The consciousness gap in education - an equity imperative | Dorinda Carter Andrews | TEDxLansingED
Society is socialized to avoid discussing power, privilege, and oppression, which exacerbates educational inequities. The speaker argues that examining power as fundamental to the racial and cultural divide is necessary to close achievement gaps, using the example of his own gifted testing experience as proof. He concludes that real change requires embedded critical self-reflection from educators, moving beyond superficial workshops.
## Speakers & Context
- Speaker is an expert/researcher who has worked extensively with educators across K-12, teacher educator, and researcher roles.
- The initial context is a presumed dinner conversation where topics like white supremacy and cultural norms were avoided.
## Theses & Positions
- Society socializes individuals to avoid critical questions about race, power, and privilege.
- Racism and oppression are major impediments to the academic underperformance of many students of color and poor students.
- Closing achievement gaps requires naming issues of power as fundamental to the racial and cultural divide.
- The current educational system is inherently unequal and designed to privilege some while disadvantaging others.
- Educators must move toward embedded, continual critical self-reflection rather than one-off diversity workshops.
- Achieving equity requires embodying a critical love, which involves knowing one another better to build respect across cultural differences.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **System and Culture of Power:** A structure that oppresses and suppresses other cultures to maintain itself, rooted in racial and social class hierarchy.
- **White Supremacy:** The system at the core of the educational structure, which maintains the understanding that African Americans are genetically inferior and not fully human, despite historical enslavement.
- **Color Blind/Color Mute:** Treating all students the same ("I don't see color")—a practice deemed insufficient for achieving equitable outcomes.
- **Meritocracy:** An idea that hard work alone guarantees the American Dream, which the speaker calls a farce because it ignores racism and classism.
- **Equity Pedagogy:** A model where teachers are committed to helping culturally diverse youth navigate within the system but also to change it to make it more humane.
- **Critical Love:** The capacity to know one another better, leading to improved working relationships and mutual respect across cultural differences.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Critical Self-Reflection:** A process for educators involving considering three questions:
1. How do my own social location (race, class, gender, religion) shape my mindset about teaching, learning, and practices?
2. What do I need to know about what I don't know regarding culture, power, and difference, and where can I learn it?
3. How can I continually be a more critically conscious leader and instructor?
- **Systemic Barrier Identification:** Recognizing that the educational system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect.
## Timeline & Sequence
- The speaker's personal experience spans the **70s, 80s, and early 90s** when attending racially desegregated schools.
- Current educational imperative requires shifting from episodic workshops to embedded, continual self-reflection.
## Named Entities
- **Atlanta, Georgia:** The speaker’s place of origin, linked to his Southern drawl.
- **Paulo Freire II:** Author whose work on equity pedagogy is cited.
- **Frantz Fanon:** Thinker whose perspective on system change is cited.
- **James and Sherry Banks:** Authors associated with the concept of equity pedagogy.
- **bell hooks:** Author associated with embodying critical love.
## Numbers & Data
- Speaker's test score: **fourth-grade level** as a first grader.
- School population fact: Over **40%** of the public school population are students of color.
- Teaching force fact: Over **80%** of the teaching force is white.
- Data on poverty rates (Age 18 and under):
- Black children: **39%** live in poverty.
- American Indian/Alaska native children: **36%** live in poverty.
- Latino youth: **34%** live in poverty.
- White youth: **13%** live in poverty.
## Examples & Cases
- **Personal Case:** Speaker, as a first grader from Atlanta, Georgia, was sent to the principal's office by a teacher who did not recognize his academic potential, leading to his parents advocating for gifted testing, resulting in him skipping second grade (First to Third).
- **Analogy:** Comparing students' academic journeys to boots: some come with polished, laced, shiny boots, while others have worn boots, or no boots at all, yet all are expected to travel the "academic row" the same way.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The speaker acknowledges that his message sounds "pretty heavy and depressing."
- He admits that he is assuming the audience's "critical awareness has been raised" by the end of his talk.
## Methodology
- The core methodology proposed is a commitment to *embedded, continual critical self-reflection* within educators' professional work.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- Attendees must confront conversations about racial inequity in education and society outside of educational settings.
- The goal is not just to train teachers on content, but to develop the capacity for "hearts and minds."
- Requires the willingness to give up some of one's own privileges to achieve equity.
## Implications & Consequences
- The current system is structurally designed to privilege some and disadvantage others, making equitable outcomes through mere effort impossible.
- System change requires moving beyond operating *within* the system (Freire) to actively *changing* the system (Fanon).
## Verbatim Moments
- *"Our society has socialized us to not raise critical questions about these topics."*
- *"Racism along with other forms of oppression are still a major impediment to the academic underperformance of many students of color and poor students in our country."*
- *"She told my parents that I should be tested for special education well my mama being the mama she was said you ain't tested my child for special education in fact if you want to test her tester for gifted and talented."*
- *"When we begin to examine power as part of the equation we have a better understanding of how racism oppression and issues of cultural bias work to undermine the academic performance of students of color and low-income students."*
- *"we cannot be color blind nor color mute."*
- *"It just doesn't work that way."*
- *"If it did [work], we would not have the gross racial and social inequities that we currently do in our school systems and in our larger society."*
- *"a system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect."*
- *"I might have to give up some of my privileges in order for things to be more equitable in schools and in society."*