October+30+Assignment

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//Attached is an article titled "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" Read that article **AND** Ch. 2 of Framework of Poverty.//

//Write a reflection (2 pages)- identify your own biases and how that can impact your work. The Silenced Dialogue discusses race but many of the issues intersect with Ruby Payne's framework. Compare and contrast the two ideas presented- especially focused on discourse and "hidden rules" or the "culture of power".//

__** Jacquelyn Kent **__ Delpit’s research and perspectives are still interesting and thoughtful nearly 25 years later. Delpit demonstrates that giving all children a fair and complete education requires also conveying the rules of the dominant culture which are often unspoken under the assumption that everybody knows and agrees, or that a multicultural education doesn’t try to reinforce the existing dominant culture. Ruby Payne in //Framework for Understanding Poverty // also shares hidden rules that are known by only those members of a particular class. Payne’s work discusses how broadly and globally a student’s socio economic situation affects his experience of school. How do we instruct completely and fairly when students walk into the classroom with wide ranging skills and experience? There are, of course, many philosophies and strategies created over the last few decades to respond to that.

Currently, the best experience I’ve had in checking my world view and expectations at the door has been working in the special education classroom. Perhaps because I have a personal interest and respect for different types of processing and cognitive functioning, I learned better than ever to never assume anything and to explain everything. When Delpit speaks of the unspoken rules and behaviors of power, I more easily recognize and explain these to students when I see their brains function differently.

If I were to go back into the general education classroom, I feel I would be better about my assumptions and being very explicit. It is truly challenging to teach students, and not the class. Teaching students requires seeing what they know and what they don’t. What they believe and trust. What they don’t trust. Learning this about each student is so much more work than speaking to the class as a whole and assuming they understand and believe in what a teacher is purporting. I have been guilty of teaching the class and expecting students to ask me questions if they don’t understand. Of course, I have personally sought out students that appear to be falling under the radar. I could have done it more.

There is one behavior that according to Delpit, many White teachers do. That is to give indirect instruction. “Sit down, if you like?” For the good and the bad of it, that one I was never guilty of. As a teacher, I can be very directing. Often, I felt as though I were a steamroller in not allowing variety or style in certain activities. According to this article, students who care to learn the structure of the language of power or the expectations of the dominant/school culture appreciate that. Hopefully, I came through for them. In fact, the students who came back not to say hi but to say thank you to me said so because I would drill them with grammar. They felt better prepared than other students. I’m fairly proud of that.

Having read Delpit, it would have been nice to clarify in different phraseology that what they were learning was not the only way to communicate, but the way to communicate for success in our culture. I said this often, but without the nuance I would share now.

//Jacqui brought up the idea that the educational system is difficult because we have a bunch of children with a wide range of skills and experience and that we have to be aware of these differences and teach these children in knowledge appropriate ways. Also I had never considered how teachers must see and acknowledge what the students know and what they don’t and adapt their teaching style.-KATE //

//When I began working in special education I also had to check my world view and expectations at the door. I had a bias about special education children, but once I began working with them my whole mindset changed. -JESSE//

//Jacqui- Your experience as a teacher and being able to relate the understanding of the rules of the dominant culture, and the use of language is very helpful. This only affirms that school psychologists should seriously take the teachers' experiences into consideration when assessing the behaviors and performance of students.- SABRINA //

While reading “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children”, Delpit’s perspective on the “culture of power” I found to be similar to Ruby Payne’s work in regards to “hidden rules.” Delpits’ “culture of power” focuses on the codes or rules that dictate how one talks, writes, dresses, and interacts with others. Delpit argument is that of how educators are supposed to teach black and Native American students when the educators come in with their own biases about the students. A great issue that Delpit talks about is that teachers have power over the students, publishers of textbooks, the developers of the curriculum to determine the view of the world presented, and government determining “normalcy.” Because the white race is seen to be in power they dictate what is taught and how it is taught not taking into account other races that come from a different culture. Delpit and Payne differ in their opinion in that Delpit focuses more on culture and Payne more so on socioeconomic status.
 * __ Jesse Santana __**

Working in people’s homes and in a school environment I am constantly around children and parents. I have found myself to be bias at times towards other families. Not so much in my actions towards the families but more so thoughts that I had according to social stigmas. I try not to let bias towards others affect my work because I am still there to provide a service no matter my bias. One bias that I have had when working in a low socioeconomic area was that all people that live there would be “ghetto,” but in reality that was not the case and most people were really nice towards me and were grateful for the services we were providing their children.

//The synopsis Jesse had on Delpit writing on culture and Payne was more focused on socioeconomic status could not be more right. I felt the same way when reading these texts. My other favorite part of his writing was when he discussed the idea of bias and how a good psychologist should not be biased but realize that they are there to provide a service no matter how I feel.-KATE //

__** Kathleen Kent **__ These reading were very similar in concept. The topic of Culture of Power was what I thought was most interesting in The Silenced Dialogue. What I thought impacted me when reading was the similarity between Payne’s Hidden Rules and the Silenced Dialogue’s Culture of Power and their observations leading you to what they wanted you to see, and that is how different people really are, and in what way you see someone you don’t see all the struggles they have gone through to get to where they are. Payne does this through a register through which we speak to others and a quiz to assess where you fit in regards to class level. Delpit discusses how everyone thinks that they know everything about people, but that maybe people should take a step back and realize that every situation is different (as is every student) and so they should be treated as such. When comparing this reading it is interesting how each author makes you take a look at the way you speak to, treat others, and make assumptions about people that we do not know.

Another part of the reading I found that may affect my own biases, specifically in my work as a psychologist was the idea of a Culture of Power. Reading the Five Aspects of Power made me realize that in schools and life we are molding children to fall into categories, with or without our knowledge, but things need to change to make a more equal environment for all children to succeed. I thought that what was interesting about aspect number one, issues in classrooms, was that classrooms perpetuate inequality by using biased textbooks and the general view of the world that the teachers show to their students. Aspect two, that there are codes for participating in power, what I found intriguing was that features such as presentation of self, the way people dress, and how you interact with others effects your treatment of people. I know that first hand I would show bias to those who present themselves in a well-kept manner, even when I am waiting tables if someone comes in disheveled and sits at my table that I treat them differently, I assume that if they don’t take care of themselves what are the chances that they are going to take care of my gratuity. The third aspect, which is that the rules are a reflection of those who have power, I didn't realize that this includes how middle class families are able to give their children the tools to succeed, which is a simile for life. They can afford to get their children the school supplies like protractors and pencils, but as they progress to becoming older they can afford to apply at more colleges because their parents can afford the $50 application fees. The fourth aspect, learning the rules makes acquiring power easier, in these ways children who come from poorer families need assistance learning how to dress, interactional styles, and taboo words to better fit in with their peers. The last aspect, that those who have power are not usually aware but that those who do not have power are always aware, the idea that those who have power are unaware is right on point. After reading this I realize that as a psychologist I will have power, and need to be wise as to how I will use it, by making small adjustments in my thinking and being aware of my biases I can make the education of these children easier for them, and perhaps offer them a future they would not have had before.

//Kate - I appreciate how you describe the 5 aspects of power. I think in our field, it's important to be mindful of the resources that are available to all students. Also, your ability to admit and acknowledge your own biases is a skill which I think should be present in every school psychologist. - SABRINA //

Some of Delpit's aspects of a "culture of power" bear similarities to Ruby Payne's views on language in regards to class. Delpit viewed that the existence of a power culture is evident in classrooms and that schooling is directly related to power. Through education, schools ultimately prepare students for jobs, thus influencing their socioeconomic status. Throughout her chapter, Delpit implies that nonwhite students are at disadvantage as they are being educated by middle and upper class white teachers and administrators who are unfamiliar with the needs of their students. Payne views that minority and poor students are at a disadvantage because of their limited access to the use of a formal language register. Formal registers are the standard forms of language used in state tests, and job interviews- an ability that is more familiar to middle and upper class individuals. Teachers who neglect to acknowledge and shape minority/poor students' abilities to use formal register are likely to deprive these students of the same opportunities as their peers.
 * __ Sabrina Cabanilla __**

Delpit viewed that there are codes and rules for those participating in power that relate to language and communication (as well as ways of interacting and dressing). Payne wrote of discourse patterns, and how people of different classes interpret and perceive how language is exchanged. Each writer differed, however, in the type of language discourse that was preferred and used in each group. Delpit wrote of her experiences interviewing minority teachers and parents. She wrote that black students responded better to direct instruction, and were less responsive to indirect forms of instruction (such as asking the student, "Would you like to sit down?" versus "Sit down"). Rather than assuming the student is behaviorally defiant, it would help if the teacher knew of the most effective way to communicate with their students. Payne, on the other hand, wrote that minority/poor students and families prefer an indirect, beat around the bush, form of communicating while middle and upper class families prefer direct and formal discourse. Regardless of these differences, both writers were clear on their beliefs that the cultural language register should be acknowledged for all students.

In examining Delpit and Payne's views on language and how it relates to power and education, I thought about my own biases and behaviors when interacting with minority students and families of varying socioeconomic status. I dress up a bit more, and save my "nice" clothes when I meet with clients in South Orange County. When I was a newbie in the field, I spoke louder and slower when providing consultation in homes where English was the 2nd language. I admit that I have had different expectations for families depending on their socioeconomic status. It's a rookie mistake that I've learned from, and through constant education and experience, I hope that I can continue to provide more effective services for diverse populations.

//What you described in your behavior on how you behave when interacting with minority students and families varying in status is what I find myself doing as well. I also tend to leave some nice clothes aside when I need to dress up for those certain clients and I also had biases when working with minority families.-JESSE//