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Unconscious Teacher Discrimination


What Does Racism Look Like in Schools?

What is Anti-racist Education?
Principles of Anti-Racist Education


Enid Lee points out that teachers can unintentionally discriminate against minority students. In the following chart Lee lists five self-evaluation criteria developed by the Ontario Ministry of Education and follows each with racial and cultural factors which must be considered if teachers are to provide equality of opportunity for students of all racial and cultural backgrounds.

What Does Racism Look Like in Schools?

Enid Lee suggests that racism in our schools and teaching has something to do with all of the following:

Ministry Criteria for Self Evaluation

Further Consideration

1. Is my questioning thoughtfully prepared to foster higher thinking skills (application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation)?

Do I unconsciously direct more complex, thoughtful questions to some students and not to others? If this is the case, is there a particular racial or cultural breakdown to the groups? If so, is it because they have had difficulty with these kinds of questions? If this is the case, what remedial steps have I taken?

2. Do I encourage critical thinking and response?

How far am I willing to allow response which reflects values which diverge sharply from mine? What if the student's response seems to be asserting a racial and cultural pride which may be different from my own? What if the response implies that Canada is a racist country and that racism exists in the school? When do I begin to feel defensive?

3. Do my students feel free to take risks with language (use new words, guess at meanings, attempt new structures and styles?

What have I done to create a positive environment in my room to foster the confidence necessary for risk-taking? Have I tried to be responsive to the language of those who have an accent or some vocabulary items different from mine (e.g. West Indian speakers of Standard English)? How have I attempted to confirm and accept those students and their culture so that they trust me enough to take risks in my classroom?

4. Do I assist the students when dealing with material of gradually increasing difficulty, to set purposes, to relate the material to their experiences, to unlock the meaning of key words or phrases and thus gain confidence?

How much do I know of the experiences of students from racial and cultural minorities? How often have I ligitimized the experiences of those students in the process of my teaching so that they recognize that their experiences count and are acceptable for regular classroom use not just on multicultural days?

5. Do I encourage my students to evaluate their discussions and increase their awareness of group dynamics?

Do I ever encourage the students to examine whether racial and cultural differences hinder the group discussions and make them, perhaps, less open to ideas of a group member of another colour?

 

What is Anti-racist Education?

Enid Lee is the Supervisor of Race and Ethnic Relations for the North York Board of Education and one of the most respected authorities in Canada on multicultural and anti-racist education. In this passage she describes the nature of anti-racist education and why teachers should be involved:

Anti-racist education is a perspective that permeates all subject areas arid school practices. Its aim is the eradication of racism in all its various forms.

Anti-racist education emerges from an understanding that racism exists in society and, therefore, the school as an institution of society, is influenced by racism.

Anti-racist education attempts to equip us as teachers, and our students, with the analytic tools to critically examine the origins of racist ideas and practices, and to understand the implication of our own race and our own actions in the promotion of, or struggle against, racism.

It provides us with the skills to work collectively to combat racism. It shows the relationship between our personal prejudices and the systematic discrimination which institutions practice on a daily basis. It enables us to see that racism is learned, and therefore, can be unlearned.

It exposes the structures in society - the ways we have organized our lives and institutions -that limit some people on the basis of their race, and advance others on the basis of their race. It points to the social ordering of people and groups as one of the major sources of racist ideas.

It explores how the political, social and economic life of a society is reinforced, and shaped by our daily exposure to that life through the media, textbooks, cards, games, toys, and so on.

It exposes inadequate explanations which attempt to justify and account for people's different positions in the society. It attacks the notion that if you work hard you will make it It does not allow the examiner to dismiss such "failure" as bad luck or inherent inferiority. Rather, anti-racist education highlights some of the human-made social structures and barriers which limit individuals and groups from improving their chances in life, despite their best efforts.

Anti-racist education moves us forward to construct the true multicultural society of which we presently speak It moves us beyond the comfortable aspect of each other's culture, the food and the festivals, to examining the more controversial dimensions of culture which have led to change, and can lead to change.

Anti-racist education, then, is the business of all teachers, in all schools.

Source: Enid Lee, Letters to Marcia: A Teacher's Guide to Anti-Racist Education, Cross Cultural Communication Centre, Toronto, 1985.

Principles of Anti-Racist Education

Many educators in the 1980's have been re-examining the nature of multiculturalism in the classroom and making clear distinctions between multiculturalism and anti-racist education.

Barb Thomas has worked in the area of race relations for many years and makes some important distinctions between multiculturalim and anti-racist education, especially in terms of their respective approaches to change.

Thomas points out that multiculturalism seeks changes in the attitudes of Canadians towards each other, but seeks to promote change in a "positive light" so that people (meaning primarily members of the dominant culture) will not be "turned off the whole thing". Anti-racist education seeks changes as well, but Thomas sees significant differences in the ways it would happen. She outlines five major differences:

  1. Multiculturalism promotes the notion that people (usually those in the dominant culture) require more information about other cultures and some soul-searching about their attitudes towards those cultures.
    The anti-racist educator does not accept the idea that providing information about other cultures will necessarily result in increased tolerance.
    This is because stereotypes have already been learned in a variety of ways and new information can simply be organized to reinforce existing understandings. Anti-racist education means creating a climate where stereotypes and racist ideas can be exposed and argued out; where sources of information can be examined; where alternative and missing information can be provided; and where the historical and current reasons for inequality can be explored.
  2. Multiculturalism tends to treat culture as a static body of information and emphasizes the more consumable dimensions of food, dress, `customs', and habits.
    Anti-racist education sees culture as more than the study of how people lived and what they did in their countries of origin.
    It is the lived, everyday responses of people to the circumstances in which they find themselves, and the manner in which they attempt to act on and change those circumstances. Teachers must use the experiences of their students and their parents as a starting point for understanding `culture' - their experiences at home, at work, in their communities.
  3. Multiculturalism believes that institutional practices which are unfair need to be identified and made fair. Equal access must be provided to jobs, programs and services.
    Anti-racist education would welcome this `equal access' to programs, services and jobs but it also recognizes that there are some hitches to this notion.
    Many Canadians are out of work and receive welfare and social assistance. Equal access means competing to beat someone else out, someone who may also need equal access. This situation must be recognized as a breeding ground for fingerpointing and racist scape-goating. Anti-racist educators recognize that the school will have to play an important role in equipping students for this job market and this economy. While not being able to change the economy, we can continue to help our students develop the necessary skills for living and acting on the conditions which may oppress them.
  4. Anti-racist education seeks to engage the energies of both those who experience racism, and those who are members of the dominant culture, in the challenge to racism.
    It recognizes that there can be resistance to this engagement, that people who have power or benefit from existing power relations are not likely to be in the forefront of change. The fight against racism is most often led by those who suffer from its effects. Therefore, teachers must learn more about how people have resisted and are resisting racism - from their students and from the community. It means putting community and world events squarely in the classroom.
  5. Anti-racist education presumes that racism can only be challenged through informed, collective action.
    Racism is not an individual problem - it is lodged squarely in the policies, structures, practices and beliefs of everyday life. For teachers it means working with colleagues, sharing resources, professional development, and collaboration with parents. Collective action is crucial to the development of a school where racism can be discussed frankly, and where it can be resisted effectively.

Source: Barb Thomas, "Principles of Anti-Racist Education" in Currents: Readings in Race Relations, Volume 2, No. 3, Fall 1984.