Week 6: Assignment B- Teaching at the Intersections and 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally

Teaching at the Intersections and 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally 

5 Tips for Being a Good Ally

The behaviors surrounding being a good ally seems so easy. As described by the video, it can be done so easily in 5 ways.  I am pretty sure being a good ally takes practice, awareness and sometimes courage. These 5 easy tips for me, brought almost all the content/topics we have discussed in class into one space. I will remark on a couple of those tips.

 

To understand privilege was something that I didn’t have practice doing until I sat in my seat for the first time in FNED 502.  One easy tool is a privilege wheel, one can insert themselves into privilege spokes of the wheel and identify certain privilege spoke where they don’t belong. This exercise allows an individual to form their own privilege identity.  I strongly believe, as the video stated, that one must understand their own privilege and acknowledge experiences of others. Allan Johnson articulates this in his article Power, Privilege and Difference. Johnson argues, “All of us are the problem. There is no way to avoid that as long as we live in the world. But we could also make ourselves part of the solution only if we knew how.” He goes on further to say that “we all learn from our experiences, but we must investigate the experiences of others.” His words are describing Tip 1. Check your privilege, consider those who don’t have the same privileges as you and acknowledge those privileges and experiences. 

Tip 3 Speak up, not over reminded me of some elements discussed by German Lopez and his work All Lives Matter. “It’s a common conversation these days: One person says, “Black lives matter.” Then another responds, “No, all lives matter.”  This exchange is an example of speaking over and not speaking up.  Click the link below for some tips on speaking up.

https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/speak-up/six-steps-to-speak-up

Teaching at the Intersections

Teaching At The Intersections argues that a teacher who takes the time to uncover and acknowledge the depth of a students’ identity is then able to support their students as individuals. “An educator must see the students’ situation through an intersectional lens: recognizing that race-, gender- and class-related circumstances are contributing to her achievement issues.  The intersectionality framework assists one to connect the influence of racism, of sexism, other modes of discrimination, where they come together (intersection) and “create sometimes unique circumstances, obstacles, barriers for people who are subject to all of those things.” 

When many identities intersect, a student may become oppressed in the ability to achieve. At times students are ill equipped to navigate their own identity. 

A powerful quote from a teacher featured in the article, “Everything in a classroom is dictated by me. Every day kids enter class, there’s an opportunity for them to be empowered or oppressed.”  The quote helped me to reinforce Lisa Delpit’s article Other People’s Children. In the article, Delpit explain that 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.  When students are encouraged to assert their voice, is the opposite of oppression. 

Week 5: Assignment B- Rodriguez, Collier and Teaching Bilinguals Even If You aren't One

 

Wow, wow, wow....this piece by Rodriguez caused me to experience several emotions.  The opening paragraphs were insightful and profound as Rodriguez recalls his experiences as a first grader learning English. I was angry how he described the teachers who searched him out and addressed him directly, frowning at him until he offered a quiet, mumbled answer...I could picture the scenario as I read along.  As a youngster was being forced to assume a public identity as an English speaker.  It soothed me as Rodriguez went on to discuss that during his early years of learning he began to note the differences between classroom and home language. He recognized how classroom language lacked self-expression.  At this point my mood was lifting, and I assumed the piece was taking a turn and would become up-lifting. I was wrong.........Again I experienced feelings of anger, the teachers visited his home to basically scold his parents for speaking Spanish at home and requested that the parents encourage all three of their children to speak English at home, I was outraged!! Because the Rodriguez' wanted their children to be successful in school thy complied and the household over time, became English speaking. Rodriguez goes on to explain changes in family dynamics, individual personality changes of his family members and the lack of intimacy between them as a family....I was heartbroken for this family.  

After reading Aria I looked around on-line. I was intrigued to find so much literature and research on language and identity. I have included a link to an interesting read. Language and Identity: the construct of the self  https://www.byarcadia.org/post/interaction-between-language-and-society-101-language-and-identity Important points in this reading made me think about Richard Rodriguez. 

• Family plays the most important role in the development of a child’s linguistic skills. These skills are          influenced by the positive verbal input children receive from their parents in their home environment 

• According to psychologist Catherine Snow (1972), the speech children hear spoken around them is            their sole source of information about that language (p. 549). 

• As children grow, they learn their mother tongue – their first language – which gives them the ability          to communicate with their parents

• By transmitting speech skills targeted to develop their own form of communication, parents play a              critical role in their children's language development

• Children are largely exposed to various kinds of speech in a home environment. This process makes          them perceptive to everything and, by nature, children are encouraged to imitate their parents’                    behavior, particularly in speech

• Home language has a significant impact on the personality and psychological development of an                individual: it shapes their distinct identity through childhood, when young speakers are most closely          connected with their parents

I am encouraged to know that currently the above points are recognized and encouraged in some schools that create a culture of translanguage and are supporting emergent bilinguals. 

Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One- Episodes 1-5

The 5 short videos were great! After I watched all 5, I immediately thought about Delpit’s work Other Peoples Children. Delpit talks about power in the classroom and power of the teacher. A quote from Delpit, “some have added that the liberal educators believe themselves to be operating with good intentions, but that these good intentions are only conscious delusions about their unconscious true motives.” (pg. 29) The context of the quote is that educators are operating in a position of power over disadvantaged students. Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One depicts just the opposite. The educators showcased in each episode have evolved their classroom culture to incorporate emerging bilinguals home language into the learning model. As these educators are teaching English, they themselves are learning. They have dismissed a culture of power that is possessed only by the educator and have disbursed the power to everyone equally which creates a neutral teaching and learning environment/culture.  I especially liked how in episode 2 the teacher views each students’ culture of language background as an asset to learning and celebrates language as a tool, not as an impediment. 

Empathy was a common theme in episode 4. The teacher employs the tactic of observation to learn about each student. Both verbal and non-verbal cues allows her the opportunity to check-in with individual students and to construct scaffolding lessons while teaching English based on needs and attention of the students. I found a good article that addresses embedding a culture of empathy in the classroom. https://theschoolfortraining.com/embedding-a-culture-of-empathy-in-language-teaching/

Week 5: Assignment A- Going to School Documentary

Going to School Documentary

This one-hour long documentary was powerful. Although not a contemporary film, I feel it gave me a historical look back at how things were in a Los Angeles school district were incorporating adaptions become or stay compliant with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), or the EHA. The EHA guarantees a free, appropriate public education, or FAPE, to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country.

 Today, in our local school districts students with physical, developmental, and learning needs are for the most part mainstreamed in the classroom. In the film we saw a few examples of how schools at that time were educating students with special needs.  

One school segregated students with physical, developmental and learning needs into one section of the school.  The special education teacher remarked that although the students were getting an education, they were not learning social skills that would allow them to function in mainstream society. Also, that same school was not equip with proper accessible facilities such as entryways into the school. He did remark that there was a beautiful, handicapped bathroom but no direct route for the students to access it.  

Another classroom integrated students into the classroom and had 1:1 aides to supplement learning but the classroom lacked adequate space for adaptive equipotent and proper mobility of the students with special physical needs. 

The best example of incisive education at that time showcased a classroom that appeared to have a low student to teacher ratio, several students with special need were in the class and the students were learning together, side-by-side and student to student mentoring and socialization was happening. That is how I envision an inclusive learning environment. 

After watching the documentary, I did a bit of searching on-line. I came across an organization that supports resiliency in teaching.  Teaching can be difficult and especially when the needs of the classroom increase in numbers and acuity. Click to link to find out more https://resilienteducator.com/

Week 4: Assignment A- RI Laws/Policies and Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC

The Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students is not a new document to me.  Since I have transitioned into the role of school nurse I have had to spend countless hours reviewing RIGLs as they pertain to the school setting. What I like about this document is that the language is plain and within the body of some paragraphs the document refers back the federal laws which provide protection. Protection of the freedom of speech, protection against discrimination and violence, and protection of medical information ,and also, protection of a students' confidential information, to include keeping transgender status private. Prior to reading the guidance in real-time at school, I was not aware that gender identification could be kept confidential from parents or guardians. I'm glad the guidelines were an assigned reading, giving me the opportunity to read them fully.  My comments below address both the guidelines and the Woke Read Alouds video.

As a school nurse, when treating a student we refere to the student by legal name in the student data base and the student is catalogued in our medical data base by their legal name. During the first month as a school nurse I had a teacher rush into the health office with a student as she was shouting " I have a kid with an allergic reaction!!" The teacher was referring to the student as "Ted so and so". I immediately assessed the student who was having a mild allergic reaction, I went to the electronic medical data base and there was NO Ted so and so listed,  but there was WAS a Bridget so and so who had an allergy to certain substances. I quickly realized that the student was transgender and refers to themself  as "Ted". I used date of birth and legal name to identify the student. I treated the non life-threatening allergy and was then able to sit with the student when they were feeling better. I remember reading the guidance and vaguely remember a statement about confidentiality and not being required to reveal transgender status to parents if the student chooses not to. I took the opportunity to ask the student how they would like me to refer to them when I called home to give an update on the allergic reaction and treatment.  The student relayed to me that their parents are not on board with their transgender status and actually get mad and dismiss the student.  I feel like because I had some knowledge about the guidelines I was able to communicate with the parents in a why that kept the student feeling safe.  I did not have such a positive experience when in the height of COVID-19 I was managing at minimum of two-three dozen cases of exposure a day and was on the phone for hours notifying parents of an exposure....I was on the phone with one mom about her daughter, mom kept saying "they" this and "they "that...I could not understand what she was talking about because she only had one student attending my school. I final said (in a frustrated tone) "who are THEY, I am calling you about your daughter and trying to discuss contact tracing for only her!!! Mom laughed and said pronouns of choice are they and them....oh gosh did I look stupid!! So even me, the nurse in the building is still learning! That situation comes to mind often at work. I wish I had a video like the one assigned this week to get my wheels turning and to be more aware.  After I watched the video I continued to watch more and have included a link to another well done video that explains pronouns. Enjoy!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Fh60GEB5E 

Proposal-Teach Out Project

Proposal-Teach Out Final Project

    I have uncovered a unique opportunity to translate Leslie Grinner’s S.C.W.A.M.P. framework into nursing education. Inclusion of the S.C.W.A.M.P. framework within an education module plan for students of nursing can be a powerful and meaningful exercise. This exercise can be operationalized into both the didactic and clinical setting. I propose the teach out project to be delivered in several small lessons over the course of a semester. Lesson delivery will be discussed later in this proposal. 

    Based on the material covered in FNED 502 thus far, an obvious choice for reference is Leslie Grinner’s S.C.W.A.M.P framework.  As I researched to find appropriate reference materials for this project, I came back around to the framework itself.  Grinner has done much work aligning her framework to the multimedia platform, which is detailed in some of her work. I’ve decided to utilize her framework in the setting of healthcare.  All too often patients and families are victims of our dominant ideology which puts those individuals at risk for substandard of or even missed care opportunities (equity and equality) all together in our healthcare system. Supporting literature that I will synthesize and operationalize as part of the teach out will be Allan Johnson’s Privilege, Power and Difference, as mentioned Grinner’s Framework, and data collection/analysis from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the World Health Organization (WHO) that discuss healthcare disparities.  

Lesson Delivery Proposal

1. Introduction lesson to present and familiarize the students to Grinner’s framework

2. Classroom activity: display the elements of dominant ideology as a single element on an individual ppt. slide and have each student add appropriate words to each element that describes the dominant ideology

3.  Provide an in-class opportunity for the students to reminisce and story-tell about a times they have seen a patient experience being a victim of a dominant ideology element

4. Encourage students to evaluate their own interactions with their patients and identify an interaction that could be aligned with an ideology element where the outcome could have been more beneficial to the patient

5. Assist the students to uncover and identify concepts identified as health disparities related to the ideology as well as actual or potential risks to the patient

6. Ask students to write a critical reflective journal to summarize Grinner’s framework, the actual or potential impact on their practice present and future, how they might explain the framework to another individual

Week 4: Assignment B: www.rethinkingschools.org Vol 36, No.1 Fall 2021

https://rethinkingschools.org/issue/volume-36-no-1/

Through the Lens of Those We Love: Uplifting Oral Histories and Finding Common Threads

By Cierra Kaler-Jones

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/through-the-lens-of-those-we-love/

Argument:

Kaler-Jones argues that throughout history schools and classrooms have erased or edited historical events to portray a less than accurate account of certain moments in time and the result is that those events that are obliterated are forgotten and or misrepresented. Therefore, those events are not passed on as accurate or not passed on at all.  She goes on to say that along with forgetting, editing, or omitting history there is the notion of such events being “whitewashed, sanitized versions of history that the privilege dominant narrative are uplifted, and rich legacies of resistance and collective struggle are erased.”  Kaler-Jones discusses the importance of oral histories to resurrect those true, factual, and forgotten stories and to also uncovers common themes such as racism in the eyes of those who experienced social and historical events that are not taught in the classroom today. Her discussion outlines a structured program to install in the classroom that will engage students to be curious about histories that live within their own lineage and to rewrite history textbooks. 

Key Points:

1.Kaler-Jones makes mention of Tulsa’s Greenwood District (Black Wall Street) in her article to assist in strengthening her argument.  I did not have knowledge of her reference, so I did some research. I was directed to the Oklahoma historical society page where there is reference to the Greenwood District.

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=GR024

In the spring of 1921 underlying social and economic tension in Tulsa sparked the worst racial violence in American history. As many as three hundred people lost their lives. Property damage ran into the millions of dollars. The Greenwood District, the thirty-five-square-block-area that comprised the city's entire African American community, lay in ruins. 

Tulsa's African Americans ultimately turned tragedy into triumph. They rebuilt the ravaged Greenwood District, which by 1942 boasted 242 black-owned and black-operated business establishments.

The greenwood district is a perfect example of an event that has been misrepresented, edited, or forgotten by certain groups of individuals.  The full story should be about the success and prosperity of the African Americans living in the Greenwood District but instead most accounts are about its demise.

2.Kaler-Jones engaged a small cohort of Black female students who were members of her dance company. She describes the group as curious about the education that they deserve verses the education that they received. Through formal and informal conversation, she discovered “what could become possible when we viewed the history that lives in our lineage.”  Based on that direct quote she compelled the students to obtain oral history testimonies from their loved ones. Prior to obtaining the testimonies she asked the students what they knew or learned about Black history, particularly in their experiences at school.  The hope was that by merging what the students have already learned with oral history testimonies from loved ones, that although history was often written about them, they could rewrite history to elevate their experiences. I feel that here Kaler-Jones is speaking similarly to that of Lisa Delpit.  Delpit’s work Other People’s Children discusses the culture of power and the reflection of the rules of the culture of power of those who have power.  “Acquisition of the culture of those who are in power is achieved by the children of the middle class. Children from other kinds of families operate within perfectly wonderful and viable cultures that carry the codes and rules of power.” I think this quote is powerful and details what Kaler-Jones is wanting to achieve. 

3.Vivo codes were discovered within the oral history testimonies. One particular code was….racism.  “It wasn’t only individual acts of racism they experienced, but it was also from different institutions like school and the workplace. Also, many of the people we interviewed came from different places, so it was something much bigger than just individual acts of racism they were experiencing.” Alan Johnson spoke about experiences and challenges. He stated in his article Privilege, Power and Difference “we learn from our experiences, but we must investigate others.”  Because his primary goal is to change how people think about issues of difference and privilege, I feel that Kaler-Jones’ discovery of the pervasive vivo cod racism in her work speaks to Johnson’s hope that by hearing, understanding, and acknowledging the experiences of others will propel a changed thought process of those privileged enough to not experience racism. 

Kaler-Jones concluded that “there is a magic in remembering the rich legacies from which we come from. When we begin to uncover the truths of history through the lens of those we love, we can be reminded of the power we hold in being a part of a long continuum of change.”