Prompt 6: Delpit

Many of the students in my class, and in the school, live in very poor areas. Their lifestyles are completely different from the "culture of power," and they have grown up with different experiences. My teacher told me it's important to push and encourage the students to do well, but if they are in a bad mood you have to know when to back off. My teacher has to take into consideration who's uncle got shot in a drive by, or who's parents are not home because they are working 2 jobs.

There are so many sociocultural aspects to take into consideration when teaching students who live in lower economic areas. It is more than who didn't sleep well; it's who doesn't have a bed to sleep in. A lot of this is the result of Delpit's "5 Aspects of Power" which is in article: The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children. These 5 Aspects of Power are: 1. Issues of power enacted in classrooms. 2. There are codes/rules for participating in power; there is a "Culture of Power." 3. The rules reflect the rules of the culture in power. 4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. 5. Those with power are frequently less aware of--or least willing to acknowledge-its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

In order to help empower the students, the teacher must realize they are not the only expert in the classroom. Everyone comes into a classroom, or anywhere for that matter, with their own personal knowledge and history. Denying students their own expert knowledge disempowers them.

To make more sense of Delpit, I am going to relate it to the simulation game we played in my college class when learning about Delpit. The class was broken up into 5 or 6 groups. Once the directions to the game were passed out we were not allowed to talk AT ALL or write down words on paper. Each table learned their rules and were comfortable with them... Little did we know when we switched the groups up, everyone had different rules. It was beyond aggravating because it took a few rounds before I caught onto it. When we moved from table to table we were not already a participant in the culture of power, and we were not explicitly told the rules--representing aspect #4. The people who did NOT have to move and were at the same table were least aware that there were different rules because they were in their own "home" territory whereas those moving around were more aware of what was going on and the lack/difference of power. If you were at your original table, you held the power. If you went to another table, you had to adapt to their rules. This was an example of aspect #5.

In a classroom with a white teacher who is not aware of the "culture of power" will find a child as disobedient if they do not follow the rules and regulations of that culture of power. Delpit argues that white people see white people with problems as just having problems, but when a person of color has problems those problems become a representation for their cultural group. Delpit says that teachers need to accept the students and to take responsibility to teach them.


"No one comes from nowhere, and everyone comes from somewhere" (Dr. A). Take the time to get to know your students backgrounds and develop methods that are best suited to their own educational needs.

Prompt 5: Dewey

With being a teacher in a culturally diverse classroom comes the challenge of being able to communicate effectively with, not only your students, but with their parents as well. The parents may or may not speak English, which would certainly make the communication very limited. This can cause other challenges to occur. I would not be able to effectively let them know how their children are doing in school, and the parents would not would not be able to effectively let me know what or how they want me to work with their children.

In order to address these problems, the first thing that comes to mind is brushing up on some of my spanish that I learned in high school. Another possible option is that I pull out the child's work to show the parents how their child is dong in school. If the child is struggling, however, there can be one of two major reactions. 1. They could encourage me to keep pushing their child and the parents want to help, or 2. they blame you for not being a good enough teacher and that is why their child is not doing well.

Personally, to show respect for the concerns and contributions of parents, I would try to actively listen to what they have to say, and I would respond in a calm, nonthreatening way. I would take what they say into consideration and incorporate it into helping the student in a way that best suits their path to success.

There are so many factors to consider in a culturally diverse setting. From observing in the school I volunteer in, I heard two things that stick out in my mind. The first was when my teacher was talking to one little boy about a low mark he received (he had a very disappointed look on his face). She told him she knows he can do better because she knows how smart he is. My teacher told him she was pushing him as hard as she was because his parents made sure to ask her to do so. She promised she would. Another instance was when I was signing into the office. A father was telling the secretary about how proud of his son he was for earning student of the month, and that his son wan't getting into trouble this year like he used to in the past.

The challenges that I discussed earlier wouldn't be as problematic if these families were not isolated into sub-societies that do not allow them to interact with other societies. This idea comes from John Dewey's Democracy in Education, chapter 7: the democratic conception in education. Dewey discusses de jure and de facto segregation. De jure is segregation by law whereas de facto is segregation caused by the systems of society. In relation, education tends to be segregated by de facto. This is due to the fact that socialization depends on the habits and aims of the group who have similar ideas and a common interest tend to group together.

Dewey says that the desirable traits for society are common interest and interaction with other groups. These two positive traits point toward democracy. In a democracy education functions as a way of leveling the playing field, giving everyone equal opportunity for a solid education as well as a common interest for everyone. Because people group together by their own individual common interests it is difficult to create an "ideal" society. However, according to Dewey, if this "ideal" society is based on reality and actuality, it can be accomplished. The "ideal" society would be based upon how the world works which highly includes the interactions between ALL sub-societies and groups. He argues that we need to fix this isolation through education, everyone's common interest, and changing our mindset about groups outside of our own.

Dewey also believed in not hammering education into an individual. Learning cannot be forced, it's developmental. So the man attempting to hammer knowledge into the child in the cartoon obviously has not read up on Dewey principles.