For Jan 18 - Eisenmann, "Strong is the Silence"

Dr. Herbel-Eisenmann's article focus on mathematics teacher educators and their role in tackling topics of privilege and oppression provided me with the stark realization that my undergraduate mathematics-education courses never once discussed privilege/oppression. The course layout at UBC made me think that social justice issues were covered in one or two courses, predominantly in the "Aboriginal Education" course, by which time pre-service teachers were exhausted and becoming increasingly negative as a whole towards various aspects of teaching. Many of the same concerns that Dr. Herbel-Eisenmann outlined were prevalent in the attitudes of many of the students, including hesitation to discuss one's own privilege and a shallow level of engagement because "I already know that this is a problem" (personal conversation, 2013). I am grateful that I was able to avoid some of the anger around these issues in my own teacher education programme, and I think this is for two reasons. First of all, this material was continuously (accidentally) re-introduced multiple times over the three years during which I was taking courses in education. My program was revised halfway through, leading to three courses in which we discussed privilege/oppression, rather than just one.

I am surprised that there was no mention of teacher placement in this article with respect to their pre-service placements. I am currently in the middle of reviewing Wassell & Stith's "Becoming an Urban Physics and Math Teacher" for JUME; one of the points they make is that mentor teachers lacked confidence in teaching because of a fear that "new teachers could [not] control their students" (pp. ix, 2007), as there is "a widespread perspective that [teachers should be trained] to establish and maintain tight control over students" (pp. vii, 2007). This perspective establishes a post-colonial reign over children of all identities and reinforces the achievement gap (or education debt, as is suggested in the article by Ladson-Billings, 2006). I disagree that changing rhetoric around the "achievement gap" to "education debt" will make much of a difference; the negative opinions around children of lower socioeconomic status has done its damage. I argue, instead, that there should be a focus on positive stories coming from the urban/inner-city classroom; there is already a lot of negative narrative on the topic. Celebrating positive stories and examining student success (both in pre-service training and with a mentor teacher) may open dialogue as to why other students may not be as fortunate.

This is not the only step towards a positive solution, however; as Dr. Herbel-Eisenmann writes, there must also be an understanding of personal identity that is formed by teachers, in the context of privilege and oppression. Without understanding the manner in which teachers contribute to systemic oppression (through reflection and action, as Freire suggested in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed), there is little hope for change.