Week 6 application activity
- 2. Literacy education in the United States magnifies and reproduces inequalities already inherent in society. 1 in 4 children in America grow up illiterate. In 1992 and 2003, National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) was used to assess literacy scores. Adults were scored on three types of literacy: prose, document, and quantitative. Literacy here is defined as “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." The assessment revealed that minorities scored lower on all three types.
- 3. Illiteracy has many wide-reaching affects. Being illiterate makes it hard to gain employment, apply for loans, housing, etc., and affects people’s access to adequate medical care. People who are illiterate are also more likely to be imprisoned or forced to rely on welfare. Two-thirds of students who can’t read efficiently at the end of 4th grade will end up imprisoned or on welfare. Some states even base their projection of how many beds a prison will require in the future on how well elementary school students perform on tests.
- 4. Illiteracy also contributes to student dropout rates. Children who do not read proficiently by 4th grade are four time mores likely to drop out of school. Dropout rates also display a racial bias, with African American students dropping out at twice the rate of white students. Dropout rates for Hispanic students are even higher.
- 5. Poverty is also a factor in high school dropout rates. Students who come from low-income families drop out at 5 times the rate of students from high-income families. Schools with a graduation rate of less than 60% are sometimes referred to as “dropout factories”. These schools are located mainly in poverty-stricken areas. Again, this disproportionately affects students of color. Over 60% of African American students attend schools where more than half of the school population lives in poverty in comparison to only 18% of white students.
- 7. Critical Pedagogy Approach In a critical pedagogic approach, students would have some degree of control over their curriculum. The reading list would be open to change and focus would be placed on selecting literature that was applicable to students’ lives and experience.
- 8. Accommodating Literature would be inclusive of different societal groups. The learning process would be adaptable, tailored to individual students to help ensure that students, including those with learning disabilities, do not slip through the cracks of the system.
- 9. Transformative Through selected literature, students would examine ways to transform society. Dialogue between students and teachers would be central to the learning experience. Students would be taught, not just to memorize and regurgitate information, but to understand the value of their knowledge and the reason behind learning it.
- 10. Oppressed Learner Approach Curriculum would be rigid, with little room for variance. Curriculum would be provided by and for dominant groups in society, with little concern for representation of other groups.
- 11. Certain literature would be held over others as the golden ideal. Literature by non-dominant groups would be considered “fringe” literature. Books and curriculum that were considered to encourage student questioning of dominant power structures, including capitalism and democracy, would be banned.
- 12. Banking Model would be used. Knowledge would be deposited into the students with no room for dialogue. The teacher has absolute authority. Education would not be adaptable to individual student needs. Those who do not perform are left behind.
- 13. Teachers contributing to oppression In some cases, teachers may unknowingly hold biases that affect their teaching. Many studies indicate that male students talk more than female students in class. However, some teachers perceive girls to do the majority of the talking. By analyzing videotapes of classroom interactions, Myra and David Sadker found that although boys talked three times more than girls, teachers perceived the girls to have done the bulk of the talking and were unable to see the bias until it was explicitly pointed out to them. This may be because of gender roles that reward girls for being quiet and docile, and boys for being assertive. In contrast, assertiveness in young girls may seen as “bossiness”, typically considered an undesirable trait.
- 14. Sources http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/gender.pdf The Moral Parameters of Good Talk: A Feminist Analysis By Maryann Ayim http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-literacy-america http://www.worldliteracyfoundation.org/The_Economic_&_Social_Cost_of_Illi teracy.pdf http://www.americaspromise.org/dropout-crisis-facts http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/school-dropout-prevention.aspx http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/10/hsdo-a10.html http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012006.pdf http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/24/14-disturbing-stats-about-racial-inequality- in-american-public-schools/ http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=69 http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/the-link-between-reading- level-and-dropout-rates/?_r=1