The Elephant in the Room A Conundrum in Democratic Teaching and Learning

Article Critique 1

The Elephant in the Room A Conundrum in Democratic Teaching and Learning

Pte Ska Hinapa Wi Poor Bear

Oglala Lakota College

The Elephant in the Room A Conundrum in Democratic Teaching and Learning

Introduction

This article “The Elephant in the Room; A Conundrum in Democratic Teaching and Learning” was written by two teachers; Shannon Lindsay Toth and Serina Cinnamon Morrison.  It was published in “The Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, Volume 5, Number 4”.

Shannon Lindsay was labeled as a ‘gifted’ student early on in her schooling.  She learned that once she was labeled as smart she was always going to be smart to the future teachers who taught her after the fifth grade.  She also moved a lot in her childhood therefore interacted with a multitude of races in many different educational capacities as a student.  Later, in her adulthood she accomplished a master’s degree in education and taught in many poverty stricken communities.

Serina Cinnamon Morrison was the daughter of a military instructor, therefore she understood authority and followed the chain of command as a student in a school setting.  K-12 was a breeze to her as she continued to be her father’s child, following his authority and nature in her studies as a child in school.  She grew up in Japan and Chicago where she was a minority in schools that were prominently Japanese and African American.  As an adult she too became an educator with high expectations from herself as being a go getter in the system she was all too familiar with.

Both authors faced immense realities as educators for they both realized that society in the education systems do not provide the instruction necessary in order to build 100% successful students in today’s world.  They both realized the image that schools provide for their students do not quite fit into the uniqueness that each student brings to the classroom in many different capacities, including the misunderstandings of their cultural teachings.  Through both teachers’ experiences in the education systems of the United States they both see an enormous gap between student experience and teacher preparation.  They have both decided to close their classroom doors to be free to teach appropriately to their students in a manner that fits their needs.  The article itself was written in a manner that grasps personal experiences from K-12 and beyond to college level and on into their professional career.  It also brings a personal sense of understanding within their knowledge base. 

Summary

With standardized testing as the all-seeing tower, “visibility is a trap” (Foucault, 1977, p.200) every teacher is separated into her own classroom and within each classroom, students are placed at their own desks where they are taught not to touch or talk to each other.  Friere (2001) makes similar observations about pedagogy in stating, “these classroom arrangements underscore behavioral patterns that people are expected to follow throughout their lives: walk a straight line, focus on work, and isolation in a cubicle.”  Both Shannon and Serina share about the lack of equality they witnessed personally in the systems.  Their hope is to bring some awareness in writing about their personal experiences within the systems and how the system itself serves on some levels and in many other levels does not serve the student bodies.

From the inception of public education, students are taught to follow established rules (Dewey, 1956; Freire, 2001).  For example, during Shannon and Serina’s schooling they have seen the systems within the school as a foreign experience with foreign expectations to that of many of their peers’ home and community experiences.  Thus, what begins as a positive opportunity full of excitement, possibility, and high expectations rapidly deteriorates in a negative experience full of constraints and oppression (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Tyson, 2002)  For Shannon being smart never needed to be proven once she was labeled as such.  Her best work was never required in order to meet the expectations of the school once labeled.  For Serina she respected authority and had significant “buy in” to the system thus she understood at a young age the rules of the game: compliance coupled with excellence gained her favors.  Foucault (1997) points to a social contract in place with rules of engagement that only work well when people adhere to and reinforce them.

The existing systems in schools use both the hidden and explicit curriculum to educate students about how to act in a larger society.  Growing up Shannon participated in “color blind racism,” where she failed to recognize even her best friend as a person of color.  She moved around a lot therefore her interaction with other races in schools were Native American, Blacks and Asians.  Later in life she identified the underlying assumption by the adults that worked with them that they were somehow different.  Serina was always predominantly the minority in school which caused her to reflect on herself as a White person in a different way.  She saw that her intelligence separated her from her peers early on within the system yet, her skin color created an invisible barrier.  Both teachers want to be able to create successful students in the real world without further alienation.  Critical pedagogy dictates that the “major objective…. is to empower students to intervene in their own self-formation and to transform the oppressive features of the wider society that make such an intervention necessary” (McLaren, 1988 p.xi)  Additionally, Serina seen early on how the students of color resisted work of any kind and questioned anything.  She also seen how school had no reality for them.  School for them, through her eyes depicted a daily reminder for them their position in the mainstream world.  As Lisa Delpit (2006) points out, the cultural hegemony of schooling consistently fails students of color whose own cultural experiences are discounted by the system.

Both authors feel that education offers opportunity.  They would like the education systems to develop students who prosper in philosophy and diversity rather than them having a tremendously difficult time thinking critically by a system that has socialized them not to think.  Hytten (2008) writes about the same course, “sadly…they have been so infrequently asked to think about what could be, and instead have been required to absorb and reproduce what is” (p. 195). 

            In conclusion, I found this article to touch base on everything I have witnessed in my life as a student in the system who also went on to become a lifelong learner.  I familiarized myself with each of the authors’ experiences growing up as well as their experiences as educators in the system.  After reading the article many of my own personal situations in the classroom has become clear to me.  I am able to identify different pedagogies involved in my teachings styles and the impact they have on a multitude of different student situations.  I also see more clearly the system that my school follows in educating my students.  I have become more aware in my role as an educator in the classroom.

References

Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Horsey, C. S. (1997). From first grade forward: Early

               foundations of high school dropout.  Sociology of Education, 70(2), 87-107.

Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom.  New York: The                 New Press.

Dewey, J. (1996 [1916]). Democracy and education. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), The Middle Works of                     John Dewey, 1899 – 1924 (Vol. 9: The collected Works of John Dewey, 1882 – 1953).                         The Electronic Edition, ed. L. Hickman (Charlottesville, VA, Intelex Corp.).

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Freire, P. (2001). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

Hytten, K. (2008). Critical thinking, social justice and the role of philosophy. In J. Diem & R. J.   Helfenbein (Eds.), Unsettling beliefs: Teaching theory to teachers (pp. 185 0 200). Charlotte,  NC:                      Information Age Publishing.

McLaren, P. (1988). Forward: Critical theory and the meaning of hope. In H. A. Giroux, Teachers as                  intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning (pp. ix – xxi). Westport, CT: Bergin                    & Harvey Publishers.