Observations

In many of the classrooms I have observed through ATLAS, there have been diversity issues. Many classes are small, and relatively homogenous. Often, there is only one student of color. On the other hand, there are classrooms with only people of color, and the teacher is the only non-POC. From my observations, teachers can be an extremely non-diverse group: of all the ATLAS videos I have watched this term, I only recall one teacher who was a POC.

This is a general outline of the diversity issues. Specifically, this may lead to certain content issues. Some topics in the classroom (slavery, immigration policies, etc.) that are uniquely relevant to POC lack POC voices because of the lack of diversity in the classroom. For example, I observed a case in which a majority white class (only one black student) discussed the pros and cons of the Reconstruction period. While the students were able to talk about how it was bad because it sought to punish the South rather than reform it, and other salient points of discussion, they seemed unaware of its effects on African Americans. Those African Americans were recently freed from slavery—what were the pros and cons of the Reconstruction period for African Americans? The African American voice is completely unheard.

Another example I observed was a classroom of all black students with a white teacher. In this case, the topic was immigration policy; and as far as I could tell, there were no students with an immigrant background. Here, the immigrant experience is the voice that is missing.

This is an interesting problem; it is not anyone’s fault that a given classroom is not diverse; perhaps the community as a whole has a homogenous demographic. Perhaps Asians (or some other group) are simply not present in that given community. How can different voices be introduced into a less-than-diverse classroom? I can think of a couple ways this can happen. In certain situations, the use of a certain text or primary source can introduce an unrepresented voice into the conversation. For example, an article written by a woman can introduce a new voice into a male dominated discussion. “In a Different Voice” is a prime example of this: Carol Gilligan presents a new perspective (a female perspective) on morality and moral development. While this solution can be a limited one since the unrepresented voice is not actually present in the classroom, I do think this can be helpful in extremely non-diverse environments. (Just a note on Gilligan: her work was quite revolutionary, in my opinion. I was amazed to see that her name was brought up multiple times in different moral philosophy articles—and all of these mentions highlighted the fact that she broke into a male-dominated field in a very meaningful way).

Another useful method was employed by the teacher in the second example. At one point, the teacher asked the student to consider the issue of immigration from the perspective of an immigrant. While I am not sure that the student was given adequate time/encouragement to really consider the different perspective, in theory, this can be a useful approach. “If you were a ___, what would you think/how would you feel about the situation?” At the very least, it allows a different voice to speak in the classroom, if only in a limited way.

Of course, diversity can also come from the teacher; as discussed multiple times in class, a majority of teachers are white women. As a result, other voices and experiences are often underrepresented. So hiring more diverse teachers can also be a solution.

Another issue with less-than-diverse classrooms is the level of comfort for the students who are part of underrepresented groups. How comfortable is a black student when the rest of the class and the teacher are all white? Especially when discussing certain issues where race is relevant (the American civil war, for instance), there is the potential for discomfort when the white voice is the only voice in a classroom. However, because this was a recorded video, I could not see clear instances of this. Whenever this becomes a problem, I think that the teacher could preempt it with a trigger/content warning, and make a significant effort to include other voices in their presentation of the content: inviting guest speakers, assigning particular readings, or whatever may be appropriate. I also think it is vital that the teacher provide a supportive platform for underrepresented students to share their perspectives.

One thing that I think is necessary for a teacher to support underrepresented students, which is impossible to observe via ATLAS, is relationship-building. I think a good teacher necessarily develops a relationship of trust and support for all their students, but this is especially important for underrepresented ones. In a classroom of all white students and a single black student, it is imperative for a teacher to adequately support the voice of the black student, in order to ensure that it is not drowned out. In order to know what situations can make a student uncomfortable, the teacher must build good relationships.

Connection to readings

As I was watching ATLAS videos, it occurred to me that the reading “The Gap Is in Our Expectations” was very focused on schools with almost-hierarchical tracks that were, in practice, racially segregated. The honors tracks would be mostly white, while the normal track would be mostly POC. And a significant part of the solution to closing the gap in expectations was to combine “low achievers” and “high achievers” into a single class. But what about a school with only one track? It seems to me that the gap in expectations is often subconsciously racist; teachers may hold the subconscious belief that white students have greater ability than black students do by default. Simply changing school structures and working to help each individual and unique student does not address implicit racial bias. I do not think “The Gap Is in Our Expectations” really addresses a significant part of the gap: the implicitly racist part (other articles do address this: “There is No Achievement Gap at Birth,” Delpit).

In Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue,” she brings up a certain point about learning styles that I found interesting. She relates the example of a black student who felt that a teacher being “mean” was a positive attribute, as it demonstrates strength and control over the classroom. As I was watching ATLAS videos, I wondered how a teacher in a diverse classroom would be able to be both mean and nice simultaneously, in order to accommodate two learning styles. In a less diverse classroom, a teacher may be able to stick with one learning style effectively; but what happens in cases where the students have different or even conflicting expectations for the teacher? I wonder how theory that calls for greater diversity in classrooms would handle this kind of problem.

Other comments

As far as I understand the subject, it seems to me that the issues of diversity transcend school and even education as a whole. Problems of diversity within schools—underrepresentation, silencing of voices—seem to be symptoms of greater societal problems. So these issues cannot be solved within schools: the solutions are also likely to transcend teachers and schools. At this point, it may seem hopeless: while the problems cannot be solved by education alone, they have massive implications for education. This, in my opinion, is the vital conclusion for teachers: despite the knowledge that it is impossible for them to solve these problems on their own, they must, for the sake of their students, continue to struggle against those massive problems that transcend the whole of education.

On the other hand, from a historian-lens, society is changing, albeit at a painfully slow pace. Today is different from ten years ago, and ten years ago different from twenty. I think that teachers have played a significant role in this change, and continue to play a significant role.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Tonja Clay.