Freierean Culture And Gullout Analysis

This chapter describes the process of creating Freierean culture circles in a first-grade, public school classroom. These culture circles resulted in the students challenging and “problematizing” the pullout structure in their school for SPED, ESOL, and STAR (TAG) students and lead to students taking direct action that ended up minimizing the pullout structures in their own classroom. The process started with the teacher recognizing her role in creating a safe, positive community environment in which students felt comfortable participating in dialogues where they could express their opinions. She recognized that her diverse classroom was having difficulties in discussions because they believed that ideas and opinions were either right or wrong,

This theme came through because students started to ask why they were not allowed to join the students when they were pulled out for STAR, as evidenced by one student saying, “Is it like when we want to go to STAR but can’t?” As a class, the students recognized a “situated representation” of the larger phenomenon of discrimination, prejudice, and segregation. They identified the racially and socioeconomically segregated nature of pullout educational programs in American schools through researching how the pullout programs came to be. They noticed that integrated schools were not really desegregated, as systematically, it was believed that white culture to be better and that students from different backgrounds still needed adapt to dominant culture through SPED and ESOL programs. They recognized that pullout programs segregated students among class and racial lines. These dialogues led to students wanting to take action in order to challenge the status quo and serve the educational needs of all students. They talked to the principal of the school. They decided, as a class, that they wanted all students to have the opportunity to engage in inquiry studies, which was the curriculum that the STAR students were using. They petitioned to be in the same classroom all day, and with support from their parents, they were able to make that change possible. In the end, ESOL, SPED, STAR agreed to

I am doing something very similar during solo as I am having my students look at different versions of Cinderella. I was going to have my students compare and contrast the stories, but I wasn’t sure how to make the compare/contrast lesson more valuable for students. I love the idea of introducing the idea of multiple perspectives with this lesson, and using it to discuss how the students in our class have different experiences, backgrounds, and opinions. I find that my students have difficulties having discussions on complex topics because they’re always waiting for my mentor teacher or I to tell them the “right” answer. I think it would significant to have an explicit conversation on the idea that sometimes, and actually very often, there is no right answer. Something that also struck me was the idea that the teacher has the responsibility of creating a community where students feel comfortable sharing their opinions and experiences. I feel like that has been lacking in my own classroom, and that is the reason we haven’t been able to delve deeper into subjects like institutional and structural racism. I think the work that is done in this chapter is important, but it requires a ton of intentional community building in the beginning of the