From the Margins to the Center

What does a critical foundations approach to anyway?

A critical foundations approach to pedagogy entails… Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse.  Ira Shor

How many of your institutions have a course(s) that fits this description?

Does it matter?

Our K-12 public school teacher force 80% of U.S. teachers are White 9% are Hispanic 7% are Black 2% are Asian 77% are women

U.S. children ages 5–17 from 2000 to 2016 White enrollment decreased from 62% to 52% Black enrollment decreased from 15% to 14 % Latinx enrollment increased from 16% to 25 % Asian enrollment increased from 3% to 5 % Two or more races, from 2% to 4 %

“Dysconconsciousness” -- a habit of mind that accepts the status quo as a given.

“To put our beliefs on hold is to cease to exist as ourselves for a moment – and that is not easy. It is painful as well, because it means turning yourself inside out, giving up your own sense of who you are, and being willing to see yourself in the unflattering light of another’s angry gaze.” Lisa Delpit

From our Mission statement: A commitment to social change Our department takes for granted that education is the primary means to life success. Therefore, schools must mitigate against the conditions that threaten equal opportunity and academic achievement for all children regardless of race, ethnicity, ability, religion, income, gender identity or sexual orientation. If schools are to adequately fulfill this responsibility, then teacher training programs play an important role in exposing prospective teachers to the sociocultural issues relevant to the task.

integrationist White orientation, where differences are acknowledged and tolerated but still not fully accepted. transformationist White identity, which is a place of humility and active engagement in one's own continuing growth and reformation.  

Foundations-rich foundational series Multicultural Mini-Practicum Our Program Foundations-rich foundational series Multicultural Mini-Practicum Junior Review Process

“In my initial philosophy of education, I was mindful that students need equal treatment, opportunities and representation. However, I was not fully aware, as a middle class white person, of all the ways in which bias and discrimination impact minority and working class students. Teachers should be required to learn about these issues so they don’t end up perpetrating injustice on the children in their classrooms simply because they don’t know any better.” D.L. White First Year Student

“I would say that the education program here at Hartwick does a great job at acknowledging how important it is to be aware to the differences we will face as teachers. We often speak of diversity and I would say that all of my education professors do a great job to make sure that we are aware and prepared to teach all students. We explicitly talk about how the system is made up and how students of color inevitably have to work against the system that is set up for them not to succeed. All of my education professors have and continue to talk about this, and that is the first step to ultimately rework the system as future teachers.”  Z.I. African American Junior