Students+have+the+right+to+racial+and+ethnic+identity

Racial identity is an assertion about one's self-identity. This is not dissimilar from ethnic identity which is how students identify themselves in respect to cultural influences and family history.



The Right to Respect
Students have the right to have their race or ethnicity respected in terms of NOT being ridiculed, underrepresented, and NOT having your language subordinated to others. The overall right to have your culture, race, and ethnicity in equity with anyone elses in the classroom.This is not merely the respect of a student's belief or lifestyle, though that is tributary, rather it the desire to uphold a pedagogical doctrine that all students must be educated equally and fairly.
 * // "Although the instruction was excellent, she [Delpit's daughter] seemed to be sinking into some sort of emotional abyss. Although her class had several African American boys, she was the only African American girl. She was often excluded by the other girls...When she approached me one day and request that she be allowed to get plastic surgery because her lips were "too big," I knew I had to act. she transferred midyear to a new start-up public charter school with a population of about 98% African American children. As she developed new friends, her self-esteem soared and once more she became the funny, creative, self-assured kid I recognized." // [Lisa Delpit on her daughter's reaction to feeling alienated in school because of her race and gender] (Delpit 34).
 * This is an example of a parent responding to their child's seemingly random slip nto poor performance in school. This is an example of a respecting a child's race and ethnic identity, thus the student is able to overcome alienation and return to her specific "norm."

The Right to have unique traditions and values incorporated into the classroom

 * Students have the right to an open environment in which they can learn about their traditions and values, in a way that is academic and provides meaning to them and their learning in the classroom. [|Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools] is a document followed by schools that incorporates the oral tradition as well as many other traditions of the community in to the schools. This is effective in that students can now become more connected with their traditions in an academic setting. It not only has a positive effect on the students, but the teachers and community as well.
 * // “Standards have been drawn up in five areas, including those for students, educators, curriculum, schools, and communities. These “cultural standards” provide guidelines or touchstones against which schools and communities can examine what they are doing to attend to the cultural well-being of the young people they are responsible for nurturing to adulthood.” //

= The Right To Have Your Home Language or "Mother Tongue" Respected The Classroom =

Students have the right to have their home language respected and brought into everyday classroom learning. The incorporation of the mother tongue into the classroom allows the student to feel valued and respected for their unique qualities and home traditions. This safe and nurturing environment allows students to relax and focus on classwork instead of worrying about their place in classroom dynamics, which helps students to excel. // "It is vitally important that teachers value and build on students' existing home and community literacy practices in promoting literate competence in school: what may be termed: boundary crossing. That is, when the home school boundaries are deliberately blurred or crossed, students' investment in school learning appears to increase...it is important for teachers to develop an understanding of students' personal community literacy resources and to try to incorporate them into classroom practices in locally relevant ways." // (8)
 * One way that educators can observe the incorperation of the home language is through the work of Judith Baker who is featured in Lisa Delpit's The Skin That We Speak. Baker actually has her students study their home language and conducts class discussions about language characteristics. Using this method students decipher language elements and, "//We find patterns of speech, rules of grammer, vocabulary, tonal features, and emotional characteristics of language which we note, label discuss and eventually compare to the features of what we call "formal" English. I have done this successfully by asking groups of students to present the class with a good, complete description of how their members usually speak at home and with friends."// (9)


 * The Right to Racial Awareness in the Classroom **

// "The study of grammar is very much a personal issue, a racial and class issue, a political issue-- and doing backward like this, motivation first, rules last, examining the dialects before the formal language, is something with which my students will cooperate. Further, for me the teacher, the roles of "student as expert" and "student as researcher" come a little more into focus each time we do projects like this, and as I tend to trust my students more, they in turn feel more respected and comfortable in class." // 14

By giving her students a chance to explore their own dialects she allows them to feel more comfortable and responsible for their own learning.


 * The Right to Education that Provides a Voice to Students **

// "The Algebra Project is founded on the idea that the ongoing struggle for citizenship and equality for minority people is now linked to and issue of math and science literacy. This idea determines strategies and choices made about the organization, dissemination, and content of the curriculum. It's important to make it clear that even the development of some sterling new curriculum - a real breakthrough - would not make us happy if it did not deeply and seriously address the issue of access to literacy for everyone. That is what is is driving the project. The Algebra Project is not about simply transferring a body of knowledge to children. It is about using that knowledge as a tool to a much larger end." // 1

Robert Moses uses The Algebra Project to give minority groups the chance to gain knowledge in the areas of math and science literacy. Moses is driven to make literacy available to all students because he knows that literacy comprehension is an important skill that needs to master. By implementing these projects he is given students of minority groups a voice in their education by allowing them the opportunity to learn and comprehend literacy skills. This will allow the students who attend these schools to further their education and give each of them a voice.

HOME