Creating Affirming Spaces for Education
A few years ago, research was released indicating that children from lower socioeconomic status heard fewer words and had more limited vocabularies than their middle class counterparts. This limitation was believed to shape the educational trajectories of students from lower income families putting them at a disadvantage from the start. Because I believe in the power of words and their importance for building children’s capacity to read and think critically about what they read, initially the results of the research resonated with me, and I immediately started trying to find more opportunities to expose children from lower socioeconomic status to more words.
As I delved more deeply into this research and the counter-research on the topic, I realized that the very nature of the research implicates poor people as having been the cause of their own limited gains in education. Something about that is unsettling for me. I know too many parents from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds who have children who excel and children who do not, and there is research that confirms this. If we are not careful, the results of research can be used to justify continuing to leave our children behind. Every child, regardless of economic status, needs positive influences and genuinely caring individuals who help them see possibilities and develop habits for reaching their goals.
As I think about how we are going to change the negative educational statistics that disproportionately impact children in our communities, I am aware that affirming and uplifting environments are necessary to counteract the deficit approaches to education that assume our children are inherently lacking. We have to send a message to our children that they are born with everything they need to become the people of their dreams. It is true that some people have more advantages, but this does not mean that those without those advantages are doomed for failure.
Creating affirming spaces requires a two-part emphasis. First, we in the village must be advocates for our children. We know that our children will encounter influential people throughout their educational journeys who will label them and set low expectations for them. We cannot accept the current condition of education in our communities and just hope that a few of our children will succeed. Instead, we must affirm those who “get it” and support their efforts. We must also mobilize to expose flawed thinking and subsequent flawed policies that stifle our children and create roadblocks to their success, and we must do so with urgency.
At the same time, we have to develop strategies for helping our children succeed in spite of all that works against them. While we advance our cause, we must also prepare our children for the reality that everyone does not believe in their abilities. There are no safe spaces, as those who would detract from their success are all around them. We have to continuously examine the damage that has been done to our children and recognize the scars. The scars are children who have lost their thirst for knowledge, children who believe they are not cut out to be smart, and children who feel uncomfortable at school.
We have to remind these children (and ourselves) that they ARE capable. We have to teach them new words and new strategies for learning, not because of what they lack but because they can absolutely master them. We have to show them role models, not because they do not have their own dreams but because they may be encouraged to forge their own paths. We have to teach them mental toughness, critical thinking and work ethic, not because they are lazy and undisciplined but because they will need these skills to be sure that their justified rage at stereotypes and unequal treatment does not keep them from realizing their fullest potential. We have to challenge them to achieve beyond what they thought possible… because they can. Now more than ever before it is up to us to create these affirming and uplifting spaces!
Reflection Questions:
Do we engage in practices that put certain communities at the center of the blame for their lack of educational achievement?
How can we reframe our efforts so they are uplifting?
How can we prepare our children for the realities of inequity in society?
Published February 6, 2017
© Telesia Davis, 2017