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James A. Dever Community and School Equity Audit

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James A. Dever Community and School Equity Audit

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Introduction to Community

James A. Dever is located in Valley Stream, New York. Valley Stream is a suburban neighborhood in the southwestern section of Nassau County. Valley Stream is only a ten-to-fifteen-minute drive from Queens and a forty-five minute drive into Manhattan (without traffic). When compared to other Long Island schools and most schools upstate, Valley Stream is a diverse community that welcomes and is home to people of many different incomes, backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and religions. The community of Valley Stream is very large and contains three different public high schools. Some of the main attractions and places that people tend to spend the most time in Valley Stream include but are not limited to Green Acres Mall, Valley Stream State Park, and the Valley Stream Pool. While it is difficult to comment on the economic standing of an entire neighborhood, I would say that Valley Stream is, on average, a lower-middle class community.

Introduction to School

James A. Dever is one of the four elementary schools in the Valley Stream School District. I consider myself very lucky to teach at one of the schools I personally attended as a student. The school is 45% Female and 55% Male. Like I mentioned earlier, in comparison to other Long Island schools, I would consider James A. Dever to be diverse. My school consists of 59% Non-White students and 41% White students. One of my favorite things about being a student in this school was being exposed to the different cultures and religions of my friends and I feel the same way now as a teacher, about my students. The ethnicities of the many students at James A. Dever can be broken down as such. Black or African American 16%, Hispanic or Latino 23%, Asian or Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander 19%, White 41%, and Multiracial 1%. In addition to the enrollment by ethnicity, the school also contains 4% English Language Learners, 19% Students with Disabilities, and 38% Economically Disadvantaged students.

Challenges and Affordances

Teachers and students at James A. Dever are provided with many affordances. Each student and teacher are provided a chrome book that for the first time this year students are able to take home during the summer. In addition, classrooms have up to date technology and equipment including smart boards, air conditioning, air filtration devices, and plenty more. There are after school programs, clubs, and sporting activities every day after school to assist the students and to help parents that cannot pick up their children when the school day ends. Recently, the district has decided to pay for apps and tablets that provide a program and service for the ABA Kindergarteners. This program will help students make bigger strides in their education and allow for parents to help teach and better communicate with their students at home. While the school does offer many affordances, there are still plenty of challenges that students in this community face. Almost 40% of the students are economically disadvantaged. This shows itself in various ways and through different types of challenges. Many of these students come from single parent households, come to school hungry, and/or deal with life circumstances and responsibilities that no child of that age should be bearing. The students that face these challenges are offered and provided all of the services available to them but at the end of the day, as teachers and social workers, we can only do as much as we can do in order to help our students.

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In a world that is more advanced and interconnected than ever before, it is imperative that our understanding and application of multicultural education exceed the standards. This literary review will explore the meaning of multicultural education, how multicultural education differs from traditional education, what the overarching goals are of multicultural education, and what strategies teachers should use to help promote multicultural education. After analyzing four articles that have helped to shape the field of multicultural education, my understanding of multicultural education is that it is an approach to teaching that emphasizes the importance of exploring topics through various perspectives and encourages students to not only be proud of the things that make them unique but, to share them and enlighten everyone around them by providing a unique perspective on a specific topic or the world as a whole. Multicultural education is a reform of traditional education that seeks to provide equal learning opportunities and experiences by providing students with commentary on school related topics from people of different backgrounds, sexes, cultures, ages, classes, motives, and languages.  According to Sonia Nieto, multicultural education, “challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and society and accepts and affirms the pluralism (ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, economic, gender, and sexual orientation, among others) that students, their communities, and teachers reflect” (Nieto, 2018, p. 32). As a social studies teacher, Nieto’s explanation of multicultural education is exciting. Whenever I learn something interesting or unique about a student’s culture, background, religion, or upbringing I encourage them to share their experiences with the class. This is one of my favorite things to do because I have been enlightened by my students and their unique experiences dozens of times and can only hope that these conversations have influenced my students just as much.

When multicultural education is discussed, some education traditionalists may be hesitant or strictly against its goal but, Nieto believes “Multicultural Literacy is just as indispensable for living in today's world as reading, writing, arithmetic, and computer literacy.” (Nieto, 2018, p. 35). I whole heartedly agree with this sentiment because in order to succeed in today's world it is vital that you are able to work well with and understand people of different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. Similar to Nieto, Paulo Friere is also interested in evolving education with the evolving world around it. Friere explains that in traditional education, students were meant to learn by taking whatever the teacher says at face value and that it was not their job to contribute to the learning experience. Friere elaborates on this by illustrating, “The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher's existence—but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher.” (Friere, 2009, p. 72). This is what is trying to be avoided when advocating for multicultural education. Multicultural education provides students and teachers to participate and enhance the learning experience for others. Creating a classroom environment that explores and celebrates the differences between students' culture, their upbringings, and uses readings and assignments that take into account these different perspectives is the way to create a classroom that will be comfortable and positively impact the future and successes of each individual student.

In order to properly apply multicultural education in our schools, it is important to understand the overarching goals of multicultural education. When analyzing the overarching goal to shift education as it stands towards a more multicultural approach, it is clear that Hook, Nieto, Banks, and Friere are extremely familiar with each other's work and have slowly built this understanding of multicultural education over time by learning from and shaping each other's perspectives. According to Banks and agreed upon by the other scholars, “Multicultural education incorporates the idea that all students—regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, social class, and ethnic, racial, or cultural characteristics—should have an equal opportunity to learn in school.” (Banks, 2014, pg. 1). It is also widely agreed upon by the scholars that while this is the overarching goal, it is equally important to consider students individual circumstances to help us understand and address inequalities they may face for being at a school that is not structured for a student of their cultural characteristics. It is our responsibility, as teachers, to understand and recognize what has shaped the curriculum and who it was intended for. Hooks explains that, “Multiculturalism compels educators to recognize the narrow boundaries that have shaped the way that knowledge is shared in the classroom.” (Hooks, 1994, p.44). Recognizing the biases that have infiltrated our schools and curriculums is one of the first steps to creating real change and creating a school system that is not complacent with traditional learning because it is the past of least resistance.

While incorporating multicultural education into your school or classroom may sound like an intimidating task, if it is something that is important to you, it is actually not very difficult. My favorite and easiest way to incorporate multicultural education into my classroom has been to approach students with curiosity and celebrate what makes them different. When a student mentions anything unique about their culture or upbringing I always try to have them share their experiences with the class. This helps the students know and understand each other better but most importantly, it promotes an environment where our differences are celebrated rather than ridiculed. Designing lessons with the main purpose of having our students learn and teach each other about their diverse backgrounds is an incredible way to emphasize the importance of multicultural education and build an inclusive classroom community. Another form of multicultural education that is especially important to me, as a history teacher, is providing my students with a diverse array of literature for each topic which allows them to come to their own conclusions and understand the situation in a way that is most relatable or digestible to them.

Multicultural education is the next massive leap in education. While it has begun, it is still very far from where it needs to be. Banks, Hooks, Friere, and Nieto all believe in the importance of multicultural education and its ability to help mold our society into a better place over time. I believe that multicultural education can be a cure for our country that has become overly contentious and polarizing on every single issue. Over time, the principles of multicultural education have the potential to make this country a much better place for every single individual involved regardless of who or what they support.

References

Banks, J. A. (2014). An introduction to multicultural education (5th ed.). Pearson.

Freire, P. (with Macedo, D.) (2009). Pedagogy of the oppressed. (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

Hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.

Nieto S. & Bode P. (2018). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (7th ed.). Pearson.

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The concept of the invisible knapsack is a way for people to better understand and be able to visualize the privileges that many in a society are unequally rewarded and the inequalities that many people in that same society unfairly face. This imagery and concept help us to better understand the privileges and inequalities of our society by giving us a more easily digestible concept that does not feel rooted in hate, prejudice, and malice. This is extremely important because often times people are intentionally or unintentionally oblivious to their own privilege. The invisible knapsack and the advantages that come with it are a perfect metaphor to help someone come to terms with their privileges and eventually lead them down a path of understanding that if they can see and understand their own privileges, they can understand that those very privileges come at the expense of another group of people. I see the concept of the invisible knapsack as and incredible lesson and something that can be used to break through to the intentionally or unintentionally oblivious people of their own privileges. The overarching idea of the invisible knapsack is to help privileged people understand their privileges and use them in order to help and advocate for the many groups of people that face inequality on a daily and systemic basis in our society.

As a White Male, I have had a few moments in my life when I really noticed my privilege. For lack of a better term, each time this has happened, it has felt like an “AHA” moment. These experiences give me widened eyes and make me feel like I had been seeing life through foggy glass before each moment. These moments have helped me to understand why some people choose to be oblivious to their privileges. These moments change you for the better but, I can understand how the thought of understanding one's own privilege is fearsome because in some sense you can feel it discounts any efforts you have made to be successful and may harm one's own self-worth. While I can understand this fear and resentment of accepting reality, my experiences with these moments have been completely the opposite. These moments have changed my perspective on life, work ethic, civic responsibility, and much more. They have made me a much better person and teacher. I can not imagine being at this point in my life without having many of the “AHA” moments and realizations about privilege and inequality that I have throughout high school and college.

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Native American mascots have a negative psychosocial impact on both Native and non-Native populations. After reading The Psychosocial Effects of Native American Mascots, A Comprehensive Review of Empirical Research Findings, the negative impacts that Native American mascots have on the Native and Non-native population far outweigh any positives that may be lobbied for. Laurel R. Davis-Delano and her colleagues explain that Native American mascots create negative psychological effects for Native students such as lower self-esteem and lower sense of community worth. One reason this happens is because the mascots are typically associated with aggressive and masculine stereotypes. Additionally, they are often represented as a primitive, pre-modern, savage like stereotype that does not accurately represent the evolvement of Native Americans into modern society. Lastly, Native mascots do not accurately depict the many differences and the originality of each of the different Native tribes. The mascots all conform to the same “Hollywood” stereotype ideas that do not truly represent the differences in culture from tribe to tribe. Knowing all the inaccuracies, hyperboles, and lies that go in to creating and fighting to keeping these mascots makes it easy to understand how this would have a negative psychosocial impact on Native Americans today. Additionally, these stereotypes and caricatures of what real Native American culture is, are pervasive and negatively impact the non-native population as well. According to Laurel R. Davis-Delano and her colleagues, non-natives who support the use of Native mascots are far more likely to negative thoughts, stereotypical perceptions, and prejudicial attitudes towards Native Americans. This displays that the psychosocial impacts of Native mascots are largely negative for both the Native and non-Native populations. In the past five years, two of the three professional sports franchises, in the four major sports, with Native American mascots have changed the mascot. As an avid sports fan, I am certain that neither of these teams saw any financial benefit from making this decision, so it begs the question, why do it? There is empirical data that suggests the existence of these mascots has negative psychosocial impacts on the population. Imagine how much data the big corporations had to see to get them to make a decision that negatively impacts their wallets. If for-profit organizations are eating the cost to change their mascots for the betterment of society, what is holding up our schools?

Reference

Davis-Delano, L. R., Gone, J. P., & Fryberg, S. A. (2020). The psychosocial effects of Native American mascots: a comprehensive review of empirical research findings. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(5), 613–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2020.1772221

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Here is my cultural autobiography. Hope you enjoy!