1 Celebrating Diversity Is Not Enough: Finding Authentic Pathways to Equity By Paul C. Gorski February 2010.

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Celebrating Diversity Is Not Celebrating Diversity Is Not Enough: Finding Authentic Enough: Finding Authentic

Pathways to EquityPathways to Equity

By Paul C. Gorski By Paul C. Gorski

February 2010February 2010

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Initial ReflectionInitial Reflection

Fight the PowerFight the PowerVSVS

Gimme ShelterGimme Shelter

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AgendaAgenda

1. Conceptualizing “Equity”

2. Where We Get Stuck

3. Shifts of Consciousness for Getting Un-Stuck

4. Principles of Equitable Practice

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Primary ArgumentsPrimary Arguments

1. Practicing authentic equity requires shifts in consciousness which inform shifts in practice

2. Many common “equity” practices result in more inequity

3. There is something we can do about it

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Warning!!!Warning!!!

I do not have any of the following:

• “The” equity formula or workbook,

• A tidy set of activities for teachers to implement in their classrooms tomorrow, or

• A single book or poster or video that will make any school “equitable.”

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However…However…

I do have:

• A framework for thinking complexly and critically about educational equity,

• Some difficult, sometimes even uncomfortable, questions about what is and what could be in education.

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Where We Are TodayWhere We Are Today

• Gross inequities exist in our schools

– And these inequities, and the resulting achievement gap, will not be eliminated by Taco Night, the International Fair, or other activities that, however fun, do not address inequities head-on

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Gross InequitiesGross Inequities

Compared with low-poverty U.S. schools, high-poverty U.S. schools have:

• More teachers teaching in areas outside their certification subjects;

• More serious teacher turnover problems;• More teacher vacancies;• Larger numbers of substitute teachers;• More dirty or inoperative bathrooms;

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Gross Inequities Gross Inequities • More evidence of vermin such as

cockroaches and rats;

• Insufficient classroom materials

• Less rigorous curricula;

• Fewer experienced teachers;

• Lower teacher salaries;

• Larger class sizes; and

• Less funding.

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Seriously, I’m Not Making This Up!Seriously, I’m Not Making This Up!

Barton, P.E. (2004). Why does the gap persist? Educational Leadership 62(3), 8-13.

Barton, P.E. (2003). Parsing the achievement gap: Baselines for tracking progress. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Carey, K. (2005). The funding gap 2004: Many states still shortchange low-income and minority students. Washington, D.C.: The Education Trust.

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (2004). Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education: A two-tiered education system. Washington, D.C.: Author.

Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Can We Solve This By… Can We Solve This By… • Studying a fictitious “culture of poverty”?

• Hosting parenting workshops for low-income families?

• Instituting Professional Learning Communities?

• Developing a service learning program for students?

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Where We Are Today Pt. II Where We Are Today Pt. II

“I’m experiencing racism here and nobody’s doing anything about it!”

--Student of Color During Focus Group

“Here at XYZ School, we need to celebrate the joys of diversity!”

--Principal of the Same School

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So What Is This About? So What Is This About?

So this is about getting authentic.

This is about being a champion of justice in our own spheres of influence.

How do we do that..?

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Where We Get StuckWhere We Get Stuck

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Changing Hearts, Not PoliciesChanging Hearts, Not Policies

• Focus exclusively on human relations and interpersonal dynamics (symptoms)

• Mix-It-Up Lunch: nice program, not equity

• Lack of focus on visionary leadership, policy, and accountability

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Universal ValidationUniversal Validation

• Equity is not about validating all perspectives (heterosexism, for instance)

• In fact, sometimes equity is not even democratic

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Equity Issues—Cultural Equity Issues—Cultural SolutionsSolutions

• Trying to address equity issues, such as racial or class inequity with cultural programming, such as multicultural festivals or learning about the “culture of poverty”

• Taco Night is fun, but it is not equity

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Whitewashing the DialogWhitewashing the Dialog

• Candy-coating the conversation to be consumable to privileged audiences

• “Change takes time,” “Start where they are”

• “We don’t want to make anybody too uncomfortable…” (Um, yes we do!)

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Succumbing to Deficit IdeologySuccumbing to Deficit Ideology

• Defining the “problem” of inequity and the solutions to inequity in reference to assumed deficiencies within disenfranchised communities

– For example, attempting to “fix” the economic achievement gap (which is really an opportunity gap) by fixing low-income people

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Ruby Payne SyndromeRuby Payne Syndrome

• Latching onto ideas and models of hot new voices without critical analysis of their work

• Professional development focused more on entertainment value than educational value

• Illustrates need for consciousness: this wouldn’t happen in most other fields

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Regressive ProgrammingRegressive Programming

• Minimizing integration and equity to co- or extra-curricular programming

• Student clubs

• Service learning that maintains social and political hierarchies

• Dances, food fairs, cultural plunges, arts and crafts

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Missing the ImplicitMissing the Implicit

• Most inequity is buried in implicit assumptions and the hidden curriculum

• Examples: out-of-class interactions (race); compliments (gender)

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Getting Un-Stuck: Critical Getting Un-Stuck: Critical Shifts of ConsciousnessShifts of Consciousness

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It’s Equity or It’s InequityIt’s Equity or It’s Inequity

Shift #1

I must acknowledge that education equity is about creating equitable learning environments for all students, so I must be against all inequity.

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Beyond the InterpersonalBeyond the Interpersonal

Shift #2

I must understand inequities as systemic and not just individual acts (and what this means in the context of my classroom)– Doesn’t mean I’m individually responsible for

eliminating global poverty, that that I need to understand class inequity in schools within the context of larger economic injustice

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More than Celebrating DiversityMore than Celebrating Diversity

Shift #3

I must transcend the idea of equity as “learning about other cultures” and “celebrating diversity”

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Spending Institutional LikeabilitySpending Institutional Likeability

Shift #4

I must be willing to discomfort and unsettle myself and my colleagues

• Institutional likeability

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From Equality to EquityFrom Equality to Equity

Shift #5

I must shift from an equality orientation toward multiculturalism to an equity orientation

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Comprehensive EquityComprehensive Equity

Shift #6

I must understand equitable education and integration as a comprehensive approach, not additional activities or slight shifts in an otherwise monocultural school or classroom climate

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Seeing the HiddenSeeing the Hidden

Shift #7

I must be able to see the hidden or implicit curriculum as clearly as the explicit curriculum

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Rejecting Deficit IdeologyRejecting Deficit Ideology

Shift #8

I must reject deficit theory. And I must never, under any circumstance, make an assumption about any student, parent, or colleague based on a single dimension of their identity

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Redirecting ResourcesRedirecting Resources

Shift #9

I must never put resources for eliminating inequity into cultural programming

* * *

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Action Principles for Action Principles for Equitable PracticeEquitable Practice

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Never EssentializeNever Essentialize

There is no set of curricular or pedagogical practices that work for all members of any specific group of students.

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Start with MyselfStart with Myself

I cannot be of service to any movement for equity if I am unwilling to examine my own biases and socialization.

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Fight for the DisenfranchisedFight for the Disenfranchised

Fight to ensure students of color and low-income students are not placed unfairly into lower academic tracks.

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Better Yet…Better Yet…

Eliminate tracking altogether.

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Know the ComplexitiesKnow the Complexities

Remember, it’s about more than race and class: home language, (dis)ability, sexual orientation…

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Each One Teach OneEach One Teach One

Teach students about racism, poverty, homophobia, and other atrocities, and how they operate in schools. (Yes, they are ready for these conversations.)

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Institute Real ChangeInstitute Real Change

For example, make family involvement more accessible to low-income families and families with home languages other than English.

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Transcend Dialogic SurfaceTranscend Dialogic Surface

Dialog is critical in order to prepare us for action. Dialog without action is a waste of time and resources.

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Refuse the Master’s LanguageRefuse the Master’s Language

“Achievement” or “opportunity” gap?

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To Whose Benefit?To Whose Benefit?

The best way to measure any policy or practice decision is to ask, and answer honestly, one simple question: To whose benefit?

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Finally & Most ImportantlyFinally & Most Importantly

Empower the equity advocates, who too often feel particularly disempowered.

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A Final Reflection: A Final Reflection: The CorridorThe Corridor

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Another Final Reflection: Another Final Reflection:

Fight the PowerFight the Power

VsVs

Gimme ShelterGimme Shelter

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Thank you.Thank you.

Paul C. GorskiPaul C. Gorski

[email protected]@edchange.org

http://www.edchange.orghttp://www.edchange.org