I have come up with this: getting uncomfortable and opening up to vulnerability seem to be pretty powerful steps in a powerful direction.
Not one of these three pieces made any mention of comfort or a teachers right to comfort. However, all three seemed to touch upon this common notion of getting uncomfortable as a means of evoking change. This idea of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable could have lead to an anxious mind, but I actually found myself inwardly reveling in a moment of assurance. Could I be alone in feeling as if "Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Remix" was an invitation to discard this teacher persona of 'knower of all things?'
To further this, I quote Winn and Johnson, "culturally relevant pedagogy is also about the students who show up in our classrooms daily. It welcomes students' voices, demands their reflection, and pushes them towards discovery of self" (14). I really like the mention here of the "the students who show up ... daily"; For me this affirmed the idea that the classroom is a human space- constantly changing and shifting. I could enter the class with a plan in hand and outcome in mind but, taking the advice of Winn and Johnson and "regarding students as experts", I could quickly find my lesson heading towards an unexpected end. That could be uncomfortable, but thats okay; in fact, maybe a lot of growth could be had when a lesson heads in an unplanned direction.
In his TED Talk, Victor Rios speaks about the way his life changed because he had a teacher who was "culturally relevant, respected [his] community, [his] people, [his] family." He mentions this teachers cultural relevance, but he also mentions the way she continued to reach out to him- over and over again even when he denied her. I would say Rios' teacher leaned into discomfort and it changed Rios' life.
I think this thread of 'necessary discomfort' can continue to be extracted, perhaps with more ease, from the Hagopian and Lathan articles. In fact, the inspiration for this exploration of the role of discomfort came from Hagopian's article and her quote of the Garfield football team, "it is our hope that out of these potentially uncomfortable conversations positive, impactful change will be created." I felt uplifted, and stirred by the wisdom of this high school football team. Perhaps Colin Kaepernick took a knee to not only draw attention to "police terror in Black communities"but also to highlight the way we tend to retreat to comfortable places.
Perhaps the "White Teacher" that Chrysanthius Lathan was addressing in her article, "Dear White Teacher", looks to the classroom the way some look to the sports arena- as a place for comfort. That seems like some dangerous business. Lathan writes, "you must confront your discomfort at all costs", and again I can't help but feel assured: It is okay to be uncomfortable, but it is not okay to ignore it!
When I first read the Mavis Staples quote at the top of our syllabus, "we have work to do", I thought of "work" as something to be done externally; however, maybe we also have some internal work to do, and who says that work should be comfortable.
Maddy, I love it when you said that when reading these articles, you felt uncomfortable. I have to agree with the feeling of going out of my comfort zone. At the same time, I am comfortable to go out of my comfort zone because, to be honest, life is full of uncomfortable experiences. Often, I didn't have much of a choice, but to embrace it gracefully and learn from it. Aftermaths, I often appreciated for being pushed out of my comfort zone. I trust that you will eventually experience it.
ReplyDeleteMaddy, like Deba, I love that you felt uncomfortable while reading these articles. I also felt that way, and it was a bizarre feeling. I know my comfort levels as a teacher, and as a white teacher potentially working with non-white students. I like to think that I do not have limits, and can constantly push myself out of my own comfort zone. What's interesting is that we are reading things like this, and THEY make me uncomfortable, but as a sub for the past few weeks, there have been a number of days where I am the minority as a white person, and that has NEVER made me feel uncomfortable. Since a decent amount of the reading(s) reference race, it seems that's where my mind has been hovering. I go from Pawtucket, where I am one of the only white people in some of my classrooms, to North Smithfield where I have been able to count on one hand the number of non-white students on ONE HAND in the entire school. Plus, I have yet to meet a non-white teacher. I don't know if this makes sense or is even relative to what you meant and said, but this is what I thought. I enjoyed your blog post, Maddsters!
ReplyDeleteMaddy fabulous job as always! I love your outside connections to your TED talk. This is absolutely a conversation that must be had because we are constantly reminded that to be better we must constantly put ourselves in uncomfortable conversation. The articles present this idea in a really refreshing way as you pointed out. It really showed how important it is to teach culturally relevant pedagogy that gives your students the agency to feel represented in your class as well as being connected to the world around them.
ReplyDeleteGreat observations Maddy. I really appreciate you bringing up your discomfort. I think that's all part of the process of becoming self-aware and it's scary but necessary as a teacher and as a citizen of the world. In Dear White Teacher it really highlights that teachers of color are often expected to take on the discomfort that white teachers feel when they are among predominantly students of color. They often don't know where to begin and they get overwhelmed when there's an issue regarding behavior but it's the teacher's responsibility to find their authority without being an authoritarian. It's even more important that students build trust with their teacher and it seems like Lathan had a really deep bond with these students where their own teachers did not. I think that's where the most positive change comes from. Teachers need to show their students that they'll stick it out even when they initially are unsure how to handle difficult tasks.
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