The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children
Author: Lisa Delpit
Important Quotes:
In this writing, Lisa Delpit goes into detail about the different experiences people of different races face in educational settings. Delpit describes the issues specifically teachers of color go through with their white colleagues and the difficulties they face while trying to push through.
Delpit states, "The saddest element is that the individuals that the black and Native Alaskan educators speak of in these statements are seldom aware that the dialogue has been silenced. Most likely the white educators believe that their colleagues of color did, in the end, agree with their logic. After all, they stopped disagreeing, didn't they?" Delpit acknowledges as a black educator herself that though educators of color try to speak up for their issues they face in their workplace, no change happens because their issues have been silenced. Her second sentence goes into detail about how the white educators struggle to see these issues because of the hault of the vocalization of disagreements. But in the end, this is because the black and Native educators stopped vocalizing their issues because the white educators were simply not listening.
When referring to the differences between teaching white and nonwhite students, Delpit states, "On the other hand, all of the nonwhite respondents have spoken passionately on being left out of the dialogue about how best to educate children of color." This statement describes the struggles people of color face everyday, especially in their workplace. Earlier in the writing Delpit shares a woman's story about how her white colleagues listen, but don't actually hear the issues at hand. This is a direct relationship of the true struggles people of color face with white people in educative workplaces because white people are declaring what is and what isn't best for the future generations of nonwhite children. This is clearly a flawed system because if white educators cannot listen to their nonwhite colleagues, what makes them fit to understand what is and isn't best for children of color?
When discussing "the culture of power," Delpit describe five aspects of power. The first one, "The issues of power are enacted in classrooms," is quite interesting, but true. Delpit shares the power the publishers and curriculum creators have over the world overall. This statement being extremely true because they hold the power of what is being taught in schools, where the students are the future of the world. If what is being taught is corrupted, the future world is only bound to also be corrupt.
Reflection: After reading this piece, I started to think of how I can be different as a white educator than those described in the writing. It gives me, a future educator something to look back on when these types of situations are brought up. I can relate back to the struggles I read nonwhite educators experience with their white colleagues and use that as motivation to be a better colleague to my potential nonwhite colleagues. I hope to be able to give them a place to really be able to communicate their issues and feel heard, rather than the ones described.
Yes... you captured the "silenced dialogue" and also the way the culture of power impacts us all in schools.
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