“Liberty and justice for all,” although a noble ideal, has always proven elusive.
I think it is important to think about how we built this country on this idea of freedom and equality, but even as those words were written they were only meant for some. And while we have drastically bettered our country since then when it comes to equity, there is still so much to do to bridge that gap, As the quote said, this idea has always been elusive especially for those in minority groups.
Surprised and saddened, he watched how his initially eager female student wilted and then faded from the activities of the classroom.
This is so disheartening both as a student experiencing it and an educator who didn’t mean to be harmful. I think this is such an important learning moment, mainly for the educator on how to catch micro aggressions they may encourage, but also I wonder how it would be received if the students did call their teacher out on it if they felt safe enough in the environment.
Not being allowed to call out like her male classmates during the brief conversation about presidents will not psychologically scar Rebecca; however, the system of silencing operates covertly and repeatedly.
While it won’t scar her, I feel like every comment or experience with sexism can make a young person less confident, especially when it comes to speaking out at school. It DOES uphold the system and continues to perpetuate (and train that it’s okay) these ideas to students even if it isn’t overt.
The stu-dents who may be most in need of the teacher's attention will be least likely to get it.
This is definitely an overarching theme seen throughout this course is acknowledging that students who need more resources do not always receive the standard quality of education they deserve. Also, that educators can adjust and grow to accommodate for and assist their students, especially when they are from a group that can utilize more support.
As several Latinos argued, “women can wear clothes that guys can’t” and pointed to a Latina classmate wearing a t-shirt with a woman and gun on it. One Latina student quickly corrected, “there are dress codes for prom. We can’t wear low-cut dresses or ones that are cut down the back”. Her response was met with a chorus of affi rming “yea’s” from her Latina classmates. A student later shared how, before she could enter the school’s prom, school offi cials required her to cover her chest with a shawl because they believed her dress was “too revealing”. Thus, whereas the young men in the class critiqued a double standard where women are perceived to be granted more liberty, some women feel limited by the school’s requirement that they cover parts of their bodies.
This greatly explains how many men think it's unfair that a woman could get away with wearing a shirt with a woman and gun, where if they wore the same shirt, they probably would get the same reaction from the school as their counterpart. But there are so many regulations that they DON'T have to think about because they only align to women, and those are only felt by the people they restrain. Now I do think having a dress code isn't a bad thing, but there are many schools that abuse the rules and twist it to sexualize clothes young girls should be able to wear normally.
Conversely, less attention has been placed on the experiences of girls and women of color and the types of constraints, surveillance, and punishment they endure in schools. With larger percentages of young women graduat-ing from high school and matriculating at colleges and universities, some may divert attention away from girls and women with the false pretense that schooling is working for them and that it is just young boys of color who are struggling or who are maybe even the problem.
This is a gap seen in many social issues, including education, today. There are many DEI initiatives that focus on men of color and white women, but not nearly enough focus on the resources needed by women of color.
Being popular was still a top priority, and even famous personalities were haunted by memories of high school rejection.
Even though I also felt the pull and pressure of this, it still makes me wonder why we hyper-focus on that so much. Like why is it that it feels like the world is ending during that point if you aren't the best at everything? Every person I know either has a story or multiple about how high school pressured them to need to be popular no matter how stressful and fake it was, and it makes me confused if it is simply just the way that adolescents learn to develop social skills and is inevitable, or if we all consciously create that environment unnecessarily.
Today's teenagers, both girls and boys, report that although they have many friends, they lack intimate, close friends. Teenagers say that there is no one that they can really confide in, no one with whom to share their deepest thoughts. In the midst of a crowd, they feel alone. It is a disturbing admission.
This is definitely how a lot of students today feel, especially during and post-Covid pandemic, it has left a gap for many young people. Especially with social media too, where perceptions of who and how cool people are are perceived through a moderated lens. Also, truly finding someone to click with when everyone is figuring out who they are is hard, and even if you do find that, it can shift again post-graduation. From my own experience, even the friends I connected with and still have today from high school, I didn't truly know them or felt like they knew me until we started college. I'm not really sure why that is, but maybe deep friendship that young is just rare? Or maybe it's a deep issue.
"Nothing" ranked higher than "classes I'm taking" and "teachers."
This makes me sad that of the majority, more people would remember nothing more than a teacher they had or a positive class experience. It makes it so clear how impactful mentors and curriculum could be, but could be falling short? Or is it just that students of the adolescent age would never focus on that part. I hope that we shift so it's seen as a positive instead of something forgotten.
While these sites possibly value and integrate the knowledge, ability, and strength of young people, they are pre-structured and offered by adults. Scholars rarely have examined less-structured spaces that youth carve out by and for themselves in their daily movements across various sites, including school, home, and neighborhood.
I wonder if more scholarly research was done in neighborhood or community centers or area where children congregate, what findings would happen? Would the non-structured one be even easier to build confidence in identity because there is less pressure to do tasks?
recently, some scholars have examined and theorized various out-of-school settings that are impor-tant to the lives of youth (Fine, Weis, Centrie, & roberts, 2000; Heath, 2001; Hull & Schultz, 2002; Weis & dimitriadis, 2008; Weis & Fine, 2000). Community-based organizations (CBO) (Heath, 2001; reyes, 2007), community-based educational sites (Fine et al., 2000), popular culture (Weis & dimitriadis, 2008), and various public and private spaces, including schools and neighborhoods (Weis & Fine, 2000), are also important sites where young people learn, know, teach, and (re)create ‘authentic and vibrant youth identities' (Weis & dimitriadis, 2008, p. 2291). These spaces provide opportunities for youth to develop identity, ‘a process of making identifications – identifications made, for example, with the different cultural and racialized representations and the multiplying lifestyle possibilities that mark the arena within which social relations are forged’ (Yon, 2000, p. 14)
I agree very much with tis! I think that some of the most important place both for learning skills and to the child are things outside of the standard classroom. By forming key pieces of identity, especially if it is around people who are supportive or are of the same identity group, it can build a lot of cultural, social, and personal confidence.
Ms. López respects Yamaira’s translanguaging space and acknowledges that even though the class is officially in English, Yamaira has opened a trans-languaging space that has transformed the class. Latinx bilinguals, who make up 75% of this middle school, have begun to understand that their trans-languaging is a resource, not a hindrance, for read-ing deeply about history and other content.
This is very powerful! I had a similar experience in my first quarter at UCI where the professor split us up by languages we could speak and majority of people in the room spoke Spanish. It just shows how many people can benefit from translanguaging spaces and allow it to serve them as a positive experience and resource instead of something that doesn't matter at school.
Bilinguals live and read them-selves in what Li Wei (2011) has called a translan-guaging space, a space that lacks clear boundaries, culturally or linguistically. However, schools and educators seldom enter this translanguaging space with their Latinx readers
I find this so interesting as I have had friends and colleagues talk about this phenomena where the way their minds work around language is very fluid. Especially in social contexts between friends/peers and family. Even in CA where we have a very diverse population, I think there are still many gaps that cause insecurities for multilingual learners and lack of spaces that allow for translanguaging.
For Miguel, homework was one important way to engage with literacy in the space of his home. Miguel’s sister, Gina, helped because of her fluency in English.
One of the most impactful ways to learn is to be immersed, so using aids such as homework sheets or 'after-hours' familial support to adapt and learn the content are great tools. But it also makes me wonder what other ways could be tied in to make it so it is more of an equitable environment for all students. When not in a bi/multilingual class, what are good ways to support those students further at to bridge the classroom and home?
Throughout the analysis process, we wove together the participants’ per-spectives, contexts, and histories; the literature; and our perspectives (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993; Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007). Our experi-ences and identities were relevant
I think this is so important, especially within research in this area, to fully embrace and consider the ideas and realities identity creates. Also, how to best incorporate those identifiers and experiences into painting a real image of culturally relevant research/education.
Meanwhile, a larger majority of the student body must contend with larger classes, outdated materials, and barriers to receiving help.
I understand some resources/opportunities being accessible to some (grants, etc) but MAJOR resources being closed off due to any status is heartbreaking because truly the only thing that needs to be fixed is the system.
ypically, second-generation youth do not have to struggle with the challenge of learning a new language, which is a reality for the vast majority of immigrants arriv
Second gen people may not have to learn the language wholly on their own in a new country, which is an incredibly difficult task. I wonder how the education differs as someone who is bilingual (learned after they immigrated) vs bilingual (learned both languages from childhood)
Our research assistants were bilin-gual and bicultural and, in most cases, from the same immigrant origin as our participants-for example, Mexican-origin research assistants worked with Mexican-origin students.
I love that they connected both researchers and participants to bridge the language and cultural barriers in the project.
Therefore, they are likely to grow up in households where cultural, linguistic, and social tradi-tions, while in flux, retain some of the distinct flavors that immigrants bring with them to the new country.
This is one of the biggest topics I think about due to having friends, family, and students who are immigrants. Just because they leave their home country for a new one, does not mean they lose the love of their culture. While there are many pressure, specifically on younger kinds to assimilate, there are safe places such as home that lets them still experience true aspects of their home.
We all are and we all aren't our stereotypes.
I think this is an interesting and true take on identity. Unfortunately, no one can force everyone to stop stereotyping or understand equity, but understanding that is small-minded and separated from true identity can be freeing for many people of marginalized backgrounds. Some people even find solace and reclaim these stereotypes to bolden their identity, which is also impactful.
Both schools had computer labs, art pro-grams, and music programs, but Swan had many more resources and much higher average achievement scores. Graffiti and physical con-frontations between students were common only at Lower Richmond. At these two sites and in Lawrenceville, white faculty predominated.
It is definitive in the data that more resources can provide better and higher achievement rates for students. It has also been seen that providing a diverse faculty that reflect different backgrounds and experience can be influential to children, especially those who are of minoritized backgrounds that can find a mentor/role model that they can see themselves in.
Still, all in all, life was great. My parents loved me, and I got along with my younger brother. In fact, the biggest downside to being poor was that my mom and dad had to work really hard.
I think this idea is o important, because so many parents get blamed for not wanting to be involved in their children's lives (mainly coming from school), but in reality many parents are trying their best to provide the basics for their kids and there are not enough hours in a day sadly. Which is why it's crucial to offer supports and services so both the parent and child can have better chances of a positive educational upbringing.
Sometimes I would be "sick" on the day we had to bring our favorite holiday gift to school for show-and-tell.
The anxiety and emotional duress children facing poverty feel for reasons like this happening at school is so heartbreaking. That's why it's so important to include lesson plans that assist AGAINST inequality. For example, this teach could have had a lesson on making a gift for someone special before the holidays or writing thank you notes for after instead of potentially humiliating students.
Thus, teachers may believe that students from low-income backgrounds cannot be taught effectively, lack the necessary intellectual and cognitive dispositions to be successful learners, and come from home environments that do not support learning.
If they aren't getting support and confidence from school and aren't able to access resources or a safe learning space at home, how are these kids able to claw their way out of this loop? That's why it's so important to provide actual ways for students to persevere.
Moreover, children from impoverished backgrounds are more likely to have parents with low-wage jobs or no employment at all, increasing the likelihood of their moving from place-to-place, with student mobility com-promising learning opportunities for students
And this furthers the classist system even more, because then their education quality is lessened which can increase their chances of struggling in school or pursuing higher education later.
r. In reality, the cost of living varies dra-matically based on geography; for example, people classifi ed as poor in San Francisco might not feel as poor if they lived in Clay County, Kentucky.
I see a lot of this even in my own life. Like for what I pay for a small apartment with roommates in Irvine, we could be living in a house in Texas.
he difference between the two poverty rates has averaged about 5 percent for the last 30 years, with urban rates near 10–15 percent and rural rates near 15–20 percent
It's interesting that it is most seen in rural and urban areas, being at two very different ways of living. I wonder why more suburban areas (such as OC) are less afflicted for any other reason than population.