Week 9: Diversity at Arcadia

[Anonymous]

Diversity observations + reading connections 

I have been thinking a lot about the diversity of Arcadia recently. Privilege is often invisible and, as a white person, I find it can be relatively easy to not notice when I am in an all-white space. But a few weeks ago I was observing the kids at recess and had this “woah” moment. Looking around the parking lot at the kids playing and eating, I began to notice that every student, staff member, and teacher (save one) was white. Since then, the racial makeup of the school has been on my mind.

Students playing at recess! 

Yet despite the relative racial homogeneity of Arcadia, I think there are still some insights to be drawn about diversity from this setting. In relation to the readings, I was thinking a lot about Arcadia as I read Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue.” Here she presents a case for the importance of skills-based instruction, especially for students outside of the dominant culture. Since success outside of the classroom will inherently rely on learning some of these codes of power (like English, “proper” speaking, grammatically correct writing), Delpit argues that schools would be doing a disservice to marginalized students if they let them graduate without these skills.

I think that Arcadia, as an alternative, charter school, is a pretty good example of a place that does not focus on providing cultural capital to their students. The students in this school are white, middle class, and have cultures that already line up with the dominant culture of work and schooling. Arcadia does not need to teach them how to speak/read English, they already know most rules of the culture of power, and many of them are already ahead in core subjects (since they get parental assistance outside of school). I think this frees up Arcadia to be more “alternative.” Students do not take standardized tests or have core curriculums; instead, they spend time working on guided projects and developing skills of interest – like sewing, drawing, architecture, theater. In fact, in their current schedule only 4 classes a day are dedicated to “common core” topics like math and history; the rest of the time is spent either playing outside or working on independent projects. I think this structure is interesting to think of in conjunction with Arcadia’s lack of diversity. I have heard instructors talk about how they would like to increase diversity in the school, but I wonder: would a school like Arcadia be possible for marginalized students who might *need* school to deliver specific skills? I wonder if this is part of why parents of students of color are hesitant to send their children to a school like Arcadia – or perhaps the lack of diversity is related to the current extreme whiteness of Arcadia, that might discourage parents from considering it as a home for their children in the first place.

Instructors + classroom diversity

In terms of classroom content, most of the classroom activities line up with the culture of the students because they all seem to share characteristics of the white, dominant culture. I notice that teachers’ commands take on the “non-authoritarian” structure that Delpit describes of white teachers – instructors ask students: “Is that what you should be doing?” “Is there a way to stop that?” or  “What do you think you should be doing” instead of more direct instructions like “Stop that.” or “Be quiet.” Yet the students do not seem to have issues understanding these instructions – they understand them as commands instead of questions/suggestions, perhaps in part because they share the same way of communicating.

One aspect I appreciate about Arcadia’s teaching style that lines up with culturally sustaining pedagogy are the opportunities inherent in their project-based structure for students to bring in their own knowledge and interests. Students are given free reign to explore what is of interest to them at Arcadia – from flag symbolism to fashion shows – and I think that this would provide space for diverse students to be able to bring some of their own knowledge and expertise into the classroom (and have it legitimized). Family members are also a big part of the school – I know that several of the teachers and monitors have children at the school. This purposeful connection between school and home is another cultural connection that Arcadia builds. Finally, while there is not a lot of racial/class diversity in the school, there seems to be a lot of sexuality/gender diversity. I have noticed that some teachers are really great at reflecting this; the health class, for instance, includes trans/nonbinary information in all of its lessons and the school library has many books with queer leads.

As Arcadia continues to expand as a school, I think their instructors could work to make their classes more diverse in terms of covered content to be less white-centered – shifting who/what is represented in core courses – especially if they are going to have non-white students in the classroom. However, I believe that the use of project-based activities (which make space for lots of different expertise) could work really well to be culturally sustaining for most students – as long as instructors are sure to treat all forms of knowledge equally when it comes to presenting and grading.

Additional comments:

Our readings for this week focused a lot on the complexities that accompany white teachers in diverse classrooms. This is an immensely important topic to consider, since so much of the teacher force in MN and the US is white, middle class women. At the same time, I am curious to know if there is literature on how race plays into the classroom when teachers of color are instructing white students. How do these different hierarchies of authority and power impact the learning in the classroom? I am curious about this because there is one nonwhite classroom monitor that used to sit in on our classroom. She spoke perfect English, but had a bit of an accent because she grew up speaking French and Spanish. I noticed that there was a lot of conflict between her and one student in the class – she would frequently yell at him for very small things – and this always took me by surprise, until I heard from another teacher that the student had made derogatory comments to her asking her to “speak English” and stating he “couldn’t listen to her because he didn’t even know what she was saying.” How awful! This + our readings is making me reflect on how these dynamics of race and culture might also play out the opposite way – with diverse teachers teaching white students – and could be an interesting topic to consider as the teacher force (hopefully!) becomes more diverse.

• This topic was modified 4 years ago by Tonja Clay.

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