Observing Racial Power Structures in the Classroom

[Molly Schwartz]

In the time I’ve spent at Northfield High School, I have felt very aware of the school’s  predominantly White population of students and teachers. In the three class periods I observe, Mr. DuBe’s 1st period 9th grade class is the most racially diverse with about half the class being made up of students of color. Mr. DuBe’s other two periods are predominantly made up of White kids. I have also noticed that in all of the classes the White students are more likely to speak up and participate in class or casually talk to Mr. DuBe. The White students seem more engaged in the class given their body language of sitting or looking up whereas I feel the students of color in the class tend to be more slumped over in their chairs. While that observation is arbitrary and says nothing of their comprehension, it is not a stretch to speculate that perhaps they do not feel as engaged in the class because they don’t feel like they can connect with their own identity in the same way White students can.

During any given class period, a majority of the time is spent on either Mr. DuBe lecturing or students working independently. Most of Mr. DuBe’s lectures are on either grammar or explaining instructions on an assignment. While this provides his students with a lot of clarity on expectations and instructions it does not provide a lot of space for students to have their own conversations with their peers in a classroom setting. Mr. DuBe also has a very dry sense of humor that I’ve noticed White students tend to respond to more than the BIPOC students. These two observations taken together play into Lisa Delpit’s theory of the “culture of power.” In the case of Mr. DuBe’s class, power comes from being White. This is perpetuated in the fact that Mr. DuBe is a White man positioned at the front of the class who holds power over how he will assess the students.

A few weeks ago Mr. DuBe told me a little bit about the TORCH program. An in school tutoring service that worked specifically with BIPOC, low income, and first-generation college attendees. He explained that one of the students I had been working with had recently gotten in trouble for skipping class. He also mentioned that she liked working with the people at the TORCH center because she got more one on one attention. Mr. DuBe felt frustrated because he wanted his students to succeed but he needed them to attend his class in order for them to learn more material/maintain attendance. Yesterday Mr. DuBe told me that he wasn’t gonna have me working with anyone because he wanted them to have time for free reading with the rest of the class but that he also felt his students needed to take more responsibility for finishing their work in class. Taking these two interactions together I feel that Mr. DuBe does care about his students but may also be holding them to a rigid expectation based on achievement rather than development. If the TORCH center is a more positive learning environment for BIPOC students than A) something isn’t working in the classroom and B) maybe Mr. DuBe needs to be more flexible in letting his students take advantage of the systems that work for them rather than conform to the predominant White system.

The question then is whether Mr. DuBe can change anything to address this issue. Obviously he and the White students can’t change their race but I wonder if there is a way in which racial consciousness could be raised. Maybe including some kind of development training for teachers similar to how Lawrence and Tatum discuss in their paper “White Educators as Allies: Moving From Awareness to Action.” One of the prompts for the class’s essay assignment was “What is the American Dream?” I noticed that the White students tended to respond to the prompt saying that the American dream was possible for anyone as long as they worked hard. While working with Maddy a latinx student in Mr. DuBe’s 9th grade class, I asked her what she thought the American Dream was? To her it meant getting a good education, having a good job, healthcare, and a home. I then asked her if she thought anybody could achieve that. She paused and thought about this for a moment and then responded, “No not really.” I responded positively agreeing “yeah a lot of people are born into the stability and security that you talked about whereas some people have much less. Do you think that gives them an advantage?” She agreed and we continued to have what I thought was a really interesting and valuable conversation about meritocracy and the gaps that existed in America. In that short tutoring session we managed to have both a good discussion and for her to make some progress on her paper.

I obviously understand that it is impossible to give every student your undivided attention all the time but I do feel that there could be more of an effort to adapt the learning environment to have a more equitable learning experience. I also feel that Mr. DuBe could make a more conscious effort to relate the topics in class to a more nuanced and critical viewpoint. By discussing issues like race, gender, and class Mr. DuBe could raise the consciousness of his students without making them feel isolated and subsequently may disrupt the existing power structures.

[Sophia Maag]

I enjoyed reading your post, Molly, such thoughtful insights. First, I thought your point about the teacher prioritizing achievement rather than development was really interesting, and shows how the process of learning is often less valued. He seems to be wary of not having oversight over al his students and structuring their process of learning, even though there are better resources out there for some students. I wonder how much the school/administration promotes TORCH, and if there are any rules for students needing to be in their assigned classroom a certain amount of time.

I also thought the story about the American Dream was a good little anecdote. It definitely says something that most of the white students thought it was achievable. Do you have any ideas about why the American Dream is taught? Do you think that Mr. Dube is having them write about the American Dream to have them question it? I know as a high schooler, I probably would have needed someone to help me in critically thinking about this concept, and was definitely not given that. I’d be curious to know the teacher’s learning objectives for this!

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