Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

How can schools that are performing poorly improve if they deny that race, gender and class are factors that affect the success of the school? This is a question that we have been grappling with as we work with low-performing schools. Nowhere are the disparities by race, class and gender more apparent than in schools that have had chronic records of low student achievement. Through the years of supporting teachers and students in these schools, we have been able to trace the ways in which the best-intended educators ignore or obscure the importance of cultural competence in their work, at levels of both policy and practice, in addressing these disparities. In this paper, we will outline the ways in which cultural competence is resisted as a potential “root cause” of low student achievement in schools, including: 1) addressing class differences as the “root cause” to the exclusion of either race or gender; 2) remaining in “triage mode” with difficulties the school faces with regard to violence and poor school climate without looking at race, class or gender as contributing elements factors; and 3) teachers who are unable to comfortably work with students of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. Collaborating with several schools districts that have been cited by the New York State Education Department as failing to reach their established benchmarks, the researchers found significant resistance to discussion about race, gender and class.