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Our learning throughout the course can summed up by the following visual and a 2 min clip of Dr. Toldson's presentation at the NEA in 2016.

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Group 3: Team Abel, Orpheus, and Gabriel (GOAT)

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Group 3: Team Abel, Orpheus, and Gabriel (GOAT)

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Our Ahas!

Toldson embraces chaos theory, as “quantum scientists suggest, chaos is the natural order of life,” (Toldson, 2019, p.177). “Chaos theory reveals the deceptively small incidents that cause major events” and therefore a speaker or educator’s, “job is not to impose order on imperfect lives, but to clarify the very essence of success,” (Toldson, 2019, p. 174). Allow students to embrace all aspects of their lives, their identities, and their community, and see them as assets that are contributing to their success (Toldson, 2019). Educators must know and dissect the problems that students are faced with, but must not invest in them (Toldson, 2019).

There is value in further undermining the richness (culturally and instructionally) of the HBCU experience for Black students. It decreases competitiveness in the labor market for white graduates (Toldson, 2019). As Black students get bombarded by the myths about HBCUs they are less likely to enroll and get shuttled to PWIs or community colleges to “prove themselves” in highly selective “weed out” courses (Toldson, 2019). These courses are designed to shrink the pool, not nurture talent and intellect (like in undergraduate HBCU classes) (Toldson, 2019).

Toldson reminds us again that for Black students to believe in their greatness we must teach about the greatness in Black history, such as General Gaston of the Negro Fort (Toldson, 2019). “True American history involves Black people making a material contribution to the development of this nation as well as well as to the liberation of Black people, often through armed resistance and social diplomacy” (Toldson, 2019, p.175).

Let’s make education relevant for Black students, make it practical, connect it to the struggles and learning and growth of our Black students, their ancestors, communities, families, to fuel their continued civic engagement, leadership, and skill building that is a natural result of living through struggle and perseverance through oppression and imperfect living conditions (Toldson, 2019).

It’s refreshing to know that HBCU are not focused on pressuring faculty to publish and allow them to teach more courses which allows them to build stronger relationships with more students (Toldson, 2019). At colleges designated as “doctoral granting institutions” 67% of faculty at HBCUs are black compared to 4% at PWI (Toldson, 2019, p. 167).

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To summarize our learning collectively. When we think of #QuantCrit, these three points come to my mind.

Best researchers are those with closest connection to subject matter- they are not biased, not subjective and CAN be objective (Toldson, 2019).

Connecting to people, thinking critically, analyzing problems is what makes you a good researcher (Toldson, 2019).

“Great educators are not dependent on metrics that are designed for social control” (Toldson, p.174)

This picture is our culminating representation of our group learning. #QuantCrit
Picture from Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 31, 2020 (MEME generated by our group)

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Video: Appreciating the Chaos: Reflections from our group on #QuantCrit

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Reflecting on these two Toldson chapters, we are struck by the role of educators and those who are in positions to protect and advocate for educators. For example, Toldson’s observation about Justice Scalia, who said that Black students are better suited for “a less-advanced school, a slower-track school.” We appreciated how Toldson juxtaposed these observations with a list of what educators need to do and feel that, based on our experiences, these suggestions can apply to all children — and in being so applied could help the world heal and make progress on so many levels.

Along these same lines, we considered Toldson’s comments about ‘the exceptional child’ and wondered: Why are we so quick to take a deficit perspective? Why don’t we look to shine light on the students who are doing amazing and celebrate their stories? As critical social scientists, what can our role be in undoing some of this deficit perspective and building up a stronger foundation for a more celebratory insight? What would happen if we believed all children to be exceptional What would happen if we believed all educators are, too?

And finally, we reflected on the idea of influence Toldson introduced on page 176. We wondered about the tools and resources and self-confidence that educators might need in order to do this. So much of adult life seems to be threaded with confusion and self-doubt; are we projecting these feelings onto our students? What do we need in order to address these things within ourselves so that we can lift up our students? How can we begin to address these things within ourselves so we can do better by our students?