It’s Not Over Yet.
“How was Machu Picchu?!”
I heard this question SO MANY TIMES after returning to the United States. I was frustrated; how can they not know that Peru is so much more than the beautiful ruins? Yes, they were incredible, but they are not what I will remember most about this trip. As a journey of self discovery, the solidification of personal beliefs and pedagogy, and the clarity of education back home by examining it elsewhere in the world. I came on the trip as a quest for knowledge in hopes to expand upon my own pedagogical stances and to learn about the ways in which culture influences education. I also was, admittedly so, looking forward to seeing Machu Picchu, but Peru has opened my eyes to the ubiquitous injustice existing in my own backyard. I never would have thought that traveling to Peru, I would be able to see so clearly the striking similarities between school systems, beliefs, and values through education back in Milwaukee, and the realization that whether I am in Shorewood, Wisconsin at field placement or in Lima, Peru at Casitas that kids will be kids. These kids share an equal humanity that demands justice. In Peru, the multitudinous educational experiences provided unique contexts that can be compared and contrasted to grapple with what it meant to have a just, high quality, equitable education, and the emergence of activism occurs.
Context
In order to accurately reflect my time in Peru, I could not settle for one expressive medium as it could not do the experience justice. My supplemental video incorporates sound clips taken at the various educational contexts along with photographs that reflect the different areas, material supplies, classroom practices, and overall feeling of my educational experiences in Peru. First portrayed in my video representation is our field experience at La Inmaculada, a middle class school located in Santiago de Surco along Peru’s infamous “wall of shame” that segregates the surrounding area from a local pueblo joven, Pamplona Alta, that is contrastingly shown in the photographs preceding the school. The sights of La Inmaculada were breathtaking, from their zoo on campus to their colorful classrooms, I was overwhelmed yet always reminded of the wall of shame as if it were a scarlet letter right in the middle of campus. Here, I spent the majority of my time with a particular second grade classroom in either their English class or another specials classroom, where all but 3 classes throughout the week spoke English, which can be heard in the sound clips within the video. The next educational context displayed in my video is Encuentros, which encompasses our Casitas program, the International Day of Play, P.E.A and MLK in tu barrio. Casitas was an after school program in El Augustino that we frequented, where students are given a place to remain off the streets while making lasting friendships and relationships. Casitas could be crazy at times, but the students radiated pure love and joy. I will never forget the last day as our kids sat in a circle and wished us luck and happiness on our journey of life, which can be heard in the video. The International Day of Play was an event on the first Saturday of our trip that encouraged kids to play, as it is a fundamental right as a kid. On this day, I spent my time at the reading booth, where I was reading books in Spanish. P.E.A was our alternative night school that we were able to teach at, that provided students who dropped out of schooling for whatever reason night classes to earn the equivalent of their G.E.D. This school was really neat, as it accounted for the uniqueness of the students and their needs as a student to provide a deserving education. Finally, MLK in tu barrio was a Saturday morning soccer game we were able to take part in that brought MLK, a popular soccer school, to surrounding cities that would not otherwise have organized soccer. All of the Encuentros programs focused on providing students from lower socioeconomic classes with equitable opportunities and encouraged them to learn in new, hands-on ways while accounting for their uniqueness. We then toured two schools, Roosevelt and Tupac Amaru, that gave us a brief encounter with differing educational contexts. First, Roosevelt was the first school that had students of half Peruvian and half non-Peruvian descent (many of which are children of U.S. embassy workers). Roosevelt campus was incredible, with everything being new, much greenery, which is a sign of wealth, and the students being unphased by our presence as if it were an everyday occurrence. Roosevelt had a campus that would be comparable to an Ivy League high school in the United States, but I was blown away by their instructional outlook and opportunities for student differentiation the most. At Tupac Amaru, a public school in Lima, on the other hand, we were treated like celebrities, with our own student “paparazzi.” Their building structures could only withstand a maximum of a 5.0 earthquake, or it would all come down, but is a safe haven in the event of an earthquake for other neighboring schools. They are underfunded by the government and have a more traditional schooling style, but their unique offerings for trade classes allow for students to obtain certain job skills before leaving school. Fe y Alegria, the last educational context I encountered, was in Andahuaylillas and is the equivalent of a charter school here in the United States. This bilingual school provides teaching in both Spanish, the dominant and perceived “superior” language, and in Quechua, the language of the Andes mountains that is slowly becoming extinct due to the severe, unfair discrimination it receives. However, the school attempts to cultivate love and pride for their culture, while teaching them of the injustices surrounding language, among other things, to cultivate activism beyond the classroom. The students at Fe y Alegria, some who walk over 4 hours to school each day, have left such a positive impression on me; their kindness and welcoming attitudes to us was like no other and how smart these kids were blew me away. Their persistence for knowledge and justice was beyond their years and was a humbling experience. All of these educational contexts,despite having a wide range of funding, social norms and educational opportunity, reflected a distinct set of beliefs, educational philosophy and all had assets and opportunities for their students. In each context, whether it be a school or an after school program, teachings were adapted to the needs of their students and allowed for cultural relevancy. Six minutes and fourteen seconds allows for a glimpse into my experiences and outlooks for my time spent in Peru.
What is a Just, High Quality, Equitable Education?
A month was surely not enough time to fully address what a just, quality and equitable education encompasses; the magnitude and implications of these questions cannot be adequately answered in a lifetime! However, my time spent in Peru was primarily spent grappling with these questions, constantly validating or contradicting what I thought my previous beliefs were, and proving that education is the field that I want to work in for the rest of my life. Through firsthand experience, I was able to discover what, through the lens of examining injustice, the educational system’s flaws are, both in Peru and at home in the United States. The first step was simply being alongside those who are underprivileged, and I would not have it any other way. My own bias, despite believing that I had none, and privilege emerged to the forefront immediately. I began the trip will having feelings of sadness, almost pity, for those less privileged, but these feelings stemmed from a privileged, sheltered outlook.Once I self reflected and recognized this, an asset-based outlook allowed me to see beyond the appearance and seemingly negative aspects of underprivileged areas and schools, to recognize their assets and outlooks on education. After doing so, more clarity and stronger beliefs than I ever knew possible emerged, as every “underprivileged” educational context admittedly so recognized their disadvantages, but did not dwell on them. Rather, they turned them into fuel for their quest for justice, which just made their program that much more empowering to the students, teachers and observers. My strongest sense in the beginning of the trip was the quest for knowledge and stepping out of my own comfort zone, as I believe in order to truly learn, one must be a bit vulnerable, fully open, and accepting of the new experiences. And, I feel as though I accomplished this, but I took more “knowledge” away than I originally anticipated; yes, I did take away knowledge of classroom practices, how to have a justice-oriented curriculum, and how to challenge my students while creating an open, positive, encouraging classroom within the context of Peruvian education. However, I never anticipated the acquiring of knowledge of myself and my beliefs, nor justice back home, in the context of education within the United States. Equity know no borders, classes, nor races; the fight for educational equity is upon us and it will not end until every student has the rightful opportunity to learn in a flourishing environment and to become.
Prior to examining educational contexts within Peru, I thought I knew what a just education looked like. I knew that our present educational system was systemically unjust; there is no disputing this fact. However, previously I believed that for a just education to occur, the equalization of material resources within schools was the first step. This would entail more funding going to schools in lower socioeconomic areas in order to “catch up” to the wealthier surrounding suburban schools, in order to give all students access to the newest technology. And while I still believe that resources should be equalized, after going to Peru, I no longer believe this is a just education. To say that the unjust, cyclical system could be changed by giving material goods to schools is simply not true, even though money is most definitely a huge factor in this. I now believe that a just education entails so much more than material goods, and to start to examine a just education, one must picture themselves back in their years of primary school. Say, for example, one class has all the latest technology; Chromebooks with the newest math software that promises to improve test scores, a comfortable reading corner with an IKEA sofa, and even a smart-board that connects the class iPads all in one place. Another classroom, occurring simultaneously works on their math with a paper and pencil, but is learning about how to price items at discount if they own a store in the future, does not have any new books, but encourages students to write their own to tell their own story about how someday they will become a powerful voice and a strong activist for their community, and unites the classes cultural similarities and differences to encourage acceptance and openness. While the material resources may not be the same, thus making it unjust, the material discussed in each classroom, or their discourse, may be radically different and have no correlation to the material goods existing in each classroom. For this reason, I believe that justice is in relation to classroom content and opportunity, rather than being based on material goods. Justice can be defined as the protection of rights, in this case the right to an education that provides meaningful instruction, quality experience and care beyond a classroom setting. Justice must be at the heart of every classroom, as without being aware of injustices, justice can never prevail. A just education provides for all students, no matter their background, thus providing a humanizing education that strives towards student thriving. La Inmaculada portrayed a justice-centered education throughout their school, which acknowledges their students privilege and makes students aware of the eminent issues that they might not otherwise encounter. Students are made aware of their privilege through a justice centered curriculum, and their acknowledgement of their privilege within a hierarchical structure is the first step towards justice. At La Inmaculada, education is viewed as the means by which their students will become; their outlook on education is rooted in justice as it is their duty to provide experience that cultivates a spirit of activism, so that they can use their privilege to speak for those who cannot, while also simply being friends and creating a partnership with neighboring schools, such as Pamplona Alta. By first becoming friends with these other students, an equal humanity ensues and allows for relationships to be made for years to come. Later in their schooling, students work alongside the students in Pamplona Alta in a joint project that provides collaboration, thus equalizing humanity and proving that regardless of race, socioeconomic background or ethnicity, each student has unique perspectives, talents, and experience that must be accounted for and are necessary to ensure justice within any system.
When we examine what we mean by the words “high quality,” the issue is that “high quality” can mean so many different things. The mere fact that the majority of people believe that public education is failing, while they also believe that their own home school district is not; something just does not add up here! However, we know that in the context of education, high quality education must provide students with genuine experiences, from various perspectives, have cultural relevancy and account for all students within a classroom setting. High Quality education can be defined as an educational system that provides educational experiences and learning that exceeds expectations, while simultaneously accounting for the uniqueness of the students within an educational system. In education, the quality of education is neglected often, which stems back to the Brown decision that was concerned for simply providing an education for students of color. This does not account for quality as more often than not, students would be have poorly trained teachers, who were not providing a justice-seeking, equitable education in a time that arguably needed it most, so the caliber of education was far from fair. The need for high quality education emerges from the need to ensure that students know that THEY MATTER, not only as a student from a particular school, but as a unique individual within society. Quality within education must be examined in order for the equity of schools to ever be fixed. An example of a high quality education I encountered while in Peru is Roosevelt. The immaculate campus is impressive to say the least and screams “quality” by material means, but their educational outlook is more high quality than their facilities. By providing classes with unique, student lead curriculum in the upper grades, students are provided with the adequate educational experiences that best suits their needs, thus allowing them to learn more effectively. Students at Roosevelt are able to take classes of particular interest, allowing them to learn a range of subjects and accounting for their personal interests. The innovative curriculum that accounts for student centeredness and autonomy creates flourishing within the classroom, all while providing a sense of community, a collection of skills, and activism that can be taken beyond the classroom.
Education is known as the “great equalizer,” implying that through the power of education all can be freed of the shackles of oppression and injustice. But can this popular statement really be true if the quality of education any two students are receiving differ and the system of education is designed to perpetuate a socioeconomic gap existing in all aspects of our society? Equity can be defined as providing enriching opportunities for all students, while differentiating based on one particular student’s individual needs. The key aspect of this definition is the implicit acknowledgment that all students are not the same; all students require and deserve a fair education that will provide them with their own personal tool set to succeed and flourish. In my supplementary video, the striking photograph of the sign at Roosevelt comparing equality and equity spoke to me. Equality seemingly would fix all our problems in the world; in theory it would give everyone an equal opportunity because they would all come from the same socioeconomic class, would have the same material resources and would equalize the discrepancies between two individuals. However, inherently this equal system remains unjust as it fails to account for individual differentiation and needs. This equal system would focus on material goods rather than on educational experiences, personalized learning, or individualism in order to obtain equal opportunity but I believe that this is an approach that would, in the long term, perpetuate the existing injustices. In order for any learning to occur, a strong respect for who our students are must exist throughout the classroom each day and genuine care for students couples alongside of this respect. This humanization of our students must provide an education for them that does just that; makes them feel human. To educate based on Equality would be denying the humanization of our students as it would assume that each of our students are the same person, which obviously is far from the truth. Every student is a unique individual with a different set of background experiences, beliefs, and instructional needs that varies regardless if the material goods are the same. This is exemplified in a classroom, as the conditions and materials are the same, but all the students in this classroom are clearly not the same, nor should they be. This is why providing equity, rather than equality, stands the more justice-oriented outlook. The Encuentros programs, including Casitas, P.E.A and others in El Augustino exemplified what it means to provide equity to all students. P.E.A for example took students who did not fit into the traditional school system or were systematically set up to fail and provided new opportunities for them to learn in a unique setting with a non-traditional schedule in order for them to obtain a higher level of education; this program inherently accounts for the individuality of students and uses their uniqueness in an asset-based way to provide for them. Additionally, the after school Casitas programs provided equitable educational opportunity for students who would not otherwise receive it. The Casitas program was derived from the need to keep students off of the streets, where it is easier to turn to poor choices for various reasons, whether it be out of necessity or not. Casitas accounts for the whole of the person, as our leader greeted each child by their name and with a kiss to show them her love and care for each of them .This care for the whole of the person is at the root of a humanizing education, which must be present while providing an equitable education.
Justice, quality and equity are deeply intertwined as you cannot have one without the others. If one’s school is justice-oriented, it will be concerned with providing a high quality, equitable education. A quality educational context cannot truly have high quality unless it incorporates teachings for justice and provides equity for its students. Further, for a school to be concerned with equity, it would thus be justice-oriented and providing a high quality education. Through the lens of education, a just, equitable education can be defined as a humanizing education, by which a teacher learns alongside their students to form a mentorship and thus an equalizing relationship, that highlights the injustice occurring within our society through inquiry based practices to cultivate activism beyond the classroom and thus flourishment within and beyond the classroom setting. While this is quite a mouthful, logically it makes sense. In order for an education to be deemed “just,” it must care for the student as a PERSON. Too often, students are seen as numbers, whether it be test scores or on a class roster, but these kids are simply human. They need to be loved and comfortable for any learning to begin, and to care for them is to care for their souls, or the core of who they are as people. Once this care for students occurs within the classroom, care beyond academics automatically ensues and barriers of deemed power are broken down. Thus, the teacher is open to learning from their students and does not consider themselves to be omnipotent and omniscient, which reinforces the students feeling as though their education is humanizing. This equalizing of their relationship can then be used to meaningfully make sense of the world around them in a comfortable setting. Because the teacher cares for the students beyond academics, they would know what makes their students tick, thus being able to provide meaningful, culturally relevant, enriching explorations to give students opportunities to make meaning of difficult topics. One topic that must be included in education is injustice; whether it be in a community that is considered rich or poor, students everywhere must be aware of injustice, since education itself is humanizing. It is then our duty, as equal humanity, to education based on ALL people. In a classroom environment that provides this enrichment learning that cares for the whole person and builds meaningful relationships, the flourishing of students ensues. Flourishment is critical to providing justice within education. This I know, that students deserve a just, high quality, equitable education. The means by which this could be achieved, however, remains unknown to me. I feel as though teacher training is critical, as in order to create systemic change, it must occur within classrooms first. Our job as educators is to aid in human flourishing and growth beyond academics, and we, as future educators, must encourage and help our students fight the injustice that they will encounter in their lives, all while also recognizing their own personal privilege. The question then arises that does a justice oriented, high quality, equitable education look the same in all educational contexts, since the whole trip was examining these differing contexts. I argue that they look the same no matter what context, based on the core of defining these terms above. It is utterly important to teach a culturally relevant curriculum, which WILL look different based upon any two schools, as the students and their backgrounds will be different from classroom-to-classroom. But, providing a humanizing, justice-oriented, inquiry based, flourishing education should translate across contexts. Caring for one’s students beyond academics and cultivating activism in the classroom should be used with all students, no matter their background or context. One school that I am reminded of is Fe y Alegria. In one of the classrooms I was able to visit while there, the students were inquiring about why Quechua was not being taught to them, despite it being a part of their rich culture. The teacher in the classroom posed Big Questions to get her students thinking about the topic, thus encouraging autonomy and meaning-making and she drew upon their context and cultural relevancy multiple times throughout the lesson. The relationship she had with her students was more of a mentorship, as she was rather guiding her students to make sense of the information rather than lecturing on Quechua, and it was clearly an open, lively classroom with much participation. It was so interesting and enlightening to see the students sharing their thoughts whilst still working through their own thoughts simultaneously- seeing them gain interest that lit a fire in them to question the world around them was empowering for both us as bystanders and the students themselves! This teacher explicitness teaching a justice-based curriculum that is enriching (high quality) while attempting to create equitable knowledge of the injustices surrounding them.
Something that was challenging and reoccurring was the fact that the problems with our educational system are systemic and cyclical. I distinctly remember feeling defeated and upset a few times on the trip because I felt as though I, as a future educator, could never conquer the broken system. All my life, I have wanted to become a teacher because I love being able to help people in any capacity, big or small, but after being enlightened on the injustice within education I did not know if my classroom could ever make a difference. But, I recall a lecture where we discussed “putting in our grain of sand,” or essentially knowing that solely as a classroom teacher, I cannot change the system. Yet, by doing my part within my future classroom by cultivating a mentorship with my students that allows me to learn from them as much as they learn from me, providing meaningful, relevant classroom experiences that allow students to translate their activism beyond the confines of a classroom, by acknowledging systemic blockades and hardships my students will face but working through them, and by helping my students form their own beliefs and passions while learning about what makes them tick, in order to provide the best suited differentiation and curriculum. Sounds a bit easier said than done, but if Peru taught me anything, it is that it is worth it. For the students who would not otherwise receive quality education, who do not have the best home life, who are smarter than they will ever know, who want to learn or even do not want to learn, it is worth all the struggles, long nights and hours planning to create that perfect lesson that they will take something away from. If just one of my students are able to overcome their adversity, fight back against the systemic oppression they experienced, become what they had always dreamed of becoming, or believe in themselves, then I will be successful and have contributed my grain of sand. In addition, recognizing my own privilege as a white, educated professional will be critical within my classroom. With my position of power, it can be easily misused within a classroom or school context. However, it is my duty to use my position of power to learn continuously, to advocate for those who cannot, and to present lesson explorations with accuracy, meaning that if I end up teaching in a privileged school, I will also incorporate their own privilege into the classroom, while if I end up in a lower income school, my teachings will similarly teach students to acknowledge privilege, but also activism and empowerment. One thing I realized in Peru is that my pedagogical stance will not change whether I am teaching the inner city of Milwaukee or at Roosevelt in Lima; my core beliefs are relevant in any context. The utter need to explore the truth within the classroom is ubiquitous.
So, what does this all mean?
As a direct product of this trip, my pedagogical stance is that of a child-centered classroom, where learning is facilitated by a teacher but inquiry-based and at the hands of the students themselves. This relationship with my students would allow for a natural, open relationship to occur and for productive discourse and exploration to be at the forefront of my classroom. My care for them as humans, above being just my students, would allow me to enable my students to flourish to their full potential. With my inquiry-centered curriculum, I would incorporate current appropriate issues into my classroom and allow my students to make meaning in hopes to cultivate passion and activism that translates beyond my classroom. Peru not only helped my classroom outlook, but also, in a way, changed myself as a person. The amount of self reflection and journaling I did while in Peru exceeded any other time in my life, and leaving, I feel as though I know myself better than ever before. So, here’s to 29 days of being full of knowledge, empowerment, love, memories, generosity, and more importantly gratitude. Thank you Peru for showing me that teaching is where I belong, for welcoming me with open arms, for exemplifying the teacher that I strive to be, and for cultivating a passion I never knew that I had.
