Being a teacher in any school will have some form of challenge when it comes to collaborating with parents or guardians of the students. Especially within the Providence Public School and the classroom I have been in for the past few months. These schools and classrooms are extremely diverse. As a teacher we need to be open minded and recognize that every students home life is different. Some could be similar to what us as the teacher is familiar with or the complete opposite or somewhere in-between. No conclusion we come up with can be certain but there options are out there. Some children might live in a home where very little or no English is spoken, others might not get to spend that much time with their parents because they are left home with an older sibling while their single parent is out working their second or third job of the day, or you’ll find what many consider the ordinary family where the mom is usually home with them and there are still so many more possibilities.
In Johnsons’ article Our House Is On Fire he talks about the idea of white privilege. He makes a number of good points throughout the article about why things happen the way they do. He goes onto states that “the problem of race is not a problem of difference. The problem is a society organized around differences that are significant only in relation to an oppressive system of privilege.” Many of the parents of children of a multicultural classroom have been through schooling where white privilege was extremely dominate and teachers made it clear. They’ve might have been looked down on for one reason or another and treated differently. Now that they are parents they might feel as if they need to protect their children from this pain. So if as a teacher your just trying to talk to the parents of colored children, about what is going on within the classroom they might become defensive before you even get the chance to talk. Their initial thought is that just like their teachers did, you’re now looking down on their children.
As a white middle class teacher is a Providence Public school, people of color will have their own bias just like many white people do too. No matter what the situation is as a teacher I need to do the best to talk to all the students’ parents. Figure out what they would like from me/expect of me for the upcoming year and then tell them the ideas I also have in mind. Get them involved too, when fun things are going on in class or field trips talk to parents. Allow them to participate when they can. Make the parents feel involved and realize that I’m here to help their children, not to be bias towards anyone of them.
If a language barrier arises, and they are unable to comprehend what is being said to them and I am having trouble understanding them too maybe see if reading and writing is a possibility. Putting in that effort proves a lot to people. They can tell you care and want to work with them to get them involved. Prove to them you aren’t trying to get them and their children to only speak English, but to just learn it. Being bilingual is great, even an advantage.
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I agree with you about getting the parents involved in the curriculum and include them in the many things that go on in the classroom. I think another good way to include parents with language barriers is to get another bilingual teacher to help you write papers that go home in both English and Spanish. This will make bilingual parents feel welcomed and in doing this they will also feel that you are reaching out to them and communicating to them. One problem that comes up in my head with what you are saying, you mentioned at the top about single parents who are working day and night just to put food on the table do you have any ideas on how you would include them? One thing that i can think of is to make arranged meetings what them and give them your email if they have any questions for them to contact you so that they can still feel involved without being there. On thing about what you said at the top bothered me a little it was when you said that ordinary families are those where the mother is home with the children. when in fact to most students and children now a days ordinary is when the parents are not home to help them with home work. To define and use the word ordinary is hard especially with the amount of divorces and separations that people go through today to say that is not an ordinary family cause the mom is not home with them in most of these families the mom staying home is not ordinary. So this is also something maybe you should think about because how do you define an ordinary family these days.
ReplyDeleteI love your final comment, Amy. Seeing ELLs as an asset to our democracy instead of a deficit is a key to working toward social change.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the good fight,
Dr. August