Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete by Jeffrey M.R. Duncan-Andrade

 

Jeff Duncan explained the idea of HOPE. According to him, in the past thirty years, there has been an assault on hope. The forms of assaults in hope, according to Duncan, are disinvestment in school and overinvestment in a prison industrial complex, Duncan explained. As a result, there is an erotion of true hope that leads to false hope (a reactionary distortion of the radical premise of hope). There are three types of false hope he added. They are hokey hope, mythical hope, and hope deferred. As educators, we need to rebuild critical hope by teaching in ways that connect young people to radical action to relieve the suffering of the underserved communities.

Duncan added that the enemies of hope are Hokey Hope, Mythical Hope, and Hope Deferred. HOKEY HOPE, as an example, is manifested in urban schools for the most part. He exemplified Angela Valenzuela's study as manifested in Sequin High School, a predominantly Latino school in Texas. Valenzuela stated that relationship between school officials and students is pragmatic. She added that the teaching and learning process appears strained because goals, strategies, and standardized curriculum are created by one group for another group, leading to the culture of false caring and ineffective teaching because of the disconnect between school standards and student's language and culture. HOPE DEFFERED is a sort of justification of poor education. Teachers feel overwhelmed by the challenges urban youth face in their lives. As a result, teachers see students as ill-equipped to respond to the pedagogy. Teachers see the social inequity but fail to work on a transformative pedagogical project that will guide students to achieve hope in daunting hadrships. Hope is deferred because teachers are unwilling or unable to close the gap between curriculum and culture. MYTHICAL HOPE is the insinuation that success of exceptional individuals like Barack Obama is the end of racism. Duncan mentioned that Obama's election does not mean hope but change. However, Obama's election gave us reason to be hopeful. Highlighting the exceptional individual success is not addressing the needs of the marginalized community.

Critical hope, according to the article, demands commitment and active struggle. The three elements of essential hope are material hope, Socrative hope, and Audacious hope. As educators, we need to rebuild critical hope by teaching in ways that connect young people to radical action to relieve the suffering of the underserved communities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Am Not Your Negro By James Baldwin

Image
  The author James Baldwin's documentary film "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO," aims to reckon with the lives and deaths of Martin, Medgar, and Malcolm. He wanted to share the dreadful journeys of these leaders to expose the racism that is ravaging the country, the United States of America. As a speaker in one of the debates, Mr. Baldwin reiterates what Mr. Robert Kennedy mentioned, "It was conceivable that in 40 years in America we might have a Nigger president." Mr. Baldwin answers , "That sounded like a very emancipated statement, I suppose. To white people, we are not in Harlem when this statement was first heard. Not here and possibly will never hear the laughter and the bitterness in the school which is taken was greeted on the point of view of Harlem barbershop. Bobby Kennedy only got here yesterday, and he is already on his way to the presidency. We have been here before 100 years, and now he tells us that maybe in 40 years if you are good, you might become
Read more

Introduction

  My name is Gemma. I hold a Rhode Island Early Childhood teacher certification and a master's in early childhood education from Rhode Island College. I am currently studying the Rhode Island College's TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program. M.Ed. in TESOL would enhance my skills and knowledge to best support the emergent bilingual learners. My position at the Henry Barnard School for sixteen years allowed me to deliver lessons such as creative curriculum and Reggio Emelia inspired-approach curriculum. I am a Reggio Emelia-inspired early childhood educator. I provide young students with exciting materials that encourage explorations and curiosity in the different learning centers. In the classroom and the playground, I listened to and observed the children's topics of interest. Then I create a lesson plan that reflects on what they understand and builds on that knowledge by further investigation, reading related literature, inviting expert speakers, and go
Read more

Precious Knowledge

Image
A film Directed by Ari Luis Palos                                                                           The film presents a series of Raza studies controversy that led to the bill’s introduction that would ban these ethnic studies programs. Raza studies were gaining popularity in 1997 in Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Unified School District data reported a forty-eight percent dropout rate in graduation among the Latino student population.   In response, the district created a study group that identified different variables that caused the diminishing graduation rate among Latinos. Eventually, a social justice pedagogy gained traction. Raza’s studies made it through the school district governing board recommendation. The goal is to lower the Latino dropout rate. In 2002, the Tucson Unified School District conveyed a substantial ninety-three percent progress on graduation rate among Latino students. The film illustrates the classes taught in the Raza studies program. In addition,
Read more