Episode 104: Pat Your Weave and Get a Psych Eval as a Bonus

This episode focuses on culturally responsive teaching. Dr. Berry tells a story showing how a teacher's lack of cultural knowledge led to misunderstanding a student. She stresses the need for implicit bias training, cultural awareness, and teaching practices that respect all students' backgrounds.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

If you're a parent, teacher or school leader and you're sick and tired of the frustration, anger and unfair treatment of children at high risk in our public schools, then perhaps it's time for all of us to do something about it. In this podcast, Dr amitra Berry brings you tips, tools, strategies and tactics to build successful solutions while touching, moving and inspiring all of us to transform our schools so that every child thrives. Here's your host. Dr Berry,

Dr Almitra Berry: 0:42

you welcome back, equity warriors. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of the 3e podcast. Now, before we get started, I have a favor to ask. I'm going to ask that you smash that subscribe button. Download these podcast episodes. Make it automatic. It's free, and it'll make you feel good. It's like accomplishing something a check mark. Check marks are good for the soul. All right, today I want to share a story. I like to hear your stories, and, by the way, something else new. Look down in the show notes. You can now text me, and I'm going to remind you again at the end of the show. So if you've got a story you want to share with me about something that's going on, you'd like me to make an episode out of it. You've got a request, a question, whatever it is, down in the show notes, there's a link that says, send us a text message. All you have to do is click on that link and it's going to take you right to your text application where you can text me directly. All right. All right. Story, I was talking to a school leader in, I won't say what city, but you're going to know who you are when you hear this. And he was sharing that this is a black man. Was sharing that he had a white teacher come to him and say that she had a student who she wanted to refer for a psych eval. Psyche vow, that's some pretty serious stuff. And he probed and asked, Well, why do you think this young woman needs a psych eval? By the way, the young woman was black, and that part is important. It's important to understand and well, you know, and you all have heard me say, you see color, we all see color. It's important. So the teacher explains that this young woman is always hitting herself in the head. Now, through the magic podcast, there's no way for me to show you a visual here, but I want you to do this. I want you to take your hand. I want you to open it up, all five fingers, spread them out, and raise it over your if your right hand, right side of your head, Temple, just above the temple, and just pat. Just pat. If you're left handed, do it with your left hand. Just pat. Don't slap yourself. Don't punch yourself. Open hand, fingertips, just pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. Have you seen that before? It's very common for young ladies who have weaves to have itchy scalps that they can't get to to scratch. Maybe you've heard the tune by Beyonce where she talks about, pat your weave. Ladies, pat your weave. That's what this student was doing. And yet, this teacher at a level of cultural awareness, rather a level of cultural incompetence that makes it difficult to accept that she is teaching classrooms full of black and brown children did not recognize that this child, a, that Her hair was not the texture of black hair, be that she had a weave and see, that's how you scratch when you've got a wig or a weave or something else on your on your head that doesn't allow your fingertips or fingernails to get down onto your scalp, To scratch. She thought she needed a psych eval. So where am I going with this cultural competence? Or lack of cultural competence is something that I talk about routinely, that I write about extensively, and it matters that our teachers have a level of cultural awareness for the cultures of the students that they teach. It's imperative that school leaders have that same or even higher level of cultural awareness and cultural competence so that they can connect to and relate to and have empathy for the. Children that they are there to serve the children that you serve, and it's horrifically impactful on children of color simply because of the composition of our teaching force. You can look at multiple different resources to find numbers about percentages of teachers based on race and ethnicity and overwhelmingly, again, depending on what year you're looking at what districts were polled, your best resource is the Institute for Education Sciences. They have the most accurate data, and what you're going to find is that a little more than 79% of teachers in America's public schools are white. A little over 79% that percentage is higher in the elementary schools than it is in your middle and high schools. So when our children are receiving their foundational instruction in those early years, our children, who are black, brown, indigenous, overwhelmingly do not see teachers that look like them. When we look at student demographics, only 47% of students are white. America's public schools are majority of color, so roughly 80% of teachers are white, but 53% of students are something else. The implications of this mismatch are huge, and it's not as though white teachers cannot deliver content to children of color. I am not saying that white teachers can't be phenomenal teachers to children of color. I often tell the story of my favorite teacher as a child growing up, the woman who had a greater impact on my life and my education than any other teacher I had was a white woman by the name of Lynn Gowdy, Mrs Gowdy, and she didn't know it at the time, I don't think, but I was a child of trauma. The year before, not even a full year before, I had seen my father shot to death. I entered her classroom as a third grader who was already a shy kid, but also traumatized, and the content that she gave me back in 1970 1970 fall of 1970 she gave me what we now call culturally relevant text. She gave me something to read that would resonate with me, where I could see my people, more importantly, where I could see men who looked like my father, as opposed to the stories of Dick and Jane and Sally and spot and puff or fluffy, whatever the cat's name was, the implications of a cultural disconnect are huge. What happens when teachers don't have a higher level of cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness to their children is that we have greater disproportionality in three areas. Now I'm going to talk about three. Actually, let's let's take it to four. Number one is discipline. We know that black students receive more referrals, especially from high referring teachers, than do white children. Black children are suspended and expelled at disproportionately high rates for the exact same offenses as white children are. Think about that. Why does that happen? The example I just gave you psychiatric evaluations, black children and brown children are more frequently referred for psychiatric evaluations because of something that they are doing or exhibiting a way that they're behaving that is normal in their culture, but for which a white teacher does not connect to or understand or empathize with. Number three is Special Education referrals to special. Education placement in special education. And the greatest offense when it comes to special education, in my humble opinion, is to label a child as having a behavior disorder, behavior disorder. And who do you think gets that label? Overwhelmingly, it's black boys when we don't category number four, which also connects to Special Ed placement, but category number four would simply be general academics. I was sharing with a group, or I've shared with a number of groups the story about taking my sixth graders up to the middle school they were going to attend. And in this one instance, I had it was my first time doing this. So it was my first year teaching sixth grade, moving down from the high school, and I had a large number of students whose primary language was Spanish. They were native Spanish speakers, and I thought it was going to be fantastic for them that they would be in a place where they could get literacy in their primary language, because we didn't have a dual immersion or any sort of Spanish language program at the k6 elementary that I taught in so my students were not becoming readers and writers in Spanish. They were not becoming readers and writers in their primary language, because it wasn't something that we offered. But I knew at the middle school that they could take Spanish one, they could start in Spanish one. It'd be great if they could take a Spanish for native Spanish speakers, but that wasn't offered. And so while we are making this visit and my students asking the counselors and folks there, and of course, I'm standing with my children about taking Spanish, and they said, Oh, well, that's not offered for you. Not offered for you because you speak Spanish at home. The Spanish classes where we teach you how to write in Spanish, read in Spanish, proper grammar and syntax and usage mechanics of the language. That instruction is not for you. Now you all know me. That's another thing I just could not let slide, and so I took that to task if it's not for the people who speak the language, then I suppose no one who speaks English is taking English class, right? Needless to say, all of my children were able to take Spanish when they got to middle school. Funny, how that works. A lack of awareness and insensitivity comes from a special place. Oh, I was going to tell you one more, and that's just in grading in general, and the inequities of grading because of our cultural mindsets that are not in sync, connected to or aware of the cultures of the children that we serve, and for a lot on that you're going to have to wait for my upcoming book, which does have a title and equitable instructional practices for Culturally and Linguistically diverse learners, I knew it would come to me in a minute. I just got the title Not long ago. Should be out this fall in time for back to school, but stay tuned, and as soon as it is ready, I will be letting you know on the show when you can get that book. But inequities in grading, all of these things have one or more root causes to them, the biggest of which is simply implicit bias. Now there aren't too many people that are educators, not teachers, educators, and if I haven't made that distinction before, let me know I can make it. Educators lead children, lead children through a journey of learning. So that's what we're looking for. And there aren't too many educators who would say, I don't like children. I don't like black children. I don't like brown children. I don't like those bleeps, and I don't really care whether they do okay in my classroom or not. There aren't too many educators who would say the quiet part out loud about children of color. But. There are some who do, there are some who do, and that comes from a bias. Now, when they say it out loud, it's not implicit, it's explicit, and it may just be straight, good, old fashioned racism, those people do not belong in our schools. They definitely do not belong in our classrooms. And so when you see it, if you are truly an equity warrior, if you are an ally to children of color and marginalized learners, call it out when you see it, because it should not be happening in classrooms, because if they say it in front of you, just imagine the experience, the trauma that's happening to children in their classrooms cause, number one, implicit bias. Implicit bias, though, is a little bit different. It's living deep down in your psyche or your soul, and we all have implicit bias. We have it about a number of different things, but that implicit bias is what feeds your thoughts, what it's what helps you shape what you say and how you say, your mannerisms, your expressions towards children who are marginalized, and particularly children of color. And you may not realize it when you're doing it, but it's there. It's implicit bias that feeds microaggressions. Another thing that causes these types of behaviors in this lack of cultural connectedness is generally just a lack of cultural understanding, and that may come from being raised in a very monocultural society, maybe you never had friends of color. Maybe you never had friends who were culturally diverse, religiously diverse, that had a different lived experience from you. I always whenever I get on that topic, I think about how fortunate, how blessed, truly blessed I was to have grown up in a community that was culturally diverse. When I think back to my 1500 walk of Sutter street back in the 60s, I can still almost see every home on the block and the people who lived in it. They were black, white, specifically, Okies from Oklahoma, who had migrated to California during the Dust Bowl, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, we were like this little mini United Nations, those people that I grew up with, those people that I had my early education with, I am still friends with, many of those people. If you could see my Facebook friends, which I keep a very tight circle on, you would see an amazing diversity of people. But if you don't grow up in that environment, if you never felt comfort as a child, going to the home of a friend who was from me, a friend who was Filipino, or a friend who was white and having dinner and hanging out when they have family events and being welcomed and warmed in that community, you may not have the type of cultural awareness and understanding and an ability to connect with people who have a different lived experience, but as an educator, it's important that you find ways to tap into that so that you can connect to your children and serve them better. Third root cause, so to speak, of these behaviors coming to light and and impacting children is a simple misinterpretation of the way children behave. It's a simple misinterpretation. You've not seen it, and you have your mind fixed on your culture, so anything that is different from that must be wrong. When you scratch your head, maybe you always use your fingernails are one of those really fun head scratcher things. If you've never had a weave or extensions or something else put into your hair attached to your scalp, you may not understand there is a tremendous amount of itch that goes on when you do that. And it's easy for me to say, because I believe in wearing my hair natural, that we all should, because I'm in a position where my natural hair is not going to result in a discrimination that impacts me. But our children are fed a narrative. They are fed imagery. I. That tells them that if they don't have long, straight hair, that they aren't pretty. And our girls are suffering tremendously because of the images that tell them that this is the way they're supposed to look. These things impact our children in so many different ways. As educators, the biggest thing that we see is the impact on academic performance. Children will do well in places where they feel comfort and safety. Children will perform for teachers they know care about them, but when they're in those places where they do not feel that comfort, where they do not feel psychologically safe, where they are bullied or harassed, self esteem and engagement suffer, and that has long term that has lifelong implications. School leaders ask me, and I've done a number of workshops on so how do we change this one? How do we shift that 80% of teachers being white to incorporate and encompass more diverse people in our classrooms? And that requires a very long range plan. I do have a I do have a workshop on that. I'm going to post that in the Patreon community. You can find the link to Patreon down in the in the notes, and that workshop will be coming soon. I'm going to make a mental note to to get that out pretty quickly, but advocate for diverse hiring practices where you are support some cultural competency training for educators. I love to do those workshops. It's amazing to see, for people who really want to become cultural competent, to see the shift that happens over a four day workshop and becoming culturally competent, as long as there is a desire to truly change and connect with your kids. Teachers. What can you do? I would say, start with some reflections. Get a journal. Start thinking about what you do, why you do it, what are some of your personal biases that you can name, and maybe ask trusted colleagues and friends if they've noticed anything in you, what are some of the assumptions that you make about the children who come to you every day, and could that be rooted in something, I won't say nefarious, but something other than what should be happening in a classroom. You can build relationships with students and their families. Students and families from diverse backgrounds. You can visit their churches. You can visit their community centers. In fact, in this upcoming book, I've got a lot of stuff about what you can do to increase your cultural awareness and cultural cultural competency. And then, of course, you should be looking to incorporate some culturally responsive teaching practices. And once again, if you need help with that, send me a text message. Join the Patreon community where I'm doing book study on my first book affecting change for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners, where you'll get some of those culturally responsive teaching practices and then join me again next episode. If you have a question or topic you'd like covered. If you have a special request, again, you can now text me. Just look in the notes, find that link, click on it, even if all you do is say, Hey, I listened to this episode and I'm excited to be connected to you. I want to hear your stories, because your stories have value. Your stories can be the one thing that encourages a teacher like you to continue to do what they're doing or to change the practices that they're engaged in for the betterment of the children that they serve. And of course, remember, don't worry about the things you cannot change. Change the things you can no longer accept, and that's a wrap for today's episode of the 3e podcast. Now here's how you can make a real difference. First, smash that subscribe button. It's free. It's easy, just do it. Second, share the show with anyone you know who cares about education. And third, consider becoming a supporter of the show. Together, we're not just talking about change. We're making it happen. Make a donation today to be part of that mission and change, and I'll catch you next time you.