3: Culturally relevant teaching

Culturally relevant pedagogy is a product of the civil rights movement, and has been found to boost grades and attendance for students labelled 'at-risk'. By 'at-risk', I refer to students who are at-risk of not graduating secondary school. Much discussion has taken place over the concept of culturally relevant pedagogy, but I am in favour of the concept.

Most arguments against culturally responsive pedagogy revolve around the idea that it is a form of segregation. I disagree with this thinking, as culturally responsive pedagogy is just another way to teach and engage students in thinking about concepts using concepts that reflect the students' culture and ways of thinking. It also allows students to see themselves in the curriculum. As most textbooks and policy is created by White people, our education system typically approaches teaching and acquisition of skills and knowledge from a White person's perspective, ignoring contributions and ways of thinking of non-Whites.

There are a couple Africentric schools in Toronto, where at first many felt it was unnecessary and 'racist' as it was seen as segregation. What most people did not understand though, was that these schools were open to anyone, not specifically Black students. Students are more engaged, doing better in courses, attendance has improved.

Culturally relevant pedagogy is important and required so that all students experience success. It is easier said than done though. Teaching must be done in such a way that does not stereotype any groups, does not make any student feel marginalized, shows respect to students' divers cultural background, and emphasize social justice.

-Ragu

Syllabus Explorer

Here I am talking about the transparency in my previous post, and - vois la - the Syllabus Explorer for sharing the academic blueprints. It is a great idea: all that metadata definitely can be used for further research. What has caught my eye though is that the most required readings (classic, yes) are pretty eurothentric. No works by the ancient Chinese, Arabic, or other philosophers are present in the list.

I also question the existence of the invisible articles. Do we really use articles without citing them?  Then I ask myself: do we have a hidden curriculum in higher education as well? The journals performance metrics are just like trending posts in social media. Probably necessary to know of them to stay on top of the current things, but I wonder about authenticity and uniqueness. There are stories of researchers who could not get published because their works did not fit into any category. Again, journals too have to sell and hold that benchmark.

Evgeniya (I am back)

AA and the circle

Quite an interesting article raising good questions about professionalism, conduct, and success. Authors were quite right to notice that aggressive people take over not only in business, but also in academia. Does it mean that academia is closer to business than before?

For AA to be successful, the rigid power structure and hierarchical relations have to be present; in fact so rigid, that people on the lower stand would not be able to defend themselves from the bullying. Does it mean that academia is such a place?

I guess a lot depends on the institution. How it treats bullies, how transparent are the relations, what corporate, or in this case academic, culture it supports.

 

Evgeniya

seems I am back

Blog #1

At this late stage in my program, I would like to take a look back at some of my previously written essays. The first paper I wrote was a research proposal and quite frankly I wasn’t sure I could produce a paper that was academically up to par. The theoretical frameworks that I would be required to analyse, research and reflect upon in my final written assignment seemed impossible at the time.

My paper focused on teaching aboriginal students in my own community. The desire was to find a better way of teaching them English as a second language without diminishing their first language in the process. My research lead me to believe in the possibility of changing the way in which I, we, could teach aboriginal students without them losing their culture, language or identity. The purpose of my study was to find a theoretical perspective that would allow aboriginal students to succeed in Canada’s Western Education system.

The concern is personal as I recall my own experiences in grade school all the way through high school. Although I was immersed in my culture and language for the first 7-8 years of my life, that diminished with each passing school year. The stories, structured play, literature or histories learned in school had no connection to who I was. During my time as a teacher some teaching practices changed, but our native culture and language still sit on the back burner.

It would be unfair to say that nothing has changed in the past four years and I don’t up-to-date information (because this program keeps me quite busy) on what the local board is presently planning. Although I have heard our school is working to implement culturally responsive teaching practices and inclusive education, but the biggest hurdle seems to be the burnt bridge between the board and its parents.

Culturally relevant teaching

http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/01/26/stanford-study-culturally-relevant-teaching-boosts-gpa-attendance-for-at-risk-youth-so-why-not-make-it-universal/

NYTimes: What a Million Syllabuses Can Teach Us

Hi everyone

Here is an interesting article from the NY Times. How useful are highly organized course syllabi? What were your experiences in the MEd program?

Cheers,

Doug 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/sunday/what-a-million-syllabuses-can-teach-us.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share 

Blog 3:      (From my old memories)             Bilqees Shabbir

The article for blog 2 provided a good ‘food for thought’. It reminded me of an incident that happened with me almost 20 years ago. I had started my teaching career in a college and was teaching the poem to the undergrads. (The poem is attached). Those days the educational institutions were being monitored by ‘hawks’, and they were expected to pop in at any moment to observe the content and contexts of education. I started teaching and a ‘hawk’ appeared from nowhere, in the classroom. I remember the tapping of the heavy boots in the class but I was supposed to continue.

I was 23 then and was discussing the poem, pretending to ignore the presence of the ‘hawk’ in the class. (Who cares about the consequences, when one is young and unmarried…?) When I came to the staff-room, my experienced colleagues were worried about my future. I told my dad (who was also a prof.), he smiled and said: ‘that’s OK, you might get a notice but that’s fine’… After three days, I was called to the principal’s office. She handed me over an envelope and asked me to open it.

It read…

“I appreciate your straightforward comments on the text you were teaching. I realize that power is transitory…I’ve seen the hawks growing old and dying. I wish you luck in the years to come.”

I was moved, by the note. Now, after so many years I think, either the ‘academic bullies’ are more powerful than the ‘hawks’ or we need to work harder and with the stronger commitment?

(The Poem)

Hawk Roosting
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -

The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.

Ted Hughes

Blog 2:                                 Bilqees Shabbir

The article about ‘Academic Assholes’ provides a pretty good space for catharses. I would rather call them ‘Academic Bullies’. I agree with Ragu that they are not only in academia but they are probably more influential in an academic setting because the people who are affected by these bullies in academia are the ones who avoid a ‘head-on collision’ due to their own very valid reasons. Unfortunately, this attitude prevails everywhere under attractive labels of being, straight forward, perfectionist and disciplinarian to justify their rudeness, arrogance, and self-obsession. Mostly they are double-faced opportunists and hypocrites.

 The list is long but at the same time, I know some genuine leaders in academia (not more than 10% though) who are passionate about their work and they are the ones who deserve our utmost respect. I’m sure things would take a positive turn if we continue with determination.

Blog Post #1 - Our obsession with elite colleges is making our kids feel worthless

People have qualified teenage years as a time of discovery, confusion and self-exploration. Teenagers want to experience different things and want to have meaning. I suppose it is a sort of "early-life crisis" when we think about it coldly. In the article presented by professor Fleming earlier last week, we explore why competitiveness and need to get higher education make students feel unworthy.

The author of the article does this in a neat way. Instead of writing it off as a "them" problem, she uses the words "us" and "our", because in fact, the problem isn't happening solely in Palo Alto, it's happening everywhere.

And here is the most surprising part: Adults still do not know the problem. As the author mentions,

"Over the last year, our community came together to demand more mental health resources and support for our kids, to create an awareness of such resources, and to try to reduce the stigma around asking for help. School leaders adjusted high school’s start time to a later hour, to align with the sleeping patterns that pediatricians say are healthy for teens, and capped the number of hours of homework that our high schoolers can be subjected to each week. Adults began listening more to kids." (Lythcott-Haims, 2015)

They anger themselves when someone comes in to tell them the real problem. So what does this tell us about current society? For one, we're too focused on schooling. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to fix this, because it is entrenched into our roots. Let's review how life works in North America:

1. Go to elementary and secondary school from the age of 5 until the age of 18.
• Grade 11 and 12. Here is where stress begins:
• Make sure to get the grades because otherwise you will never get into a good college or university.
• Pick what you want to do FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (At a young age too).
• Apply to colleges and universities. If you do not go to an elite school, you can forget being successful or obtaining a good job (if any) by the end of it.
2. Go to college or university. Stress out for the next 3-8 years of your life attending lectures and writing papers, going to labs or doing a group project. (All the while being told that this is the best part of your life)
3. Graduate college or university.Time for the job hunt.
• Let's be realistic. You will never find a job, even if you come from an elite school.
1. There are no jobs because people do not want to retire. (I'm looking at you baby-boomers)
2. All jobs require 5-10 years of experience (meaning you should have started working when you were 12 years old)
3. You need the right peace of paper (Those employers are only looking for certain names and certain grades).
4. Work...work....work...
5. Retire at the age of 84 because nobody can get a pension or have any money to live adequately past retirement.
6. The vicious cycle continues.

(Sorry, went on a rant there.)

My point is, we have such high expectations for the youth because we know how difficult their lives will be. It already is. I remember getting these exact thoughts when I was younger, and some of these thoughts reminisce because this is our reality. We grew up in a generation where our parents believe they gave us everything and we were spoon-fed. But look at the state of the job market, the world economy and the state of our environment....We are expected to GET or BECOME something, with nothing.

Blog 2

Blog 2

As I was reading the article “Academic Assholes” I recalled two studies I had read back in December 2015. The first article was of a study entitled “Why it’s great to have stubborn a stubborn child” (Gorman, 2015). The study tracked students from their late primary years until well into adulthood, and found that kids who frequently break the rules or otherwise defy their parents often go on to become educational over-achievers and high-earning adults. I begin to question whether some of the “Academic Assholes” discussed were alsolittle defiant, rule-breaking children during their primary years. People have to think about the amount of time and effort students (PhD’s) have to put forth to reach the level of ‘academic.’ As with all occupations there are always some forms of competition (i.e. younger, eager and enthusiastic hopefuls) vying for work (i.e. tenure ship).  Ragu made a great point when he referred to the likes of Zukerberg, and Jobs who are all brilliant entrepreneurs, if we look at many of their stories (let’s not forget Gates as well) these individuals all must have been strong willed and stubborn individuals to reach the heights of their success. They dropped out of the best universities, negotiated loans for billions of dollars (Trump) and were probably “Academic assholes” in their own field of expertise. Check out the article below.

Article 1: “Why It’s Great to Have a Stubborn Child” (2015)

http://time.com/4130665/why-its-great-to-have-a-stubborn-child/

The second article proposed that people who curse have a better vocabulary then those who do not. Sounds strange? Yes I would agree. However it was a research study that was hypothesized and carried out by Psychologists from Marist College and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The experiment gathered 43 participants and found that “taboo fluency is positively correlated with other measures of verbal fluency” (Crew, 2015). I wonder if the “Academic assholes” use varying amounts of vulgarity along with their rude and obnoxious behaviors. Check out the article below.

Article 2: “People who curse a lot have better vocabularies than those who don't, study finds” (Bec Crew, 2015)

http://www.sciencealert.com/people-who-curse-a-lot-have-better-vocabularies-than-those-who-don-t-study-finds

BLOG 2

   The author revealed that in academic workforce, some people being rude, aggressive or even hostile to others can sometimes get further in academia. By acting like jerks or assholes, the author assumed that they think they have something to gain. 

   This phenomena is no strange to me, actually the idea roots in most Chinese peoples’ minds that being aggressive and hostile can help them gain something. On the contrary, being nice could probably cause their own loss. For example, often times, in China, it is hard to get a complaint solved if you are being nice to the employee in customer service. They will put off your problems, or tell you they can not handle this and ask you to go somewhere else to look for solutions. Being nice means your situation is not that urgent and since you have a nice personality, you definitely would not mind being treated a little neglectfully. Therefore, things start to get worse. When people realize that being nice could not gain the thing they want, they change to act as jerks or assholes. Unexpectedly, they are treated differently, and their problems get solved quickly. It is said that customer services try to avoid trouble as much as possible, when they face aggressive and hostile customers, they know immediately it would cause them trouble if they treat these kind of customers rudely, therefore they would be nice and efficient in handling the complaints. Funny thing is, now in China, even though you are not a jerk in reality, when comes to make a complaint, you would choose to act like a jerk to gain the thing you want. I can’t stop but wondering what impact does this phenomenon have on our younger generation. 

   Will they think that being jerks or assholes is the right thing to do and being nice is useless? Will they learn and apply this to other areas and thus enlarge the vicious cycle? Will there be more arrogant and less nice peoples? Maybe it is not only about making academia a kinder place, but making the world a kinder world. 

Blogpost#1 - Some thoughts on the myth of nasty cleverness in academia

The article, Academic assholes and thecircle of niceness, provokes an idea to reinforce my personal image in classroom or at the situation I am giving feedbacks on the assignments or creative works to my students in ESL teaching and learning context.

I could not agree more with the proposition that “asshole behavior is contagious”, as I has been more or less impacted by the authority built up majorly by nasty cleverness of the some but not to much teachers I encountered when I was receiving K1-12 education-of-equivalence in my origin country. The not-that-constructive feedbacks and not-that-positive comments from my teachers have made me severely considering am I suitable to attend a school (It might also because I have been a why-person-type student and has challenged a lot the limit of the scale of knowledge and acknowledgement of my teachers and this make my teachers think that I am not respecting them. As in the schooling context there, classrooms are teacher-centered and teachers have, to some extent, absolute authority in and outside classrooms. ) . Much of the feedbacks I have received from my teachers implicitly influence me in my choice upon whether showing a everything-is-ok face or a sore and stone-like face with nastiness when commenting the effort of students.  What is the most important that, just like some academics’ unawareness of being “rude, dismissive, passive aggressive or even outright hostile”, I did not notice I was suffering from bitchy resting face, a kind of disorder, until I began to take selfies, a lot.

Fortunately, studying in Hong Kong and here at uOttawa directly inspire me to reconsider my persistence of being a strict and serious teacher, to examine some myths in education, such as myths in literacy (e.g., by becoming literate, one is more likely to be happy and informed, find a decent job with considerable income) and myths in the nasty cleverness in academia (e.g., the more asshole the person is, the more high-level and meaningful the opinions s/he express is), and the myth of the relationship between the level of a person’s cleverness and smartness and the level of meaningfulness embodied in his/her perspectives: if a person is clever or smart, what s/he say is also of cleverness/smartness and usefulness.

PS: There’s a video about the disorder, bitchy resting face, that could be of help in thinking critically when one can help making judgments on others' facial expressions. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v98CPXNiSk

2: Academic assholes and the circle or niceness

My career in academia is somewhat limited, but it does not surprise me to read about the attitudes of many, especially at the more senior level, in the field. The author links the prevalence of asshole-ness in academia to the want and need to appear more intelligent than others in order to achieve success. I do not believe this behaviour is limited to academia alone.

Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs – some names that come to mind in the corporate world, who built their fortune and fame screwing people over in the process. Even if we examine students at the elementary and high school level, in presentations and group environments, the loudest one in the room usually is the most recognized and listened to. It's an all around societal issue.

I do believe schools have the power to change society. As future educators, we should step in when we see this behaviour in our classrooms. As humans, we should step in when we see this behaviour occurring in our society. It is easier said then done, but it is necessary to improve.

-Ragu

It is quite an interesting article and not only relates to America but in many other countries of the world especially as it resonate with my experience in Nigeria.

In the Nigerian case, admission into the universities and colleges is even much more complicated. Elite universities and colleges are seen as ''cash-cow'' where admission is a function of your network and resources available for disposal, particularly the federal and privately funded schools respectively. The federally funded schools are highly competitive due to the limited number of highly respected and classified  top notch schools with so much prestige. Applicants year-in-year-out increasingly outweigh their capacity to admit. Influence of parents in choosing a career path, school and program for their children often account for these failures rather than allowing them to follow their passion. Parents feel so proud and respected when they say; ''my daughter is studying Law at the University of Ibadan''.

Regrettably, the labor market discriminating degrees further worsen the situation, giving so much preference to foreign degrees. This amount for increase hunger for foreign degree holders in the country while relegating local degrees. For them, finding a reasonable employment is almost a nightmare. I remember how intimidating it was for me to have discovered the person sitting beside me had graduated from the University of Manchester while at a job interview. Even as I tried to encourage myself, it was still a feeling of losing the battle even before it began neither was I wrong after all.

Above all, I think parents should play a guiding role for their children to be more  aware of issues relating to their career choices rather than enforcing choices on them. And we can only hope for an ideal society that promotes the education of equality with an equal opportunity for all children to succeed.

Blog 1: Academic Assholes

My personal academic and career trajectory has been outside of the realm of academia for the most part, so while I certainly believe and empathize with the author's take on what is essentially aggression, assertiveness, and bullying in the workplace, another more subtle facet stood out to me.

My first reaction was a feeling of concordance, of congruence, with the feeling one gets when you feel another or others truly understand you. While it had little to do with the main message, the knowledge that feeling people truly understand and support you (in this case, "The B-Team") can change entire perspectives. As a future psychotherapist and counsellor I hope to provide that empathy, and I have learned that by far the most important tool to improving clients' lives is to make a personal connection with them. This idea that tools, interventions, and techniques are wholly secondary to attachments and bonds is one which I discovered here at U of O, and one which I want to examine further. This article, this obviously emotional topic, would not have come to be if the author hadn't have experienced an open, accepting environment. If I can help research what contributes to those environments and how therapists can obtain that, I think I'll be putting my degree to good use and be aiding people like the author, and interesting ideas like this one.

Academic assholes and the circle of niceness | The Thesis Whisperer

This article is intended for thesis students, but still is of interest to us. It argues that being nice doesn't help you succeed in graduate or academic work. 

Warning: the author uses some racey language.   

http://thesiswhisperer.com/2013/02/13/academic-assholes/

Copy and paste into your browser

BLOG 1

   Not only western parents are obsessed with having their children climb up to elite colleges, so are Chinese parents. It seems that being accepted to elite colleges is the only way for children to be successful. Teenager students sacrifice their spare time and weekend on endless assignments and tasks so that they are well equipped to enter the fierce competition about winning to enter elite colleges or universities. However, with the high rate of suicide and depression among our adolescents nowadays, question should be asked why do so many of our teenagers feel life is hopeless, helpless and even not worth living? Even though parents act with their best of intentions, believing that the prestige and networking opportunities associated with elite colleges or universities is necessary for children’s success, in fact, do they ever cared about what their children want; have they ever asked their children what their dream is and what they like to be and to do in the future? Why parents take for granted that their plan for the children is the best and the children have to follow? Another example is given by the professor in class, he said once some teachers were upset because they didn’t know what kind of class could attracting most participating and engagements from students. Then the professor said why didn’t you ask your students what kind of classes they would like to have? Most of the time, parents and educators tend to think from their point of view, they often forget that their children and students are also human beings with their own ideas and thoughts. We feel wrongly accused that we offer the best we could to the teenagers, how dare they treat our good intentions with suicide. But do children and students really want what we have provided, things that we’ve never asked their likeness or not?

1: Our obsession with elite colleges is making our kids feel worthless

The article brings up a few good points revolving around the issue of the inability of students to attain entrance into the “elite” colleges and its effects and parental influences on college goals. Coming from a South Asian family, my sisters and I were given a list of career options at an early age that were deemed acceptable to my parents. Pursuing a career that was not on the list was seen as a failure on my parents behalf. Furthermore, certain courses were stressed to attain the specified career, particularly Mathematics and Sciences. I recall wanting to take Physical Education throughout high school, however my parents discouraged me from taking the course, telling me there was no value in such a course for my career.

I think we live in a time where school education is not as valued as it once was. I did my undergraduate in Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto – a top ranked program in top ranked school. However, approximately 10% of my graduating class still could not find employment upon graduation and 5 years later. This information is not advertised by the University.

What I think is valued is the ability to network, to sell oneself. This, I believe is true for the majority of the population. When we look at the upper 0.1% of the population, creativity and knowledge is required, but for almost everyone else, it is “who you know” that will lead to success.

I do not think we should have students learning to network though, as it will stunt creativity and knowledge attainment. Our education system should push creativity and knowledge so students find happiness in their work and life.

-Ragu

Blog 1-Kassa Valz

Blog 1

            As I was reading through this article, the disturbing concept of children taking their own lives allowed me to recollect the similar tragedy within the aboriginal community. For my first blog I would like to recall some perspectives on Inuit education. Heather E. McGregor’s (2010) “Inuit Education and schools in the Eastern Arctic” discusses the importance of local control in education, cultural awareness and understanding.  With the advent of residential schools aboriginal communities/families became segregated, children were placed in residential schools where they were taught to be Eurocentric (i.e White); [aboriginal] parents were left without their children for upbringing and nurturing. This caused a great deal of challenges both for the young and older aboriginal community. As the aboriginal youth completed their and returned home ‘educated’ by Western standards, they were unfamiliar with their local customs and traditions which brought a sense of alienation. The students were not able to acquire the jobs their education promised; they were now unemployed and unskilled in the traditional sense. This feeling of alienation and loss of identity amongst the aboriginal youth was overwhelming has brought about great challenges. The Aboriginal community’s young had dealt with these challenges with a very lethal consequence, as was noted in McGregor (2010):

“They dropped out in swarms year after year, creating a society of half-educated young men and women who could not adjust to either of the cultures they were being brought up in. They became sons and daughters without destiny, without pride in their pasts and without much of a future-dropouts, social sores, listless vegetables. Many of them chose the easy way out by committing suicide.” (p.89)

As someone who has attended most of their formal education in Canada, we tend to be unaware of the injustices that can happen within our boarder and unfortunately even our schools. I decided to write about this experience because it had a profound impact on me as minority; it provided another perspective of education which I was never exposed to. The M.Ed. program has allowed me to think critically about problems and concern that are still present within schools.  

Reference:

McGregor, H. E.  (2010).  Chapter 5: Reclaiming the schools: Inuit involvement in the local periods.  Inuit education and schools in the eastern arctic.  (pp. 116-149).  Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2010/InuitEducationAndSchoolsInEasternArctic.pdf

For those of you considering writing a journal article submission as your term paper for EDU5199, I would like you to consider using this text:

Wendy Laura Belcher  Writing Your Journal Article in 12 weeks ? 

This is the text used for Faculty writing workshops at the Centre for Academic Leadership. It can be used individually or as part of the thematic group work that forms the basis for weeks 3 and 4 for 5199.

As I mentioned last class, why not consider turning your synthesis paper into a publication?

Doug

Our obsession with elite colleges is making our kids feel worthless

http://qz.com/577827/our-obsession-with-elite-colleges-is-making-our-kids-feel-worthless/

This article is a short one that makes the case against "the false but tightly-held belief that students must attend a highly selective college to be worth anything in life, and that our worth as parents is also measured by that metric".

What do you think?

Even though it is a U.S.-based article, I thought that this would be an interesting way to kick off the blog in view of our discussions yesterday.

Again, I'm simply putting up a piece that I find interesting in case you don't know how to contribute to the blog. You don't have to address this piece or the issue it addresses. You can bring up any issue you like as long as your express your opinions in ways that are respectful of your colleagues. 

BYW: Nice to meet you all yesterday. 

Doug

Welcome to the course blog for EDU5199 at the Faculty of Education!

This blog is for the exclusive use of students enrolled in the course and cannot be viewed by anyone not invited to make contributions.

For more information, contact Dr. Douglas Fleming at dfleming@uottawa.ca