Reflecting on Mica Pollock's "Inequality Talk" in her book Schooltalk. The title of this post is her introduction to "Inequality Talk."
To prevent myself from reciting absolutely everything in Pollock's "Inequality Talk" and H. Richard Milner IV's Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms (because everything they say is good and valuable but so is your time, dear reader), I'll be sharing just the most important takeaways and a few thoughts. (Side note: I read Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There about a year ago and I am constantly finding myself referencing the ideas he presents in that book. It is worth reading.) All citations in this post are from Pollock's book. "In contexts where adults provide kids a given set of resources and opportunities to learn, young people's interactions with the many people around them pile up over time to produce students' school achievement" (Pollock 77). One teacher's approach to a student doesn't cause that student to drop out, nor can one teacher claim to have caused a student to excel in school. The teacher's attitude does, however, contribute to that child's ever-growing experience of school and expectations. The teacher's attitude can "push" a student toward a positive or negative expectation of school and themselves. The accumulated "pushes" from teachers and other adults shape a student's decision to drop out or graduate. Additionally, teachers and other adults are far from the only "pushes" on a student. Pollock has a name for this idea that "outcomes get produced every day in opportunity contexts over time: The Snowball" (80). We must also consider the "pushes" of "cumulative advantage and disadvantage" (81). These inequalities "take shape across generations... across domains... [and] over the everyday life of a child" (81). Together, they form a student's opportunity context (83). Systematic inequalities affect students and often shape the very classrooms students attend. (Pollock references Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. It's another one I read a year or two ago and again more recently that still influences my thinking today. It's worth reading, very short and very powerful, and linked right there for your convenience.) Schools tend not to address "the wealth disparities kids come in with. Schools actually exacerbate them instead" (91). Consequently, the "racial chasm in students' exposure to poverty" (Pollock 91, citing the Civil Rights Project) remains largely unchallenged. Rather, "vast resource inadequacies" (97) in schools uphold cycles of poverty. And while we talk about students' opportunity contexts, we also need to see the individual students and "exceptions to average patterns" (98). Talk of "'all students'" [can mask] subgroup experiences inside the school" (99). Claims need to be broken down to the individual for them us to "pinpoint and secure necessary supports for students" (100). Generalizing a subgroup is only the first step to pinpointing and securing the supports a student needs. The pinpointing process demands knowledge of the individual student. And if there's a non-teacher reading this, there's something for you to do, too. Part of the inequalities discussed briefly here and in depth in the books mentioned are the product of the reality that we, as a nation, are comfortable with inequality. Inadequate opportunities have been normalized (101) and who better than us to start challenging that?
But back to The Snowball.
"Students' academic fates are built through real-time interactions, as educators react to students, students to educators, and both to families, other students, and experiences outside of schools" (103). This is the idea of The Snowball. Many people find The Snowball hard to discuss. Consequently, Pollock offers some ideas to consider when talking about The Snowball.
And if nothing else, I want us to remember that research shows "that educators who analyze their own everyday acts' contributions to student success and well-being (rather than feeling overwhelmed by "systems" out of their control) actually do better by students" (Pollock 106).
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AuthorI'm a high school English teacher looking to share with students, parents, and peers some of what I'm learning in the classroom as a teacher. Archives
October 2018
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