Judging students based on their identity

Treating people based on their identity is a common act. People might like you or dislike you just because of your race, language, nationality, etc. Sadly, this act can be seen anywhere, even at schools. Many teachers put assumptions on students because of who they are and where they come from. What is worse than that is that some students believe that stereotypes and act upon them.  

All students come to the class with their valued knowledge. As teachers, we should appreciate students’ culture and knowledge and make sure that they know how much we value them. 

How students’ identity affects the way they see themselves and the way their teachers see them:

Raul, a student in Vetter’s (2010) article admitted that he feels people around him sometimes see him as “dumb Mexican”. Because of that Raul rarely participated in class discussions. Many students are similar to Raul, they will prefer being silent rather than participating in the class because of the fear of confirming the stereotypes put on them. Raul was lucky to be with a teacher who understood him and tried her best to help him to engage in the classroom. However, not all teachers are like Raul’s teacher. Sometimes teachers judged students without trying to understand why they acted the way they did. Just imagine If Raul’s teacher assumed that he is incapable of understanding or he is not interested in learning just because he does not participate, and she kept giving him unpleasant feedback. What would that do to him?  

Mrs. O’Reilly in Hall’s (2010) article told her class on 10 different occasions that they are poor readers. Even though she told them after that she is going to help them, labeling them is enough to leave them with the feeling that they are not smart enough. She told her students “Good readers, had a strong set of comprehension strategies that they applied when reading. They engaged with reading tasks, in ways that allowed them to learn from texts. Poor readers don’t do these things. They don’t try to fix their comprehension problems” (Hall, 2010, p. 1802) Labeling them as poor readers after telling them that poor readers “do not try enough” is just telling them indirectly that they do not want to improve. 

Students need teachers who will understand them, believe in them, and try to communicate with them. Teachers need to create supporting and nurturing space for students to take risks and push back against the stereotypes. 

Rita Pierson, who has been teaching since 1972 and passed away in 2013, is one of my role models and one of the people who inspires me a lot. Pierson, in one of her TED talks, talked about her experience teaching an academically deficient classroom, she made her students feel smart and she made them feel that they deserve to be educated. One of the examples she mentioned was a student who only answered two questions out of 20 in a quiz, instead of marking his paper with -18 she put +2 and draw a smile beside it. The student came to her questioning the smiley face in his paper even though he got an F, she told him this is because he did not miss all of the questions and he answered two of them correctly. What she did make that student feel smart and capable of doing better the next time, imagine if she marked his paper with -18 and treated him as a title 1 student, would he feel the same? Would he be excited to do better the next time? Or would he continue having bad scores and kept thinking of himself as an incapable student?

Every kid needs a champion - Rita Pierson 

Teaching through what is important in students view and through their lenses:

“If educators can understand girls' identities and ways to engage them in

writing, this knowledge can help support them in crafting writing experiences in

classrooms that not only build their skills but also help youth to make sense of who

they are” (Muhammad, 2015) 

“To understand the subjective relations of the participants and schooling we need to better understand how they understand themselves that is we need to understand their identities as lived by them” (Roth et al., 2004, p. 52, as cited in Fairbanks et al., 2011) 

Instead of assuming what students are like and what strategies will work with them, teachers need to understand their students, they need to take time to ask them questions about themselves, find what they love and what their goals are. Then, teachers can use the information they gathered in finding better ways to teach their students. 

Esmé, a student in Fairbanks’s et al. (2011) study talked about how frustrated she becomes because of her teacher when she asks her for help in writing an essay. Esmé said, “She was all talking to me like if I understand” (Fairbanks’s et al., 2011, p. 7) Esmé’s teacher tried to help Esmé using the ways she personally thinks that are effective, however, they were not enough to help Esmé in her writing. Another teacher of Esmé used to sit with her when she asks for help, which was helpful for Esmé. The second teacher did what Esmé thinks is helpful and that results in better and more effective help. 

   A space to reflect:

As a student, have you ever been in a classroom where you felt that no one understand you? If yes, why?

References:

Fairbanks, C., Crooks, P. M., & Ariail, M. (2011). Becoming something different: Learning from Esme. Harvard Educational Review, 81(1), 1-24.

Hall, L. A. (2010). The negative consequences of becoming a good reader: Identity theory as a lens for understanding struggling readers, teachers, and reading instruction. Teachers College Record, 112(7), 1792-1829.

Muhammad, G. E. (2015). Searching for full vision: Writing representations of African American adolescent girls. Research in the Teaching of English, 224-247.

Vetter, A. (2010). Positioning students as readers and writers through talk in a high school English classroom. English Education, 43(1), 33-64.