Urban Education - Frames of Reference

Approaching the idea of urban education in the United States, I feel that my attitudes are shaped as much by my national background as much as my class and race. As a British citizen becoming a teacher in America, my beliefs and prejudices have been formed in a different context to many others on a similar journey as my own. As Britain is a more class-based (or at least class conscious) society than the United States, it is my belief that when discussing urban issues, of which poverty is a primary factor, the prevailing importance of race strikes me as difficult to connect with. Certainly there are urban centers in the United Kingdom where the vast majority of the inhabitants are of ethnic minorities, but it is in my nature to view poverty in terms of class. Coming to the America where “urban” is practically a synonym for “black and/or Hispanic” my beliefs are shaped not by personal experience but by exposure to the media as well as conversations with teachers I have met who work in urban areas.

When I cast my mind to the idea of urban centers, I think of areas stricken with poverty and a lack of necessary amenities; parts of a city or town that has been neglected by local and national governments as a lost cause, where gang- and drug-related problems are rife. In Britain, this does not necessarily have racial connotations given that it has been, until recent decades, a far less diverse country when compared to the United States. Here, working class and often single parent families are crowded together in badly maintained tower blocks, a reminder of decisions made in the 1950s and 60s to fit as many of societies “rejects” into as little space as possible.

The schools, in turn, suffer from the same neglect that the areas themselves do. Damaged lockers, graffiti-covered bathrooms, metal detectors at entrances to protect the children from each other as much as outside dangers. Indeed, my own picture of such schools shows an environment that is not the safe haven from the problems of the urban area that these students call home. In a recent conversation with someone who works in an urban school in New Jersey, I was told of how classes had to be cancelled the day of the presidential election. The school had been designated as a voting location and they could not risk having doors unlocked allowing all members of the public into the school because of the dangers it my have posed. Another teacher has told me of how, on her first day working at an urban school, the body of a woman was found hanging from a tree in the yard. The police, she was informed, believed that it was a prostitute who had been murdered by a client or her pimp. Between these real life examples and the clichés one develops from exposure to the media, it is easy to see how certain stereotypes can seep into one’s idea of what a school in an urban area is like.

Due to a lack or misappropriation of funding these schools may lack the necessary equipment that middle class and suburban schools take for granted, rendering many newer, innovative teaching methods that require technology impossible. The teachers in such an environment must, therefore, be highly stressed. Looking at what popular culture has shown me, these teachers tend to come in one of two varieties: the resident of the area who has succeeded and wants to put some good back into the community; and the white, middle-class teacher who wants to lift the students up while learning important life lessons from them.

Again, if popular culture is to be believed, the students are a mix of apathetic, angry, cynical and inspired. For every one who is able to overcome the poverty that surrounds them and make it to college, there are so many others who will fall through the cracks no matter how hard the teachers try. No doubt, many feel that the problems they suffer outside the school are far more important than what they may learn in the classroom. As much of an exaggeration as it may seem, their out-of-school life may be such a struggle that education can seem irrelevant. This is the barrier which the teachers in these kinds of schools must break down in order to succeed. My girlfriend’s aunt is a teacher at a high school in Perth Amboy and, as such, I have been exposed to stories about how students, if they turn up, will be ill-prepared or do not care, because they genuinely do not see the point of education given their environment. The average feel-good movie will show that one special teacher break through these attitudes, but my own cynicism casts a shadow over my ability to believe that any one teacher or school can achieve this.

Conversations with urban educators since I have moved to the United States have yet to shake my belief in these stereotypes or forced me to reevaluate what I have come to accept as fact. It would require further exposure to urban schools, teachers and students in order to see the intricacies that clearly exist outside of movies, television and the news. Without such a challenge to my beliefs, they will undoubtedly impact on my interactions with my future colleagues and students.

While I currently have no intention of working in an inner city environment, it is not something that can be ruled out. I have always believed that only once an educator who comes from a more middle class, suburban background has experience and confidence in the classroom that they should take up the challenge of working outside their comfort zone. A teacher without this confidence could be potentially damaging to the education of the students if they do not feel as though they can connect in any meaningful way. Right now I don’t believe that I will enter the profession with this confidence and that it is something I will have to develop with time.

That said, even in middle-class classrooms, one will find underprivileged students whose lives are not that far apart from those growing up in an urban environment. Drugs and gangs are increasingly becoming a problem in suburban schools. Indeed, perhaps incorrect beliefs about suburban schools are just as problematic as the stereotypes that surround urban schools.

In any case, as a cultural outsider I would have less in common with students with such a background than even a middle class, white American teacher. I firmly believe that this will have more of an impact on my interaction with them than any beliefs I may have, although the clash between the stereotypes I may hold about them and those that they may hold about me has the potential to create a certain level of disconnect within the classroom. Several questions emerge from this consideration. Would I be quicker to consider some students a “lost cause” in an inner city school than I would a student in a suburban school? Conversely, would I spend more time trying to get to know the students and their outside problems, and less focusing on teaching, in order to get through to them? Would this necessarily be a bad thing? After all, one cannot ignore the importance of knowing one’s students as individuals as well as students in order to foster an atmosphere of trust in the classroom. If I was to find myself more likely to do this in an urban school, then perhaps the kind of classroom I run would prove better for the students.

However, there is some fear that other teachers would have negative attitudes about my identity as a cultural outsider and therefore my ability to successfully educate these students. My interactions with them would also be affected by the stereotypes that I will have cast them into as much as those I have about the students. However, because of my beliefs regarding the environment and the students, I feel that it would potentially foster a closer relationship with colleagues than in a more affluent school. Being out of my element, and having stereotypes that need to be challenged, I have no doubt that I would latch on to veteran teachers and perhaps be less inclined to attempt to tread my own path early in my career. The extent to which this would be of benefit or prove to be a hindrance to my classroom performance is something I feel incapable of answering this early into my training.

In a perfect world there would be no difference between the type of professional I would be in a suburban school and its urban equivalent. However, allowing what could be considered negative beliefs about the environment and the people has the potential to make me a very different teacher. That said, differences would occur were I to teach in a British school over an American one, or a private school over a public one. Stereotypes and possibly erroneous and misinformed beliefs are likely to emerge in any of the cases.

Ultimately, any assumptions I hold could prove to be problematic as I attempt to forge my own identity as a professional educator. Both becoming fully engaged in this Inner City Education class and exposing myself to an urban environment will be integral to overcoming incorrect beliefs, while allowing me to come to terms with aspects that are based in truth. Right now I have difficulty imagining myself working in an urban environment. My biggest hope is that by the end of this experience I will be able to say that maybe I could.