Derrick Jenkins is a Program Coordinator for the African American Cultural and Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati.
This article is written under the presupposition that most educators teach as a way of making a difference in the face of often insurmountable odds in order to educate the youth of our society, scaffolding a better tomorrow. Oftentimes, barriers such as culture or ethnic practices, generational values and overwhelming influence of popular culture hamper the true interaction between students and teachers within the critical process of educating (which I metaphor as a priceless painting). It is the intent of this short essay to make the readers aware of the magnificent canvas of diversity in our increasingly cultural proliferating schools, which is a wonderful reflection of the tapestry that we call our society. One medium which allows the vibrancy of student individuality and act as a refractor of the brilliance each child brings through individual intelligence and creativity is a teacher’s acceptance and understanding of one’s unique culture, which is summed up with the word E-M-P-A-T-H-Y. This word’s value is tested amidst ever-increasing challenges within the educational system and a chasm between a growing ethnic student population and an aging white female dominated educational workforce. Can this seven letter word be the artistic swatch that will develop masterpieces upon the waiting canvas, inspiring often misrepresented and misunderstood students – spreading the pigment of reciprocal care, understanding while tightening the bonds between students and teachers?
The inability of the American educational system to confront and successfully answer many of the cultural and intergenerational questions plaguing the process of education within the current educational system has been seen as one of the largest issues within American society in the latter part of the twentieth and persisting in the twenty-first century (Hopkins, 1997). As the new millennium came, the 2000 census painted a composite of a vastly changing social landscape where the number of students of color has increased from 29.7% to 39.5% between 1986 to 2003 (NCES, 2004) and is projected to grow from 49.3 to 52.7 million students by 2020 (NCES, 2009). This reflection of a growing population of ethnic students beckons the question if the educational force is culturally prepared for the demographic changes that are the reality of inner-city education in particular. Can an overwhelmingly white population of teachers address the individual needs of such a varying critical mass of students?
According to a study conducted by Harvard University, white teachers were the least likely to have had much experience with racial diversity and remain remarkably isolated (Frankenberg, 2006). In addition to this finding, white teachers, who on average attended schools that were 90% white, preferred to teach in schools that were majorly white and served with faculty that were 70% white. Another fact conveyed by the Harvard University report showed that both non-white and white teachers were more likely to contemplate switching schools or careers when teaching in poor minority populated schools (Frankenberg, 2006). These facts are alarming and pose a threat to the nuanced process of educating a child in lower income inner-city schools. What can and should be done to protect the integrity of student-teacher interaction and also stem the tide of abandonment both students and teachers feel while interfacing with the challenges of the educational system and an increasingly unfamiliar student population? The answer may seem overly simplified, but bears merit in the daily routine within the classroom. Teachers reinvesting in the rouge of empathy will go a long way in establishing educational bonds that are mutually beneficial to both teachers and students.
Irvine & York (1995) insist that student-teacher interactions are the places where learning really takes place. Furthermore, teachers are taught to make decisions based upon interactions, to build relationships with students, and to espouse authentically caring dispositions in the classroom. Teachers do all of these with the hopes of responding appropriately to the needs of students. Similarly, empathy is a utility of the human experience that enables observers to effectively and intellectually respond to the observed state of another person (Davis, 1994). The socio-cultural lens that the observers use filters their response to what they’ve seen and perceived. This lens validates previously-held belief systems and versions of the truth that have a significant influence on the type of response the observer employs. In other words, the observers’ unconscious response mechanisms implore them to favor particular social and cultural norms internally cultivated over a lifetime. As a result, the empathizers’ response to what they’ve seen or perceived can either improve the condition of the person being empathized with or worsen it.
Teachers of any race are more successful with students of color when they learn how to leverage the students’ frame of reference to better understand students’ lives. By doing so, they acquire intimate knowledge of their students leading to higher expectations for academic performance. More specifically, utilization of empathy help teachers to: maintain, maximize, and appreciate students’ cultural capital; constructively respond to the cultural differences of students by creating learning environments that embrace their specific learning preferences to ensure that they experience success; and cultivate student-centered classrooms (Howard, 2006; McAllister & Irvine). A great example of an empathetic teacher who was recognized for her abundant utilization of empathy is the forward-thinking educator who will go on to be portrayed in the human interest film Dangerous Mind (1995). Louanne Johnson taught inner-city youth high school English using Public Enemy lyrics. In the movie, she is portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, a teacher who displayed empathy by going above and beyond to help underachieving inner-city students achieve academically.
Teachers should consider themselves a finely-tipped paintbrush able to skillfully polish the portrait of young impressionable students eager to be understood and challenged. It is with the acrylic of empathy that the brush is able to meaningfully touch the canvas, creating a masterpiece unrivaled by any creation before it, because it is one of a kind – flawless in its appearance, for it was created with paint of empathy.
References
Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark Publishers.
Frankenberg, E. (2006). The Segregation of American Teachers. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
Hopkins, R. (1997). Educating Black Males: Critical lesson in Schooling, Community and Power. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Howard, G. R. (2006). We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multi-racial Schools. New York City, NY: Teachers College Press.
Irvine, J. J. & York, D. E. (1995). Learning Styles and Culturally Diverse Students: A Literature Review. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds), Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (pp. 484-497). New York City, NY: Macmillan.
McAllister, G., & Irvine, J.J. (2002). The Role of Empathy in Teaching Culturally Diverse Students: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Beliefs. Journal of Teacher Education. 53(5), 433-443.
National Center for Educational Statistics (2004). The Digest of Educational Statistics. Reviewed [8/12/11] from www.nces.ed.gov/programs/digest.
National Center for Educational Statistics (2009). The Digest of Educational Statistics. Reviewed [8/12/11] from www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/overview.asp.
I like this metaphor: Teachers should consider themselves a finely-tipped paintbrush able to skillfully polish the portrait of young impressionable students eager to be understood and challenged. It is with the acrylic of empathy that the brush is able to meaningfully touch the canvas, creating a masterpiece unrivaled by any creation before it, because it is one of a kind – flawless in its appearance, for it was created with paint of empathy." I especially like it in the context of the non-planned metaphor of "students of color" which reinforces the idea of teachers as paintbrushes.
ReplyDelete