Asking the Right Questions
Asking the Right Questions
Urban education cannot be changed by teachers or even administrators until the systemic issues of inequity are addressed (Anyon, 2014; Blanchett & Zion, 2011a; Noguera & Syeed, 2020). There are political and racial factors that “undergird” the challenges, gaps, and failings of our most challenged schools. Anyon (2014) describes “macroeconomic policies regulating wages, jobs, tax rates, federal transportation, and affordable housing (among others) that create conditions in urban areas that no existing educational policy or urban school reform can transcend” (p. 4). The people most often blamed, are the teachers, who hold the least power while Americans often forget that public schools are government systems that are functioning as intended (Anyon, 2014; Noguera & Syeed, 2020).
Policy and Urban Education
The intention is clear: the federal government and state leadership is focused on fixing children of color or on closing a perceived gap that exists inside the child. Because the dominate view in American society is that there is something wrong with Black people (and people of color), this is reflected in the way policy is written and developed (Kendi, 2016). Schools have long been tools of the colonizer and since the publication of A Nation At Risk (1983) have severed a neoliberal agenda focused mainly on the standardization of curriculum and students (Blanchett & Zion, 2011a, 2011b). With each successive piece of sweeping federal legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2003, and Race to the Top (RTT) in 2016, the unique systemic issues that exists outside of schools are not being addressed. Issues like gentrification of neighborhoods, systemic racism, White supremacist ideas (and literal White supremacists), inequity in the economy and job market are unique to families of color which have been systematically funneled into resegregated schools. Legislation that renders students of color invisible by means of consideration through the ignoring of these issues and factors simultaneously targets students of color through the advancement of standardized testing and neoliberal policy which has created the concept of an achievement gap (Blanchett & Zion, 2011a; Noguera & Syeed, 2020). In order to reform urban education, these policies must first be reformed (Anyon, 2014; Blanchett & Zion, 2011a).
Searching for Answers
Blanchett and Zion (2011a) explored what research, questions, methodologies, and even epistemologies, were seen as valuable in educational research. Using their own experiences as new researchers coupled with an examination of the educational research field, the pair ultimately claim that the types of questions that are asked, and the types of research that are completed influence the educational policies that are developed (Blanchett & Zion, 2011a). Objectivist approaches fueled by an overvaluing of quantitative research supported by neoliberal policies turns students into little more than test scores (Behrent, 2016; Blanchett & Zion, 2011a, 2011b; Fisher-Ari et al., 2017). Primarily – this “evidence-based research” approach has fueled the idea of the “learning gap” between white students and students of color and only serves to promote hegemonic policy (Blanchett & Zion, 2011a, p. 25). Addressing the problems in educational policy require a new set of tools: quantitative research that centers the voices of the marginalized in shaping policy is needed to be judged as valuable as objectivism. In our post-truth society, I have been told to remain as objective as possible. Objectivity has been demanded even as insurrectionists stormed the capital on January 6th, 2021.
Neutrality cannot pave a road forward in dismantling systemic inequity and injustice that must first be addressed (Anyon, 2014; Blanchett & Zion, 2011a; Noguera & Syeed, 2020). At first, I didn’t even understand the importance of Blanchett and Zion’s (2011a) above claim, or rather the importance of calling out objectivity in research. As a classroom teacher, it is easy to feel the problems in the classroom so closely that the policy driving inequity feels as invisible as my students’ survival which is interwoven into it. Part of shifting the blame to educators, and eventually the families who exist in our inequitable society, is to obfuscate the government’s responsibility to those they serve. Conversations about learning gaps came back stronger than ever in our teaching-through-COVID reality of the past two years.
References
Anyon, J. (2014). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban
education, and a new social movement (Second edition. ed.). Routledge.
Behrent, M. (2016). More
than a score: Neoliberalism, testing, & teacher evaluations. Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 26(1),
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Blanchett, W., &
Zion, S. (2011a). Asking the Right Questions in Urban Education Research. In K.
A. Scott & W. Blanchett (Eds.), Research
in urban educational settings: Lessons learned and implications for future
practice (pp. 21-37). Information Age Publication.
Blanchett, W., &
Zion, S. (2011b). [Re]conceptualizing inclusion: Can critical race theory and
interest convergence be utilized to achieve inclusion and equity for African
American students? Teachers College
Record, 113(10), 2186-2205.
Fisher-Ari, T., Kavanagh,
K. M., & Martin, A. (2017). Sisyphean neoliberal reforms: The intractable
mythology of student growth and achievement master narratives within the
testing and TFA era. Journal of Education
Policy, 32(3), 255-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2016.1247466
Kendi, I. X. (2016). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive
history of racist ideas in America. Nation Books.
National Commission on
Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation
at risk: The imperative for educational reform. An open letter to the American
people. A report to the nation and the Secretary of Education.
Noguera, P., & Syeed,
E. (2020). City schools and the American
dream 2: The enduring promise of public education. Teachers College Press,.
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