After reading "See You When We Get There" by Gregory Michie what were your initial thoughts? Do you agree that these teachers were "teaching for social justice"? What do you think of Michie only interviewing/observing teachers of color? Did this make the book better or worse in your opinion? Do you think white teachers would give a similar or different perspective? How do you think we can get more good teachers in urban/diverse school settings? What can we do as teachers to "teach for social justice"? Feel free to respond to other bloggers posts!
I was thinking some of the same things while reading! I don't know, I liked that Michie interviewed teachers of different races because it helped me relate to students and teachers who work in racially diverse schools. Many of my teaching experiences have been in a pretty much a school where students "look" the same. I also think its interesting that many minority teachers cannot escape the urban schools. (Something to think about, but at another time.)
ReplyDeleteI think that there are many stereotypes that go with urban schools. Are all of them justified...no...but I think that it says something when statistics show that teacher turn-over rate in urban schools are close to 50%. Just look at Baltimore, HBO made a whole documentary on urban teachers and how they were stressed between students, administration and lack of resources.
You pose an interesting question, Dana. I was reading a review of the book to find out what others thought, and stumbled across the fact that Michie wrote a book prior to this one about his experiences as a White teacher and then decided to write this book to explore the different facets that other educators of various races deal with.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this in terms of my own experiences and I have found that both as a student and as a teacher, it has been more "convenient" shall we say to relate to those of our own race. But it makes me think, is there really anything standing in our way from educating and being educated by those of different races? I think as teachers, we all need to take a step back and really "teach for social justice" like Michie discusses in his book. By accepting our students inspite of their differences rather than despite of them, we can definitely serve to help students grow both in school as well as in life.