Nakkula 7 & 8

     

Even more so, as I have read from Johnson in other classes, we need to have these dialogues with our students to first address and recognize the prevalence of race within not only the school but in society. Having these open dialogues allows us to "confront the negative consequences of racism in our school environments and serve to enhance our own growth just as it does our students," (Nakkula 125). In order for these dialogues to happen, we need to recognize that we cannot fully "overcome our prejudices, but we can recognize them with practice and learn to modify and respond to them constructively," (Nakkula 126). Meaning that we need to identify and embrace who we are and who are students are so that we can grow together and promote working relationships within the classroom.




The chapters in Nakkula this week play an incredibly prevalent role in my everyday interaction with students. In fact just today, I had a student say that I was being "racist." Now, this isn't the first time that this happened to me, and it probably won't be the last as I am a white female teacher working with a population that has a majority of nonwhite students. While this has been said before, every time it's said I always rethink the situation that just happened and analyze it to see if I was indeed acting in a 'racist' manner. Relating back to Ms. Peterson and Antwon's story, students will often say that I'm being 'racist' when I am redirecting them or trying to hold them accountable for their actions and again, similar to Antwon, will say this to me to try to get me to 'back off' and lower my expectations. Like Ms. Peterson, when this would happen I would leave the student alone for a bit then I make my way back and sit next to them and work with their group to make it feel less invasive or confrontational for the student. As Nakkula tells us, "adult alliances are critical in helping cultivate authoritative responses to oppression," (Nakkula 125). As educators, we need to be advocating for our students not upholding the oppression that is already prevalent in their everyday lives.




Looking at chapter 8, Lorena's story of how she enjoyed speaking Spanish more than English because it felt like 'home' reminded me a lot about an article I read "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez where he talks about how he felt like he lost who he was when he was immersed in the United States with his family. More specifically, he lost his connection with his culture and ethnicity trying to meet our 'standards' of speaking, reading and writing in English. This again comes back to us as teachers and allowing our students to celebrate who they are and the backgrounds they come from. We need to continue to support and advocate for those who cannot yet advocate for themselves.