The Value of Ethnic Studies in Education

"At first Carlos had no interest in more school, but his friend was so enthusiastic that Carlos finally decided to go see what Chicano studies was all about. That hooked him on education. For the first time in his life, the curriculum was centered on his reality. Carlos completed two years of community college, taking as many Chicano studies courses as possible, then went on to complete a BA degree in Spanish. In the process, he became an avid reader about Mexican vaquero (cowboy) culture, and accumulated a mini-library at home on this subject. He wanted to continue his education in order to teach, which to my knowledge, he is still doing today" (Sleeter 1).

In "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies" by Christina Sleeter, Sleeter emphasizes the socioemotional and academic value of ethnic studies curricula, arguing that ethnic studies can help reverse academic disengagement among students of color who feel alienated from the mainstream, Eurocentric curricula prevalent within education particularly within the social studies context.

Key Quotes & The Feelings They Envoke:

• "Whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplishments. African Americans, the next most represented racial group, appear in a more limited range of roles and usually receive only a sketchy account historically, being featured mainly in relationship to slavery. Asian Americans and Latinos appear mainly as figures on the landscape with virtually no history or contemporary ethnic experience. Native Americans appear mainly in the past, but also occasionally in contemporary stories in reading books. Immigration is represented as a distinct historical period that happened mainly in the Northeast, rather than as an ongoing phenomenon (Vecchio 2004; Sleeter 2)."
• "In other words, racial and ethnic minorities are added consistently in a 'contributions' fashion to the predominantly Euro-American narrative of textbooks" (Sleeter 2).

Feelings: Thinking back to my social studies classes in elementary and middle school, I often felt as though my history and the stories of my ancestors were missing outside of the constant focus on slavery, Jim Crow, and the persistence of racism. Constantly having the story of African Americans minimized to oppression in place of the more positive and celebratory aspects of Black culture and history felt demeaning when I was a 13-year-old sitting in third-period U.S. history with everyone in my predominantly white, suburban school immediately looking at me at the mention of slavery. Despite this, I was still intrigued by history because, in my mind, it provided me with an opportunity to investigate and critique American history and the dominant culture. Instead of feeling ashamed, I asked, "Why?" Why is it that the nation's founding fathers felt the need to own slaves? Why is it that the systems of chattel slavery and Jim Crow lasted so long? How does this history impact society today? What might European Americans be missing that led them to commit such atrocities and normalize them? 

• "[A]lthough White fifth graders believed that the Bill of Rights gives rights to everyone, about half of the Black children pointed out that not everyone has rights. While Black children were beginning to articulate a sense of racial oppression, White children described the U.S. as being built on progress, democracy, and opportunity for all" (Sleeter 3).

Feelings: More often than not, children of color feel the impact of their race at a very early age. Speaking from experience, I was probably aware of my race and the way I was disadvantaged because of it by age 6.

• "White adults generally do not recognize the extent to which traditional mainstream curricula marginalize perspectives of communities of color and teach students of color to distrust or not take school knowledge seriously. Epstein (2009) found that, while White teachers were willing to include knowledge about diverse groups, they did so intermittently and within a Eurocentric narrative" (Sleeter 4).
• "White parents, like their children, "thought only of Europeans and white Americans as nation builders, portrayed Blacks as victims and one-time freedom fighters, and Native Americans as first survivors and later as victims of government policies" (Sleeter 4).

Feelings: This reminds me of the Armstrong & Wildman article on colorblindness as well as Delpit in the way that most white people do not realize or see the issue in the exclusion of marginalized voices in mainstream curricula.