February 2010 Volume 4, No. 2

One of five raised garden beds at Cane Run Elementary School. (photo courtesy of Darleen Horton)

JCPS Center for Environmental Education Hires New Staff

by Bryan Thompson

Caryn Walker, JCPS Environmental Education Resource Teacher
Beth Inman, JCPS Environmental Education Resource Teacher

Diversity and Multicultural Education

The Anatomy of Prejudice: Jane Elliott Visits Louisville

By Aukram Burton

Jane Elliott delivers the keynote speech during the 14th Annual Race Relations Conference, hosted by the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission at the Galt House Hotel. (photo courtesy of Aukram Burton)

Jane Elliott leads a discussion with JCPS central office administrators and representatives of U of L's College of Education and Human Development Diversity Committee. (photo courtesy of Aukram Burton)

Jane Elliott engaged the audience in a geography lesson during a morning session of the Race Relations Conference. She is comparing the 16th century map projection, called the Mercator Projection Map (left) to the Peters Projection Map (right) of the world that shows every world region in its true relative size to other countries. (photo courtesy of Aukram Burton)

Perhaps the most illuminating and revealing part of Jane Elliott’s message was when she illustrated an example of how racism is being perpetuated in schools around the world. Elliott engaged the audience in a geography lesson, comparing the 16th-century map projection, called the Mercator Projection Map, which misrepresents the relative size of continents around the world. She emphasized the importance of using the Peters Projection Map in classrooms. The Mercator map was invented back in the 16th century, which helped to make it easy to navigate at sea. The Peters map was introduced by German historian and cartographer Dr. Arno Peters in 1974. Peters came up with a new projection of an area-accurate map of the world that shows every world region in its true, relative size to other countries.

On a Mercator map, Greenland looks as though it is nine times larger than Brazil, although the legend on earlier Mercator maps contradicted that by indicating that Brazil is, in reality, nine times larger than Greenland. It also represented Greenland as larger than Africa. Jane Elliott argues against schools using the Mercator map because she says it perpetuates racism. She illustrated this by showing how the Mercator map makes Europe and North America look larger, relative to Africa and South America, when in fact all of China, Europe, United States, including Alaska, can fit inside the total land area of the continent of Africa. (see www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/index.html)

Jane Elliot pointed out on the Mercator map projection that the equator is in the middle of the map, placing Iowa on the equator. She also pointed out that the Mercator map has two Russias, two Chinas, two Indias, and Russia looks much larger than it actually is. She stated, “This is the map that we use to teach children about the relative size, shape, location and importance of the land masses on the face of the earth.” Jane Elliot challenged educators to replace the Mercator map with the Peters map.

Shankar Vedantam, the author of Hidden Brain, concludes that in American society, colorblindness is often held up as the ideal that is not rooted in psychological reality. "Our hidden brains will always recognize people's races, and they will do so from a very, very young age," Vedantam says. "The far better approach is to put race on the table, to ask [children] to unpack the associations that they are learning, to help us shape those associations in more effective ways."

For over four decades, Jane Elliott has put race on the table and has led the charge to help teachers and students unpack the prejudices and racism. She believes that "a person who has been raised and socialized in America has been conditioned to be a racist... We live in two countries, one black and one white." She said, “There is a way to solve the problem of prejudice and racism, it’s called education. To educate means to lead. So to educate someone is to lead them out of ignorance.” On the back of her business card you will find a quote by Nathan Rutstein, “Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance.” These words are at the core of Jane Elliott’s belief. She believes that the only way to rid our society of the chronic disease of prejudice and racism, and “it will require education, introspection, and commitment.”

Resources

For more information on Jane Elliott, visit her Web site to learn more about the materials necessary for combating prejudice and racism. www.janeelliott.com/learningmaterials.htm. Click on “Learning Materials." You will find links labeled “Typical Statements," “Clarification To The Typical Statement," “Commitment To Combat Racism," and a “Bibliography."

The African Studies Center Outreach Program at Boston University provides a wonderful tutorial about the Peters Projection Map that can be found at www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/tutorial/geography/question2.html
For those educators interested in learning more about Africa, be sure to take the Africa tutorial.

For another resource to learn more about the Peters Projection Map go to www.petersmap.com/

To hear the National Public Radio interview with Shankar Vedantam about the findings in his book Hidden Brain, go to www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122864641

Aukram Burton is the JCPS Diversity/Multicultural Education Specialist in the Department of Diversity, Equity and Poverty Programs.

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Building Blocks for Cultural Competence Within JCPS: Part II

By Aukram Burton

Part II

In Part I of this article, I discussed cultural competence as a concept that enables staff and students throughout JCPS to address diversity in our schools, community, nation, and world. I also discussed the goals in reshaping the district’s culture through systemic building blocks for promoting and practicing cultural competence. These building blocks are based on JCPS’ Vision and Mission Statement, Core Beliefs, Theory of Action, Goals and Strategies, and Leadership/Teaching Competencies. In Part II, I will discuss the Institute for Cultural Competence and CARE for Kids, two district programs designed to provide positive adult-student relationships and culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy that responds to the rapid growth in the number of students of color, culturally and linguistically diverse students, and students from low-income families.

The Institute for Cultural Competence

Since 2007, the JCPS Department of Diversity, Equity, and Poverty Programs has offered an annual professional development entitled the Institute for Cultural Competence. The institute is designed for teachers and administrators to learn the theory and practice of cultural competence. The institute requires a four-day commitment by at least three people or more and focuses on “training the trainer” and building cultural competence leadership teams in each participating school. For the greatest impact and effectiveness of each team, it is required that a principal or assistant principal serve as a member of the team.

The 2009-10 "Institute for Cultural Competence and Courageous Practice: Working Together for Inclusion, Equity, and Excellence" is facilitated by Gary Howard, author of We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools (Teachers College Press, 2nd ed., 2006). Howard takes institute participants beyond cultural awareness and multicultural content, and beyond mere conversations about differences. The focus is on the deeper work of personal, professional, and systemic transformation for the purpose of achieving social justice and equity in our schools.

All institute participants receive the Leadership Manual for Inclusion, Equity, and Excellence, which serves as the foundation for building the internal capacity for cultural competence leadership teams to deliver high-quality, long-term, and systemic professional development (PD). The manual provides the PD materials and a four-year implementation plan to support schools in creating a process that fits their school’s culture and specific needs.

An expected outcome of the Institute for Cultural Competence and Courageous Practice is to strengthen the internal capacity of schools to deliver high-quality PD that is related to inclusion, equity, and excellence. To achieve this outcome, the institute sessions are organized around the following five areas of engagement, growth, and change:

• Tone and Trust
• Personal Culture and Personal Journey
• From Social Dominance to Social Justice
• Classroom and Job-Related Implications and Applications
• Systemic Transformation and Planning for Change

Institute participants learn how these five phases of work have actually affected school systems where Howard has worked over the past decade. Howard’s training approach covers strategies for culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy through activities that connect the Seven Principles for Culturally Responsive Practice with CARE for Kids. As mentioned in Part I, CARE is an acronym for Community, Autonomy, Relationships, Empowerment. The program is key in schools where the district is working to embed cultural competence.

Howard’s Seven Principles for Building a Culturally Responsive Learning Community

• Students are affirmed in their cultural connections.
• The teacher is personally inviting.
• The classroom is physically inviting.
• Students are reinforced for academic development.
• Instructional changes are made to accommodate differences in learners.
• The classroom is managed with firm, consistent, loving control.
• Interactions stress collectivity as well as individuality.

Principles for CARE for Kids

• At the heart of a caring school community are respectful, supportive relationships among and between students, teachers, and parents.
• Important and engaging learning takes place when students are able to construct deep understandings of broad concepts and principles through an active process of exploration, discovery, and application.
• Community is strengthened when there are frequent opportunities for students to exercise their voice, choice, influence, and responsible independence.
• Classroom community and learning are maximized through frequent opportunities for collaboration and social interaction.
• Effective classroom communities capitalize on students’ intrinsic motivation to meet their basic needs (e.g., safety, autonomy, belonging, competence, usefulness, fun, and pleasure), rather than controlling students with extrinsic motivators (e.g., rewards and punishment).

As JCPS continues to experience an increasingly diverse student demographic, our district will need to sustain longterm professional development initiatives to improve school and classroom climates and to create a culture that will maximize instruction, student achievement, and student connectedness. Research repeatedly indicates that second only to family, the schoolhouse is the most important stabilizing force in the lives of young people. This is why it is important for teachers and administrators to learn strategies that will promote positive adult-student relationships and culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy that connects with students.

Simply put, when we create more culturally relevant/responsive educational environments, students respond and do better in school. This supportive environment reinforces the belief by students that adults in the school care about their learning and about them as individuals. Students who perceive their teachers and school administrators as creating a caring, culturally relevant/ responsive learning environment in which expectations are high, clear, and fair are more likely to be connected to school.

Aukram Burton is the JCPS Diversity/Multicultural Education Specialist in the Department of Diversity, Equity and Poverty Programs.

Top or Back to February 2010 Issue

Celebration of Chinese New Year

By Dr. Wei-Bin Zeng

JCPS and Sister Cities Happenings

By Aukram Burton

In June 2008, Jefferson County Public Schools formalized relations with schools in Tamale, Ghana, when the Jefferson County Board of Education entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Metropolitan Directorate of Education, Tamale, Northern Region (Republic of Ghana), in cooperation with Sister Cities of Louisville, Inc. and Sister Cities of Tamale, Inc. Tamale is the third largest city located in Ghana's Northern Region with a population of 305,000. It is mostly populated by Dagomga people who speak Dagbani and are primarily Islamic in faith. Tamale means the city of shea nut trees. The city was named Tamale by its original inhabitants when they first migrated to the area and found so many shea nut trees. The shea nut produces shea butter.

The relationship between Tamale-Louisville was first initiated by a group of interested people from Louisville in the 1970s. The linkage agreement was signed during a 1979 Sister Cities International Conference, held in Louisville. Sister Cities International was started as a result of President Eisenhower's historic 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy. Nation-wide the sister city program grew throughout the 1950's and 1960's. For over three decades a number of educational and cultural exchanges between Louisville and Tamale have taken place. Louisville and Tamale’s long history of relations is an international model of citizen diplomacy within the Sister Cities international community.

One of the goals of a more formalized relationship is to provide a vehicle for educational exchanges and pursuits which will lead to a mutual appreciation of our cities’ respective cultures and systems of education, and to encourage a mutually beneficial transfer of expertise.

Visit to Tamale, Ghana

In early October 2009, I traveled to Tamale to meet with administrators in Tamale’s Directorate of Education. The purpose of my visit was to start implementation of the MOA by setting up meaningful relationships between our schools.

Iddi Beatrice, Headmistress, poses for a photo with teachers and students at Dahin Sheli primary as they accept the supplies and equipment sent by Stephen Foster Academy. (photo courtesy of Aukram Burton)

Native Threads From Northern Ecuador

By Aukram Burton

Imelda Iñuca at Frost Middle School showing the colorful regalia indicative of everyday clothing for the women in the Cayambe Quichua (Ki-ch-wa) village of Pijal in Northern Ecuador. (photo provided by Aukram Burton)

During the first two weeks of December 2009, students at Lincoln Elementary, Smyra Elementary, Foster Traditional Academy, and Frost Middle were treated to a slice of Ecuadorian culture. Embroidery artisan Imelda Iñuca shared the embroidery work practiced by the Quichua (Ki-ch-wa) women in the Cayambe Quichua village of Pijal in Northern Ecuador. Funding for Iñuca’s visit was provided by Partners of the Americas with a U.S. Department of State grant.

The purpose of Imelda Iñuca's educational presentations was to highlight the Ecuadorian indigenous folk art of embroidery, a craft tradition that has long been practiced in this Andean country. The connection between embroidery and Quichua identity is particularly interesting. Quichua men have lost many of their Quichua practices, as social, economic, and political pressures encourage them to become more like mestizos (mixed-ethnicity Ecuadorians). But Quichua women, whose lives are more often focused on domestic activities, have tended to hold more closely to Quichua identity and traditional practices such as embroidery and weaving. Most of the items that Iñuca shared with the students reflect designs and colors specific to her village. For her and many poor Kichwa women, embroidery has been turned into a source of empowerment and economic development in the Ecuadorian tourism market. In many communities, cooperatives have been formed through which women share ideas and profits. Generally, a percentage of sales go to community level projects, often in education and health. These cooperatives have been especially important as Quichua men have left their home villages and immigrated to larger cities and other countries in search of work.

Imelda Iñuca arranges some of the Quichua embroidery that she will show to students. (photo by Aukram Burton)
Frost Middle School art teacher, Ruth Bennett, shows Imelda one of her knitting stitches. (photo by Aukram Burton)

Traditionally the designs include flowers, plants, animals or other objects of nature. Imelda Iñuca demonstrated how finely pleated skirts are made from at least six meters of a cotton-wool blend, which is pleated by hand with an iron. Iñuca also explained that Quichua women sew two new outfits each year, which can take up to two months even for the most talented artisans. Sewing is done anywhere – while waiting at bus stops, or sitting in meetings. Then the work is worn and displayed at the harvest festival.

Iñuca learned embroidery from her mother and grandmother, at eight years old, as do most Kichwa girls. Most Quichua girls master the skill to embroider by the age of 13. Today, however, the younger generation is losing interest in the art form. Iñuca, who is also highly knowledgeable about medicinal plants and healing practices, captivated students by explaining that guinea pigs are used to diagnose ailments in humans in her culture. A skilled person can pass a guinea pig over the body of someone who is sick and then read the animal’s tissue to determine what is wrong with the patient.

Another objective of Iñuca’s visit was to assist the National Embroidery Museum in Louisville with a permanent exhibit. The exhibit will showcase the extraordinarily rich cultural heritage of this area of the world with embroidered items, oral histories, photos and music.

For more information about the National Embroidery Museum in Louisville, visit www.egausa.org/