Teacher Identity & the Classroom

A teacher's identity can impact a classroom in nearly infinite implicit and explicit ways. Let's go back to questions we discussed at the beginning of the semester: why is school important? What do we hope to get out of educational experiences? What makes a good teacher, and a good learning environment? Maybe the answers include factual information, or life skills, or curricula, or open-mindedness, or curiosity. Regardless of how you measure success, I think we can agree that teachers have a great impact on it.

Studies have shown that students are more likely to score higher, develop interest in a subject, and stay in school if taught by someone with an identity -- such as race or gender -- similar to theirs. I can imagine many reasons this may be true. Someone with a similar background to you may also share a cultural background, and therefore may be able to get information across in a way that works with your worldview, understand the previous schooling you've had, or even simply speak a language you speak.

When it comes to broader issues of education, teachers may play a role not just in interactions with their students. The first example that comes to mind is teaching history in a non-Eurocentric way. A teacher of color, whether because of heightened awareness of social issues or simply knowledge not traditionally taught in American schools, might be more likely to push for better standards in the school at which they teach and craft a more complex curriculum.

Whether in or outside academics, general environment can dictate a person's chance of thriving. We saw a recent extreme example in that video where a white teacher felt "threatened" by a black student and called a police officer, who attacked the student. Actions like that and more common, smaller implicit biases (such as not being accommodative of disabilities or making comments that make students uncomfortable) all contribute to the atmospheres in which we are expected to feel comfortable enough to learn, perform, and ask questions for seven hours, five days a week.

Well I've barely scratched the surface here and there are so many other factors that I'm sure will come to me as soon as I hit "publish," so I'd love to discuss in the comments, but just to wrap up -- a teacher's experiences and identities shape every aspect of a learning experience. I hope that we all get the chance to be taught by people who have identities similar to us as well as those who are wildly different. Unfortunately, that is probably not likely. (I was trying to remember while writing this post whether I've ever had a brown teacher in school, and -- unless I'm misremembering, in which case I apologize -- I believe I've only had one, even in this university town. And she was a sub, only for like a day. And not to further stereotypes, but she was a family friend.) So, until we reach a time of just diversity, I hope we all have teachers who are willing to learn from us, help us learn, work with us, and teach us in inclusive spaces. (Whew, that got a bit deep, thanks for sticking with me. See y'all tomorrow.)