3.+Equity


 * 3. EQUITY PRINCIPLE **

//The teacher candidate understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners. The teacher candidate understands the role each of us plays in the maintenance and transformation of social and educational practices that engender inequity and is committed to promoting equity and social justice. //

//**3.1. Candidates understand equity and social justice principles, including everyone’s right to have an opportunity to learn and what constitutes equitable and socially just behavior and treatment for themselves and others. **//

Social inequities are still an issue in today’s educational system. Teachers and curriculum are not establishing equal opportunities for all students and this is creating more inequalities within our society. Critical pedagogy is a strategy that seeks to transform learning and enable students to become democratic citizens (3.1.a). McLaren (2009) says that critical pedagogy “asks how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, and how and why some constructions of reality are legitmated and celebrated by the dominant culture while others clearly are not” (63). Dominant culture creates a power relation in the educational system that provides members of the dominant culture privilege and advantage over other cultures. The curriculum follows dominant ideas and beliefs, which are transmitted to all students as the knowledge and information they will need to survive society. However, this is simply diminishing efforts of equality by not accepting other cultural knowledge as important to teach students about as beneficial to society (3.1.b).

 Social justice aims to provide educational opportunities and access to all students, no matter what culture they originate from. Reform education has included social justice into their practice through the use of critical pedagogy. Through this practice teachers educate students to be self-advocates that can reflect critically, think critically, and provide to the social construction of knowledge. For educators this means fighting a system that holds the beliefs of dominant culture. For students this means spreading their knowledge around the world and continuously developing their capabilities to achieve beyond what dominant culture socially constructs for them.

One large issue surrounding social justice is the formation of identities. Identities hold in them power relationships that reflect the views of dominant culture and control of society. These identities come in many forms, from group constructions to individual representations (3.1.c). Identities are something that can be produced simply by the control of an individuals attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs. Cultures will often compete against each other for power to combat dominant culture and societal perceptions, creating larger disadvantages for students and other members of the community, instead of opportunity. Students need to be able to form their identities through critical analysis and thinking surrounding what characters, traditions, and morals they wish to be and present to others. In order to do this teachers need to allow students to make autonomous decisions and provide them with a voice and empowerment that allows these students to evaluate their situation and education and make active pursuits at achieving their goals. I understand that every student has the opportunity to learn regardless of their difference. As a teacher, I strive for social justice, giving equal opportunities to all students regardless of their race, gender, sex, socioeconomic status, or disability. In all of my lesson plans I planned for differentiated instruction, being able to meet the needs of all my students (3.1.d). All activities we did were inclusive of everyone, and gave students options. I have learned in my inclusion classes that in order to be "fair" to someone with a disability, the accommodations and modifications given may not always equal that of the other students. But that is the meaning behind the phrase, "Fair is not always equal," something we discussed in ED 451 (3.1.e). It is fair that they receive those modifications, because that is offering them the equal opportunity to succeed that other students already have. I am also amazed and concerned with how racism still occurs in schools. The fact that teachers do not treat students the same, or cater to their interests or culture, is definitely not fair to them. In EDU 442, I worked in a group to create a professional development session for parents and teachers about the problem of racism in schools and how we can educate people about the issue to combat it (3.1.f).

//**3.2. Candidates are committed to high moral and ethical standards and respect and value their students’ differences in contexts and approaches to learning. **//

Student differences are common in classrooms, and teachers need to learn effective methods for incorporating all their students knowledge, experiences, and interests into lessons. One of the best ways for a teacher to do this is to understand who their students are by building relationships with them. I have developed strong relationships with my students by greeting them at the door, staying after school, providing individualized attention, asking questions, and reading their journals and responding back to them. A teacher can then take their knowledge of each students’ interests, experiences, and knowledge to plan. A planning technique that fits the attention of student differences is called differentiated instruction. I have planned lessons several lessons surrounding differentiated instruction. For example, I planned a lesson at East high that had students investigate acid rain (3.2.a). The lab itself included written instructions with visual aids, I provided verbal instruction, and we went over the instructions as a demonstration in front of the entire class. The final assessment of the lesson provided students with autonomy to choose what questions about acid they wanted to answer, and it also gave them autonomy in the method of answering such as writing a comic strip, written word, pictures, poster, etc (3.2.b). An important component of catering to students’ differences is to realize that fair is not always equal, and some students may need more attention or assistance to achieve the same learning and reach the same goal. This is particular true for students’s with disabilities. I have met such needs during my student teaching with a particular student that had ADHD. My cooperative teacher provided long reading and prompt assignments which this student found difficult. I broke down the assignment for him by summarizing the reading, finding the question it was asking and then having him answer it. During a UTL service day we visited the [|Mocha Center in Rochester]. This was a great experience and training towards understanding how teachers can support LGBT students and the community (3.2.c). It is an open-minded attitude that I employ in my classroom and expect my students to do the same towards each other.

//**3.3. Candidates are familiar with some of the cultural, linguistic and learning differences and/or disabilities their students may present and their implications for the classroom. **//

Rogoff (1994) talks about a community of learners as a socially transformative model that provides students more autonomy and responsibility in their participation to achieve a desired learning process. This community of learners can be established in several different ways, which include implementing a multicultural curriculum, literacy as a social practice, or inclusion methods. The community of learners in these contexts finds some strong implications for the classroom, especially in terms of social justice issues. Labeling of minority students based on social perceptions has created low achievement scores and a socially unjust situation. In my EDU 447 paper, I address this issue speaking about ethnic disproportionality and its prevalence in special education (3.3.a). This ethnic disproportionality is important for teachers to understand because many minority students are being labeled as learning disabled inaccurately due to a cultural disadvantage established by racial privileges. This is another reason that so many Latino youth are dropping out of school, because they are not being offered the support that they need and the education is not catering to their cultural needs or differences (3.3.b).

This culture of power not only affects students with disabilities but even students of all cultures that do not represent the dominant culture. Multiculturalism promotes the education of multiple cultures, not just the dominant culture (Britzman et al., 1993; Takaki, 1993). This can align with teacher planning, as teachers can incorporate students in the process of educating each other on their cultures. This can be aligned with interdisciplinary topics or focused directly on how their cultures view a specific field, such as science concepts. In order to fuel this discussion teachers can utilize literacy strategies and techniques that fit community of learner approaches (Rogoff, 1994). Literacy strategies include using web 2.0’s, visuals, readings, presentations, and other forms of collaborative knowledge (Bruns, 2008). These literacy strategies allow children and adults to share knowledge and leadership in the learning process. Multiple literacy strategies are important to plan for because students have varying developmental levels, interests, and methods of learning (3.3.c). By catering to all these possibilities you ensure that all students will have opportunity to access the material and understand the content.


 * //3.4. Candidates are able to provide learning experiences that are culturally relevant and address the strengths and needs of all students. //**

During Get Real! Science camp students investigated the beach ecology at Charlotte Beach on Lake Ontario. This experience was culturally relevant to the students because it directly impacted their community and related to their communities impact on the beach. The strengths and needs of all students were developed through building relationships with each student and learning about these strengths and needs, as well as their interests, and then incorporating specific treatment of them in lesson planning. For instance, students used iFlips for video interviews instead of reflecting in their journals, and we let them explore the beach on a scavenger hunt with the iFlips for things they thought would close the beach (3.4.a). Some students did not want to go into the water, and so we adapted lessons to let them hold the ropes on the shore to measure how far we had to go out.

 I also had experience during STARS at developing culturally relevant learning experiences for students. At the beginning of STARS we had our two half teams meet at Wilson Foundation. Initially the girls had calculated their eco-footprint (3.4.b). Then, when they came together as a full team, all the girls placed cutout images, that represented products the girls might use during their day, into eight categories that included such issues as water usage, chemical usage, electricity usage, transportation usage, etc (3.4.c). The girls found they collectively shared the use of hair spray daily and decided to investigate how household chemicals impact the environment, specifically in their experiment radish plants. The girls in my team each had different personalities and interests during the science investigation that my partner and I included in our lesson planning as leadership roles. One girl was given the task of recorder, another the task of measurer, and the third was provided a task of video conferencing. These tasks increased student participation and motivation in the investigation and allowed them to collaborate as a team.

|| EDU 442- Response to McLaren on social reproduction EDU 451- importance of celebrating differences EDU 451- Cultural capital affects acceptance of parental ideas in schools ED 405- Critical commentary on assessments not catering to cultural differences ED 446- My Professional Collaboration Plan on how to work with diverse families and students EDU 498- Importance of using cultural tools and building off student strengths and differences || || Differentiated Instruction in lesson plan || || EDU 442 Racism PD (powerpoint and paper) || || East High Acid Rain lesson plan || [|DSC00437.JPG] [|DSC00433.JPG] || Assessment with choice (last page); examples || || EDU 498 Multiple Literacy Strategies ||
 * Evidence # || Embedded or Linked Object || Description ||
 * 3.1.a || [[file:20090707-EDU442CC1-MSaunders.doc]] || EDU 442 Critical Commentary I ||
 * 3.1.b || [[file:442CriticalPedagogy.pdf]]
 * 3.1.c || [[file:20100625-ED415FinalPaper-MSaunders.doc]] || ED 415 Identity Reflection ||
 * 3.1.d || [[file:20100331-EastHigh-MSaunders (2).doc]]
 * 3.1.e || [[file:20100804-ED451WhatWeLearned-MSaunders.doc]] || ED 451 Final Reflection. what we learned: "fair is not always equal" ||
 * 3.1.f || [[file:20090806-EDU442PowerPoint-MSaunders.ppt]]
 * 3.2.a || [[file:20100331-EastHigh-MSaunders (2).doc]]
 * 3.2.b || [[file:20100327-EastHighAcidRainLab-MSaunders.doc]]
 * 3.2.c || [] || Blog about Mocha Center visit ||
 * 3.3.a || [[file:447finalpaperEthnic.pdf]] || EDU 447 Final Paper on Racial Disproportionality in Special Education ||
 * 3.3.b || [[file:UTLdescripreviewanaly.pdf]] || Reflection on UTL Forum- Latino Youth ||
 * 3.3.c || [[file:498CC3.pdf]]
 * 3.4.a || [] || iFlip beach exploration at Get Real! Science Camp ||
 * 3.4.b || [|DSC07645.JPG] || Eco- Footprint from student ||
 * 3.4.c || [|DSC00436.JPG] || Blue Team's daily footprint ||

References

Britzman, D., Santiago-Valles, K., Jimenez-Munoz, G., & Lamash, L. (1993). Slips that show and tell: Fashioning multiculture as a problem of representation. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.), //Race, identity, and representation in education //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">, pp. 188-200. New York: Routledge Farmer.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 11px;">Bruns, A. (2008). The key characteristics of produsage. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, pp.9-36. New York: Peter Lang.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">McLaren, P. (2009). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.) //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The critical pedagogy reader, second edition // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">, pp. 61-83. New York: Routledge.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Mind, Culture, and Activity //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">, //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">(4), 209-229. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 11px;"> Takaki, R. (1993). Multiculturalism: Battleground or meeting ground? //Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science//, //530//, 109-121.

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