White Teachers/Diverse Classroom Analysis

The documentary White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms was an informational video about how white teachers can become better at connecting with their students that come from other cultures. Based off of the book White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms, edited by Julie Landsman and Chance W. Lewis, this documentary shares the voices of parents, teachers, students, and administrators. As well as hearing from different perspectives, the documentary also provides important numbers and information regarding racism and diversity in public schools and classrooms. The editors speak in the documentary about how they hope teacher viewing it will take the advice given in the video and build a stronger classroom. There is a lot that need improvement within schools …show more content…
It is important for everyone to be aware of whiteness and white privilege in schools settings because it can cause issues for those who are not white. For people who are black, whiteness is very visible in their everyday lives. For people who are white, they may not be aware that they have more opportunities and privileges than those who are not white. People are treated differently because of their race. White people have a different culture and cultural values than those of other races, such as black, Asian, and Native American. It is important for teachers, who are white, to be aware of what whiteness is and what that means for their students. Teachers must also be aware of any bias and prejudice that they may have toward their students that are white versus their students that are black. In the documentary, a black student said that he believed that one of the reasons that white teachers sent black students to the office more than white students was because they did not know how to “deal with” them and they did not want to be judged for trying to. A teacher also spoke in the video about how she believes that students react differently to teachers based on their race. Two teachers could say the exact same thing to their students but they would get a different reaction based on if they were white or …show more content…
I graduated from Eden Prairie High School (EPHS) in 2015 and there were two girls in the video that had dropped out from EPHS during their sophomore year. These two young women are African American, and dropped out of school because they could no longer tolerate the racism that they were experiencing and witnessing. From my personal experience at EPHS, I witnessed some racism but not a lot. I know that there was a lot of racism happening within our school but there was not a lot I could do about it. Also, as a young white girl, I did not directly experience racism and therefore was not fully aware of what was happening to other students. It was weird to hear about my high school from a negative perspective, as I had a positive experience