Willingness To Be Disturbed a7344

Sam Kelly Dr. Aronson EDL 318, Section B 10 September 2015 “Willingness to be Disturbed” Self Reflection It’s interesting to look back and reflect on how I would have received the material from this class two years ago. I was a freshman at Miami University with hopes of gaining ission to the Farmer School of Business and any of the concepts we have discussed in this class, ones that I have discovered a real ion for, would have been dismissed. As Wheatley (2002) describes in Willing to be Disturbed, I didn’t have time to sit and listen to those who thought differently than I did and it was easy for me to sit comfortably in my white, upper middle class, educated upbringing suppressing any authentic concern for people of an upbringing different than mine. This is not to say I didn’t care about others, but I was in no way prepared to make a decision to create a career and life commitment to something based on just that. So here I am two years later, tussling with ideas that have certainly stretched my thinking and allowed me to explore the realities of the classroom. I have discovered my “willingness to be disturbed.” The main theme that I have noticed that is similar in all of the readings so far in this course is a call to action. It’s a call to act on the breakdowns in America’s education system and to be reflective agents. In the article Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Ingredients for Critical Teacher Reflection, Tyrone Howard offers a challenge. One of his main points is expressed in the following quote:

“The persistent school failure of an increasing number of racially diverse students should prompt educators to ask the difficult, yet obvious question: What, if anything, does race and culture have to do with the widespread underachievement of nonmainstream students? Thus, the need to rethink pedagogical practices is critical if underachieving students populations are to have improved chances for school success” (Howard, 2003, p. 196). My reaction to this quote is to just query why this question isn’t being asked about such an obvious problem. How can it be ignored and excused? It has everything to do with race and culture. As a future teacher, this argument presents to me a call to action to consistently reflect and create pedagogical practices that make learning more effective and curve this widespread underachievement. This issue that people of suffering races and cultures face comes down to power. In the reading The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?” Beverly Tatum’s (2000) main argument is that “the dominant group holds the power and authority in society relative to the subordinates and determines how that power and authority may be acceptably used” (p. 11). This answers Howard’s question. The people in power have created a system that benefits people of their own race and culture, which is why pedagogical practices to help the widespread underachievement of nonmainstream students are not in place. As a future educator, I want to work toward considering this system of privilege and what can be done to benefit all students. If this system of privilege is not confronted, everyone suffers. In the reading Critical Race Theory, Multicultural Education, and the Hidden Curriculum of Hegemony, Michelle Jay’s main argument is displayed in the following quote:

“Embracing a critical race theoretical perspective, I argue that the goals of multicultural education will continue to be thwarted in practice until a thorough interrogation of the hidden curriculum in educational institutions is brought to the fore of any research agenda on multicultural education specifically, and, by extension, social studies education in general” (p. 4). The United States is comprised of so many different groups that multicultural education is beyond necessary. Adopting this type of system not only helps in the education field itself, but also would allow for the reduction of discrimination in all aspects of our society. The benefits are endless.