What First-Generation Equity Professionals Need to Learn 1 Estela - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What First-Generation Equity Professionals Need to Learn 1 Estela Mara Bensimon Dean’s Professor in Educational Equity Director of Center for Urban Education University of Southern California Recommended Citation for the ideas and content provided in this presentation. Bensimon, E.M. (2019). “What First-Generation Equity Professionals Need to Learn.” Keynote Address at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Postsecondary Learning, Washington D.C., May 1, 2019 .

Please Note: The required citation for these slides is as follows: Bensimon, E.M. (2019). “What First-Generation Equity Professionals Need to Learn.” Los Angeles: Center for Urban Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California 2

Equity in 2019. James Gray F irst-Generatio n E quity Prac titio ner Co mmunity Co llege o f Auro ra @Center4UrbanEd USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION 3

Pro fe sso r Jo hn • De g re e fro m to p re se a rc h unive rsity • Co lle g e e duc a te d pa re nts • T e a c he s a t unive rsity vying fo r to p tie r se le c tivity • Unive rsity a lso ha s a hig h pro po rtio n o f first-g e n, lo w inc o me Me xic a n Ame ric a n stude nts

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Pro fe sso r Jo hn Fir st- Ge ne ration ‘E quity’ Prac titione r

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About the Center for Urban Education 20 Years of Research and Action on and for Racial Equity 10

Equity in 2000.

Equity in 2019.

Invoking Equity, Omitting Race, Inability to see 1. “ ALL” students is the preferred term. ‘Racialization’ 2. Treating interventions and innovations as equal opportunity 13 3. Reporting accomplishments without reporting racial implications 4. Avoiding whiteness cue.usc.edu @Center4UrbanEd

committing edvcational malpractice.' l I '-" I I I( '·" l I JU\ \" I I )l C;AI I()'-" • Thomas Jefferson put up 150 slaves as collateral to build Monticello. • In 1781, George Washington signed the order that fugitive slaves had to be returned to their owners • Abraham Lincoln wanted to send blacks back to Africa. • Slavery lasted 450 years during which time 36,000 slave ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean • 12.5 million Africans were forced into the transatlantic slave trade • The White House was built by slaves • Our great universities were built by slaves. • The U.S. economic prowress was made possible by the great profits derived from unpaid, indentured labor

THE PROBLEM • Higher education institutions are • Higher education practitioners not naturally self-reflective are not expected to be racially therefore do not ask: Why are our literate. ways of teaching not working for minoritized students? • AND, academic organizations, • Higher education practitioners have learned to sweep their have learned to view academic failures, sins, crimes…under the failure as evidence of student rug, rather than facing up to them. deficiencies. 15 CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

The Racial Justice Corrective Justice * For the educational debt owed ** to Meaning of Equity the descendants of enslaved people and other minoritized populations willfully excluded from higher education. Anti-Racist Project To confront overt and covert racism embedded in institutional practices, structures, and policies. *** Make Whiteness Visible To magnify whiteness as a characteristic of processes, as a defacto standard of quality, and as a source of power to define reality. * Lionel McPherson / ** Gloria Ladson-Billings / *** Mica Pollock cue.usc.edu @Center4UrbanEd 16

E QUIT Y ha s a n a c c ounta bility dime nsion a nd a c ritic a l dime nsion. CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

DIM ENSIO N IC A L zyxwutsrqponmljihgfedcbaZYVUTSRQPNLIHGFEDCA E QUIT Y C RIT A C C O UNT A BIL IT Y DIM ENSIO N E g . Pr opor tiona l r e pr e se nta tion of histor ic a lly ma r g ina lize d g r oups in e duc a tiona l outc ome s (e .g ., a c c e ss, r e te ntion, de g r e e c omple tion) a nd pa rtic ipa tion in e nric hing e xpe rie nc e s CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

EQUITY as ACCOUNTABILITY: Outcomes in College Level Math 32% Latinx Students 32% Latinx Students 56% White Students 56% White Students = Math Equity Started in Math 101 Earned an A in Math 101 19 CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

EXAMPLE COURSE SUCCESS RATES Aggregated Data Native Two or White Total Black Asian Latinx Pacific Non-resident American / More Alien Alaska Islander Races Native CUE.USC.EDU @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

EXAMPLE COURSE SUCCESS RATES Failure to recognize that Disaggregated by Race/Ethnicity institutional racism is an entrenched characteristic of colleges and CRITICAL DIMENSION universities that has to be EQUITY dismantled with strategies that are color conscious, informed by critical theories of race, including whiteness. Native Two or White Total Black American / Latinx Asian Pacific Non-resident ACCOUNTABILITY DIMENSION More Alien Alaska Islander Races Native CUE.USC.EDU @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION 21

EXAMPLE COURSE SUCCESS RATES Disaggregated by Race/Ethnicity What ‘hunches’ do you hear people put forward to explain why racial/ethnic inequities exist? Native Two or White Total Black Asian Latinx Pacific Non-resident American / More Alien Alaska Islander Races Native CUE.USC.EDU @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

WHICH OF THESE RING TRUE? When you and your colleagues see data like this, how do you make sense of it: • We say that students are underprepared • We say that they lack the “right stuff” • We say that racism makes it difficult for minoritized students to do well • We say that white students feel at home • We say this is what happens when admissions standards are lax • We talk about inequality without saying “black” “Latinx” “white” • We say, “they don’t fit in because of their culture.” CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION 23

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E QUAL I T Y E QUI T Y DI VE RSI T Y CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

Equity-Minded Competence @ebensimon USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

The competencies that demonstrate equity-mindedness Building a hiring committee with Race-conscious and aware of equity-minded competence racial identity. Uses disaggregated data to identify racialized patterns of outcomes Reflects on racial consequences of And hiring an applicant taken-for-granted practices. with equity-minded competence Exercises agency and actively self-monitors practice to produce racial equity. Views institutional processes (like hiring) and spaces (like classrooms) as racialized.

Cognitive Frame: A mental map of attitudes and beliefs a person maintains to make sense of the world Determines: • What questions are asked • What information is collected • What is noticed • How problems are defined • What course of action should be taken CUE.USC.EDU @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

89 CUE ’ s Appro a c h to wa rd the de ve lo pme nt o f a n e q uity-minde d c o g nitive fra me @Center4UrbanEd USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

WHAT IS INQUIRY? Why are things done in Why does this this particular way? situation exist? Institutional policies and practices Mapping the Hiring Process 30 CUE.USC.EDU - @CENTER4URBANED | CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION

Institutional Level System Level Artifacts Conceptual Underpinnings of Data Data Faculty Hiring & Reports Learning to be Equity-Minded Evaluation Website Syllabi Object Outcome Subjects Rules Division of Labor Community * Adapted from Engeström’s (1987, 2001) Structure of Human Activity Settings cue.usc.edu @Center4UrbanEd 31