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Amara Cohen Community Responsive Teaching Philosophy Worksheet

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Copy of Ethnic Studies Lesson Plan Worksheet

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Reading Discussion Questions + Understanding Race Focus Questions

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Reading Discussion Questions + Understanding Race Focus Questions

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Amara Cohen Understanding Race Focus Questions

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Amara Cohen Black Panther Party 10-point Program

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It was very interesting to hear from a student about their experience with their Capstone project. Seeing her present the material made it clear how much passion she had about this project. She not only did research but learned how to take action within her community, which is a huge takeaway from school. This project seems much more inspirational that much of the work that I had to do in class. In my classroom, I would like to show students how they can use math to identify issues and make changes in the community. Whether that is fundraising or raising awareness of issues, math can be integrated into their praxis.

Youth activism article: Issues in low income areas are blamed on lack of social capital. But this perspective ignores the agency of kids and doesn’t adapt to reflect the kids’  lived reality. The research paper focuses on how children in low income areas have positive behavior to help their community. They introduce the idea of critical civic praxis, which is the idea of collective community action and participation in local organizations. Organizations can provide children with opportunities to develop their critical consciousness and thin about how systems of oppression affect their lives. Workshops might encourage students to think about the underlying pressures in their life from society, as well as brainstorm positive actions the students could take to address those issues. Students can learn to advocate for themselves once they know what is possible.

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One thing I learned from the speaker was that Asian American studies shouldn't only exist in spaces with Asian American students, rather the study belongs in all schools in order to support a more complete and truthful telling of History.

It is my duty as a teacher to ensure that students are exposed to Asian American studies, both moments of triumph and of sadness. I must ensure that Asian American voices are heard in my classroom, that students have a chance to reflect on what they know and even what they do not know.

The five components/goals of RAASP seem to be relevant to all forms of Ethnic Studies, only differing in what the focus is during the points of reflection. In a way, these five components seem like the answer to my previous question about what all Ethnic Studies courses should include if they are enacted at a national level. Even if classrooms can’t study several different ethnic groups, at least the students will have the tools to do so in the future. I see each of these components as a skill that must be practiced by everyone, as these skills would allow us to better understand the ways in which social structures both oppress us and allow us to act as an oppressor. But reflection is only one step proposed, which leaves space for moving forward and taking action.

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I really enjoyed the discussion I had today with my Home Group about Ethnic Studies and it’s possibility to be implemented on a larger scale. For me, this forced me to consider what it means to teach Ethnic Studies. As another group discussed, I wondered if creating more cross-curricular studies would automatically bring ethnic studies to the forefront, as inequitable social structures are often hidden in the intersection of academic areas (how it requires both history and science to understand how science was weaponized as a tool for racism). Would increased integration automatically lead to ethnic studies emerging or would it still need to be intentionally taught?

Text reflection: This text considers the different ways that race and ethnicity has been analyzed and conceptualized. The formation of race was used as a tool to create social hierarchies, but was also closely tied to class divisions. Race erased cultures in many ways as it forced individuals to become part of a larger racial group in order to move from a minority to a majority. Yet the struggle to categorize people indicates that there is not a complete erasure of culture, rather a tendency to maintain the appearance of assimilation.

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I was surprised by the hesitance we all felt to name race in the room. Everything Dr. Sullivan said about our fear of bringing race into the room, despite all knowing it was there, really resonated with me. The first thing I thought when I saw them was that it was a White person giving us a lecture today, the first White person who has taught us in this program. I showed up to this class immediately after having read Collins' paper on race, class, and gender as categories of analysis. Coming into this space with that reading helped me have an even greater appreciation for what Dr. Sullivan shared. I was so surprised by their story about the 14 policemen arresting them, as I don't hear stories about people I meet being arrested, especially white people.

Also I had written an analysis of the reading already so I will share it below: DQSH is a space in which students can be completely curious without the bounds that society usually places on what is acceptable to question. Students can bring their full selves as they see the drag queens embody their own sense of identity. Because queer pedagogy encourages freedom of identity, students can use DQSH as a space to explore their own identity. In this way, DQSH becomes a form of activism as it subverts the boundaries that schooling attempts to place on students. Based on this reading, teachers are encouraged to consider both the ways in which our own classrooms currently limit students ability to play unproductively/unintentionally and the ways it could act as a liberatory space where students can begin to explore what it means to live queerly. As we learned in our previous classes, we are all queer educators.

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I was really surprised by the violence we saw  in the Strike video. It was really hard to see the violence against people who were in the same place I am now. It also helps me to have a more holistic perspective on UC Berkeley as a whole. I enjoyed sharing my artifact with my classmates and hearing about their artifact. It was a nice way to gain a new perspective on who they are and what they value.

As for the reading, I was surprised by the action-oriented approach that Ethnic Studies brings. The reading mentions that students used Ethnic Studies to better their communities, which I feel like is the ideal outcome for school curriculum. I’m curious about the ways that Ethnic Studies could be linked with other academic subjects, given that it seems like the values should be in every classroom, at all times.