Week 2: Assignment A- Delpit Other People’s Children

Week 2: Assignment A-Delpit Other People’s Children

Delpit suggests that miscommunication attributes to academic failure of children of color in the classroom when taught by white teachers.  Academic failure is the result of not only a power dynamic but an imbalance of that dynamic. Through investigation, immersion and reflection, Delpit believes there to be a theme imbedded in the classroom when the teacher exerts power over students of color during instruction. She goes on to conclude that exertion of such power leads to the miscommunication between the teacher and students. She identifies the theme as “the culture of power.” She goes on to elaborate on five aspects of power as the basis for her presentation. The five aspects are:

• Issues of power are enacted in the classroom
• There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is there is a “culture of power.”
• The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of culture of those who have power.
• If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of the         culture makes acquiring power easier.
• Those with power are frequently less aware of-or least willing to acknowledge its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. 

Key Point:

Teachers must become ethnographers. In doing so teachers may be able to collect qualitative data. Collection of such data helps teachers to identify and understand the cultural and social behaviors of their students. Once the behaviors are identified the teacher is better equipped to break out of the process or skills boxes and to communicate clearly and explicitly the rules and codes of power that exists across cultures. Blending process and skills can assist students to actively learn by power acquisition and establish their own voice. That voice can be heard in the classroom as well as in society. 

The below process graphic is an example how teachers may use three methods of data collection while attempting to identify qualitative cultural data of their students.  Once the process of data collection is complete these methods can be utilized as a bridge or pathway to the central goal of ethnographic data and provide the teacher with awareness of their cultural power and the possible disconnect or miscommunication based on cultural differences between the teacher and the students who do not possess the power.