DIVERSITY BOOK CLUB: WHISTLING VIVALDI-HOW STEREOTYPES AFFECT US AND WHAT WE CAN DO

“[T]he stereotype threat that goes with certain social identities in school and on tests can dramatically affect intellectual performance….” (p. 67)

The benefits [of reducing stereotype threat] are sizable, reliable, and often long-lasting.  And the interventions themselves are low cost and relatively easy to do…. establishing trust through demanding but supportive relationships, fostering hopeful narratives about belonging in the setting, arranging informal cross-group conversations…, representing critical abilities as learnable, and using child-centered teaching techniques.” (p. 181)

“[P]eople have to be able to trust that, despite the relevance of a bad stereotype about their group, they won’t be judged by it, that their goodness as human beings will be seen.  Trust like that is hard to come by…. When interactions between people from different backgrounds have learning from each other as a goal, it eases the potential tension between them, giving missteps less significance.  Trust is fostered.” (p. 209)

Join me in a virtual Diversity Book Club.  In this and upcoming posts, I’ll summarize books and provide classroom applications and resources for teachers interested in building welcoming and inclusive environments in their classrooms and schools.  We begin with Claude M. Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Norton, 2010).

Summary
Readable and recognizable, Claude M. Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi illuminates a human condition people encounter in any diverse society: stereotype threat. 

·      We know (and worry about) what others will think about us based on what groups we belong to or identities we have such as racial, economic, gender, age, nationality, religious, and more. 

·      Our concern about what others may think about us and whether we will confirm their negative stereotypes about “our type of person” affects what we do and often detracts from our performance. 

In school settings, with which we are most concerned, we may see female students drop out of advanced math classes, Black students in predominantly White classrooms may do poorly on standardized tests, and White students in predominantly Black environments offer opinions they think are expected rather than sincerely held, for example.

Steele offers numerous examples of the research that identified and named stereotype threat.  He also offers practical suggestions, some of them mediated by the work of his colleague Carol Dweck, whose book Mindset, I heartily recommend.  Dweck’s work centers on growth versus fixed mindsets: learning to learn from our mistakes and/or relative weaknesses rather than seeing them as fixed and unchangeable liabilities.   

Classroom & School Applications & Resources:
After his account of numerous experiments identifying and attempting to ameliorate stereotype threat, Steele offers numerous practical recommendations to which I have added suggestions and resources for classroom teachers:

1.    Demand high standards from all students and tell them you expect them to meet these expectations.  This can diminish the stereotype threat some students experience by interrupting their own negative narrative that teacher/peers deem them less able than students of different groups.  (See discussion, p. 163.)

2.    Affect the negative narrative or feeling of stereotype threat by sharing a different narrative.  One example is that of junior and senior class students at an elite university sharing their feelings of being frustrated, unworthy, inept, and unwelcome during their freshman year.  They explain to incoming freshmen that they have overcome these feelings, achieved at a high level, made friends, and used the resources at the school to good purpose.  In an independent school in which students from underserved communities may experience stereotype threat, for example, fostering a mentorship relationship of upper level students with middle and lower school students might be helpful.  (See pages 165-166.)

3.    Affect negative narratives by fostering discussions among many different kinds of students in which they share their fears and hopes.  In this way, all students see that everyone feels nervous at a new school, that some people share some of the same values, and that many people share the same hopes.  (See p. 167.)

4.    Teach all students, and particularly those facing stereotype threat (Black students in predominantly White classrooms, for example) that human intelligence is expandable and that we learn, grow, and build our intellectual skills by learning from our mistakes and failures.  One experiment invited Stanford students to write letters with such information to “ostensible minority elementary students.”   Students in upper grades in independent schools could write real letters to students in lower grades, or sixth graders could write to rising fifth graders, for example.  (See pages 168-169.)

5.    Invite students to affirm their most important personal or family values and explain their importance.  This exercise was part of an experiment in a seventh grade classroom.  Black students who affirmed their values showed continued improvement in academic performance over Black students who did not do this exercise.  Students in our sixth grade English classes write about personal and family values, and we see benefit for all students as they contribute to building of a caring, warm, and supportive environment.  (See details on pages 174-175.)
 

6.    Make the classroom a mistake-making, growth-oriented place.  Overtly discuss growth versus fixed mindsets.  Learning is the goal that brings all students together and mitigates students’ perceptions of stereotype threat. “When interactions between people from different backgrounds have learning from each other as a goal, it eases the potential tension between them, giving missteps less significance.  Trust is fostered.” (See p. 209).  Doing this early in the year and as I begin each new project, I attempt to foster just such an environment of encouragement, risk, and learning with each other.  Further, after we complete long-term projects, we openly discuss our obstacles and how we faced them.

7.    Make the school/classroom a safe place for all by fostering: “positive relationships with students; more child-centered teaching; use of [our] diversity as a classroom resource rather than following a strict strategy of colorblindness; teacher skill, warmth, and availability…”  (See page 180.)  To assist this process, teachers can share their identity-related experiences of facing stereotypes, for example, thus allowing students to see us as human and like them.  Read Shane Safir’s post about identity workshops to foster identity-safe classrooms: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/fostering-identity-safety-in-classroom-shane-safir.  It includes a terrific workshop tool!    

8.    To help students feel safe to tackle unsafe topics I use the “Circles of Culture” exercise explained in a previous blog.  Taking time to create a caring place for daring conversations makes all the difference in the student (and teacher) experience and forges our bonds as a community of readers, writers, and upstanders, ready to build a welcoming and inclusive community in and out of school. This is relevant teaching and learning: today and every day. (Sample questions: In which of your circles of culture do you find safety/refuge?  Why?  In which of your circles of culture do you find discomfort or lack of safety?  Why?)  Read more: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2016/07/creating-caring-classroom-community_6.html 

9. Teachers in early childhood and elementary grades may find Michele Borba’s Unselfie a useful resource.  Read a summary and find classroom applications in my August 2016 post: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2016/08/teaching-empathy-book-review-of.html

10.    Have a study group read Whisling Vivaldi at your school.  Use chapter discussion questions prepared Deb Hoskins, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin at La Crosse: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P5jUtn461RgPra1sN0UkOj9LzfaSqpYKNw4JvGcubgc/edit

11. For an academic reference for your work on reducing stereotype threat utilize the website created by two social science professors, Steve Stroessner and Catherine Good: http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org 

12. Host a showing and discussion of the movie Hidden Figures at your school, or read and discuss the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race: (Background story and movie trailer here) http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a24429/hidden-figures-real-story-nasa-women-computers/

Dr. King’s vision is oft-quoted, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” But the reality is that people do judge others based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other features.  And fear of such judgement does affect performance.  Stereotype threat is a real force to reckon with in our classrooms.  We can use such resources as Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi to make our classrooms ones in which each student—and teacher—thrives.

Susan Gelber Cannon, January 2017

CREATING CARING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY WITH CIRCLES OF CULTURE: LESSON PLAN

How can we build caring classroom environments in which students feel safe to tackle unsafe topics?  I work hard to make our sixth grade English class curriculum and class procedures conducive to building a caring environment.  I am hopeful that the following steps contribute to building an increasingly caring classroom community throughout the school year: co-creating class goals and rules, writing about ourselves as treasures, sharing family stories, reading and discussing books about school environments and difference (Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper, and Schooled, by Gordon Korman, for example) and my open declaration of my hopes to both challenge and nurture students (in the words of our school mission statement).

By January, we begin research and pre-reading activities to help us better understand the historical fiction novel Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor.  My colleague, Matt Newcomb, and I evaluate the book each year, and teacher, student, and family feedback corroborates our judgment that the 1970s book set in 1930s Mississippi leads to literary, societal, and personal discoveries that remain timely and valuable. The book is difficult, as it raises issues of racism and violence only mitigated by the strong bonds of a loving Black family and the occasional acts of conscience of White neighbors. 

CIRCLES OF CULTURE EXERCISE

To try to make our class environment a caring place for daring conversations I begin the unit with the “Circles of Culture” exercise.  I adapted this exercise from one I experienced in a peace education workshop in Denmark.  I have expanded the exercise to include both social identifiers that might elicit pride and/or discomfort as well as hobbies and “cultures” participants might find safe or relaxing to consider. 

In a forty-minute middle school class, time pressure is a constant.  Yet, I deem this exploration time well spent, and I will devote two class periods for this exercise.  Often, I preview the exercise with Sylvia Boorstein’s seven-minute lovingkindness meditation, in which the Buddhist-Jewish-grandmother-psychoanalyst leads participants to ever-expanding circles of care and well wishing.  The children have previously enjoyed this meditation as part of our reading of Schooled, and many feel comfortable and relaxed when participating, especially when I remind them that this is not a religious exercise, but more a mental and emotional one open to their personal interpretation.

Following the meditation as class begins on Day 1, and continuing the quiet, take-your-time pace, I invite students to complete both sides of the “Circles of Culture page” silently, adding categories and circles as they wish.  Some students finish quickly, while others consider at length.  The silent writing period that follows allows students to privately consider aspects about their identities they may or may not have considered deeply before.

Next, I ask them to write three paragraphs to identify the following:

Circles of Culture:

1.     In which of your circles of culture do you find safety/refuge?  Why?

2.     In which of your circles of culture do you find discomfort or lack of safety?  Why?

3.     Related topic: What do you hope, fear, or think about our upcoming reading of Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry?

This part of the lesson easily transfers to homework, and students are relieved to be able to continue writing.  In fact, as they enter class then next day, I invite them to re-read and continue their writing, revising, adding, and reflecting.  I let them know I will read their writing, but they may choose which parts of their writing (if any) they will share aloud with their classmates and partners.  They are happy to have this choice, and their writing (and subsequent sharing) is the more honest for it.

SHARING OUR CIRCLES OF CULTURE: SAFETY, FEAR, & RECOGNITION

For sources of safety, variety abounds.   Students find refuge in family, heritage, and sports, for example.  “I find safety and refuge with family…. We may argue sometimes, but we know we still and always will love each other….”  “My entire family is Irish…. I find refuge when we visit there.  Ireland is one of my favorite places in the world, and it is the place I feel safe in.”   “I find safety and refuge when I am playing basketball because I feel calm and relaxed when I dribble the basketball….”

Discomfort varies as well, and there is visible relief on students’ faces as they listen to their peers express their discomforts.  As Claude M. Steele explains in Whistling Vivaldi (How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do), there is benefit for students (some reprieve from stereotype threat) to see they are not the “only one” experiencing feelings of difference, fear, or discomfort. 

Here are several examples students shared: “One thing that I don’t really like about my circles is my ‘so-called’ wealth.  It is very uncomfortable when kids who go to different schools are constantly calling me ‘rich’ and saying that I’m snobby….”   “I do not feel safe or comforted when I meet new kids.  I feel they might think I’m weird, or not be like them, and they are better than me.  When I share these feelings with my dad, I take a deep breath and feel relaxed….”  “Sometimes I feel discomfort talking about racial issues because I am a White person and all of my backgrounds are backgrounds where people are White, so people of color think I don’t understand….”  “Something that makes me feel discomfort is that I have family that I don’t know about in Ghana.  A long time ago, my ancestors were taken away from each other during slavery, and now I don’t even know if they exist.  Another thing that makes feel discomfort is reading about how Whites treated my Black brothers and sisters.  There were shootings and haters like the Ku Klux Klan….” 

And what are our hopes and fears about reading the book?  “I hope this book will teach me interesting facts about culture and race and what not to do and what to do.  I hope that it will show me how I can make an impact on the world….”  “I’m going to be honest, and I am worried.  I feel some of the situations might be very harsh….”   “I am afraid that some kids may not be respectful of other people while reading this book.”  And finally, “What I fear about reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry is scary and upsetting things happening to people just like me.  I hope to read this book to teach other classmates how hard things were back than and how lucky we are that it isn’t like that anymore.”  This is helpful to me as a teacher, because I also bring up parallels in current events that challenge that notion that “it isn’t like that anymore.” We discuss Ferguson, police profiling of racial and ethnic group members, and more, aiming to avoid the complacency that can arise if we don’t remain vigilant and active. 

ALLEVIATING STEREOTYPE THREAT

Sometimes before student sharing, but usually after, I explain my Jewish upbringing and discomfort in my school career reading World War II Holocaust books.  “I was a little Jewish kid like Anne Frank,” I tell them.  “I would worry, ‘Well, if they did that to her, they might do that to me.’  These books scared me.  I wished a teacher would have explained that we were reading such books to understand history, so that moving forward we can make improvements, avoiding past mistakes and tragedies.”

Reading Roll of Thunder is comparable in some ways.  As a White teacher and as a caring teacher for all of my students, I work to alleviate stereotype threat.  I want to assure my students I will not ask them to to speak for their race.  I want to assure my White students we will not hold them accountable for the racist actions of White characters in the book.  I want to assure Asian and Latino students that we will draw parallels to their histories in ways that will include them in the explorations meaningfully.  We all will, I explain, be called to bring the lessons of the reading into connection with current events and our roles in them. 

Exploring and sharing our “Circles of Culture,” alleviating some of our stereotype threats, and building our caring community help build a strong foundation on which we can explore Jim Crow laws in Mississippi, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and face the events in a book such as Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry.   

And year after year, we get feedback like this from students.  From a Black girl: “This was the first time I thought my classmates really understand some of the things I have to go through every day.  It made me angry, but after we discussed it, I felt better.  I think students should read this book in sixth grade.”  From a White boy: “Children can’t change the past, but they can surely change the future, and the sorrow and sadness that the kids share will make the children reading the book unite and ban racial cruelty forever.  Thank you for having us read it.”   

Taking time to create a caring place for daring conversations makes all the difference in the student (and teacher) experience.  These shared high expectations further forge our bonds as a community of readers, writers, and upstanders, ready to build a welcoming and inclusive community in and out of school.

-Susan Gelber Cannon

RESOURCES & READINGS:

1. “Let’s Talk: DiscussingRace, Racism, and other Difficult Topics with Students” (Teaching Tolerance http://www.tolerance.org/lets-talk )  This worksheet allows teachers to plan ahead for emotions such as anger, pain, blame, shame, and denial that may arise as we discuss difficult topics.  Many more resources are helpful on the deep website including the following:

• ·    Speak up at School: How to Respond to Everyday Prejudice, Bias and Stereotypes, a Guide for Teachers
• ·      Responding to Hate and Bias at School: A Guide for Administrators, Counselors, and Teachers
• ·      Teaching Tolerance is an outstanding and FREE print magazine (also found on website) for teachers.  

2. “Key Distinctions for Understanding Race and Racism” (The Tracing Center www.tracingcenter.org )

In 2016, we hosted a visit by filmmaker Katrina Browne, whose definitions of racism and prejudice are included here.   Katrina Browne spoke about feeling guilt upon learning about her Rhode Island family’s complicity and deep involvement in America’s trans-Atlantic slave trade.  As she explored her family history, she realized she was not personally culpable, but she was personally responsible to dig into the history.  She has gone on to uncover the connections between her family history and her White privileges compared to families of enslaved Africans, for example.  In addition to making a film (that we use in our sixth grade history classrooms: Traces of the Trade) she speaks to school groups to help students discover that in the American colonies, townspeople and craftspeople in geographically diverse areas benefitted from the slave trade.  (Her yarn-web exercise demonstrating a small town and all craftspeople and gardeners supplying slave ships is useful to students, for example).

3. “Creating a Caring a Classroom Community with Circles of Culture-Handouts

·      “Circles of Culture Worksheet” (Sue Cannon) 

·      “Family Introduction Letter to Roll of Thunder” (Sue Cannon, Matt Newcomb)

·      “Share a Family Story—Inspired by Roll of Thunder” (Sue Cannon)

o   This assignment is allows us to continue to build a caring community.  By interviewing family elders and writing their stories, students bring their photos and stories into the classroom in a way that honors multiple heritages and cultures, recognizes similarities and differences, and builds common bonds.

4. “What White Children Need to Know About Race” (Ali Michael and Eleanora Bartoli, Independent School Magazine, Summer 2014)

Rationales and skills are well explained in this article that will ring true for many teachers in NAIS schools.  “Because many white families generally do not consider racial competencies among the skills their children will need when they grow up, they tend to socialize passively and reactively. This strategy leads to silence about race in many white households. Because U.S. society is already structured racially, silence leaves unchallenged the many racial messages children receive from a number of socializing agents, which consistently place whites at the top of the racial hierarchy. Silence is thus hardly a passive stance….”

5. “Ferguson is About Us Too: A Call to Explore our Communities” (Alexander Cuenca and Joseph R. Nichols, Jr., Social Education, 78/5, National Council for Social Studies, 2014. NOTE: article is accessible to NCSS members.  Link leads to ERIC abstract.) 
The authors provide historical data and classroom discussion questions in this article that reflects on the death of Michael Brown, the responses of the Ferguson community, the connection to race and justice issues in all of our communities, and the opportunities for building understanding.

6. Sylvia Boorstein Leads Lovingkindness Meditation (7-minute video from On Being, APR Radio)  Useful in calming a group and helping people of all ages focus on the people who are truly meaningful in their lives, this meditation moves participants from themselves to the wider world of "known and unknown strangers."  Sixth graders routinely run into class and ask, "Can we do the meditation today?"

7. HANDOUT for PAIS Workshop: October 2016-Build Caring Environments to Share Daring Conversations: Tackling Unsafe Topics in a Safe Atmosphere

Additional Suggested Readings

Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Mahzrin R. Banaji and Anthony G.Greenwald)

Think, Care, Act: Teaching for a Peaceful Future (Susan Gelber Cannon) 

Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World (MichelleBorba) 

WhistlingVivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Claude M. Steele)