle School

10. Southwest Middle School

11. Jefferson Academy

12. Politicians

13. Doctor

14. Who is going to be the “Discipline Problem?”

15. Bosses “Time to do your work!” Can you really put yourself in their shoes?

16. A Perspective changeJust a way of looking at things a little differently. Changing the way we perceive our students is truly difficult, not to say you need me to point it out, just another way of looking at it.

17. How do Native and Non-Natives perceive each other in modern society? • In society • In school • In law enforcement • Within our own bias; How do I look at others? What do I joke about in others?

18. How we view each other as “Professionals.” • Lowden (2002) stated “Teachers can teach anyone if the teacher is able to ‘change lenses’ and orient themselves to the cultures that thrive within their schools.” • We must acknowledge our own biases. Do you truly allow someone to make their own mistakes with you or do you already “know how they’ll act?”

19. “Who has a bias? Not me, I wasn’t raised like that!” • Everyone has bias. • What is your favorite… movie, car, book, ice cream? Recognizing racism involves acknowledging beliefs, attitudes and symbols that are legitimized by those with cultural and political power and are socialized in successive generations (Parks, 1999). “Fair-minded, service oriented educators consider racism to be inconsistent with the values that attracted them to teaching, and therefore don’t recognize that their own attitudes and behavior may be tinged with its effects” (Parks, 1999).

20. Acknowledging your bias • By truly examining your own beliefs about the unknown. • Once educators acknowledge the nature of racism, they can explore the relationship between racism and other issues, such as teen violence, safe schools, gang behavior, dropout and suspension rates, diversity, and equity in personnel policies and school administration. • Most Indians believed that non-Indians’ perceptions of them are based on crude stereotypes, and indeed, non-Indians often had a foggy, distorted set of perceptions about Indians, usually based on little direct contact and on what some admitted were little more than Hollywood stereotypes or generalizations (Doble, Yarrow 2007).

21. Changing education to meet the needs of our students. • “The main issue for Native American students in the traditional educational system is cultural dissonance” (Eshelman 1997). • White educators have underestimated the importance of culture in the learning process. Rather than validate non-traditional ways of knowing, thinking, and behaving, these students have been labeled deficient by uninformed educators (Viadero, 1997). Not only do educators label them as deficient but so do our standardized tests.

22. Effective Multicultural Education • School districts must apply it in a cross curricular fashion (Parks, 1999). • School districts must have clear expectations of what they want to accomplish. • Everyone must be willing to help change the climate.

23. Realistic Approaches • If student behavior at a local high school reflects racist attitudes, instituting a multicultural education program aimed at preventing racism is not likely to address the immediate conflicts and tensions. • Peer mediation, conflict resolution, or anti-violence education may be necessary in order to create a culture of openness before students can realize the benefits of multicultural education. • We must have a culture based on respect and fairness for all members of our school community. Just like North! Where we nurture as well as educate!

24. Strategies • “We must focus on culture not as a label but as an internal value system.” • “We must believe that multicultural education is required in all educational institutions.” • “This could lead to a paradigm shift from devaluation and marginalization of non-mainstream students and families to the embracing of these families and students as valuable contributors” (Lowden, 2002).

25. Our own discomfort • 40% characterized diversity education as nothing more than political correctness, with more African-American or Hispanic students than white expressing that view. Van Norstrand, as quoted by Parks (1999) ● Meaningful multicultural education must deal with substantive issues that touch people’s lives. Perhaps a generation of students and teachers, may be uncomfortable and disappointed, as the content and the conduct of multicultural education evolve toward greater effectiveness in combating racism (Parks, 1999) Such findings remind us that one residual effect of racism in the lives of people of color is an understandable skepticism about the positive change in racial attitudes (Parks, 1999).

26. Five Components of Multicultural Education that play a direct role in reducing racism • Content Integration: use the example, data, and information from a variety of cultures to illustrate the key concepts, principles, generalizations and theories. • Knowledge construction: helping students understand how knowledge is created and influenced by factors of race, ethnicity, gender, and social class. • Prejudice reduction: developing strategies to help students acquire positive racial attitudes. • Equity pedagogy: using instructional techniques that promote cooperation and include the learning and cultural styles of diverse groups. • Empowering school culture: creating a learning environment in which students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social groups believe that they are heard and are valued and experience respect, belonging, and encouragement.

27. Thank you We must celebrate diversity within the classroom; we must acknowledge the differences in learning, understanding, and the ways that education or knowledge displays itself within a culture. Banks, as quoted by Parks (1999), and completely agreed with my me!

28. One last perspective,