Delpit, The Silenced Dialog Response

Like in in White Privilege by McIntosh, Delpit explains the communications block between those with power and those with out it, mainly Whites versus everyone else. White educators have difficulty relating practices and experiences with people of color because they have different experiences and practices. As Delpit put it, "Those with power are frequently least aware of-or least willing to acknowledge-it's existence. Those with less power are often most aware of it's existence." To see the advantages of another race while you your self has to endure lesser or different treatment is much easier than to see a difference when you assume that everyone enjoys the advantages that you enjoy on a day to day basis. Teachers of other colors besides white are sometimes considered to be skills oriented when teaching students. Teachers of the White ethnicity are usually considered to be process oriented as process is what they are used to. A student in Delpit's text complained about a White teacher who used this method, she would have the students write essays then have them correct each others work. The student felt as though he was not learning anything while in another classroom he comments on how a friend has a black teacher who explains in detail the skills and steps in writing a paper. "Neither teachers agreed on each others teaching methods. The cultural and or view barrier is real and it can effect the way students view their teachers. A teacher who just stands for example from the text who seems like she does not know what to do and who assumes that the students should know what to do may look weak and unworthy to the st
udents and this may turn such students off from education. A balance between the several methods of teaching should be shared in group meetings and practices of many kinds should be tried at least once to accommodate for the students. The students attitude is what drives them in the end.



Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education: Radicalizing Prospective Teachers

Lilia I. Bartolomé

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/23478420?uid=33249&uid=3739888&uid=2&uid=3&uid=67&uid=368664851&uid=33247&uid=62&uid=3739256&sid=21104389090171