In light of the current events, the term distance learning has become as recognizable today as the word recess. However, the phrase may create an adverse reaction for many educators. Before the pandemic, many teachers started including more technology in their lesson plans; however, delivering instruction in a true distance learning model is much more than that.
Right now, you might be full of good intentions. You are horrified at atrocities in the news. You believe racism is wrong. You believe all kids should have equitable opportunities for educational success. You liked posts on social media and maybe even posted something yourself in support of people of color…Without action, the rest is like shoving junk into a closet and saying your house is clean. It’s all surface level.
BY: Diane Main
(Note from blog editor Laura: I missed my deadline and didn’t get this posted by Juneteeth. I apologize. The content is still amazing and worth your time, tho!)
As we approach Juneteenth 2021, I wanted to share some worlds, made by educators for educators, that explore identity and important contributions made by Black Americans and others around the world who have worked and fought for the rights of all people to be treated with dignity, regardless of their identities.
The focus on Black History Month really starts with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr birthday/holiday in January. Each year there seems to be a longer and longer list of folks who post an MLK quote for the day. Even those whose demonstrated views and actions are in opposition to his core beliefs like to look as if they are aligned. Some are straight-up hypocritical. Most have not actually read his writings and have disconnected from the context in which his work took place.
This same disconnect happens in schools as well. For the month of February teachers read and talk about famous Black leaders such as Dr. King or Rosa Parks, but a designated month shouldn't be the only time students hear about Black (or Latinx or Asian or Indigenous or...) history topics. Overcoming trauma shouldn’t be the only reason why we talk about Black Americans and Black history didn’t begin with slavery. Since the U.S. is made of many different groups, it should be evident in U.S. education as well. Rather than teaching about individuals out of context, please take a look at where they should already be embedded in the curriculum. It shouldn’t be a special section or subject. Students need to see the diversity that is inherent in our world and history, not individuals pointed out as exceptions. These histories are U.S. histories. They are WORLD history. They are OUR history. And it isn’t just our history. It is also OUR present.
Don’t feel like you know enough? Me either. I’m in constant catch up mode to supplement what I didn’t get as a student in school. Take some time to dig in for yourself and notice who is telling the story. Understanding more will benefit you and your students.
Center for Racial Justice in Education
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
NOW is the perfect to take those actions toward equity, social justice, and culturally responsive learning further. I say NOW, because right NOW there are election data graphics bombarding us from all sides. Many of those graphics are really, really bad. It isn’t because I agree or disagree with the content, but rather because the graphics themselves use poor data sources, are designed poorly, or are in some other way misleading. Those misleading data representations are used to manipulate emotions and opinions, including those that impact how students, families, and communities are seen and treated.
Here are a couple of non-political example from https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly:
These examples are pretty low-stakes. Political and financial data graphics have much larger consequences. If students are going to be able both understand the data representations they see and have the ability to create data representations that allow them to back up their own conclusions, they need data literacy. This is particularly true for students who are English-learners or are in other ways more reliant on visuals over large amounts of text.
We start teaching students about data visualizations in preschool and kindergarten. Graphs of the students with birthdays each month and how students arrived at school are some of the first ones I remember teaching in Kindergarten classes. Later in elementary we moved to line graphs and pie charts. In middle and high school the complexity continues. Students are now also taught to create infographics more and more as they have become more popular in print and digital media forms. Regardless of the grade level or subject area content, teaching students about data literacy and recognizing misleading data representations is a tangible step you can take to help students have a more equitable chance of success as citizens.
Here are some lessons resources to help you teach data literacy:
How to Help Your Students Develop Data Literacy from Edutopia has great tips and resources
Why Kids Need Data Literacy and How You Can Teach It from School Library Journal.
Data Quality Campaign has information and resources for teachers and administrators
The New York Times has interactive data visualizations on a variety of topics
Resources for understanding and practicing with misleading data representations:
Identification of Misleading Statistics from CK12
13 Graphs That Are Clearly Lying from Buzzfeed (review before use)
Misleading Graphs video from Mathhelp.com on YouTube
How Statistics Can Be Misleading from TED-Ed
How to Spot a Misleading Graph from TED-Ed
I have had the privilege of working with a wide range of education professionals throughout my career. As a former math teacher, and a lover of research and statistics, I am always a little taken aback when I come across a colleague who makes decisions based on conclusions drawn from unusual examples that are not representative of a situation (what I also call non-examples). In these particular situations, I have also seen individuals taking action and making decisions that may very well perpetuate an unhealthy cycle that can negatively shape a child's school experience.
We all have our own personal experiences that impact our world view, our interpretation of events, and our reaction. These personal experiences also impact what data we look for to support our reactions. There is a term for it: The Ladder of Inference.
The conclusions we draw from what we observe cause us to then look for more data supporting our conclusions which were interpretations to begin with! This can lead to making decisions and taking action based on biased interpretations of data that depend on our own world view. The actions lead to more data supporting the initial conclusion. This can become a never ending reflexive cycle where action leads to more data leads to more action etc.
For example, if Jane grew up in an upper middle-class household where her loving parents were very involved in her education and created a highly structured environment that supported Jane's completion of homework assignments, studying for exams, and getting good grades. All of this eventually helped Jane accomplish her goals of going to college and eventually completing graduate school.
Flash forward. Jane is now a teacher. She has a young male student named Eddie who has only turned in one assignment out of seven in the first month of school. She has asked Eddie about this, but he has not given her a reason for the missing assignments and promises he will be better at turning in his work. Since Eddie is not keeping to his promise, Jane interprets Eddie's lack of assignments as a sign that his parents do not care about his education and are not providing structure at home. Based on this interpretation, Jane decides that calling home would not be beneficial because his parents don't care anyway. Instead, Jane begins to assign detentions to Eddie and uses that time to make Eddie complete his assignments. As a result, Eddie feels that he is continuously punished when he is at school and so he begins to dislike school and Jane's class. He finds that if he misbehaves, he will get sent to the office which allows him to avoid being in Jane's class and getting more detentions. When Eddie comes to Jane's class, she is now focused on Eddie's behaviors that are worthy of a visit to the office.
This situation could have been completely avoidable. How? Let's rewind this scenario and start over to look at a more positive outcome.
Jane asks Eddie about why he is not completing his assignments, but Eddie does not give a reason and promises he will be better at turning in his work. A week has passed and Jane notices Eddie is still not keeping to his promise and interprets Eddie's lack of assignments as a sign that his parents do not care about his education and are not providing structure at home. As she draws this conclusion, Jane stops her thinking and asks, "What data am I basing this conclusion on?" As she thinks back to the missing assignments and broken promise, she asks "How does that data directly correlate to his parents not caring? Is there other data I'm not considering?" Through this reflective process, Jane recalls that on the first day of school Eddie's mom was pregnant and looked very tired. She also recalls his parents taking photos of Eddie and giving him a kiss goodbye. That data is indicative of parents who do care about their child. Through this reflective process, Jane realizes she needs to collect more information and decides to call home. During the phone call she finds out that Eddie's mom just had a baby three weeks ago and is overwhelmed by the new addition and the start of school. Eddie, in turn, has been excited about his new baby brother and just wants to play with him when he gets home from school, claiming he has no school work. Together, Jane and Eddie's mom come up with a plan to make sure Eddie finishes his assignments and still has time to play with his brother.
We started with the same data and ended with two very different outcomes. The key was to break the reflexive cycle of drawing conclusions and taking actions based on limited data that may not tell the whole story. To break this cycle, start with two questions: 1) What data am I basing my conclusions on? 2) Is there additional information I'm not considering that I should consider?
I have had conversations with educators who, in going through this process, uncovered additional data including a student's sibling recently died, a parent was recently incarcerated, the student recently became homeless, and most commonly, the student is taking care of siblings because the parents are working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Now more than ever, students are dealing with extremely complicated situations. We owe it to young people to be reflective about our actions and to think beyond our limited frame of reference based on our personal experiences. Asking oneself the two aforementioned questions can open up a whole realm of possibilities that honor those we work with.
Sheiveh Jones, Ed.D.
Director, Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation, San Diego County Office of Education
In light of the current events, the term distance learning has become as recognizable today as the word recess. However, the phrase may create an adverse reaction for many educators. Before the pandemic, many teachers started including more technology in their lesson plans; however, delivering instruction in a true distance learning model is much more than that.
