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June 11 - June 14, 2021
What I am suggesting is that it is possible for people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to take on approaches to teaching that hurt youth of color.
A fundamental step in this challenging of structures is to think about new ways for all education stakeholders—particularly those who are not from the communities in which they teach—to engage with urban youth of color.
As long as white middle-class teachers are recruited to schools occupied by urban youth of color, without any consideration of how they affirm and reestablish power dynamics that silence students, issues that plague urban education (like achievement gaps, suspension rates, and high teacher turnover) will persist.
The neoindigenous often look, act, and engage in the classroom in ways that are inconsistent with traditional school norms.
Addressing the cultural differences between teachers and students requires what educational researcher Gloria Ladson-Billings describes as culturally relevant pedagogy.7 This approach to teaching advocates for a consideration of the culture of the students in determining the ways in which they are taught. Unfortunately, this approach cannot be implemented unless teachers broaden their scope beyond traditional classroom teaching.
when teachers try to use neoindigenous language, they often find it challenging to do so properly. They fail to recognize the highly complex linguistic codes and rules one must know before being able to speak it with fluency—that
In urban schools, where the neoindigenous are taught to be docile and complicit in their own miseducation and then celebrated for being everything but who they are, they learn quickly that they are expected to divorce themselves from their culture in order to be academically successful.
The work for white folks who teach in urban schools, then, is to unpack their privileges and excavate the institutional, societal, and personal histories they bring with them when they come to the hood.
The reality is that we privilege people who look and act like us, and perceive those who don’t as different and, frequently, inferior.
The urban youth who inhabit these complex psychic spaces, and for whom imagination is the chief escape from harsh realities, walk through life wrapped in a shroud of emotions whose fibers are their varied daily experiences.
Students exist in a space within the classroom while the teacher limits their understanding to what is happening in the classroom place.
many teachers cannot see beyond their immediate location (the school) and therefore have a very limited understanding of space. Many more are taught to ignore psychic space altogether, and therefore cannot fathom what it must be like for students to whom the classroom is a breeding ground for traumatic experiences.
John Searle defines reality as an agreed-upon outlook on or about social life based on how it is perceived or created by a group of people. He also sees reality as “facts relative to a system of values that we hold.”
educators must create safe and trusting environments that are respectful of students’ culture.
Reality pedagogy is an approach to teaching and learning that has a primary goal of meeting each student on his or her own cultural and emotional turf.
It posits that while the teacher is the person charged with delivering the content, the student is the person who shapes how best to teach that content. Together, the teacher and students co-construct the classroom space.
Reality pedagogy does not draw its cues for teaching from “classroom experts” who are far removed from real schools,
When teaching doesn’t connect to students, it is perceived as not belonging to them.
the key to getting students to be academically successful (even if the teacher decides that success means passing an exam), is not to teach directly to the assessment or to the curriculum, but to teach directly to the students.
Once educators recognize that they are biased against forms of brilliance other than their own, they can finally begin to truly teach.
Whether we are talking about preachers or MCs, both use music to create a context for engaging their audience and then utilize the context that has been created as a tool for sharing information.
This led to powerful conversations about the need for students to engage emotionally in order to learn from someone or something. Pentecostal pedagogy, and the hip-hop pedagogy that comes from it, is successful because it provides a safe space to identify, discuss, and express emotion.
“Clients walk into my shop to get a haircut, but as a master of my craft, my responsibility is to ensure that the client leaves the barbershop having had a personal experience with me that makes them want to come back. It’s bigger than just a haircut.”
Once the students’ voice is valued, the educator can work toward fostering family—crucial for the neoindigenous. Within urban communities, particularly within socioeconomically deprived places, those who do not have traditional family structures often create their own with other members of their community. Consequently, the same social and emotional ties that exist within traditional families exist in neoindigenous communities among the wide range of people within these communities.
For the educator, knowledge of the process by which these familial bonds are created, and a command of the tools that support their creation, is integral to being effective.
The best classroom teachers develop ways to make the classroom feel like a family that has its own distinct rules, ways of speaking, and power dynamics.
Cogens are simple conversations between the teacher and their students with a goal of co-creating/generating plans of action for improving the classroom.
In a school system that positions black and brown boys as loud, abrasive, and unteachable, and that rewards black and brown girls for being submissive, teachers often give students good grades for being “nice and quiet” at the expense of ensuring that they are learning.
I argue that every consistent patterned action over time becomes a ritual and that practices become rituals once they have been set in place and have been successfully repeated at least three times.
For all students, consistency is key to effective teaching. For the neoindigenous (like the indigenous), consistent shared rituals are at the essence of the culture and important for setting the tone for learning.
when differences between the teacher and students are present and go unaddressed, they multiply quickly.
The key to becoming an effective educator is acknowledging the differences between students and teacher and adjusting one’s teaching accordingly, which often requires nontraditional approaches to teaching and learning.
Researchers have identified that touch is a significant form of communication that can be associated with positive relational and educational outcomes,
As I spent more time in the students’ communities, my social networks within the communities expanded, and I spent less time in the morning and after school planning sessions that used to take up most of my time.
When context is infused into instruction in a way that truly reflects where the students are from, a new challenge emerges: the teacher has to be more knowledgeable of the content than ever before. When the students are fully engaged, their curiosity about the content is awakened, and they are constantly exploring the connections between the context and the content that the teacher identified and brought to the classroom. Once this happens, they begin asking questions that go beyond the scope of the traditional lesson.
Once context and content are focused on in a way that challenges how educators look at the communities where the students are from and the ways they allow youth to engage content, the very nature of teaching and learning begins to shift. This shift will challenge the comfort level of the educator and perceptions of what a “good classroom” looks like, but allows them to experience the true joy of teaching.
Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. (Bringing Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Engagement in Science) is an initiative focused on utilizing the power of hip-hop music and battle culture to introduce youth to the wonder and beauty of science.
While many may not see what style has to do with teaching and learning, I argue that the art of teaching the neoindigenous requires a consideration of the power of art, dress, and other dimensions of their aesthetic. Teachers often fail to understand that the bleak realities of urban youth and the drab physical spaces they are often confined to contribute to an insatiable desire to engage in, and with, artistically stimulating objects and environments.
Graffiti is a way for the neoindigenous to dress up their neighborhoods in much the same way that clothing dresses up the body. Each graffiti piece can be seen as the equivalent of placing a rose in one’s hair or placing a handkerchief in the pocket of an otherwise drab suit.
Forcing youth to ascribe to a way of being, existing, and appearing despite the fact that it runs counter to who they authentically are is reminiscent of the historical practice of forcing indigenous Native American populations to cut their hair and dress like Europeans as part of their education.
The effective educator attempts to speak the language of the neoindigenous as it extends to cultural expression. In attempting to speak this language, its complexity emerges, fostering appreciation and respect on the part of teachers that supports their connection with students.
Some of the most successful people in the world have an uncanny ability to fit in across multiple social settings. They read the codes or rules of engagement in a particular social field, identify which ones have value, adopt them, enact them, and through this process, form powerful connections to new people.
a distinction must be made between code switching and teaching students to be unnaturally like others for acceptance.
I argue for an authentic code switching that involves valuing oneself and one’s culture while appreciating and understanding the codes of other cultures. It involves fluidly navigating multiple spaces and, in the process, creating new codes that embrace a more hybridized identity.
I argue that one of the most powerful ways for the educator to gain insight into the world of the neoindigenous is to develop an understanding of the online communities of which they are a part.
Allowing social media to have a more positive impact on the neoindigenous requires teaching about, and using these tools, in their schools. It also requires studying the ways they engage with these tools productively, and then celebrating these forms of engagement.
many of the neoindigenous are unaware of how to use their social media presence to extend and build upon social networks that may include professionals in their fields of interest or future careers. The reality pedagogue understands these realities, and ensures that youth gain opportunities to maximize their life opportunities while directly assessing, learning, and using the tools that have significance in/on their lives.
I have used Twitter to engage audiences who are interested in the intersections of hip-hop and education through the hashtag #HipHopEd.
The way that a teacher teaches can be traced directly back to the way that the teacher has been taught.
The longer teachers teach, the better they are at their practice. That practice may serve to empower students or it may break the students’ spirit. That decision belongs to the teacher.
