What Rev. Wright Also Said — In Reference To Black Scholars
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. had barely finished addressing the Detroit branch of the NAACP’s Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday when television pundits began criticizing his references to educational research showing differences in the ways Black and White children learn or use language.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I am so glad Rev. Wright has exposed the superficial nature of Senator Obama’s political campaign. I hope Senator Obama becomes our next President but not on false, fraudulent or superficial grounds. He needs to speak up for all poor and oppressed Americans first and foremost instead of for average White voters like Senator Clinton is doing while race-baiting Obama all the way to the voting booth in any case.
This is the greatest tragedy, that a White woman is dividing women and minorities for her own selfish gain. The Bush and Clinton Dynasties are all about White Power, pure and simple. It is high time someone who really knows what racism is gets elected to the Oval Office and does something about it.
Senator Obama will not do anything about racism and other forms of oppression unless he is elected by fully informed voters who are promised he will stop this inhumanity. Hillary has shown no proclivity for even helping White women much less Minority men and women in regards to this continuing oppression. They are both very wishy-washy as they shoot for those White male votes and that is just a shame. Both of them could do so much better if they were more like Rev. Wright, i.e., more honest about the realities all oppressed Americans face throughout our lives for no good or just cause whatsoever.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 am
Below is some work I found specifically addressing the notion of cultural learning styles .
Professor Craig L. Frisby :
(http://education.missouri.edu/_COMMON/faculty/ESCP/craig_l_frisby.php)
has done considerable research on the issue of cultural learning styles and finds the studies supporting it lacking:
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Learning Styles: Bunk AND Inherently Racist?
There’s this fuzzy idea that people have “learning styles”, somehow related to Gardner’s theory of “multiple intelligences”. There’s the equally fuzzy corollary that if you match instruction to a person’s natural “style” or “intelligence”, greater learning will take place. Too bad the data don’t support the corollary. As Will Thallheimer wrote:
Let me be clear, my argument is not that people don’t have different learning styles, learning preferences, or learning skills. My argument is that for real-world instructional-development situations, learning styles is an ineffective and inefficient waste of resources that is unlikely to produce meaningful results.
Nevertheless, educators persist in talking about “learning styles”. From a discussion over at Kitchen Table Math, I now learn that the “learning styles” may have racist overtones.
Lefty wrote:
Daniel Orey, a Cal State math ed prof, argues in his “Ethnomathematical Perspectives on the NCTM Standards,” that ‘minorities’ (his term) have more social, less analytical learning styles than Anglo-Americans do.
So I went and read Orey’s article. Yes, he does argue that. From the article:
While giving many students timed tests, dittos, rote memory work, or works that asks them to copy and answer (often meaningless) problems, is mind-numbing for many children, it is particularly alienating for many minority children who come from cultures where human interaction and cooperation are highly valued.
Lefty goes on:
UNC ed profs Carol and William Malloy (both African American, I believe) argue in “Issues of Culture in Mathematics Teaching and Learning” that African American students are less analytical and more holistic, and (favoring group work over solo work) less individualistic and more attuned to the interdependence of people and the environment
Again, I went to chase down the references and the authors.
Carol Malloy is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. William Malloy was a professor at UNC-CH’s ed school (teaching educational administration and leadership) until the summer of 2007, when he retired. The article “Issues of Culture in Mathematics Teaching and Learning” was published in The Urban Review, Volume 30, Number 3, September 1998 , pp. 245-257(13), which I was able to download from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com (your library must subscribe, sorry).
Yes, Malloy and Malloy do argue that African-American students “think differently” than
(p. 249) The African-American community values and encourages the acquisition of unique verbal expressiveness, but schools place highest value on the written demonstration of verbal knowledge. African-American students’ view of the world is that of a unified environment (Shade, 1989; Stiff and Harvey, 1988); thus they use a mixture of holistic and analytical reasoning, but schools concentrate on analytical reasoning. African-American students are taught that an interdependence of people and environment is respected and encouraged, but schools teach individualism (Hale-Benson, 1986; Hilliard, 1976; Willis, 1992). African-American students rely on personalistic stimulation in learning; schools focus on inanimate or object stimulation (Shade, 1989). Students’ cultural knowledge and school knowledge often conflict with variables related to the ways that the individual should relate and interact within the group, normative communication, and styles and interactions. These preferences have underlying assumptions of strong influences from culture; are preferences for student interaction with the environment; are influences on cognition, attitude, behavior and personality; and may be different from the majority population but are not deficient.
Palisadesk pointed out the dangers here:
In my district there is a real push to get teachers to include “learning style” (pseudo)information on students’ IEPs. Over time I have noticed a clear bias in favor of black children being labeled “kinesthetic learners,” Asian kids “visual learners” and white kids “auditory/visual learners” or having ” verbal/logical intelligence” using Multiple Intelligence jargon.
[snip]
She goes on to say that the assignment of “learning style” is not based on any valid tests, just “observation”, and concludes:
When you say X is a “kinesthetic learner,” you are basically saying, “forget all that higher-level thinking; algebra, critical reasoning, abstraction, language and mathematics are not for you, you can only learn with your hands. Off to McJobs!” Of course the people bandying about these stereotypes don’t realize the import of what they’re saying — black kids better stick to menial labor — but it’s the soft underbelly of the crocodile.
At least one African-American scholar refutes the idea that there’s a unique African-American learning style: Craig L. Frisby.
Frisby, C. L. (1993). One giant step backward: Myths of black cultural learning styles.School Psychology Review, 22,535-557.
The basic ideas in the article are summarized at this review at Learning point Associates–Why Do Achievement Gaps Exist? and Learning Point Associates–Researcher Critiques Assumptions
Summary And Conclusion: Why Black Cultural Learning Styles (BCLS) Models Represent A Giant Step Backward
This writer has attempted to show that little or no compelling support exists for the notion that blacks learn in fundamentally different ways than whites as a faction of their ethnic/racial culture. Hence, appeals to BCLS theory as an explanation for widespread racial group achievement disparities has scant explanatory power.
Nevertheless, one may legitimately ask why BCLS theory has had a long shelf-life in contemporary social/behavioral science literature. This article has suggested five major reasons why this may be the case:
1. The perpetuation of broad and unwarranted conclusions derived from flawed research (e.g., researchers’ failure to adequately control for IQ, mental age, or SES in group comparisons).
2. Psuedoscientific theories that characterize African-Americans as having a mysterious culture which can be “truly” understood only by a select handful of “experts.”
3. An academic community that is reluctant to assertively critique BCLS models for fear of being labeled as culturally insensitive or racially disloyal.
4. Hypersensitivity and resistance of influential special interest groups against any explanation for black/white achievement differences that is perceived as reflecting a “deficit” model.
5. An inability of modern educators (due to legal, social, and political constraints) to adopt practices that would ensure quality education for AfricanAmerican children, which lead to searches for simplistic “new ideas” for solving complex education problems.
Perhaps the most compelling argument for the conscious rejection of BCLS theory is its chilling similarity to educational theories promoted over a century ago during the era of almost universal segregated and inferior schooling for blacks. Armed with little more than superficial impressions and patronizing notions of black inferiority, 19th century “educators” argued that:
[T]he ground of distinction . . . is one of races, not of colors, merely. The distinction is one which the All-wise creator has seen fit to establish; and it is founded deep in the physical, mental, and moral natures of the two races. No legislation, no social customs, can efface this distinction . .. We maintain that the true interests of both races require that they should be kept distinct. Amalgamation is degradation. We would urge on our brethren of the African race, the duty of cultivating the genuine virtues peculiar to that race. (Crowell, Ingraham, & Kimball, 1846)
A different 19th century writer elucidates the “virtues” that characterize blacks:
As compared to the Caucasian race, (blacks) are . . . supposed to be less inventive, to have less power for mathematical analysis, and less adaptation for abstruse investigations generally, are less enterprising, less vigorous, and are less defiant of obstacles. But on the other hand, there is great unanimity in according to them a more cheerful, joyous and companionable nature, greater fondness and capacity for music, a keener relish for whatever, in their present state of development, may be regarded as beauty, and more quick, enduring and exalted religious affections. (Mann, 1852)
By vigorously promoting such questionable distinctions as found in Table 1, modern BCLS proponents perpetuate the same type of crude 19th century educational philosophizing that would be popularly labeled as “racist” today.
School psychologists, in their role as child advocates, must be careful to avoid being seduced by the simplistic appeal of BCLS assumptions. While it is certainly laudable to strive toward an appreciation of the relationship between a student’s cultural (ethnic) background and the schooling process, this does not mean that purely “cultural” explanations for educational phenomena should be accepted uncritically. Although discussions of student “learning styles” dominates much of popular educational discourse, empirical support for the construct (as a reliable and robust explanation for learning outcomes) is weak In addition, I have argued elsewhere (Frisby, 1992) that the concept of “culture” and “cultural differences” is poorly understood, which leads to divisive ideological debates fraught with racial stereotyping and hidden political agendas. Therefore, to place confidence in the wedding of “culture” with “learning styles” is to build a foundation on quicksand.
Until our knowledge base matures, it is instructive for school psychologists and educators to follow the example of a 1988 panel appointed by the New York Board of Regents (O’Neil, 1990). The panel sharply criticized an education department report that made use of BCLS as an explanation for high dropout rates among African-American students (O’Neil, 1990). Specifically, the panel advised the Regents to avoid the use of language and construction which is generalized to entire populations with no recognition of the amount of diversity within all groups of students” (cited from O’neil, 1990, P. 8). The message for school psychologists is clear: best practices require a fundamental sensitivity to individual differences, not group stereotypes.
It is high time that BCLS models be laid to rest. Failure to do so may result in the realization that, instead of making significant steps forward, we have indeed made one giant step backward.
Here’s the rest of Frisby’s scholarly works
Previous Posts Related to Learning Styles
* Learning Styles: Useful or a Crock?
* Relating Teaching Style to Content
* Dale’s Cone–Or a Crock?
Elsewhere
* Susan Greenfield: “Learning Styles” Teaching a Waste of Resources
* Will Thallheimer: Learning Styles Challenge, 12 Months and Counting.
Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 02:51 PM in Cultural Criticism, Education: Independent And Private Schools, Education: Public Schools, Skepticism and Quackery | Permalink
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I can’t tell you what valuable skill you would be installing into your preschooler. If you help them in developing this type of problem solving skills and attitude, if you incorporate this into their daily preschool activities. The concept of “culture” with “learning styles” is to build a foundation on quicksand.
Posted by: child learning | Monday, March 17, 2008 at 02:07 AM
I don’t buy it. There are too many examples of African Americans who are creative, have invented things and have made significant contributions to virtually every field and discipline. To suggest that a particular racial group is pre-disposed on the basis of culture and that it doesn’t have the brain power for higher levels of thinking is bullocks. A lot depends on the education and training that a person receives early in life, and, the level of motivation a person exercises later on in life to perfect the skill.
I agree: BCLS does lead to a step backwards to a place to which I don’t want to see this society return.
Posted by: Miss Profe | Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 04:13 PM
What’s holding many of the African American students back is the “teaching styles” of some of their teachers. The inability to vary instruction based on the student(s) one encounters because you do not know any variety of teaching styles is one; the negative “labeling” of poor children, especially those who look unkempt, is a widespread practice, and I hate to say it, but observed among ALL kinds of teachers; the refusal to use “hands-on” learning techniques because “they get too excited” is another reason for the failure of “engaging the child in his or her OWn learning success”; the insistence on “discipline” which is ACTUALLY “punishment” is one of the mainstays of the regressive Black teaching agenda; and the list can go on and on. FOLKS - go into these inner city classrooms in the poorer neighborhoods sometimes and see it for yourselves! The children we are concerned most about and which the literature expounds on are the MOST at-risk, because from the start of their early elementary careers they are usually seen as “little deficit systems” (so labeled by Dr. Geneva Smitherman) Those children who “make it out of there”, do so because of that one or more really great and understanding teacher -or- or the intervention of a parent or other adult to keep them on track -or- simply the child him/herself who made the decision not to give in to the stereotypes about them. Look for those school leaders for whom “failure is NOT an option” - this was the OLD traditional way of teaching and learning in the segregated systems and the unique ones today.
Posted by: The CLA Approach to Education | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 11:59 AM
This blog and most of the comments that follow are grossly misinformed and, thus, seriously misrepresent the rich and valuable literature about culturally influenced learning and communication styles. There isn’t room here to explain, inform, and educate, so I encourage you to read the following books: Geneva Gay’s “Culturally Responsive Teaching,” Janice Hale’s “Black Children,” Lisa Delpit’s “Other People’s Children,” and Tempii Champion’s “Understanding Storytelling Among African American Children.” There are many other books and articles that present related information and ideas, but these will get you started. No one is saying that all members of a group think, act, or learn in the same way; but, good research demonstrates that many ways of communicating and doing things are culturally influenced, especilly for children from familes less assimilated into the dominant culture. A major problem exists in our schools when teachers of the dominant culture (or well socialized into it) make assumptions about the ability, nature, and potential of youth based on gross misunderstandings and misinterpretations of culture. See the research of Courtney Cazden and Shirley Brice Heath. Ignorance about these various forms of cultural influence can lead educators to make decisions and act in ways that are damaging and contribute significantly to the education gap. Deeper reading and more INFORMED opinion are vital in these kinds of discussions!
Posted by: jeff claus | Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 12:44 PM
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2008/03/learning-styles.html
Achievement Gaps
Literature Library
Why Do the Achievement Gaps Exist?
I. Explanations
A. Social Factors
Scholar Argues that Cultural Learning Styles Do Not Come in Black and White
Can we explain the black-white achievement gap as a result of different cultural learning styles? A researcher argues that we cannot. He says that the idea of a Black Cultural Learning Style is fundamentally flawed and harkens back to an old racist perspective on education.
Citation:
This reports some of the ideas and findings from the following source:
Frisby, C. L. (1993). One giant step backward: Myths of black cultural learning styles.School Psychology Review, 22,535-557.
To see other reports that originated from this same citation, go to the bibliography.
The achievement gap between black and white U.S. students has been documented for many years now.
The problem is that we are still trying to understand why this gap exists and what we can do to reduce it. Many explanations have been put forward—some better, some worse than others.
According to scholar Craig L. Frisby, the idea that black students achieve less academically than white students because they are taught according to culturally incompatible styles is one of the worst explanations.
Frisby says that the idea of a culturally distinct black learning style became fashionable in the 1980s as an explanation for the achievement gap. The idea is basically that something about African ancestry causes black children to learn differently from white (European descent) children, and the black children were being educated (or, miseducated) within the context of an educational system geared to white learning styles. In short, the achievement gap is not surprising because black children do not learn the same way white children do.
The solution, according to this perspective, is to teach black children in a style consistent with the characteristics of their culturally prescribed learning style.
What Is a Cognitive Style and a Learning Style?
Frisby says that in order to understand this argument, we first have to understand what is meant by a “cognitive style” and a “learning style.”
Frisby defines a cognitive style as:
“. . .stable attitudes, preferences, or habitual strategies determining a person’s typical modes of perceiving, remembering, thinking and problem solving. In short, cognitive styles reflect individual differences in how information and experience is organized and processed.”(p. 536)
A cognitive style, then, determines the ways in which a person thinks and feels about the world.
A learning style, says Frisby, is the cognitive style that a person uses when confronted with a learning task. A learning style indicates a certain predisposition to use a particular learning strategy, regardless of the specific learning task.
What Are the Characteristics of a Theorized Black Cultural Learning Style?
So just what are the characteristics of a Black Cultural Learning Style (BCLS)?
Frisby reviews the work of a number of writers and develops a list of characteristics that supposedly describe a black or African learning style as opposed to a white or European learning style.
African Culture
European Culture
Learns more easily from materials that have a human or social content.
Learns more easily from material that has impersonal, abstract, and inanimate content
Performs better when authority figures express confidence in their abilities.
Opinions of others do not greatly affect their performance.
Prefers cooperative learning situations.
Prefers competitive learning situations.
Behaviors appear impulsive.
Better impulse control. Attitude is more reflective.
Short attention span, shallow concentration, easily distracted, prefers movement.
Long attention span, able to concentrate deeply, not easily distracted, will listen attentively, sedentary.
The teacher is a problem.
The teacher is a source of solutions.
Not motivated to achievement-related goals.
Motivated to achieve.
Prefers fantasy and humor in optional reading or classroom illustrations.
Prefers realism in optional reading or classroom illustrations.
External locus of control.
Internal locus of control.
Passive: low confidence in ability to solve intellectual problems.
Active: high confidence in ability to solve intellectual problems.
No Substantial Support for BCLS
Frisby says that the notion of a black cultural learning style is based on five flawed assumptions:
Assumption 1: Black and white cultures are fundamentally incompatible.
Assumption 2: Black culture determines the learning style of black children.
Assumption 3: Learning style assessment is valid and reliable.
Assumption 4: Because black children cannot learn differently from their cultural learning style, teachers must match their teaching style to black children’s learning style.
Assumption 5: There are educational content and methods “uniquely effective” for increasing black educational achievement relative to whites.
Frisby’s review of the literature finds that there is little research to support these assumptions.
A Return to a Racist Perspective
According to Frisby, explaining the black-white achievement gap as a result of black cultural learning styles is not merely bad research and policy but constitutes a return to an age where segregation in education was justified on the basis of incommensurate racial “styles.”
In his article, Frisby quotes two authors, one of whom is a proponent of BLCS, the other of whom is a nineteenth century “educator.”
“To characterize Afro-Americans as culturally different from Euro-Americans is not graphic enough. To the extent that the Black experience reflects a traditional West African cultural ethos, the two frames of reference are noncommensurable. There are fundamental incompatibilities between them: they are not quite polar opposites, but they are almost dialectically related. . . . This incommensurability makes if difficult to put black cultural reality in the service of attainment in Euro-American cultural institutions, such as schools. The ideology that informs those institutions is a profound negation of the most central attributes of African culture.” (Boykin 1986)
“The ground of distinction . . . is one of races, not of colors, merely. The distinction is one which the All-wise creator has seen fit to establish and it is founded deep in the physical, mental and moral natures of the two races. No legislation, no social customs, can efface this distinction. . . .We maintain that the true interests of both races require that they should be kept distinct. Amalgamation is degradation. We would urge our brethren of the African race, the duty of cultivating the genuine virtues peculiar to that race.” (Crowell, Ingraham &Kimball 1846,34).
According to Frisby, it is precisely this “chilling similarity” that constitutes the most compelling argument for rejecting the notion of black cultural learning styles. In Frisby’s words:
“It is high time that BCLS models be laid to rest. Failure to do so may result in the realization that, instead of making significant steps forward, we have indeed made one giant step backward.” (p.552)
Other Works Referenced in the :
Boykin, A. W. (1986). The triple quandary and the schooling of Afro-American children. In U. Neisser (ed.)The school achievement of minority children: new perspectives(pp.57-92). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Crowell, W., Ingraham, J. W., & Kimball, D. (1846). Extracts from the majority report on the caste schools.The Liberator,16, 34.
Research Design:
Research Question
Is the idea of a Black Cultural Learning Style useful for understanding the black/white achievement gap?
Data
Frisby reviews a wide range of research on black cultural learning styles. He offers a narrative critique of the assumptions and findings underlying the black cultural learning style perspective.
http://www.learningpt.org/gaplibrary/text/scholarargues.php
May 6th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I thought White supremacists were the ones saying that Blacks couldn’t do math and science. Now Rev. Wright makes the same claim to a cheering crowd at an NCCAP meeting and all of a sudden it’s a valid claim? Wow, the double standards here are pretty ridiculous.
So the question is, is everybody really exactly the same or not?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Regarding learning styles, language and politics between whites and blacks — this is how I understood it in 2000.
http://educationanddemocracy.org/Emery/Emery_Ebonics.htm
It is very complicated and not easily reduced to sound bites. Given that caveat, I must say that I do FEEL that there is something sterile about standard classroom english and something very human and poetic about ebonics. It seems that Wright FEELS the same way. In a profoundly racist society such as ours, this kind of talk is like walking in a minefield, as the explosions following Wright’s speech indicate.
I have always wondered why so few react to angry people by asking what might their experiences be that make them so angry? (Slavery? lynching? institutional discrimination? perhaps?). Instead, most people react with fear and rejection, instead of realizing that they could learn something from a dialogue with the person who is passionate about something, or be led to read some amazingly beautiful writing in James Baldwin or Toni Morrison.
If the concept of institutionalized racism is controversial, woe be it to anyone who starts talking about learning and cognitive styles correlating to culture and identity. I try to capture the incendiary nature of the debate in the beginning of my Ebonics paper (see url above). hope this is useful.