Rethinking Schools: Ignoring Diversity, Undermining Equity

For this week's reading, I chose to read the article Ignoring Diversity, Undermining Equity by Katherine Crawford-Garrett. Professor Crawford-Garrett teaches at the University of New Mexico, and prepares preservice teachers for their service in schools, specifically teaching them literacy best practices. I was immediately drawn by the title of the article, and was curious to learn in what ways diversity was being ignored at the expense of increasing equity in schools. 

Crawford-Garrett beings the article discussing a conversation she had with her Dean. There was a high-stakes evaluation of the school's curriculum by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Per NCTQ's website, "The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit research and policy organization that is committed to modernizing the teaching profession". NCTQ was to come into the school, and evaluate whether the curriculum at UNM was up to the standards of the national organization. This particular scenario placed the professor in a compromising situation; the Dean was requesting she change her curriculum to utilize texts recognized as acceptable by NCTQ. The issue with this was that the texts used by NCTQ significantly lacked the diversity and social justice topics that were engrained in her curriculum. By the end of the article, she calls for action in regards to NCTQ's acceptable texts, and admits she refused to change her curriculum for the evaluation. Below are some key quotes I found while reading, paired with my own thoughts.


According to the author, the issue at hand was that NCTQ, "perceived teacher training as problematic due to an overemphasis on social justice and a lack of focus on basic academic skills and abilities". When initially reading this, I was surprised to learn that this organization was fighting against the use of texts that deal with social justice. In my education course at Rhode Island College, there has been a heavy emphasis on social issues (like this class!) that affect our student's ability to learn in class. Though NCTQ's argument may be based on evaluating programs and texts that have long been used to educate teachers, it seems unreasonable that the organization has not altered its stances due to the increasing diversity, and social issues stemming from diversity, that are present in schools today. By not preparing educators to be equipped for these issues, higher education institutions would be doing a disservice to the future educators and students alike.

"I take a different stance to literacy instruction, believing it is essential preservice teachers begin to view literacy as a culturally situated practice, rather than a neutral set of skills". This statement relates to much of what we have discussed in our class so far. The professor believes that literacy is culturally situated. This means that, depending on the culture of the educator or students, literacy can be viewed differently. NCTQ appears to value the "SCWAAMP" culturally held belief of education and literacy, however student demographics do not always reflect this cultural belief system.

"Given this tension, teacher candidates must begin to recognize that policies do not simply appear out of thin air but are created by certain people with specific intentions." This quote is powerful and speaks to the systematic barriers and causes of those barriers present in education. These intentions may not have malefic intent, but all humans have biases and subjectivities that affect their world views. These people, with their flaws, go on to create systems and structures that are now composed of those biases.  What I find empowering about this particular article is the way in which Crawford-Garrett refused to change her ideals for that of the system's. We all have power within our spheres of influence, and we do not always have opportunities to "stand up against" systems that are larger than us as individuals.