Social Justice

As a researcher, my primary interest for the last 4 decades has really been on issues of educational inequality. That has a lot to do with having grown up in the south.

and having experienced real segregation and all black schools through the 12^th grade and then going to a desegregated college. Those experiences fueled my curiosity and interest in trying to understand what could be done to change the pattern of inequality with regard to access to quality schooling.

More recently I’ve come to really appreciate the importance of high quality teachers. Growing up in a segregated system such as Richmond, VA — it wasn’t just the kids in the community were segregated, but segregation worked in such a way that my teachers became my teachers as a result of segregation.

My teachers were exceptional in their capabilities, competencies, and intellect. They were my teachers as a consequence of segregation. Following the desegregation of schools after the Brown decision in 1954 and after the Civil Rights Act, many of my teachers went on to teach at universities.  So we had exceptional teachers, but it was at the expense of those educators not being able to have the careers they were well prepared and capable of pursuing.

At one point I wrote an article about the importance of having teachers who knew me, knew my circumstances, knew my conditions, knew the challenges. Those teachers taught me to a model of achievement that prepared for a world that didn’t exist when they were teaching me that way. I’ve always appreciated teachers, and teaching and learning. My research about producing better student outcomes is informed by my understanding that teachers can do exceptional things.

In the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s teaching was an honorable and a highly regarded profession. Teachers, doctors, and lawyers—that’s how we named them.  Our teachers are not less well prepared now, nor are they less capable, but society has changed in a number of ways.

My teachers lived in my community because of segregation. They knew our communities, they had real life experiences, knew the families, so they could reach out and exercise some social control over kids.

Teachers don’t have that same kind of fundamental knowledge of the communities in which they teach. In many places, especially urban environments, teachers can’t even afford to live in the same communities that the children they teach live in.  There are real challenges that teachers face in terms of having the socio-cultural knowledge of a child’s environment and context that would enable them to impact the child differently in addition to working on the child’s academic skills.

Gary Orfield and I and have worked together on a number of school desegregation projects.  We were having a meeting trying to design an instrument that would enable us to assess the benefits of diversity in the classrooms. Patricia Gandader, a participant in the meeting, told a story about an awards program she attended at the end of a middle school year.  Although the school was divers in terms of student population, all of the academic awards went to white students and almost none went to either Latino or African American students.  The awards that did go to them had to do with the extra curricular activities. As the program progressed, may of the parents of color began to leave. The teachers were not aware and not understanding the level of discomfort that these parents had with the program. Patricia explained to the teachers that symbolically they’d communicated that certain students were the learners and that the other students were something else.  We talked about the teacher’s sense of “this is normal.” To them, there  was nothing unusual about AA or Latino or Asian students not getting these academic awards.

That’s where I began to think about how common it is for us to see certain disparities and not be troubled by them because of what the media tells us, or because of what our segregated experiences allows to persist in terms of stereotypes.

It affects gender too so that we still don’t expect woman to be outstanding in STEM areas. We’re still struggling with those issues and topics and trying to make a difference. Trying to do the research on what will make a change there.

We need teachers who see these types of patterns and will look at and interrogate them rather than accept them.

Each of us feels more or less efficacious in different contexts and settings. As an expert witness in a school dissent case in Kansas City, a part of the data that I received was surveys they’d done of their teachers that used teacher efficacy scales. The items referenced the extent to which the individual teacher felt they were comfortable teaching low income students or students of color. I was able to associate teacher efficacy with student performance in their schools and find a meaningful and statistically significant correlation between teacher efficacy and student’s test scores. The more efficacious the teacher felt, the better the test scores.

We have to assess is how we go about making teachers feel more efficacious working with a much more diverse population. The US school population is going to be increasingly diverse. If we don’t’ make a substantial effort and meaningful progress in reducing poverty and improving the ability of a working family to have a living wage—we’re going to have a substantial percentage of free and reduced lunch kids in our schools. Teachers need to have a different understanding of what those kids capabilities are and their potential so that teachers actually believe that they can make a difference. 

eal segregation and all black schools through the 12^th grade and then going to a desegregated college. Those experiences fueled my curiosity and interest in trying to understand what could be done to change the pattern of inequality with regard to access to quality schooling.

More recently I’ve come to really appreciate the importance of high quality teachers. Growing up in a segregated system such as Richmond, VA — it wasn’t just the kids in the community were segregated, but segregation worked in such a way that my teachers became my teachers as a result of segregation.

My teachers were exceptional in their capabilities, competencies, and intellect. They were my teachers as a consequence of segregation. Following the desegregation of schools after the Brown decision in 1954 and after the Civil Rights Act, many of my teachers went on to teach at universities.  So we had exceptional teachers, but it was at the expense of those educators not being able to have the careers they were well prepared and capable of pursuing.

At one point I wrote an article about the importance of having teachers who knew me, knew my circumstances, knew my conditions, knew the challenges. Those teachers taught me to a model of achievement that prepared for a world that didn’t exist when they were teaching me that way. I’ve always appreciated teachers, and teaching and learning. My research about producing better student outcomes is informed by my understanding that teachers can do exceptional things.

In the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s teaching was an honorable and a highly regarded profession. Teachers, doctors, and lawyers—that’s how we named them.  Our teachers are not less well prepared now, nor are they less capable, but society has changed in a number of ways.

My teachers lived in my community because of segregation. They knew our communities, they had real life experiences, knew the families, so they could reach out and exercise some social control over kids.

Teachers don’t have that same kind of fundamental knowledge of the communities in which they teach. In many places, especially urban environments, teachers can’t even afford to live in the same communities that the children they teach live in.  There are real challenges that teachers face in terms of having the socio-cultural knowledge of a child’s environment and context that would enable them to impact the child differently in addition to working on the child’s academic skills.

Gary Orfield and I and have worked together on a number of school desegregation projects.  We were having a meeting trying to design an instrument that would enable us to assess the benefits of diversity in the classrooms. Patricia Gandader, a participant in the meeting, told a story about an awards program she attended at the end of a middle school year.  Although the school was divers in terms of student population, all of the academic awards went to white students and almost none went to either Latino or African American students.  The awards that did go to them had to do with the extra curricular activities. As the program progressed, may of the parents of color began to leave. The teachers were not aware and not understanding the level of discomfort that these parents had with the program. Patricia explained to the teachers that symbolically they’d communicated that certain students were the learners and that the other students were something else.  We talked about the teacher’s sense of “this is normal.” To them, there  was nothing unusual about AA or Latino or Asian students not getting these academic awards.

That’s where I began to think about how common it is for us to see certain disparities and not be troubled by them because of what the media tells us, or because of what our segregated experiences allows to persist in terms of stereotypes.

It affects gender too so that we still don’t expect woman to be outstanding in STEM areas. We’re still struggling with those issues and topics and trying to make a difference. Trying to do the research on what will make a change there.

We need teachers who see these types of patterns and will look at and interrogate them rather than accept them.

Each of us feels more or less efficacious in different contexts and settings. As an expert witness in a school dissent case in Kansas City, a part of the data that I received was surveys they’d done of their teachers that used teacher efficacy scales. The items referenced the extent to which the individual teacher felt they were comfortable teaching low income students or students of color. I was able to associate teacher efficacy with student performance in their schools and find a meaningful and statistically significant correlation between teacher efficacy and student’s test scores. The more efficacious the teacher felt, the better the test scores.

We have to assess is how we go about making teachers feel more efficacious working with a much more diverse population. The US school population is going to be increasingly diverse. If we don’t’ make a substantial effort and meaningful progress in reducing poverty and improving the ability of a working family to have a living wage—we’re going to have a substantial percentage of free and reduced lunch kids in our schools. Teachers need to have a different understanding of what those kids capabilities are and their potential so that teachers actually believe that they can make a difference.