Eva Vincent

2/11/21
Eliciting Students Thinking and Reflection for Racism

When it comes to ensuring that all students are treated fairly, equally and with respect

is not something to take lightly in the classroom. Students from minority backgrounds based on

things such as race, socioeconomic status, disability and different first languages have been

underserved in our educational community for years and it is time to be part of ensuring that

change is made so that all students have the same opportunities and are treated justly in the

public education system.

Racism, anti-racism and implicit bias all are factors that contribute to the way that

certain students may be treated in the classroom or how the school system as a whole will

affect them. When defining Racism, I found Toward More Equitable Learning in Science:

Expanding Relationships Among Students, Teachers and Science Practices to be a helpful text as

it discusses racism in modern education being the act of catering to only one group of people

which I think is a good baseline understanding, but racism obviously moves beyond that to

more dangerous definitions and acts both in the past and present day (Bang, Brown, Barton,

Rosebery, Warren, 2016, p.35). This definition of racism for the purposes of education is usable

because many students are at a disservice just because the curriculum or structure of a class

was designed without them and their minority group in mind. In Why Are All the Black Kids

Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Tatum discusses why she does not use the terms racism and

prejudice interchangeably like many people do and writes, “This definition of racism is useful

because it allows us to see that racism, like other forms of oppression, is not only a personal

ideology based on racial prejudice, but a system involving cultural messages and institutional

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policies and practices as well as the beliefs and actions of individuals” (Tatum, 2003, p. 5).

Tatum’s definition shows how prejudice is just a contributing factor of racism and is not racism

as a whole, therefore the words cannot be used interchangeably and should be noted as

different so that we can have a complete understanding of the issue.

When it comes to anti-racism, the authors of Science and Children said it best, “When

their misconceptions are “corrected,” students learn that their own ideas need to be replaced

by other ideas that they don’t fully understand” (Campbell, Schwartz, Windschitl, 2016, p.29).

This quote applies to anti-racism because the first step in moving towards anti-racism is

recognizing ideas that are wrong and that new ones need to replace the old views. Implicit bias

is an important term to note as a future educator because this affects everyone and their prior

assumptions that they have subconsciously which can affect how I may treat students or how

students may treat one another. Tatum does not speak of implicit bias specifically but touches

on the topic through stereotypes, preconceived ideas and prejudice. Tatum writes,

“Stereotypes, omissions, and distortions all contribute to the development of prejudice.

Prejudice is a preconceived judgment or opinion, usually based on limited information” (Tatum,

2003, p. 4). This shows how when individuals do have pre-conceived notions, they are not even

close to accurate because they are based on little information or information that is completely

wrong or even biased. It is important as a future educator to check my implicit bias and

preconceived notions so that I can combat them to be a fair teacher to all of my students so

they can receive equitable educations in my classroom.

As a subject, science often asks students to draw on their prior knowledge or for

students to demonstrate what they already know. For different groups of people depending on

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race, socio economic status, ability and other factors their prior knowledge and exposure to

certain things can be very different from that of their peers. Instead of us as teachers focusing

on what students should know about a subject, we should value what they already do know

and start there so that no students are left behind. In Toward More Equitable Learning in

Science: Expanding Relationships Among Students, Teachers and Science Practices the authors

write, “Inside the science classroom, teachers can play a uniquely powerful role in addressing

issues of equity, in particular, by valuing the insights, perspectives, and experiences of students

from historically underserved communities as they make sense of scientific phenomena and

making the intellectual value of these contributions visible to the students and the class as a

whole” (Bang, Brown, Barton, Rosebery, Warren, 2016, p. 34). This quote shows how

important it is to draw from each student and their prior knowledge so that everyone can be a

meaningful contributor to the learning environment. This quote also showed me how big of a

role the teacher holds in the classroom and how I can help to make a difference 20 students at

a time just by paying attention to what each student has to offer to the classroom environment.

As a future educator, I plan to value the backgrounds of each of my students so that

they can have a learning environment that is centered around them and celebrates each one of

them, making it a unique experience. Each student has so much to offer that it is really

important to show students that and embrace everyone’s similarities and differences. By

embracing each students unique background, students can learn from one another and gain

mutual understandings between students who may have similar or different backgrounds than

they do. Students will learn by participating in discovery-based learning where all students can

bring their prior knowledge and work together so that gaps can be filled in if there are any.

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Most importantly I will not use suspension as a discipline tool because ultimately it is

ineffective, is overused and is disproportionately used with students of a minority group putting

them at a further disadvantage.

Adding onto how I plan to embrace each student, I also plan to strive to greet each

situation with empathy and an open heart. In Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That

Shapes What We See, Think, and Do the author talks about how just using empathy

intervention and awareness contributed to significant changes within the classroom. Eberhardt

writes, “With these principles in mind, Jason Okonofua, Dave Paunesku and Gregory Walton

developed a novel empathy intervention that cut the suspension rate of middle schoolers in

half (Eberhardt, 2019, p. 216).” By the number of middle schools who are suspended being cut

in half, this means that more students will be present in the learning environment to continue

their education in a welcoming environment. Though I believe that suspension should only be

used in very, very extreme cases and that I would like that number to be zero the majority of

the time, this improvement is taking strides in the right direction for learners of all backgrounds

to have equal time in the classroom and be better understood by their teacher and peers to

improve their educational experience.