How the roots of white supremacy taints the reality of who can and who cannot be an artist.
Much of what is understood to be art and artistic in education in the United States is rooted in a white supremacist notion of what normal is. Normalcy and whiteness are often characterized as universal notions. If deviated from in any capacity, negative reactions become a very real consequence. When it comes to determining what art is, we can look to the aristocracy for evidence of what they value and why. Leavy talks about some physical reactions to art, music, literature, and…
Get used to it, folks. Remote learning is here to stay…and Remote Learning Environments (RLE) can actually be awesome!
Millions of Americans were forced to transition to a world of education they, perhaps, had only heard about. A world where human interaction exists in virtual spaces. A world where assignments come in the form of online activities, quizzes and exams, video postings, discussion boards, and more are the new normal for academia. In this world those who hold are open to a complete reimagination of higher education will survive and their institutions stood. Those who cling to an outdated model…
One student’s perspective from the frontlines of racist curriculum
Author’s Note
When I first started this project, how do linguistic and cultural diversity connect to teaching and learning, I immediately thought about a former student of mine. As an undocumented immigrant living in the United States since the age of 7, they have a great deal of experience attempting to navigate the American education system. I recently called them to talk about their experiences with ESL classes and this brief, informal interview, is the focus of this paper. …
Leverage your talents gained during remote learning to maximize your earnings…or at least get a job.
Let me be candid here for a minute…remote learning sucks. Why does it suck? For a million and two reasons, but primarily because it deprives an individual from the physical interaction with the material, their instructor, their peers, and a dedicated learning environment. As millions of us have altered the contours of our homes to accommodate a new space where we can dedicate to our studies, bedrooms and living rooms are taking on a whole new meaning. But for what? So that we can get a piece of paper that essentially denotes our ability to suffer through long Zoom meetings…
Why spend good money to have a bad time?
These last 365 days since the beginning of colleges and universities shuttering to prevent widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 have been a mess, euphemistically. Student mental health decreased, food and housing insecurity increased, professors with no business leading an online class were forced to adapt their curriculum to the virtual format…some on their own. Suffice it to say, administrators, faculty, staff who survived (literally!) the last academic year are looking forward to summer break and putting this all behind them…only to revisit the same storm we’ve unsuccessfully attempted to chart an effective course through.
That said, there are glimmers of hope…
Best practices from your friend in the field.
As vaccinations rise and COVID-19 cases fall (and deaths, too), schools are contemplating how to best reopen and keep everyone safe. As an educator for the last 12 years, I am not being cynical when I say that most of the decisions regarding campus access are made without the input of teachers. We don’t get to cancel class when it snows, do we? No, that decision is made by an (over-paid and under-worked) administrator with the relative power to make that happen.
So, the question then becomes, as the decision to reopen our schools is being driven by the wizards…
And guess what…it doesn’t involve giving them more work to do.
Students at all levels of education are reaching a breaking point in the academic year. In my classes, students are reporting higher rates of depression, anxiety, feelings of being overwhelmed, pressure from internal (e.g., themselves) and external sources (e.g., parents, counselors, peers, etc.) and are finding it challenging to continue on through their work. Here is the deal, if we, as educators, have ever had a moment to demonstrate our collective humanity and sincere interest in ensuring the safety and well-being of our pupils, it is now. Now, that said, I am sure that most of you are dealing with…
Newsflash…you can’t and don’t try.
If you clicked on this article, you are probably like me…scouring the internet for “gold” in the form of some magical new tool, resource, and/or activity that will free me and my students from the now routine dance of logging in and tuning out. Millions of students and educators are attempting to navigate an educational landscape they never could have imagined. Even the most seasoned remote instructors and online students are reaching their threshold of Zoom meetings, virtual happy hours, and remote escape rooms. Why are we banging our heads against the wall trying to recreate the in-person experience online…
Colleges and universities force students to conform to a vision of student success that is largely steeped in white dominant thinking. For Latina college students, this can be particularly challenging as they are forced into navigating a educational system filled with social and professional opportunities that ignore their gender and racial identity. Fraternal organizations founded by and for Latinas can be alluring to emerging scholars seeking to build social and cultural capital necessary to achieve success as it is prescribed by their institution. This study focuses on the lived experience of one Latina who entered into a Latina-focused sorority.
A…
AUTHOR’S NOTE
As a middle-class heterosexual white male sociology professor, it is important for me to acknowledge my participation contributed to the normalization of whiteness in education. I excluded voices of non-white scholars in my curriculum. I exemplified a number of social problems using non-white characters and actors from the media and news. I failed to expose many of my students prior to coming to Chicago to the realities of white dominance in American society because I was so inundated in privilege it was impossible for me to see any alternative narrative as being even remotely possible. My journey through…
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