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