Umansky, Ilana, and Hanna Dumont. “Do Teachers Have Biased Academic Perceptions of Their English Learner Students?” Brookings, Brookings, 3 Dec. 2019, www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/12/03/do-teachers-have-biased-academic-perceptions-of-their-english-learner-students/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.
This article discusses how teacher’s perceptions of students are altered based on their status as an ELL student and how that negatively impacts the student, their academic skills, and their opportunities. Provides links to other articles and research studies I have to sadly pay to read :/// so I shall do more research on ELL and ESL students and the way they’re treated and how it impacts them specifically.
”Indeed, the direct effect of EL classification on teachers’ perceptions accounted for approximately half of the overall difference between how teachers perceived the academic skills of their EL and non-EL students.”
“First, high-stakes decisions for EL students that depend on teacher judgement–such as decisions about when to exit students from EL classification or in what classes to place students–are likely vulnerable to teacher bias.”
Leung, Karen. “Embracing Multilingualism and Eradicating Linguistic Bias.” Ted.Com, TED Talks, 2018, www.ted.com/talks/karen_leung_embracing_multilingualism_and_eradicating_linguistic_bias. Accessed 28 Oct. 2020.
Leung speaks about her own and her parents’ experiences being multilingual. She questions the double standard and the wrongful allocation of praise regarding those who speak “perfect” English learning foreign languages compared to immigrants who speak those foreign languages who are looked down on through their process of learning English.
“The United States does not have an official language, so why are there so many people out there who think that there is? and why are people…told to speak ‘American’ when American isn’t even a language in and of itself?”
“Native English speakers learning a foreign language don’t receive the same social shame that an immigrant would when they learn English as a second or even third language. Instead, a native English speaker learning any foreign language receives praise. Why is that?”
“We cannot simply expect one group to assimilate as the rest of us sit idly by.”
Gerson, Kate. “Bias in American Schools” YouTube, UnboundEdu, 3 Apr. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7Taxd3DgA&ab_channel=UnboundEdu. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.
Gerson speaks about the existence of bias in all fields. People often quiet down at the mention of discrimination as it is something that makes them uncomfortable to openly acknowledge. People may have the intention of being completely impartial and not exhibit racism, however, their actions and systems they are a part of may perpetuate discrimination. Gerson speaks about how bias is a human instinct, and because it is something always occurring, educators must be open and willing to discuss this to hold themselves, each other, and the system accountable, rather than suppressing it, ergo allowing it to continue.
“implicit bias refers to the automatic and unconscious stereotypes that drive people to make decisions in certain ways. It is the mind’s way of making uncontrolled and automatic associations between two concepts pretty quickly.”
Stat: 49% of students in America are people of color whereas only 18% of teachers in America are people of color.
Discuss:
Ways bias shows up in education: “disproportionality in discipline…in special education designation…in lower-performing ‘tracks’” “Teacher’s mindsets, beliefs, behaviors: ‘orientation’” “Dominant discourse re ‘smart’ ‘bright’ ‘slow’ students”
“Disproportionality in discipline
132 preschool educators watched a video of preschoolers and asked:
Who would require the most of your attention?
42% said: the Black boy
13% said: the White girl
No challenging behaviors were actually observed.”
“If we don’t start looking at it and saying which part of this is because this kid needs time alone to work, and which part of this is a reflex, a bias, that is somewhat, somewhere informed by what he looks like, what his family is about, where they live, etc.”
“Disproportionality in discipline
Black boys and girls have higher suspension rates than any other group of students.
Suspension is a leading indicator of dropping out and future incarceration”
Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 58, no. 3, Sept. 1988, pp. 363–375, https://hiphoplitclass.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/jordan-nobodymeanmore.pdf. Accessed 20 Oct. 2020.
America perpetuates the idea that there is a correct standard for English and suppresses Black English. Accustomed to the use of “Standard English” in the classroom, even her black students were disconcerted with and mocked the use of Black English in literature.
Exposes the media’s rejection of anything other than “conventional” language: The media has an ulterior agenda and if a story does not align with it, media outlets do not see it fit to release stories no matter how important or pressing the issues may be. The students knew once they decided to write their introduction paragraph on Reggie Jordan’s murder in Black English, it would cost them the media’s ear because they would not release something that is deemed “imperfect” and would be disliked by major audience groups such as those who push “Standard English” as a singular and “correct” English.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. “Tongue-Tied.” The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (New York: Random House, 1977), pp. 282–285, http://www.simontechnology.org/ourpages/auto/2013/5/13/50075997/Maxine%20Hong%20Kingston%20Tongue%20Tied.pdf. Accessed 20 Oct. 2020.
Kingston is a Chinese immigrant who grew up in America. She utilizes her identity as an outsider or at least someone who is treated as such to emphasize the way her education worked against her in terms of growth in language. Her angle of vision is one of someone who experienced literary neglect. Her writing this very essay serves to prove it wasn’t her own lack of skill or potential that caused her American teachers and her peers to treat her as incapable.
Wolfram, Walt. “How to challenge language prejudice in the classroom.” Sound Effects, Teaching Tolerance, 2013, www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2013/sound-effects. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.
This paper exposes the unfortunate strength of language bias within American Education and provides a more nuanced understanding of dialects or versions of the English language, all correct not despite their differences. Also, poses solutions to integrating variations of English into the curriculum and challenging the biases in place to open up a discussion starting with acknowledgment.
“Students noted that ‘dialects aren’t sloppy versions of Standard English’ and that ‘they follow specific patterns that are logical.’ They came to understand ‘there are tons of stereotypes, which are almost always wrong’ and that ‘dialects represent people’s culture and past.’ As one student put it, ‘[Dialects] are special and hold customs of how people live.’”
“1. Expose students regularly to language differences in cultural context.
Create opportunities for your students to connect with students from other dialect regions and groups via Skype to collaboratively explore language differences. Have them compare and discuss dialect words and pronunciations from their respective regions.
2. Challenge assumptions about language differences as they occur.
Students who negatively comment on the speech of others should be guided to examine the basis of their assumptions. For example, if a student says a particular pronunciation or word choice sounds “weird” or “funny,” initiate a conversation about the nature of language differences, how they develop and what they signify.
3. Integrate the discussion of language variation into the conversation of cultural and regional differences.
Language and dialect should be discussed as a natural consequence of other historical and culture differences. Include lessons examining how culture and history have influenced language variation when studying the history of Southern Appalachia, African Americans in the United States or American Indians.”
these pieces explore how American systems both professionally and academically sabotage minorities by tailoring all systems in favor of the ideal Americans definitely should not be expected to live up to. It is unfair that there is a favoring bias toward the white, male, and wealthy when America is comprised of people from all ethnicities and genders and walks of life.
How can we pull apart the racism and language bias ingrained into the American education system?
How can we educate our youth to recognize this bias in order to accept themselves instead of being forced to conform?
Have there been any movements to eradicate these structures? If so, have they been successful? Or are they more performative and in an attempt to mollify those who actually face this discrimination?
How does racial and language discrimination in schools effect students longterm?
I definitely want to do research on and explore language and racial bias in American education. This is both a very prevalent issue nationwide, but also something I experienced personally throughout my own education. My highschool has recently been exposed to the many hurtful racially based stories from my fellow poc students and alumni and it is extremely disheartening to know that my own experience being a woc at my school was shared with my fellow students and sometimes even more extreme in neglect and discrimination.
As I mentioned, I have been on the receiving end of racial bias and have been witness to and know of so many situations where my peers have experienced this themselves. My principal told me herself that as a brown girl, I was a let them down and a disappointment for prioritizing my mental health over my education some days. Some of my peers have been told to stop talking “ghetto” and start talking “professionally” because they were talking in Black English. The teachers and administration would brag that our school was so diverse and it was in terms of students, but diversity was far from accepted. The staff would always claim “i support you” and “im hear you” but do nothing when students came to them with accounts of these microaggressions and instead would administer these biases themselves.
I want to read and draw on Wolfram’s “Challenging Language Prejudice in the Classroom” and MacNeil’s “English Belongs to Everybody” because I believe they will explore and expand on this issue.
