1. Disrupting Institutional Oppression: Our Roles as Institutional Actors
Summit on School Climate and Culture
Des Moines Public Schools
August 8, 2016

2. Our Story

3. Chronicling the Disparities
Black students from Iowa had an average score that was 32 points lower than their White peers on the 4th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading.
Latino students had an average score that was 21 points lower than White students on the 8th grade NAEP in math.

4. Chronicling the Disparities
The out-of-school suspension rate for Black male students in the state of Iowa was 21% as of the school year.
This is compared to a 4% out-of-school suspension rate for White male students.

5. Chronicling the Disparities
The 2014 four-year graduation rate for all Iowans was 90.5%.
It was 92.2% for White students.
It was 78.6% for Black students
It was 81.7% for Latino students.
It was 78.3% for Native American students.
The dropout rate was 2.7% for all students.
It was 2.2% for White students.
It was 7.2% for Black students.
It was 4.4% for Latino students.
It was 6.2% for Native American students.
Iowa Department of Education, 2015

6. Chronicling the Disparities
Iowa has experienced a 108% increase in the number of students of color who attend Iowa public schools.
Whereas these students comprised only 10% of the student population in 2000, they represented 21.1% of the student population as of 2013 (Iowa Department of Education, 2014), and this upward trend is expected to continue.

7. What contributes to the academic “achievement gap” and other racial disparities in student outcomes?

8. Analogy

9. Oppression
According to Sensoy & DiAngelo (2012), “oppression describes a set of policies, practices, traditions, norms, definitions, and explanations (discourses), which function to systematically exploit one social group to the benefit of another social group” (p. 39).

10. Oppression (Racism)
Oppression is viewed as a complex web of structures and processes that are pervasive in everyday life (Bell, 1997, p. 4) and is manifested at individual, institutional, and social/cultural levels (Young, 1990; Bell, 1997; Hardiman & Jackson, 1997; Rauscher & McClintock, 1997; Andersen & Collins, 2004 as cited in Holley, Stromwall, & Bashor, 2012).

11. The Three Types
Individual
Institutional
Cultural/Societal

12. The Three Types Defined
Individual-attitudes and behaviors that carry out and maintain power relationships (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997)
Institutional-mission, policies, organizational structures, and behaviors built into all institutional systems and services (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997)
Cultural/societal-beliefs, symbols, and underlying cultural rules of behavior that teach and endorse the superiority of one group over others (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997)

13. Individual
At the individual level, people are socialized to accept stereotypes and internalize messages of inferiority and superiority about their own and others’ social groups (Ortiz & Jani, 2010 as cited in Holley, Stromwall, & Bashor, 2012).
This socialization of the individual is fueled by and reflects the institutional and cultural dimensions of oppression (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997).

14. Institutions
As stated by Sensoy & DiAngelo (2012), “institutions serve as primary socializing forces in society” (p. 80).
“Institutions produce, circulate, and maintain the dominant’s culture’s norms, values, definitions, language, policies, and ideologies” (p. 80).

15. Socialization
“Our ideas, views, and opinions are not objective and independent, but rather the result of myriad social messages and conditioning forces.”
Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2012

16. Heroes in U.S. History

21. The Overt and Covert Nature of Oppression
All forms of oppression operate both overtly and covertly.
Overt oppression is easier to identify, but covert oppression is not.

22. Overt Oppression
Individual oppression: using racial/gay slurs; painting a swastika on a Jewish temple; a lone employer who rejects all Black applicants; a landlord who refuses to rent an apartment to a single woman (Blumenfeld et al, 2000; Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997)

23. Overt Oppression
Institutional: policies that prohibit women and Blacks from voting; Jim Crow laws; denial of benefits to same sex partners; redlining; restrictive covenants (Blumenfeld et al, 2000; Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997)

24. Overt Oppression
Books/ “scientific” articles attempting to prove the biological inferiority of people of color is a form of cultural oppression (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997).

25. Covert Oppression
Cultural- sexism in corporate culture (see Sensoy & DiAngelo p. 82)
Institutional-school tracking; IQ testing; Eurocentric curriculum; disproportionality
Individual-implicit bias; microaggressions; carrying out oppressive policies and practices due to a lack of awareness

26. An Important Note
According to Derman-Sparks & Phillips (1997), covert racism “includes all those institutional policies and practices whose habitual outcome is inequitable relationships between Whites and people of color, even when “race” is not an explicit or even an intended factor” (p. 11).
Racism is not about intent; it’s about outcomes
See Sensoy & DiAngelo’s stats on sexism

27. So what do we do?

28. Research
Teachers who utilize culturally centered approaches are able to improve outcomes for students of color and other marginalized student populations (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Milner, 2012).
Thus, we argue that in order to improve the schooling experiences for students of color, teachers must become more culturally proficient. (Nuri-Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey & Terrell, 2012).

29. Questions?
Daniel Spikes Jason Salisbury Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Educational Administration Educational Administration School of Education School of Education College of Human Sciences College of Human Sciences