Week 5
What can teachers do in the face of injustice?
Counts, “Dare We Build a New Social Order?”; Raftery, “Missing the Mark: Intelligence Testing in LA”; Pak, “Wherever I Go, I will Always be a Loyal American”; Walker, “Caswell County”
In 1932, George Counts criticized the “sublime faith” that Americans had in education. Americans, he complained, seem to believe that education “is the one unfailing remedy for every ill to which man is subject.” Writing in the midst of the Great Depression, Counts questioned this faith and at the same time challenged educators to consider what it would really take to be agents of social change. “Society is never redeemed without effort, struggle, and sacrifice,” Counts warned, and teachers must be willing to assume power and leadership toward that end.
Each of the readings assigned for this class presents a dilemma of leadership that teachers and other school officials faced in a situation of social injustice. In addition to reading Counts’ provocative essay, you will be assigned to read one of three case studies. Ask yourself:
Counts (all read) What do you think of Counts’ call to teachers to exercise leadership in creating a more just society? How far are you willing to go along with Counts’ argument? At what point does Counts make you stop and raise questions? What are those questions?
Raftery (group 1) What responsibility do teachers have to understand the research and scientific basis of standardized tests and other systematic reforms that may be imposed by district, state or federal policymakers but have direct effects on the educational experiences of students in their schools? Beyond understanding the research and science behind such policies, what responsibility do teachers have to act on such understanding? Using the example of teachers and school officials in 1920s Los Angeles as a basis for your analysis, identify as many different ways as possible for teachers to shape or affect the implementation of such policies in practice.
Pak (group 2) Imagine yourself as a teacher of Japanese-American students on the eve of Internment—a policy for which the federal government has now officially apologized, having admitted that there was no military justification for the act (for more information on this history, with specific reference to Seattle, consult Densho.org). Your students, who were born in the United States and are (as you have been teaching them) American citizens, are about to be forcibly exiled and imprisoned through a policy over which you have no influence or control. What do you imagine your students are experiencing? What does teaching for social justice mean in such a situation? What can and should teachers do when there is nothing to be done?
Walker (group 3) To what extent and in what ways can a school counteract injustice and inequality that families and their communities confront in the larger society? Walker argues that in the case of Caswell County, North Carolina and in other comparable cases, segregated black schools were centers of community that counteracted effects of racism in the broader society of the Jim Crow South. In what sense was this true? Identify as many ways as possible. What are the extent and limits of the parallels that can be drawn between the case Walker describes and current school contexts with which you are familiar and where you are working? How can Walker’s study help you imagine what could be better in what currently exists?