For our FNED class this week we had to read a research review called “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies” written by Christine Sleeter. It was a very captivating reading. She starts off by introducing us to Carlos. Carlos graduated high school but never found school interesting. After being in the military for a while he came home and heard about a Chicano course his friend was taking. He looked more into this and found it very interesting, he even was so inspired that he went back to school. The author uses this story to hook the readers into her argument on how ethnic studies are important. The first important example she talks about are the books that are used to teach K-12. In these books there is a huge bias towards white people's stories. When African Americans are mentioned in these books its very limited and only talks about them in relation to slavery. Other races are also barely mentioned, including Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. The books also rarely mention racism, and when they do its focused on only in past tense. Sleeter says how teachers add details to the information that the students already know from their own lives. However, it doesn’t change their “interpretive framework, which derived from their experiences outside school”. This means that the way students live their lives affects how they perceive what they're being taught. Then she goes on to say how some students of races other than white don’t feel inspired to learn or bored because they aren’t learning about history that applies to them, only white people history. This I can definitely understand because I know for me, I take more interest in history when it's something I can relate to, like womans history. She concludes her paper how ethnic studies are needed to undo the harm that mainstream curriculum that focuses solely on the Euro-American storyline. I think it is very important to do anything we can to fix some of the damage that was done to the stories of so many people. In the future when I am a teacher, I hope that there will be more diverse books able for me to teach.
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Hey Ella! I also hope in the future, there will be more diverse books to teach. I think we are slowly making our way to accomplishing that, but it could still use a lot of work. Even though the topic of racism is heavy for young children to learn/understand, I think it is still important to acknowledge our history and our current society today and to teach these things to children at a young age, so they are set up for success and have an idea of what the real world is like. I don't think they need to know everything right away, but even diverse children's books could be the start of teaching students heavy topics. In the long run, I think it would be beneficial to students to start learning that at a young age.
ReplyDeleteHi! I think your blog post is really nice. I know you mentioned how for you when it comes to history you take more interest in what is interesting for you or in areas you can relate too. I am actually the same way. I am not the biggest fan of history and it usually takes something I relate to in order for me to enjoy what I am learning about. I think that as future teachers that we introduce different diverse materials to our students. I think that this way not only students can be able to see themselves in what we are teaching them but also to just show all our students the different cultures and perspectives that there is.
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