C.I.

Objective Finding - Sensing Problems Andre is a young, African-American, inexperienced, first-year social studies teacher. He is trying to build relationships with African-American students and using his skin color to make the connection. While trying to gain a relationship he stereotypes the students and uses Ebonics to speak to the students. This causes them to loose respect for him and they ignore him. He continues to try to gain acceptance by using Ebonics and they eventually walk away from him. The students seem angry and offended. The next day, Andre tries again with the same demeanor and gets a different reaction: one of hostility. The students respond with frustration and rejection and they talk back and pretty much tell him to leave. Fact Finding Stereotyping causes uncomfortable situations. In this case, Andre uses his view and personal experience to generalize the behavior of all African-Americans. He does not consider the diversity of the students. As a teacher it is important to avoid projecting stereotypes because this can lead to other students being influenced by your authority. An obvious problem with stereotyping is that you’re judging a book by its cover. When Andre stereotyped those students they felt that they were misunderstood. Another problem with stereotyping is that you limit what the student thinks they are capable of. When someone in authority, such as a teacher, places their pre-conceived notions onto a student, it limits how much the students believe in themselves. Instead of Andre assuming facts about those students, he could have built a relationship with them and found out who they really were as opposed to his prejudgments. Andre could have created a club or mentor session for those students to get to know them and their personalities and once respect is established, students will feel comfortable enough to open up to the teacher, just like Andre has wanted. The school could have helped to eliminate stereotypes but educating the students on diversity through seminars and workshops and role-play including both, students and teachers. This could give students and teachers a better understanding of the world around us and will enable them to think before they act. Through exposing the student to diverse settings such as movies, activities, and fieldtrips they will experience different perspectives on cultural and ethnic backgrounds. By attending cultural and ethnic based fieldtrips, students will be more educated on these issued and therefore, be less likely to participate in stereotyping.