Brand-new private college graduates teach the children of our highest-need schools. They are primarily white and middle class and/or have traditionally white and middle class values. They are driven by a desire to help others, but not necessarily a desire to teach.
If, for whatever reason, you’ve become dedicated to this publication, click below for my midterm paper for my independent study on education journalism!
How (Not) to Help in our Highest-Need Schools
Brand-new private college graduates teach the children of our highest-need schools. They are primarily white and middle class and/or have traditionally white and middle class values. They are driven by a desire to help others, but not necessarily a desire to teach.
These are the conclusions drawn by Chris Emdin in his 2016 book For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… And the Rest of Y’all Too, and they’re substantiated by many criticisms of the renowned yet controversial Teach for America — especially those by TFA alums themselves. This paper will examine the complex relationships between the well-intentioned new teacher in an inner city school, particularly those who are a part of TFA, which is focused on bringing in teachers to do just that.
Whiteness in Public Education
In For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…, Emdin uses unique terminology in calling urban youth of color “neoindigenous” throughout the work. He sees connections between the oppressions and silencing of indigenous youth, and claims that without self-reflection, teachers could be erasing the cultures of youth of color in the same way American Indian boarding schools did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (6-7). Emdin writes, “Positioning urban marginalized youth as neoindigenous moves beyond a literal biological or geographical connection and into more complex connections among the oppressed that call forth a particular way of looking at the world… [It] allows us to understand the oppression these youth experience” (9). The way that these teachers are taught to teach, focusing on discipline and rewarding kids who are “good” (quiet, well-behaved, often inhibited), perpetuates a narrative of indoctrination of mainstream values that “"privileges whiteness and reinforces the myth of meritocracy” (Brewer qtd. in Donella). This makes these teachers the “white folks” Emdin continually references — although not all of the teachers are white themselves.
Emdin, a black man who attended urban public schools, writes that he himself fell into the trap of silencing his students particularly because he looked like and identified with him yet wanted to maintain authority. He learned that to succeed in school, he learned how to “play the game” by following the many institutional mores necessary for success in the public school system, despite knowing that they had little to do with learning itself. This was further encouraged when he decided to go into teaching. “My unabashed urbanness — loud, conspicuous, questioning of authority — became lost” (35). He was advised: “Hold your ground, and don’t smile till November” (35). This is an example of the attitudes of whiteness all teachers of all races are encouraged to emulate — and therefore, to pass down to their students.
At the same time, Emdin was surrounded by new teachers who were there to assuage white guilt/a white savior complex. They were there to “give back.”
And so are the young teachers of Teach for America.
Teach for America
According to their website, Teach for America sends college graduates “to teach and to effect change in under-resourced urban and rural public schools” in 53 designated regions across the country (“Teach for America”). One percent of America’s teachers are current Teach for America corps members or alums of the program.
TFA was started in 1989 as founder Wendy Kopp’s senior thesis. Since then, it’s blossomed into an industry that’s just as renowned among some as it is controversial among others. Through TFA, truly passionate college grads go through a highly competitive application process (only 14 percent are admitted) and sent to an area where students desperately need encouragement and enthusiasm (“Teach for America”).
TFA is infamous for providing an only five-week training program for its teachers, regardless of what they studied in undergrad (“Teach for America”). Yet some studies have reported that TFA teachers are more successful than those who have already graduated from master’s programs. Erika Sanzi, a former educator and education blogger, writes: “...Most teachers struggle at the beginning… [and] gold-standard research has established that TFA teachers outperform other new teachers, particularly when it comes to teaching math.” This research focuses on secondary math educators and comes from the U.S. Department of Education.
Corps members are also only mandated to stay in their schools for two years, although many stay longer. However, retention rates in the field of teaching are extremely low in general; almost half of all teachers leave within the first five years of teaching, costing schools over 2 billion dollars per year (Phillips). Elena Kavadny, a USC student previously wary of TFA, wrote in her weekly education column that her views on the turnover changed when she became an applicant to TFA herself. “And even if it seems like a “glorified temp agency” that swoops up talented young people for two years then loses them to another career path, they were there for two whole years. More likely than not, they made a difference in many children’s lives and in turn, those children probably changed their life forever as well” (Kavadny).
Additionally, districts will bring in TFA teachers to cut costs and fire their veteran staff. One such example of this was in New Orleans: “Prior to Hurricane Katrina, teachers in New Orleans were characterized as having quite a bit of experience; immediately after the storm the average teacher had zero to one year of teaching experience (mostly TFA corps members)” (Brewer). But a more subtle and sinister issue arises on a wider scale: TFA’s quiet sanction of racism.
It’s important to note that TFA has taken criticisms of lack of diversity among corps members to heart (Westervelt). This school year, 51 percent of corps members are people of color, 34 percent were the first in their family to graduate from college, and 48 percent have received a Pell Grant, a grant typically awarded to low-income individuals (“Teach for America”). But does that change in makeup of corps members necessarily reflect a change in ideology?
Sarah Matsui and T. Jameson Brewer are TFA alums who have done prolific research on the problems of TFA. In both their own piece in Jacobin and in a detailed piece by Leah Donnella NPR’s Code Switch, they talk about their “worry that the program relies on a shaky ‘hero narrative’ to lure idealists into jobs for which they're wildly unprepared, and convinces them that a "can-do attitude" is all it takes to hurdle systemic gaps in our schools” (Donnella). Implicit in this attitude, the researchers and their sources explain, is perpetuating narratives of whiteness, both by literally white teachers and those taught to espouse values of white “professionalism.”
Donnella cites one such teacher:
I accepted as true — and TFA was quick to confirm — the myth that all that poor students (of color) need is what affluent (white) students have: access to great schools with the best teachers that hold students to high expectations . . . I have come to acknowledge and recognize color-blind racism and to see how it undergirds educational inequity. TFA, in my view, perpetuates, commits, and cultivates this kind of covert racism. . . (qtd. Donella)
The central attitudes of TFA — hard work and discipline, according to Matsui — aren’t as benign as they seem. Identity and privilege mean that hard work and discipline doesn’t look the same for everyone, and doesn’t necessarily provide the same success. “Color-blindness” (as Emdin too describes) is the opposite of what will foster a positive classroom environment. Additionally, emphasizing individual actions can place responsibility or even blame on the students themselves. Matsui writes: “This focus on the simple power of individual effort to overcome structural inequity typifies TFA’s approach. There are two core underlying tenets of TFA: 1) the uncritical acceptance of the American meritocracy narrative and the American Dream, and 2) the disproportionate emphasis on the power of the individual.” Instead of learning about systems of power, students are implicitly taught to ignore them, and believe that they can overcome them without knowing the depth of their institutionalization and history.
Brewer summarizes: “Overall, alumni narratives tell a story of TFA preying on the idealism of young people while offering them a chance to mostly better themselves, reinforce racist deficit ideologies, and all the while, crush and silence anyone who challenges such practices — especially when those challenges come from the inside.”
There will always be young educators eager to influence and be influenced by America’s most difficult schools. But are there ways for them to do this without simply making the situation worse?
Alternative Pedagogy
In For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…, Emdin outlines approaches that any teacher could use to better connect to and therefore better teach their students. These approaches are founded in what he calls reality pedagogy: “Reality pedagogy is an approach to teaching and learning that has a primary goal of meeting each student on his or her own cultural and emotional turf” (27). It’s the opposite of the “colorblindness” espoused by TFA and by many teacher education programs that claim meritocracy as the solution.
One tangible action Emdin suggests is facilitating cogenerative dialogues, or cogens, to create a stronger classroom environment. Emdin was inspired to bring cogens into the classroom after seeing three extremely different students engaged in a rap cypher, the neoindigenous and non-academic version of a cogen, in the cafeteria. “Cogens are simple conversations between the teachers and their students with a goal of co-creating/generating plans of action for improving the classroom” (65). To create the group of students for a cogen, it is imperative to find kids from different “social fields” — different cultural backgrounds, roles in the classroom, and social identities. Those differences must be acknowledged for a successful and inclusive classroom community conversation. The fact that, in many cases, the teacher also comes from a different set of social fields is also vital: they are a participant in the cogen as well, not prioritized over the needs of their students.
Cogens are one of the “seven Cs” Emdin outlines in his book: “cogenerative dialogues, co-teaching, cosmopolitanism, context, content, competition, and curation” (60). It would require the 200 pages he spends to sufficiently elaborate on these suggestions, but each one is focused in reality pedagogy and allows students to feel heard and respected in a place they usually don’t: their public school classrooms.
City Year
City Year, an Americorps program that has young people 17 to 24 volunteer in classrooms for a full academic year, is widely acknowledged as an alternative to City Year. City Year lacks the clout that TFA has, and that’s partially because of the nature of the work corps members do. Where as TFA members become full-time classroom teachers, City Year members are tutors, teaching assistants, and run before- and after-school activities.
Noam Hassenfeld is a TFA alum who is critical of the fact that many join TFA without certainly that they want to be teachers. He poses City Year as an alternative for these young adults: “City Year, on the other hand, wants to supplement rather than supplant the existing teacher workforce, making teachers' lives easier instead of putting them out of work” (Hassenfeld). He provides various examples, including: “The City Year corps member I worked with at my TFA site taught a small reading group of six to 12 students each morning, allowing lead-teachers to place other students in smaller groups.” Small groups and one-one-one attention are most vital to student learning, but often impossible considering the limitations of one teacher in a classroom of 20 to 30 students.
City Year has its own flaws, but the most prominent one is minor: that it is “annoying.” “City Year’s internal culture can be pretty annoying: various chants and rituals are performed at various points during the day” (Goldman). More problematically, corps members are taught to focus on tangible, measurable goals when working with students, some of which are helpful but others of which are emblematic of issues in the public school system: “City Year highly emphasizes supporting students to improve their grades, classroom behavior, attendance, and test scores…” (Goldman).
Conclusion
There’s no right way to enter the workforce as a teacher. Different service programs provide different opportunities and different flaws. Self-education is vital regardless of the route an aspiring teacher takes, even if they’ve gotten one or more graduate degrees, because curricula often leaves out roles of privilege, race, and other social identities in the classroom. Most important, however, is that if a young person is planning to become a part of a classroom community, they shouldn’t be planning their exit from their first day. Students deserve to have their teachers stick around.
Works Cited
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Donnella, Leah. "2 Teach For America Alums Say TFA Has Big Problems When It Comes To
Race." NPR. NPR, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.
Emdin, Christopher. For white folks who teach in the hood-- and the rest of y'all too: reality
pedagogy and urban education. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2016. Print.
Goldman, Zachary. "Trying To Close The Achievement Gap: TFA and City Year." Spin
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Hassenfeld, Noam. "This Former TFA Corps Member Thinks You Should Join City Year
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Kadvany, Elena. "TFA benefits outweigh stereotypes." Daily Trojan. N.p., 04 Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Apr.
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Phillips, Owen. “Revolving Door Of Teachers Costs Schools Billions Every Year.” NPR. NPR. 30 Mar.
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