[Xmca-l] Re: "learning loss"

Tue Jan 19 11:57:05 PST 2021

Shirin, thank you for posting this article from TruthOut, co authored with Maxine McKinney de Royston<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://truthout.org/authors/maxine-mckinney-de-royston/__;!!Mih3wA!R45hB_CUYi1FG1FKmyA5QqS2Fk-MY0O_zkOhthB8gCFqOrCmGUblqkVXLrgwlIToIc3RoA$ >.

It gives me a chance to speak up for my primary concern, which is the employment conditions of people working in higher ed.  The majority of these are working as contingents — adjuncts, precarious, semester-by-semester faculty. This is the labor pool where we are most likely to find people of color. They are the people who lose their jobs first, who have little recourse to claim back their job, and who, even when they have a job, are least able to exercise academic freedom and teach what they know to be true if it is in opposition to the official curriculum.

Higher ed is going through a profound shake-up, not just in the US but globally. As an industry, little stands in its way to prevent it from re-constituting itself as a stripped-down internet-based vendor of credentials and “lifelong learning” employing thousands of unprotected faculty via platforms like those used by Uber.

What does the alternative to this look like? What are the concrete structures necessary to recover (or invent) higher education as the place where knowledge is created, protected, examined and shared for the purpose of supporting an equal, open and democratic society?

What would labs look like? What would libraries look like? How about tuition costs, promotion requirements, faculty salaries, shared governance structures, hiring and admission standards?

The re-constitution of higher education can go either way. Now is the time to be thinking of answers to these questions.

Thanks — Helena
Helena Worthen
U of Illinois (retired)
hworthen@illinois.edu<mailto:hworthen@illinois.edu>

Worthen, Helena Harlow
hworthen@illinois.edu<mailto:hworthen@illinois.edu>
helenaworthen.wordpress.com<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com__;!!Mih3wA!R45hB_CUYi1FG1FKmyA5QqS2Fk-MY0O_zkOhthB8gCFqOrCmGUblqkVXLrgwlIR5eW7LWg$ >

check your registration at vote.gov<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://vote.gov__;!!Mih3wA!R45hB_CUYi1FG1FKmyA5QqS2Fk-MY0O_zkOhthB8gCFqOrCmGUblqkVXLrgwlIQXebWc3w$ >

On Jan 18, 2021, at 1:30 PM, Diana Arya <darya@education.ucsb.edu<mailto:darya@education.ucsb.edu>> wrote:

Dear Shirin and all,

Thanks so much for sharing this article!  Yes, there are many of us who find it problematic when we read that students have "lost" an "average X months of learning" . . . the econometric machine is hard at work, and some of us are starting to see an additional underlying agenda that supports the marketing of new curricula and hence profit. And meanwhile, the longstanding need for real transformation in education is left unaddressed.

I particularly liked the following:

"Deficit thinking also defines the ways of speaking and knowing<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://blogs.umass.edu/jdrosa/files/2015/01/Avineri-et-al.-2015-Bridging-the-language-gap.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!TSmCyas87McxqNpyYt8qhxlgVa0VjT0sXfTsk_mTEF6OgQeJLVGEsQItwlrQCPaet78B8Q$> of youth of color as problems rather than cultural-historical practices<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3102/0013189X032005019?casa_token=ZDcGRDAYyGIAAAAA:jN6rz4ui3sURlBdpgIRun06M00e7ENMGeM9buR3hEa9tHtdRu4kwQX8-JEWLqxDUx8SqNf45Pa4fGA__;!!Mih3wA!TSmCyas87McxqNpyYt8qhxlgVa0VjT0sXfTsk_mTEF6OgQeJLVGEsQItwlrQCPYYbo4TtA$> essential for ongoing, deep learning<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-07157-029__;!!Mih3wA!TSmCyas87McxqNpyYt8qhxlgVa0VjT0sXfTsk_mTEF6OgQeJLVGEsQItwlrQCPY4LqbZXA$>. In fact, basing education on one way of speaking and knowing undermines critical thinking and individual and collective well-being<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/multiple-ways-knowing-beth-warren-shirin-vossoughi-ann-rosebery-megan-bang-edd-taylor/e/10.4324/9780203774977-19__;!!Mih3wA!TSmCyas87McxqNpyYt8qhxlgVa0VjT0sXfTsk_mTEF6OgQeJLVGEsQItwlrQCPZuSj98Cg$>."

And on this MLK holiday, I will reflect on the authors' final questions:

"As we witness what pandemic-era schooling has further illuminated, what lessons will we head? Will we embrace the complexity and diversity of young people’s brilliance and promise? What are we invested in and what do we need to let go of to create the future we desire?"

IMHO, there is no way to avoid issues of racism and other sources of bias in CHAT topics. I acknowledge those in this community who may view such sociocultural and sociohistorical matters to be separable (or perhaps avoidable), but for many of us who grew up in the U.S. and went to U.S. public schools, it is impossible to separate racism and other forms of discrimination from activities in the context of learning, which is culturally and historically laden and, hence, has documented roots in racist/discriminatory policies and practices.

Maxine & Shirin:  You do an amazing job on outlining the enormous task before us as educators and researchers. Thank you for your efforts in bringing the truth forward.

Best,
D

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 9:15 AM Shirin Vossoughi <shirinvossoughi@gmail.com<mailto:shirinvossoughi@gmail.com>> wrote:
Dear all,

Sharing an op-ed co-authored with Maxine McKinney de Royston that draws on cultural historical ideas to challenge the increasing narrative around "learning loss" and other deficit ideologies, and to center families of color as educational partners and leaders:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://truthout.org/articles/fixating-on-pandemic-learning-loss-undermines-the-need-to-transform-education/__;!!Mih3wA!R45hB_CUYi1FG1FKmyA5QqS2Fk-MY0O_zkOhthB8gCFqOrCmGUblqkVXLrgwlIT9h20wrg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://truthout.org/articles/fixating-on-pandemic-learning-loss-undermines-the-need-to-transform-education/__;!!Mih3wA!V_zce6_iKqDaSj7UBvVR2qFpfRrDGZ4J1l2cSf8ts02DFRY9qwcdVYG42K3tfecDn5vPGQ$>

~Shirin

--
Nothing can be changed until it is faced. (James Baldwin)

Diana J. Arya, PhD
she/her/hers/they/them/theirs
Associate Professor and Graduate Diversity Officer, Education
Faculty Director, McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cbleducation.org__;!!Mih3wA!R45hB_CUYi1FG1FKmyA5QqS2Fk-MY0O_zkOhthB8gCFqOrCmGUblqkVXLrgwlIRIK6DAxQ$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cbleducation.org__;!!Mih3wA!TSmCyas87McxqNpyYt8qhxlgVa0VjT0sXfTsk_mTEF6OgQeJLVGEsQItwlrQCPbO-ZJSfg$>

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