Urban education reflections - week 4

Last week, the meeting was really interesting because they showed us different ways of dealing with urban education issues. Both of them shared something: activism. I think that this part is very important to make an impact in our societies, professionals with a great heart full of compassion for others, giving them a voice, the most unprotected people in our society: poor, immigrant and refugees. In relation to this point I want to share with you this article:

Pakistani Nobel Laureate Malala visited Mexico, she was invited by the Mexican university to talk about review the importance of education and culture in the development of the society. Malala also referred to the educational issue, stating that "without education we can not move forward" and showing outrage at the treatment of some nations in this basic human right. "I do not understand why some world leaders do not understand yet how important it is to invest in education," said the Pakistani activist. "When you educate a child you give him resources, you help him grow", she concluded.

In recent decades, interpretations of disparities in education have changed from a one-dimensional approach to a multidimensional and interactive one. It is widely observed that the social and cultural differences of the students condition their educational progress and the results they obtain. The OECD report (1995) on students at risk points out seven predictors of low-academically-performance schools that are closely related to social disadvantage: poverty, belonging to an ethnic minority, immigrant families or without adequate housing, ignorance of the majority language, type of school, geographical place in which they live and lack of social support. However, the report states that there is no strict correspondence between social and educational disparities. There are other factors, such as the family, the education system and the school itself that can increase or decrease these inequalities.

Then, according to the Education that was set by the industrial era the educational model created responded to the needs of society. In the industrial era, schools were designed as economic engines to supply professionals to an industrial society, based on production and mass consumption. The educational system assumed the typical values ​​of industrial organization: hierarchy, planning, control and standardization. In essence, students were trained to do what they were told to do. They spent several years memorizing the greatest possible body of knowledge to exploit it later, throughout their professional stage.

There were many attempts to change the ‘industrial’ concept of education but there are many other factors in education that prevent the change. The stability in the school structure, that is the roles of students and teachers, and families of course; others factors of stability are the contents of the curriculum (in 100 years they have not changed) they added some new tools like technology but there are no great changes because they are reinforced by the textbooks and the standardized tests. According to Eisner in his article “Who decides what schools teach?” he analyzed all those factors and they reflected the conservatism and the need of stability that most part of society expects of education.

UNESCO published The fight against exclusion in education that is a guidance for teachers to deal with inclusion and attending diversity in classrooms. There are some important factors that help us understand the inclusive education:

• -          Attention to diversity. Each student is “diverse” and has specific and individual characteristics and needs that are to be attended from an educational perspective. Diversity is understood as the opportunity to learn, as a mutual benefit to all the members of the educational community.
• -          Flexibility: diversity leads us to personalized or individualized learning which focuses on the individual characteristics of the students (their weaknesses and strengths). Their learning must be open and flexible to give them opportunities for learning.
• -          Support: providing the resources and tools that each student needs to learn. The support has to come from the classroom with the students and teachers as well as from the school community with the help of other professionals.
• -          Teachers: their role is like a guide or facilitator of knowledge, opportunities, supporter, bridge between student-family-school, who enhances values like tolerance, respect,…
• -          Participation and collaboration: a pro-active participation of all the members of the community is necessary to be successful in education. It is very important to create a sense of belonging and commitment.

There are more points that help to understand diversity in education, inclusion and its reflection, but I’ve summed up the ones in relation to students’ learning and the roles of teachers since in our task we are asked to answer as “an urban teacher”. I believe in an education that help all the students to be successful as well as the understanding of their families. Nowadays with the use of technology like the digital devices and social media is easier to connect with everyone and call them for participation. As an urban teacher I did it and the results were awesome, indeed the school where I was working before is still working with social media to engage families.

   

    To get a good participation I faced lots of “obstacles”. There are some obstacles coming from the school staff, other teachers and bureaucracy of the district: some of the teachers couldn’t understand how social media could use for engaging families and improving the participation in the school, the administrators were more focused on numbers and they didn’t want to know anything but results, many times the school staff didn’t provide the information so it was difficult to provide exact and precise information.

     

     Other obstacles came from the families, many of them thought about social media like something bad because they were convinced by the news on TV about the risks of social media and its exposure. For some parents, as well as for school staff and administrators, to deliver information through digital devices were not enough, they needed a hard copy of the same information. Most of parents were not familiar with educational apps. To find some solutions I invited them to an open house session where I trained them how to use “Facebook” app for educational purposes and showed them all the possibilities of improvement in communication: easy and fast communication, photos and videos,…

Immigration and Education: one event at Childrenatrisk.org - Houston, TX

Today I attended one conference with a relevant current topics for our urban school communities: Immigration and Education.

https://childrenatrisk.org/event/immigration-and-education-enforcement-and-impact/

Migration represents an important part of human nature. It is a phenomenon that through the years, has adopted very complex ways. Direction of migrations has been determined by the need of adequate resources, tools and places for the development of human beings. However, in further phases, migrations were influenced by territorial expansion and also economic and political interests, which are characteristic of the latest migration movements.

Among the main causes that promote migration both internationally and internally (inside one country) according to the United Nations (2012) are:

• The search for a better life for oneself and one's family;

• Solving disparities between different regions and within the same region;

• The labor (work) and migratory policies of the countries of origin and destination;

• Political conflicts (which promote cross-border migration, as well as movements within the same country);

• The degradation of the environment, including the loss of farmland, forests and grasslands (environmental refugees, for the most part, go to cities instead of migrating abroad);

• The migration of professionals, the most educated young people to fill the gaps in the workforce of industrialized countries.

As can be seen in the causes that promote migration are of economic aspect above all but also, environmental and professional improvement, we could also add that migrations occur as a result of wars, nuclear tests carried out by developed countries ", the elaboration of migratory policies as it is the case of the government of the United States of America.

Recently, the construction of barriers complemented by the use of sophisticated security technologies -of exclusive military use- emerges as the most used migratory control provision ... These barriers serve to satisfy the interests of certain social and political sectors of the North, through the exacerbation of nationalist and chauvinist and xenophobic feelings. Far from stopping migration, the construction of walls on the borders of receiving countries such as the United States and other countries, generates high costs, both material and social, for the populations and communities on both sides, as well as for migrants to travel on new ways that are very dangerous routes.

Immigration and Education

Districts and schools, given their important function, from the educational point of view, are spaces that provide children with the necessary tools and resources for life. Therefore, the districts and particularly the school (and school community) presents a great importance for the development of children at a cognitive and a fully integrated level, which will affect throughout their lives and will depend largely on the strengths and weaknesses, as well as their ideas presented by future those men and women. In this sense, a challenge for education is presented, given the increase in migratory flows and their respective consequences for children who leave their places of origin and for those who remain "alone" as a result of the migration of parents, for such reasons, the role that teachers and educators must play in the care and treatment is very important. 

It´s the responsibility of our society and their educational institutions, as well as those with social services to help to facilitate the "participation of different identities" that is, deal with the multi-diversity (we understood "multi-diversity as the social, economical, linguistic, cultural diversity among others), contributing to its development, for this inter/multicultural education must play a fundamental role from a broad conception of curricular design and development, to ensure that children can best accept diversity on the one hand; On the other hand, teachers must be formed and, consequently, adopt the necessary strategies to cover other types of problems such as school performance, interpersonal relationships, the different learning problems of each child to achieve the most harmonious integration possible.

Teachers are the true agents of transformation and educational change, who can directly and actively interfere in the achievement of an adequate integration of the immigrant population, as well as those children who remain abandoned in places of origin.

Talking about teachers, I was there, at the conference and no many teachers were found in the room. At least two people wanted to share their tips and experiences:

After researching about this topic and that conference, my questions and doubts are:

HISD has a school for newcomers "Las Americas", but what about the rest of schools, do they have resources? are their teachers prepared and formed to deal with diversity? 

There was one surprise, when the presenters asked for teachers in the room, nobody answered. WOW! Do districts and the system consider teachers as relevant tranformational agents of our societies?  Why don´t teachers attend events like this: immigration and education? Knowing that Houston has a high percentage of immigration. We learned that in Houston there are more than 600,000 undocumented immigrants.

Why don´t districts and other educational institution offer more professional development trainings/courses to help teachers understand diversity better and provide them with strategies? 

Do other social and political powers do enough to give answers to this issue: immigration and education? Why don´t they do more partnerships and networking? 

Urban schools: main problem analysis

The existence of urban schools with lack of resources - whether of a human or material nature - in which the quality of the students' performances (according to the standard test system) is degraded is not a new problem at all. What is new is, on the one hand, an awareness of the extent of the phenomenon and, on the other hand, the growing willingness of education professionals to be slowed down. This will is even more intense because the situation of the members of the disadvantaged urban schools is, in some cases, worrisome, and because the intervention of the public authorities often develops under the pressure of urgency.

Stopping the degradation of these schools can not be done without a strong and prolonged action by the public authorities aimed at improving the learning conditions in these schools, favoring the integration and inclusion of all their students, meeting their needs and guaranteeing education. quality. The local public administrations are the first calls to face this challenge.

The means of intervention available from public administrations are multiple. With a different weight, the improvement of infrastructures and facilities, the creation of activities for the school community and of quality educational development, the promotion of the active participation of parents in the school life and the improvement of public services offered in these areas are among the measures adopted by various countries in this area.

On the other hand, we must not forget that prevention is always easier than cure. The effective measures applied in urban schools can be applied to other schools, in order to avoid the creation of "contagions" that entail the degradation of the living conditions and the segregation of the members of those school communities.

It is more about creating in these urban school communities an active and dynamic system for the active parent engagement with a huge variety of activities, so as to favor the integration of all the members of these communities and to accompany them in their efforts of social reintegration. The "reforms" and experiences are structured around the following axes:

- Make the parent activities closest to the the school community members, and therefore more accessible from all points of view;

- Respond better to the specific needs of the students of these urban schools;

- Improve efficiency in order to avoid wasting resources and the lack of control of the school budget.

In short, the reforms undertaken in the field of public urban schools offered in other areas should also be articulated around three axes: more proximity, better adaptation to needs and more efficiency.

The social factor

At the "internal" level, the poor school life conditions of the affected schools implied a reduction in quality, which obviously attracted families with low educational resources and expectations. This negative selection worsened the teaching conditions and the scope was closed in this way.

At the "external" level, relations between members of urban school communities and the rest of the population have become increasingly tense: Different conditions and unequal opportunities have often led to isolation, marginalization and of blaming students and members of urban schools with difficulties. The reaction of these has been the rejection of the values ​​of the majority and the provocation, which, in turn, has reinforced the marginalization.

In addition, in some schools there are ethnic influences that increase the isolation and self-isolation of the inhabitants and, therefore, create an additional barrier between them and the rest of the population.

The economic factor

A large part of urban schools belong to neighborhoods or working districts of large cities. The general economic reconversion is not the only factor that has generated the economic decline of these areas. Indeed, economic development needs particular conditions that are often not found in these educational centers (infrastructures and services). Another important factor affects the general climate of insecurity.

The economic decline, which implies a further reduction in income, has condemned small merchants and has further degraded the economic level of disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The inhabitants of these neighborhoods complain precisely about the inequality of opportunities in the labor market: often ineffective educational and training systems offer them little job prospects in a situation in which the unemployment rate is high. To this are added the prejudices

existing against the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, and even discrimination when hiring them because of ethnic origin, which further reduce their chances of finding a job.

Faced with these problems in the labor market, some members of urban schools are tempted to reject this system en bloc and to look for other schools in more "favored" areas and, eventually, the transfer to other schools with better reputation.

This reinforces the stigmatization of those who are victims and the distrust of potential teachers and educators, which only increases the barriers to hiring personnel for the school.

its students, which constitutes a not insignificant threat on the development of learning, and especially the one that develops in this type of centers.

The political-educational factor

Students in urban schools are underperforming, so they are not considered "good" in the district's school categories and therefore receive less aid.

Some, such as recent migrant students or those who have not completed the necessary procedures, do not obtain even the minimum, which contributes to lowering the general average of the school. In fact, these schools are clearly

margin of the political process. There is a risk of a complete rejection of the political system byIt even happens that some administrators and teachers fall into the trap of the collective blaming of these students (especially for lack of support and understanding of the educational activity) and try to interpret them as feelings of rejection. Widely mediated, such an attitude can only reinforce the feeling of marginalization and the distrust of the students of these educational centers.

Possible measures:

- Better delimit the covered areas 

- Formation in sociological and psychological studies

- Verify the possibility of having a flexible definition at the national/state/local level of these areas

- Reform services in order to take responsibility for people, and not for problems

- Specialize the Administration according to the needs of students and school community members.

- Improve the accessibility of services.

- Reform services from a global, integrated perspective

- Improve the exchange of information.

- Search for synergies

- Guarantee coordination and cooperation, both horizontally and vertically, between public administrations.

- Associate and maintain relationships with educational entities in the environment as well as parent associations, for example.

- Respond to specific needs

- Apply reception programs for students with needs, encourage non-profit private initiatives in this field and participate in them.

- Improve the framework of the urban school community

- Improve education and professional development systems

- Strengthen and stimulate communication with all members of the community as well as the use of information technologies

- Apply effective participatory systems

The development of a specific and comprehensive policy for disadvantaged urban schools should be one of the priorities of public authorities, in the context of urban policies of the 21st century. This policy for these centers should be presided over by a strategic vision, encompassing, connecting

and coordinate all sectoral actions on these areas (education, services to students and families, parent engagement programs,...) and at the same time requires coordinated action by all public and private powers to achieve the greatest possible synergy, coherence of the actions and a saving of scarce resources. Only in this way will it be possible to remove its inhabitants from the "vicious" social, economic and political that grips them and that reciprocally feed each other.


References:

• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/urban-school-challenges
• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/cultural-adaptations-when-implementing-rti-in-urban-settings
• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/promising-examples-of-rti-practices-for-urban-schools

Reflections - week 3 - Urban Education

The assignments are:

1. choose 2 - 3 unique features listed on pages 4 - 8 of ch 1. Reflect on your ideas and issues with these features. What are your personal experiences and implications for urban education in the 21st century. 

2. See pp. 32 - 34, etc. How do the concepts of cultural competence, critical literacy, and critical consciousness connect with ideas and issues in urban education? What are possible practical contexts regarding these ideas? 

3. See the last paragragh on ch 2 - pp 38 and 39. How does this statement link to your thoughts regarding urban education? 

1. The features that I chose are the following: 

- Urban areas and urban schools have a higher rate of ethnic, racial, and religious diversity. 

“The frustration of such teachers and staff members is exacerbated by the perception that few care about the well-being and the success of these students”. 

- Urban schools serve higher immigrant populations

“Along with these voluntary immigrants, urban schools serve students whose ancestors were involuntary immigrants who share a history of discrimination and injustice. Each of these groups experiences problems unique to its background, and urban educators need to understand and know how to address these concerns". 

- Urban schools are characterized by linguistic diversity.

“Because of their large immigrant populations, urban schools have more students speaking different languages." 

I chose these three unique features because they are related to diversity: cultural, socioeconomical, linguistic and others. I found an article “Immigrant Children” by Child Trends.org that is related to this idea of diversity that shows the number of first- and second-generation immigrant children in the United States. This number grew more than the double in less than 20 years. 

“The population of first- and second-generation immigrant children in the United States grew by 51 percent between 1995 and 2014, to 18.7 million, or one-quarter of all U.S. children.” 

Urban school students are unique, it means that every student has a special background (I want to clarify the use of "special", this adjective in this sentence has the meaning of something that is not usual or common, and it does not imply something negative). As for me, diversity is something positive, something that adds more value to what we have since this value lies on the little pieces that form that specific part of our urban society: their language, their culture, their interaction with others. Putting all these ingredients together they are creating a new “culture” with different things. 

On page 9 we can read the last paragraph about the “context of hope”, giving a new “label” to those students “at risk”: “of resilience”. There is a positive approach that tries to formulate programs that focus on their strengths instead of their deficits. Besides, urban teachers can work to connect students to unique urban resources such as museums and other sociocultural spaces in the city that can be part of the learning resources to improve the lives of poor urban students. 

One of our classmates once shared an article about the formation of teachers dealing with diversity. Are they really prepared to face diversity in schools? According to the most recent studies, white teachers are predominant in our classrooms… 

What kind of teachers are necessary for an inclusive society in the 21st century urban school? 

What are the essential skills or knowledge of an urban school teacher in inclusive education? 

What values ​​and areas of competence should be developed within their professional development? 

Although inclusion can be promoted by public authorities through legal prescription, it is the teachers' attitudes, perceptions and practices that respond to the needs of their students, the essential dimensions to determine the success of inclusion in their classes in urban schools. 

But if we ask an urban teacher about all the work that they have to do is the same: long hours working on papers, lack of resources, lack of support by the educational institutions, lack of participation in the school community, among other answers. Despite all that, in general, urban educators have a positive thinking about school inclusion. 

Consequently, a thorough analysis of the educational practices themselves is necessary. Knowing that some factors are effectively outside the scope of the urban school teacher such as poor materials or lack of them, large classes..., however many others are found in the organization of urban school classrooms: decontextualized curriculum, poorly prepared lessons, use of a very scientific language, prejudices… 

Changing the perspective, if we work on the gap between the reality and the “ideal” expectations, that is, with the characteristics of the reality that the school intends to prepare the students and the one that actually expects. For Ainscow, it is about recognizing existing practices and knowledge as starting points for a process that considers differences as opportunities for the overall improvement of education, which will benefit the whole school community. 

By analyzing those practices, a good urban school can identify and share good practices, identify the barriers to the participation and learning of some students, and reflect on all this and search for solutions. 

Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the teachers´ mindset about the school and inclusion of diversity, identify the different forms of relationship established by teachers with multi-diverse children, and review teachers' attitudes towards those children. The ideas and beliefs that the teacher has in relation to those “multi-diverse” students will be reflected in the attitude that evidences their classroom management and teaching work. In this way, the role of teachers in the urban school setting is seen as essential in this process. The personalized attention, the permanent support, the motivation that is offered to the child and the challenging activities are indispensable to foster a positive self-esteem and the achievement of learning by those students. 

After that we can identify three basic elements that good teachers have, in urban schools: 

- Behaviors and values. 

- Knowledge and understanding. 

- Skills and abilities 

This approach is based by Ryan´s idea of “multidimensional traits” (2009), but especially in Shulman (2007), which describes professional learning as a learning of: 

The head (knowledge), The hands (skills or practices), and the heart (behaviors and beliefs). 

http://meridianschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/infographic-HeadHandHeart.gif

According to these criteria, the professional development of urban school teachers should include: 

- Continuous formation and innovations in pedagogy: Variety of methods and resources, new ways and formulas of evaluation. The curriculum is not ended or limited to the classroom setting, but extended to the whole community and neighborhood. Flexibility in programming. 

- Education in values: Ethical principle of research and work in the classroom that improve inclusion processes and procedures 

- Technology as a support of family-school relationships: improvement of the communication with students´ families. Democratic school: take into account the interests and opinions of students and their families. 

- Proactive attitude: Be involved in school management, problem-solution skills. 

- Facilitator: Promote autonomous student work. Teamwork: Cooperation and disciplinary integration 

- Learning opportunities seeker: Create situations in which students can not escape without learning and develop cooperative work environments. Significant learning: Use knowledge as motivation, not as a goal 

If they can receive this kind of formation, the urban schools can: 

- Improve teacher education systems, 

- Ensure the quality of teacher educators 

- Improve the skills of teacher educators 

- Promote professional values ​​and behaviors 

- Improve the quality and quantity of continuous professional development 

By doing so, we will be able to find a different profile of urban school teachers such as: 

- Social change agent: It assumes and defends the need for educational and social change. 

- Critical professional. 

- Solidarity and cooperative: Expert in energizing groups and teamwork. 

-Initiative and voluntariness. 

- Good communicator (Confidence, reliability, respect, tolerance). 

- Academically well-formed and updated. 

- Dedication. 

Future Urban school teachers must understand the complexity of teaching and learning in urban schools and the multiple factors that affect them. They must recognize that they should not be passive consumers of a defined curricular content. In a way, these ideas seem very simple, but they imply a powerful and complex message for all the people involved in the educational endeavor of urban schools. Teaching can not be reduced to a list of demonstrable skills or knowledge that can be acquired through “standardized” tests. 

References: 

Ainscow, M. (2013) From exclusion to inclusion: ways of responding in schools to students with special educational needs. CfBT Education Trust. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED546818.pdf

Crosnoe, R. (2013) Preparing the Children of Immigrants for Early Academic Success. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/preparing-children-immigrants-early-academic-success

Ainscow, M. & West, M. (eds) (2006) Improving urban schools: leadership and collaboration. Buckingham: Open University Press

Soojin, S.O., North, C. (2011) Immigration, Youth, and Education. Harvard Educational Review. Retrieved from http://hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-81-number-3/herarticle/editors%E2%80%99-introduction_826

Schaffer, Connie, "Urban immersion: Working to dispel the myths of urban schools and preparing teachers to work with diverse and economically disadvantaged students" (2012). Teacher Education Faculty Publications. 69. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/tedfacpub/69

Ahram, R., Stembridge, A., Fergus, E., Noguera, P. (2016) Framing Urban School Challenges: The Problem when Implementing Response to Intervention. RtI Action Network. Retrieved from http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/urban-school-challenges

Reflections week 2

Francisco Usero Gonzalez 

Reflections

My concern is about the idea of providing our students what they need for their learning development, I mean their basic needs should be covered as they start learning. One of the "quotations" that I found many times searching for this information is ""Maslow" before "Bloom"". That is the reason why I wrote another post whose title is "The battle of pyramids in Education: Maslow vs Bloom".

As I was going deeper and deeper in this topic I realized that many aspects affect our students´ performances including their sense of belonging, their emotions, their motivations, their families and environment... and the importance of the urban school staff and teachers in dealing with them all. At the end of the chapter one of 19 questions about urban education you can read all the data, it´s alarming the rates of poverty in big cities even mentioning hunger. Reading all this information motivated me to keep on reading and researching about this.

One of my conclusions is that education and children have a low value in this society. Most of children, in poverty conditions, are not protected and, as I read in some social media comments, some teachers they don´t consider their task to help them. I would like to think that they don´t know how. However they could help them offering some "indications" and ways to get to some non-profit organizations that deal with them, for example. I don´t want to think that they don´t feel as being part of their problem...

It´s surprising how important the students´ families are in their academic performances and motivation. I wrote about these topics: parent engagement and student´s motivation and I added a video that sums up this idea of Maslow and Bloom with some tips for helping school community members.

I hope you like the post.

The battle of pyramids in Education: Maslow vs Bloom.

The battle of pyramids in Education and poverty 

Maslow vs. Bloom

Teaching in a "multi-diverse" urban school is different from teaching in a "traditional" class. Let me clarify this concept of "multi-diverse": ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse heretofore refers to as "multi-diverse". 

In large cities, like Houston, where I live, we can meet people from many different places all over the world. They bring their cultural background with themselves to our city and to the classroom as well. What it could be a very enriching and motivating scenario might turn into a very different experience, I mean adding and including other points of views and perspective to our diverse society is something that we like since it adds more value to us.

In schools, the educational policies and curriculum try to help those students to be immerse in the learning of what they think it could be the best for them: our future citizens. But what happens when there is only one curriculum, one pedagogy for all? Is that the answer for dealing with the diversity in our schools? 

Many schools are facing many problems, but one of the most important ones are the statal tests. Those tests, like STAAR in Texas, will show the educational performace of our schools including teachers, administrators and above all students´ performances in those tests. However, if they´re not listened or cared by the school administrations, they can´t experience only a cultural shock but a removal of their learning basis and be "labelled" as a different student category. This "school experience" can be even worst when they belong to low socioeconomic status families who don´t know how to interact with their school communities. Indeed, the students we teach are often unmotivated, lack of self-confidence and they have to face big challenges at home to succeed in motivation. 

In this article I´ll try to deal with some of the points that affect our urban school students and their challenges.

Maslow - Hierarchy of needs

Maslow introduced the hierarchical concept of human needs in 1943. His work in a pyramidal form indicates that Human Beings move from one need to the next when the previous one is already covered. Those needs belongs to different levels of needs:

1. Physiological needs (eating, sleeping, drinking);
2. Security needs (physical, economic, psychological, emotional stability, housing, etc.);
3. Social needs (belonging, expression, communication);
4. The need for independence, self-respect and others (consideration, esteem). Human Beings need to realize themselves, to value themselves to their eyes and the eyes of others through occupation, work,
5. to make plans, to have objectives, to be able to express one's ideas;
6. The needs of self-actualization, of self-fulfillment (creation, know-how).

As we can reed in the article "Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs": "Applications of Maslow's hierarchy theory to the work of the classroom teacher are obvious. Before a student's cognitive needs can be met, they must first fulfill their basic physiological needs. For example, a tired and hungry student will find it difficult to focus on learning. Students need to feel emotionally and physically safe and accepted within the classroom to progress and reach their full potential".

However, not all the educators understand the importance of covering the needs of our students. For example, I could read this comment by a teacher-educator responding to the picture above: "I agree but should it be the education system's job to "take care of" these issues." Most of the teachers, not all of them, they don´t consider their needs as part of their learning process... I wish to ask them: Can your students retain some information after the school time? Can they study at home or do they have to face other challenges? Of course, I don´t blame them but I would recommend them to visit them or have a more fluent communication with their students´ families.

Maslow and students´ motivation

Concerning urban school students´ motivation, it's important to analyze the factors on which it depends. This analysis includes the design of a personalized educational plan developed by their school staff and teachers to set the goals to be achieved by every student and the strategies to get them. This idea of individualized learning is opposed to the "one curriculum, one pedagogy" provided by our current system that is not taking their weakness and strenghts as part of it, limiting their learning experiences and development. Besides, inviting parents to school community will help them improve their self-image and self-steem. We know that these are important for their child's academic success and they can achieve better results. Nevertheless, this collaboration is not always easy, because parents are often facing their "challenges" as well.

In order to increase our students´ motivation, it is sometimes enough to arouse the interest of students and show them the reason why what they do is important for their personal lives (this is only one tip). The teacher can easily increase their attention by giving them opportunities to make connections with their immediate surrounding and by doing so, they will value what they´re doing/learning. Moreover, positive encouragement comments from their teachers will promote resilience and continue learning. Indeed, by doing so, we create a sense of belonging and help them create a purpose of their learning process. If the student is involved in his/her learning, this "invitation" will make him/her understand better what he/she does and why he/she is there, therefore he/she will have the sense of his/her responsibility for learning.

https://inspiringlearners.co.in/2017/04/19/blooms-hierarchy-vis-a-vis-maslows-hierarchy/

According to this, if we compare both hierarchies, the fourth level corresponds to Maslow´s self-steem and Bloom´s evaluate. At this point this person has to need the motivation to achieve his/her goals. This level has to do with knowledge and its evaluation, and understanding as well.  

Moving forward to a different concept of education: personalized learning.

As I said before, the type of education provided to deal with our multi-diverse classrooms is one curriculum for all, what means that everyone learns in the same way. My questions arise: did the authors of the curriculums take into account this diversity? Did they take for granted that every student learn in the same way? What are the values attached to their educational programs and recommendations? 

In order to help teachers and students better with their learning difficulties and/or behavior, it is necessary to use strategies adapted to their needs. The ideal is to discuss these methods faculty and school staff, so to create a consistency when dealing with their students. This avoids differences in educational behavior in other subjects or classrooms and find the most effective for each student.

In fact, each student presents, upon arrival in the urban school class, weaknesses, but also strengths. The important thing for the school staff and educators is to deal with these two issues among all those that the student presents, but also to create quality in their learning development and process. It is therefore essential to determine what students are able to do and what they are unable to perform, and then plan and organize their learning development. Such a plan requires a good knowledge of the student, so it is not possible to establish the personalized education plan upon arrival, but only after the first one-two weeks. In order to make this plan efficient, the pedagogical team also relies on the information provided by his/her parent(s)/legal tutor, on the observation made by the educator graduated in the original class, and all other resources at his/her disposal.

Personalized educational plans can help heterogeneous students as well. Strengths and needs vary considerably, but each plan is only suitable for the student for whom it was designed. The personalized education plan often looks at the student´s behavior and tries to define objectives and methods to improve it. Even if the grade level is usually also a problem, the behavior of the student remains the primary concern. Indeed, most of academic results generally go hand in hand with a good attitude in the classroom. It is possible to say that the personalized education plan is therefore, at first, a guide to positively change the behavior of the learner and secondly, its academic performance.

One of the advantages of the PEP is that it allows to trace the evolution a student and the methods implemented. It can therefore serve as a basis for interviews with parents and students or with any external institutions involved. 

Parents and their role in urban schools

How is the family environment? How strong is students´ family linked to their academic success? and thier adaptation to their social environment? All these question are related to the theories developed by Maslow and Bloom.

In urban schools families play a very important role in students´ lives. If we review the average profile of urban school students: low socioeconomic status, low level of parental education and several aspects of the family structure (conflict, alcoholism, violence, etc.) we can see how important they are and how deeply they affect to their school lives. Parents play a decisive role in the risk of dropping out, one of the main problems that urban schools face.

Indeed, parental values, parental supervision and their expectations for academic success are key elements. Their way of life is also a dimension of the functioning family that must be considered when we talk about our students´ performance and dropping out of school. The results of many studies show that low parental supervision, lack of commitment to school activities and lack of encouragement to become independent have a direct influence on the risk that the child leaves school.

In the context of urban school classes, parents are invited to get involved in the following way or respect the following appointments:

• Participate in the school meetings and conferences.
• Sign an educational contract that confirms their agreement with the school: norms, respect guidelines,...
• Engage with school community regularly through the different tools that the school and parent organizations provide like websites, blog and a weekly telephone interview (with the teacher/educator and/or other school staff).
• Be available for a telephone call in case that something happens at school.
• Participate in the informative interview about students´ progress (with the teacher/educator and/or other school staff).
• Be present and part at the decisions that have to be made concerning their children´s learning development.

Nowadays, most middle socioeconomical status families are demanding and are in favor of a new sharing of educational responsibilities towards children. Most of those parents do not hesitate to admit that they can not do it anymore, that their child is too difficult to manage, or that their living and/or working conditions do not allow them to follow up, the supervision and educational presence that their child would need. Unfortunately, when families come to ask for help, it is often already late, as the child's behavior has become significantly ingrained or even aggravated in the meantime. And even worse for those families who do not know how to communicate to school staff or teachers because of different conditions or situations such as non-English speakers, unavailable for conferences and meetings, lack of interest,...

Talking about parents who are helpless in dealing with the demotivation of their children, when the

parents agree to enroll their children in an urban school class, in many cases they are exhausted by "disputes and arguments", because of the lack of agreement on the education of their children and/or the arguments with their children in other cases. Most of the time, any form of communication is broken. Parents do not know how to react to the bad academic performances of their children and do not realize that parental pressure is sometimes too strong, resulting in a violent reaction from teenagers among many others in both contexts: home and school.

In schools, the school staff  can offer parents support. This support is often of purely academic nature, whereas the families would like to be able to benefit from the intervention and the presence of educational stakeholders, able to enrich, support, or diversify their own intervention.

This video sums up the "conflict" between Maslow vs Bloom regarding education:

Articles and references:

• McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

• Craig, K (2016) Maslow Stuff Before Bloom Stuff: "'Cause I Ain't Got A Pencil!". Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maslow-stuff-before-bloom-cause-i-aint-got-pencil-kathryn-craig/

• Johnson, C. (2014) Leading Learning for Children From Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/351/Leading-Learning-for-Children-From-Poverty.aspx

• Miller, J. (2016) Gotta "Maslow" Before You "Bloom". Retrieved from  https://theeducatorsroom.com/gotta-maslow-bloom-2/

• Tay, L., & Diener, E. (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 354-356. doi:10.1037/a00

• Mendler, A. (2000). Motivating students who don't care: Successful techniques for educators. Bloomington, IN: National Education Service.