Courageous Conversations, Essay Example

I found  the “Courageous Conversations” reading to be very instructive, not only in providing me with a framework to discuss race within the classroom, but also as a means of pointing out some important gaps which need to be addressed with my students.  My students are diverse, but not in the sense of being representative of the changing demographics of the United States.  I have students of color and students who are from other countries, but they tend to work very hard to assimilate themselves within their predominantly white peer group.  Our discussions of race tend to be limited to external conversations, by which I mean discussions that focus on stories in the news which discuss aspects of race as opposed to their own personal experiences of race, ethnicity, and any associated discrimination.  I teach English Literature and History, so there are a myriad of opportunities to discuss cultural issues within my curriculum, however, I tend to stick to concrete information about what we’re learning rather than bringing in my students’ personal impressions.  For example, in one of my classes we studied Booker T. Washington’s Up With Slavery as part of our learning module on slavery, but we didn’t really talk about what slavery means in a modern context or how a history of slavery within the United States might affect my students (white and non-white alike).

Most of my reluctance to get involved in deep discussions about race stem from my (misguided) belief that race isn’t an issue for my students.  I teach at a fairly affluent school with a very small student body and many of the issues of intolerance and bullying which seem to pervade bigger inner-city schools seem to not be relevant at our school.  This, of course, is no reason to avoid having ‘courageous conversations’, and I can see now how the four agreements discussed in the article could positively impact my classroom environment.  This is most especially true with “experience discomfort,” something that I’m avoiding by not talking about personal experiences of race in the classroom (Almazan, 2005).  Although our school may be quite tolerant, eventually my students will graduate and enter a world which may not be as supportive and color blind as what they’ve experienced at our high school.  Obviously, I’m not doing them any favors by ignoring the issue, and I intend to engage in some constructive and supportive conversations about race in the near future so that I can encourage my students to speak the truth as they understand it.  I intend to use the “White Privilege” questionnaire with some of my senior students to begin a conversation about race.  However, one thing that worries me (and maybe one of the reasons why I’ve avoided these types of discussions with my students) is statement number 13 on the questionnaire:  “I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group” (Almazan, 2005).  I worry that when we have these conversations, everyone in the class will turn to my few non-white students as the ‘authority’ on racism.  However, I suppose this will be another learning opportunity, and I know that it’s up to me to set the tone of our discussion and ensure that my non-white students don’t feel additional pressure to contribute to the conversation by virtue of their ethnicity alone.

In terms of addressing culture gaps in parent-teacher conferences, I think one of the most important steps is to not ignore race altogether.  It can be easy to become complacent simply because you work or live in an environment which doesn’t seem to have a lot of race issues.  However, just because my students’ parents seem to be pretty well assimilated doesn’t meant that I should automatically assume that race isn’t an issue for them or that it may not affect the dynamics of our conferences.  As Epstein (1994) points out, it’s critical to make the effort to learn about a student’s background and family situation (in a non-intrusive way) to facilitate open and honest conversations during parent/teacher conferences.

Cross-cultural literacy learning can be encouraged by finding common ground between teachers, students, and parents.  On the teacher’s part, this involves developing a curriculum that supports all cultures that are represented in the classroom.  For example, parents may become more engaged with the books their children are reading if they have cultural resonance for them and if they seem to be coming from a perspective which does more than just regurgitate the power structures of white mainstream culture.  One way to encourage parents to take an active role in their children’s literacy may be to seek input and feedback from parents when preparing reading lists for students.  This is a strategy that I would like to try at my school, but I know that I’ll encounter some barriers because a number of my parents (especially those with non-white backgrounds) tend to cede to my authority as a teacher.  This means they would be likely to tell me to choose the books that I think will help their children get better grades and get into a good college since I’m the one who knows best about these things.  Thus, I’ll have to come up with a strategy to show them how valuable their own experiences and opinions on reading are to improving the curriculum and my students’ learning opportunities.

References

Almazan, J. (2005). Courageous conversations and culturally relevant teaching. Pacific Educational Group.

Epstein, J.L. (1994). Theory to practice: School and family partnerships lead to school improvement and student success. School, family, and community interactions: A view from the firing lines. Retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/famncomm/pa300.htm