Standard 1-Advocacy for Social Justice

Maria Sideri
EDU 448 Elementary Education Portfolio Development
Fall 2011
Wheelock College Standards for Educator Preparation Programs

Standard 1. Advocacy for Social Justice

Educators who embrace a social justice perspective are attentive to inequalities associated with race, social class, gender, language, and other social categories. They consciously look for alternatives to established educational practices that support the learning, development, and academic achievement of children whose backgrounds place them outside of the dominant culture. They employ multicultural, anti-racist, anti-bias educational practices that foster deep engagement in learning and high academic achievement among all of the nation’s children.

1.1 Attentive to inequalities associated with race, social class, gender, language, and other social categories.
1.2 Consciously looks for alternatives to established educational practices that support the learning, development, and academic achievement of children whose backgrounds place them outside the dominant culture.
1.3 Employ multicultural, anti-racist, anti-bias educational practices that foster deep engagement in learning and high academic achievement.


Having the opportunity to be placed in Cambridge, MA for my practicum was a wonderful opportunity for me to experience. One of the main reasons why my practicum experience was so special was because of the diverse environment I was exposed to in the classroom I was working in and in the school culture that made up Graham and Parks Alternative Public School. The children in my classroom during my practicum came from all different backgrounds and spoke many different languages such as Hebrew, Creole, Chinese, Japanese and Amharic. They also represented a wide range of socio economic groups. Being attentive to inequalities associated with race, social class, gender, language, and other social categories is one of the most important aspects of teaching. In order to meet the diverse needs of all students, it is essential for teachers to understand these differences to ensure social justice within the classroom. Social justice within the classroom is important, because it helps to create equity within the context of a positive, warm, and comfortable environment where students feel respected and safe.

I believe that I was attentive to inequalities associated with race, social class, gender and language. Every day that I was in my practicum, I tried to bring all of the students together in some way and make sure they interacted with all members of the classroom. One student in particular that I found was having difficulty interacting and communicating with the other students was an English language learner who is in first grade. In kindergarten, she was placed in a Sheltered English Immersion classroom so experiencing an inclusive classroom with many more students was something that was definitely new to her. Therefore, because of her language barrier, she appeared to be disconnected with the other students in the classroom, even the other English Language Learners. In a course I was taking during my practicum, I read the article, “What Early Childhood Educators Need to Know: Developing Effective Programs for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Children and Families,” by Patton Tabors (1998) in which I gained new insights on how to have this student begin to communicate with the other students. Tabors (1998) suggested that, “A buddy-system setup can pair an outgoing English-speaking child with a second-language learner. Engineering the seating arrangement at snack or lunch, so that English-speaking children and a second language learner are seating together, will help the child get into social contact more quickly” (p.9).I took this advice and practiced it in my practicum to see if I could create a better learning experience for this student in the sense that even though she is an English language learner, she still needs the same social interactions with her classmates in order to make her feel safe and comfortable in the classroom environment. During morning meeting, I deliberately placed this student with an outgoing English speaker who would encourage her to participate in the discussion. After I placed her with this particular outgoing student, I made sure in group lessons that she also worked with this student. I have included the seating chart I arranged for this student in my differentiated instruction notes that accompany my lesson plans. Also, I hang the seating chart in the classroom to make sure I do not forget partners and make sure I place this student with the right student. This seating chart is shown in artifact 1.1.

In addition to being attentive to individual student’s needs associated with language specifically, I also consciously look for alternatives to established educational practices that support the learning, development, and academic achievement of children whose backgrounds place them outside the dominant culture. One student in particular that I established educational practices for to support his learning was a student who was on an IEP for reading and writing. He had difficulty with reading, comprehension, and spelling but had great strength in oral speech when given the opportunity. At the end of Writer’s Workshop, students would have the opportunity to share their writing. This student never shared his writing, so I asked him if he wanted to. He said he didn’t know, so I suggested that maybe we could practice reading his writing together for 10 minutes before he shared. After practicing what was read for those 10 minutes, this student seemed to memorize his writing, and felt more comfortable as well as gained confidence with sharing. After he shared once, every day at the end of Writer’s Workshop he would ask me to practice with him before he would raise his hand to share. I believe this is an example of how I supported one student’s learning through an educational practice at the end of Writer’s Workshop. An example of writing that this student and I practiced before sharing is shown through artifact 1.2.

Lastly, I believe that I employ multicultural, anti-racist, anti-bias educational practices that foster deep engagement in learning and high academic achievement. Lisa Delpit (1996) discusses cultural conflicts that occur inside classrooms and challenges associated with issues of social justice. She explains in Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom that, “If we do not have some knowledge of children’s lives outside of the realms of paper-and-pencil work, and even outside of their classrooms, then we cannot know their strengths. Not knowing students’ strengths leads to our ‘teaching down’ to children from communities culturally different from that of the teachers in the school. Because teachers do not want to tax what they believe to be these students’ lower abilities, they end up teaching less when, in actuality, these students need more of what school has to offer” (p.173). Taking Delpit’s advice, I truly tried to set high standards during my practicum for all students. There was one student in particular that came from a low socio economic group who did not have a very secure home life. Instead of excusing his lack of completed homework, I worked with him to complete it together and would tell him that I needed a study partner, and wanted him to study with me. Therefore, I’d bring my own homework and we would do our homework together one day a week during the read aloud period. An example of the homework that I completed with him is shown through artifact 1.3. Completing homework with this student made him feel that homework was something that needs to be completed, and can be completed in a fun way with a friend, or in our case, a student teacher. Also, because his homework was being completed during school hours, it relieved his pressure of having to complete it at home where his home life was very unstable. I believe this is a small but important example of an anti-biased educational practice that fosters high academic achievement in a positive way.

Overall, social justice is something that is very important to me and will be undoubtedly implemented in my future classroom. It is my responsibility as a teacher to give all children what they need to succeed and that means that some students will need different approaches, but all will be held to the same high standard.

References

Delpit, L. (1996) Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The New Press.

Tabors, P. (1998) What early childhood educators need to know: developing effective programsfor linguistically and culturally diverse children and families. National Associational forthe Education of Young Children. Paul H. Brookes Publishing, Baltimore, MD.