Inclusive Leadership and Poverty; A Diversity Framework-Inclusive and Differentiated (POLICY VS HEART)
This week’s reading brought to mind the experience of a friend of mine several years ago. She is white, her husband is black. They have 2 children a boy, and a girl, who are a couple of grades apart in school. School policy had changed, allowing her to choose between two elementary schools equidistance from home for her children to attend. Upon registering, she was told that her son could not attend the school because the quota of caucasians to keep the school in balance was already attained. However, they might be able to allow her daughter to attend because that grade level was not out of balance. Rather than argue, she quietly left. Later she returned with her two children (whom had visibly black characteristics) and calmly, but demonstrably, asked which part of their color was going to be the deciding factor…their black or their white. I won’t expound on the various issues at play with this example, but it illustrates that policy and regulations to force diversity are not the most effective answer. Of course, policies of diversity in schools have changed since then. The level of diversity, and it’s definition have changed also.
As the readings point out, there is a large and increasing diversity in our more globally connected world. There is tremendous intersection between diverse groups makes it difficult and dangerous to group people statistically. I would argue that there is even an intersection between “privilege” and “disadvantage”. There is change power when educators (as leaders) use their awareness of diversity to find enough empathy to be willing to change their practices where necessary, access the knowledge fund of the students and community, to strive for access and excellence in education for all students regardless of the diversity. More than searching for particularly diverse teachers and leaders, I think we should instead search for ‘concerned’, ‘willing’ ‘diversity-minded’ teachers and leaders from any background. “Culture takes longer to change than climate, and it must be framed so that diversity can be facilitated rather than obstructed.”(Smith, 2015. pg. 73) I am beginning to realize that I believe in a more ‘grass roots’ change, than one from the top down using policy and regulations.
Although reading Smith was laborious I did find value in it. I think that a focus on building ‘human capital’ in institutions, in conjunction with a focus on building ‘human capacity’ and “…reframing the issue of diversity as an institutional imperative concerning education and excellence…”(Smith, 2015. pg. 88) Making decisions to change, or not change in the school culture using the seven guidelines on page 77 makes some sense to me (Smith, 2015. pg. 77).
Another quote hit home for me because of my current teaching assignment, “Poverty is not an excuse. It is a harsh reality.” (Diane Ravitch quoted in Smith, 2015. pg 40) It is hard work teaching at our school. Because of the poverty and related issues it requires heart, courage, understanding, and an ability to deal with many problems in addition to the basic classroom instruction. As the book shows, there is a lot of experiential deficit that needs addressing as well. It is a harder to staff school with more openings each year than other schools as teachers move on to easier schools. This results in a core of highly motivated teachers who remain because their ‘heart’ is in it. Even so, there is quite a bit of resistance when challenging curriculum is introduced. Some well-meaning teachers tend to shy away from challenging students and continue in low-level curriculum because they can see success more rapidly. Teaching higher levels of curriculum to students of poverty who are also EL requires excellent teaching practices, and you become VERY tired completing a day of instruction. I have found that my students DO rise to the expectations. The challenge is for the teacher in such situations to be able to maintain this level of instruction…it does require extra work with 98% of your students requiring pre-teaching and/or reteaching, and experience building.
