Commentonat least 3 Classmates’Posts (approximately  150 -300 words each)§

– comment must address the R2R prompt and your classmate’s response substantively; if you agree or disagree, provide reasoning and rational evidence from the readings to support your position

– build on the ideas of what your classmate has written and dig deeper into the ideas 

– support your views through research you have read or through your personal and/or professional experiences§demonstrate a logical progression of ideas 

– comments need to be thoughtful and substantive; not gratuitous comments like “this was a good post” or simply that “you agree”. Simply congratulating the writer on their astute insights is insufficient.

– cite the readings in your response by using proper APA Style format and conventions. 

classmate 1

Reality pedagogy is an approach to teaching that build upon culturally relevant and critical pedagogy. In reality pedagogy, teachers are not just stopping at ways to address challenges within urban schools that focus on academic deficiencies, instead teachers and students are supported in improving educational experiences. In this type of pedagogy schools and teachers are looking past what is given; the curriculum, norms, etc, in an effort to bring students life experiences into the classroom. Students and teachers spend time discussion inequalities students feel in and out of the classroom. More importantly, in this dialogue, teachers are being forced to put themselves in the shoes of their students and identify with their experiences, even if these are not experiences they have been through themselves. Oliver (2005) refers to these dialogues as teachers bearing witness to their students (Emdin, 2011). 

Edmin discusses the five C’s of Reality Pedagogy as being cogenerative dialogue (cogens), co-teaching, cosmopolitanism, contexts and content. 

• Cogenerative dialogue: Structured to emulate ways of urban black communicate when they are engaged in aspect of urban cultures (hiphop), this is referred to as cyphers. These dialogues are intended for teachers and students to discuss the classroom and ways to improve it. No one is the leader of the discussion, instead, everyone participates in hopes of creating a better learning environment for all.
• Co-teaching – This refers to students and teachers co-teaching together. Students learn the content and are given the opportunity to teach the class. This allows students to be active participants in the classroom along with teachers showing they believe students can be experts as well. 
• Cosmopolitanism: Students have a role in how the classroom operates. This allows students to make a connection with the classroom. They are able to determine norms and behaviors that exist in their lives outside of the classroom. 
• Context: This is where community is seen as part of the classroom. Teachers need to understand the background of their students in order to properly communicate with them. 
• Content: This is where the teacher is willing to share the limitations in their content knowledge with students. 

In the article “The Silenced Dialogue”, Delpit breaks down the culture of powers and its effects on teaching and learning. She discusses the five aspects of the culture of power; 

• Issues of power are enacted in the classroom. This could mean the power of the teacher over their students, the text books company over the curriculum, the power of the state to determine which standards need to be met year after year and the power of one group to determine another’s intelligence.
• There are codes and rules for participating in power: these codes and rules relate to forms, communicative strategies and presentation of self. They determine how people talk, dress and interact.
• The rules of the culture of power are reflective of the culture of those who have power. This explains why children of lower income homes do not succeed at the rates of their middle and upper class peers. This is because the culture of school is based on the culture of upper  and middle class. 
• If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring that culture easier. 
• Those with power are frequently less aware; or least willing to acknowledge its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. 

In Delpits article she explains how most black educators feel that they are silenced by their white colleagues. Many of the educators gave examples of how when they spoke to their colleagues, they felt as though it did not matter what they said, or how much evidence they had, they were simply stuck with their own ideologies. An educators our ideologies determine how our classrooms run and function. Gorski puts it best by saying; “our understanding of the problem drives the solutions we are capable of seeing”. There are two types of ideologies that reflect on their statement. In the deficit ideology, it is believed that people experience poverty are the cause of their education outcome disparities. People who believe in this ideology believe that those experiencing poverty are the problem. It is their attitudes and beliefs that have brought them to this place. Payne (2005) states, “ people experiencing poverty are ineffective communicators, promiscuous, violet, crimally oriented, addiction prone, and spiritually underdeveloped. It is also the belief that people in poverty to not value education; one way to explain this is lack of parent involvement in school events, or excessive absences of students in poverty. Another ideology is the structural ideology. In this ideology, educators understand that the outcome of educational disparities is caused by structural barriers. Furthermore, the purposeful outcome of the inequitable distributions of opportunity in and out of school. This could be as simple as understanding that students and families may not participate in school events because they are unable to find transportation. 

This week’s readings have shed light on many of the issues our youth; especially those in urban areas, minorities and those experiencing poverty feel everyday. From my standpoint, it is very heartbreaking that in the year 2019, we still need to remind educators to consider the backgrounds of their students and how they affect their day to day. This is especially true for the price on ideology. It shouldn’t be a possibility for someone with the deficit ideology to become an educator. This is troubling in so many ways. A teacher should be understanding, caring and accommodating before they are a provider of knowledge. Parents and caregivers trust that they are sending their children to school to be respected and above all understood. I truly appreciate the 5 C’s in reality pedagogy. Co-teaching is one that I will definitely be utilizing more within my classroom as it allows students an opportunity to feel empowered in the classroom. 

classmate 2

Charlie Brown points out this problematic and negative perspective on basis of inequity in Education in America or “culture of power”.  There are certainly inequities particularly in teaching youth of color.  However, transformation will not automatically happen.  It requires systemic change with consideration in not only culturally relevant pedagogy but also “reality pedagogy”. Christopher Edmin suggests five strategies called the 5 Cs that practically provide educators of urban black youth in the field of science what “reality pedagogy” should look like. “As researchers express their concerns about the achievement gaps between black students and their counterparts from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, they consistently report the low achievement of black youth” (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2006, 2009).  Edmin suggests with implementation of the first 2 Cs cogens and co-teaching, “teachers must come to classroom with the willingness to listen to students and an acceptance that the teacher is the content expert while students are the content delivery experts”. The other 3 Cs cosmopolitanism, context, and content requires “teachers must be willing to loosen existing classroom structures to allow students to enact behaviors that may not be usually accepted in the classrooms”. I think these suggestions are helpful in teaching most students not just students of color. My Mexican students have this strong appreciation as a culture in working together as community of learners, and are very receptive in cooperation as team of learners. 

The most pressing issue in educating youth of color is “The Silenced Dialogue”. Lisa Delpit explains her struggles in trying to communicate with white people and not being heard. She states the reason for this communication block, and further offers an analysis. “Ethnographic analysis” (identifying and giving voice to alternate world views) is her suggestion on what can be done? In addition, Delpit talks about “The culture of Power”, and “when acknowledging and expressing power, one tends toward explicitness i.e. yelling at a kid to turn that radio down. Also, when de-emphasizing power, there is move toward indirect communication. There has been debates whether direct instruction (Distar) is a better approach as opposed to “child centered, whole language, and process approach”. “But beyond the general caveat, and despite my or others’ personal preferences, there is little research data supporting the major tenets of process approaches over other forms of literacy instruction, and virtually no evidence that such approaches are more efficacious for children of color” (Siddle, 1986). Delpit makes a point that two qualifiers are necessary to empower the students. One is the teacher can not be the only expert in the classroom, and merely adopting direct instruction is not the answer. 

Everything in life seems to be relative. In Delpit’s article, a black student recalled her former teacher as mean, but meanness to him meant his teacher had power and was able to push him to do well. “The liberal perspective of the negativity authoritarian” does not hold up in his case. A good teacher recognizes “different attitudes and different cultural groups about which characteristics make for a good teacher” (Delpit, 1988).  In final thoughts, I now believe that pretending that gate keeping points don’t exist is doing our students injustice, and transformation happens by recognizing culture of power. Most importantly, “each cultural group should have the right to maintain its own language style” (Delpit, 1988).

classmate 3 

The “culture of power” represents a set of values, beliefs, ways of acting and being that for sociopolitical reasons, unfairly and unevenly elevate groups of people – mostly white, upper and middle class, male and heterosexual – to positions where they have more control over money, people, and societal values than their non-culture-of-power peers . The separation of people through these arbitrary marker results in a tiered society where set rules and ideological standpoints result in barriers for those not part of the culture of power. These barriers are a product of human invention, yet because they are legitimized by a caste-oriented society are often accepted as normal. (Barton, A.C. & Yang, K.) Delpit describes the “culture of power” in schools as having five aspects: 

1. Issues of power are enacted in classrooms, 
2. There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power,” 
3. The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power,
4. For those who are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier, 
5. Those with power are frequently least aware of, or least willing to acknowledge, its existence, and those with less power are often most aware of its existence. 

Delpit (1988) argues that without making the rules for the culture of power explicit, those who are not familiar with the culture of power will lack opportunities for upward mobility, be perceived as deficient, inferior, or disadvantaged, and be viewed as the cause of society’s problems.

Reality Pedagogy, like CRP focuses on the cultural understandings of students within a particular social space. It functions to develop student’s consciousness about the sociopolitical factors that affect their teaching and learning. From Critical Pedagogy, Reality Pedagogy picks up a focus on providing students and teachers with opportunities to discuss in school the inequities students experience both within and beyond the classroom. RP aligns to the major themes of CP by moving teachers to engage in dialogues with black youth about the ways they have been denied full participation in society and the science classroom. With RP, teachers identify with and make connections to the experiences of oppressed youth despite the fact that teachers may not have experienced the same things as their students.

In order to enact Real Pedagogy, there are five steps that teachers and students must engage in together. The five steps support both teaching and learning and transform the experiences of both the teachers and the students. The five steps, or five C’s are: Cogenerative Dialogues, Coteaching, Cosmopolitanism, Context and Content.

I enjoyed reading all the readings this week, they were very real and thought-provoking readings. But, Why Teachers With “Savior Complexes” Are Getting It All Wrong, really brought out some of the thoughts I’ve already had. First off, I have never heard that term “savior complexes” before, but I have actually thought that was what some teachers were trying to do. When I started my current job in River Rouge, there were more white teachers than black with predominantly all black students. They had been working in the district for close to 20(and some more years) and that did not bother me. But after a while, the conversations or comments some would make from time to time often offended me and made me think they were there because they were doing these black kids a favor because they are the ones who need help. So that term was very interesting to me. Also, I love the part about him saying that we hear teachers say all the time, “we have to meet students where they are at”. And that is true, however, most of them are referring to academically, and not culturally and that is such a big thing. Like we discussed last week, as teachers it is imperative that we know and understand all of our students. In what ways can we reach/teach them on their level from their backgrounds and experiences? Their likes and interests? So, for him to reach out to rappers, not just any rappers, but rappers who have had the same experiences and overcome some of the same barriers that these children are facing is just awesome. The rappers are not saying anything different than the teachers have not already said a thousand times, but their delivery makes it exciting and it allows for a connection to made between them and what they are learning. Not all of us have the connection to famous people, however, we can spend time finding videos, music, poems and perhaps even movies that can help teach our black youth in a way that may interest them.