What inspires people to enact change?
What inspires people to enact change?
It both excites and scares me that as a future teacher, I will be a major influence on so many people's development of how they understand things to be. In one of my other classes, Education Policies and Foundations, we talk a lot about how Education (while some try to argue otherwise) is inherently political. From some of our readings in that class, the idea of social reproduction stuck with me. The idea is that schooling doesn't automatically create equal opportunities and that school can actually reinforce or reproduce inequality. We as humans have what my teacher called cultural capital. Cultural capital is the prior experiences that students bring to the classroom. Not necessarily prior academic knowledge but outside of school cultural knowledge and behaviors. So even though students are in the same classes and receiving the same instruction, the curriculum is often biased toward one group's cultural norms rather than another. However, Others and I criticize the theory as it tends to claim that students and teachers have little ability to challenge these structures. This connects to this week's readings. As a teacher, you need to portray history and how certain systems work honestly, rather than presenting them as free and equal. But I believe it is also equally as important to show students they do have agency in their lives and that the world isn't fixed around them but something they can actually change.
This made me think about my own experience moving to the United States and having to adjust to a new school system. At first, I had to learn many new things and figure out how to succeed in school, even when some things felt difficult. Looking back, I realize that having support and not giving up helped me keep moving forward. I think this connects to what you said about how people can create change instead of believing that things will always stay the same. As a future teacher, I want my students to understand that their backgrounds do not decide what they can achieve. What do you think teachers can do to help students believe they can make a difference, especially when they face challenges in their lives?
ReplyDeleteI really liked your point that teachers should help students understand both the problems in society and their ability to create change. Your discussion of cultural capital was especially interesting because students come to school with different experiences, knowledge, and opportunities, even when they are sitting in the same classroom. I also agree that teachers should be honest about inequality without making students feel powerless. Learning about history and social systems can help students recognize that change has happened before because people questioned unfair conditions and took action. I think teachers can support this by encouraging discussion, critical thinking, and students’ confidence in their own voices.
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ReplyDeleteI recommend Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade's Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete. He introduces the concept of "critical hope" as an antidote to hopelessness and contrasts it with other forms of hope, including "hokey hope" (i.e. you just have to try harder to overcome injustice), "mythical hope" (i.e. if Obama or Oprah can overcome injustice, you can, too!), and "hope deferred" (i.e. we're all fucked until we can replace the entire system). Critical hope, on the other hand, is about acknowledging the injustices of the system and working collectively to challenge those injustices, even in the smallest of ways.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with the idea that we have to instill in kids the knowledge that they have the ability to change and question the world around them, that not everything in the world is black and white and that they have agency. They don't have to agree and that its important that they don't take things at face value, that they ruminate and do research on these things. This makes me think back to school when was first getting into politics and looking at the world around me, and seeing what others had to say.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and it reminds me of when I switched schools from Mexico back to the US. Both systems felt very different, and I felt a lot like I was outside both groups. I tend to think of these experiences a lot to think about ways so everyone can feel included and just. It becomes very difficult to execute, though, because we tend to not be perfect. As teachers, I think the best plan of action is to highlight the inequality among our students, and as a group, we may be able to reduce it with our thought-out solutions. Classrooms are definitely political even when attempting to not do so. Your post helped me reflect a lot on my experiences too!
ReplyDeleteI like your point about how teachers can help students understand that they have the power to create change. I agree that history should teach students about problems in society but also show them that things can get better. I think this is important because it can help students feel like they can make a difference in the world
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