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Lisa Delpit’s “Silenced Dialogue” was a powerful reminder that educators from marginalized communities offer essential perspectives that must not be ignored. As a future counselor, I want to be an advocate who amplifies underrepresented voices not only for students, but also for fellow educators and families in the school community.

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The reading helped me realize how powerful my personal beliefs will be in shaping how I counsel, support, and advocate. I must constantly reflect on my own assumptions about students, families, learning, and power so that I can serve with integrity, equity, and humility.

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This reading affirmed my belief that education should help students grow in every area of their lives not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and spiritually. As a future school counselor, I want to support the whole child, helping them discover their potential and develop character, confidence, and resilience.

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The idea that knowledge can come from many sources including students themselves challenged the traditional “teacher knows best” mindset. As a counselor, I want to empower students by honoring their voices and experiences. I believe they have valuable insight into what they need, and it’s my job to help them access and express it.

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Research by Pianta and others emphasized that students need close relationships with educators. This reinforced my belief that building trust and connection is at the heart of effective counseling. I want every student I work with to feel seen, heard, and valued because meaningful support starts with relationship.

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Jacqueline Irvine’s concept of cultural synchronization made me reflect deeply. As a school counselor, I must avoid projecting my own expectations onto students especially those from marginalized backgrounds. Instead, I must listen, learn, and respond in culturally responsive ways that affirm their identity and lived experience.

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I was impacted by the idea that how we view student behavior affects how we respond. When we see students as lacking competence rather than being defiant, we show more care and support. As a counselor, I’ll strive to understand the root of behavior and respond with empathy, not punishment or judgment.

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“Beliefs, and their influence, tend to be unexamined by educators because many are implicit, unarticulated, or unconscious” (p. 1).

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“Beliefs, and their influence, tend to be unexamined by educators because many are implicit, unarticulated, or unconscious” (p. 1).

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It has been interesting to reflect on previous teachers and professors I have had and see how their personal or religious beliefs would negatively impact myself and other students. While some of it may have been intentional, it was very surprising when their unarticulated, or unconscious biases/beliefs would offend or negatively impact us. It was almost as if they had a false sense of confidence because of their beliefs that was the actual cause of their poor teaching.

Maybe because it is pretty much bound to happen, It makes me nervous to think about how and when my own beliefs may negatively impact my students and how I can avoid it.

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I appreciate how this portion of the article addressed how beliefs can lead teachers to misinterpret or incorrectly label various personal identities as disruptive behavior. Whether or not a teacher’s beliefs agree or disagree with how a student or coworker chooses to identify or present themselves shouldn’t conflict with how they are treated.

In general, even if I may not agree with someone, I “believe” that everyone should still give and receive mutual respect to one another.

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“It is important to note the majority of the literature on educators' beliefs has been based predominantly on studies of white, middle class, female educators (Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006)” (p. 4).

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“It is important to note the majority of the literature on educators' beliefs has been based predominantly on studies of white, middle class, female educators (Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006)” (p. 4).

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In general, I think that this is a great reminder that all things, including beliefs are subjective and limited by perspective. But I also appreciate varying perspectives and think that they provide a great opportunity for me to become more aware and understanding. If everyone was simply limited to my beliefs, the world would probably be pretty boring. Not that I’m boring, but diversity is what contributes to making the world interesting. So while yes, I think it is important to have a personal set of beliefs or standards, understanding others can only benefit us and help us see other people's perspectives and reasoning behind their beliefs.

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“Educators expect siblings to perform similarly given their shared family context and/or genetic makeup” (p. 5).

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“Educators expect siblings to perform similarly given their shared family context and/or genetic makeup” (p. 5).

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I am the youngest of three and both my older brother and sister went to the same schools as me and I feel like I had to quarrel with this concept. I was also not as book smart as my siblings, not that I had bad grades or anything, but they were both AP and honors students, while I was demoted to the general education classes for the most part. But, it was hard for me in some ways to pave my own path based on how some teachers would judge me. Some teachers were more strict with me because of my brother's rambunctiousness, while others provided less aid and assumed I would transfer learning as well as my sister had, when I simply couldn’t.

Experiencing this will help me hopefully see and appreciate the differences between student siblings that I will one day have.

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“Educators' beliefs are a form of subjective reality: What they believe is real and true. Their beliefs guide their decision-making, behavior, and interactions with students and, in turn, create an objective reality in the classroom, what students experience as real and true” (p. 5-6).

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“Educators' beliefs are a form of subjective reality: What they believe is real and true. Their beliefs guide their decision-making, behavior, and interactions with students and, in turn, create an objective reality in the classroom, what students experience as real and true” (p. 5-6).

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This was a good warning call for me in how I intend on creating the reality of my classroom. As teachers we truly have the responsibility to set the tone for our students and can ultimately make or break their education experience.

For me it made me think of how I need to be structured and responsible, but also open and approachable. I want students to feel safe and comfortable in my class and be able to have mutual respect given and received by all that come into my classroom.

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Throughout this section I thought of two main components for how to change my own beliefs: Humility and Willingness to learn. I don’t know how it is for other teachers, but one of the reasons why I want to become a teacher is to continue learning. I wonder if any/how many teachers out there want to become teachers because they think they are just smarter than everyone else and want to tell people what to do.

One teacher friend of mine and I always talk about how we plan to continue taking community college classes throughout our careers just for fun, and it's something I genuinely am looking forward to because I like staying humble and remembering that there is so much more for me to learn and experience in life. And I strongly support the idea that as we continue to learn and grow, it will continue to shape our beliefs.

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Overall throughout this article, I thought about implicit bias, and the fear that I will let my own negatively impact my beliefs and teaching practice. Hopefully not too sound too casual, but I worry about being either not “woke” enough or too “woke” a lot. I try to be open and get to know people without any preconceived judgement or assigning them to personal perceived stereotypes. I do my best to get to know someone as they are individually but am also conflicted when it comes to cultural ties, identification, and pride, because cultural ties, identification, and pride are also foundational to the whole of who they are. But the biggest thing I think that helps is abstaining from a positive or negative bias and approaching it from an objective perspective.