The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies  

A Research Review 

Christine E. Sleeter 

 

1. "While content related to African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans has been added, deeper patterns and narratives that reflect Euro-American experiences and worldviews, and that have traditionally structured K-12 textbooks, particularly history and social studies texts, remain intact."  Unfortunately, even if updated textbook were available, many school districts most likely wouldn't be able to afford them.

   
   

2. "When textbook authors bury the history of American racism within a larger narrative of inevitable American progress, students perceive race relations as a linear trajectory of improvement rather than a messy and continual struggle over power that encompasses both progress and, in the case of the decades after Reconstruction, significant steps backward in terms of racial justice." The phrase linear trajectory of improvement really struck me as the perfect way of describing what I remember learning as a middle school student. I learned slavery was bad, slavery was abolished, segregation was bad, segregation was ended, and Civil Rights movement gave everyone equal rights. I don't remember at what point I realized it wasn't that simple.

   
   

3. "Interviews with Black and White children in grades 5, 8, and 11 regarding their perspectives about topics taught in social studies. While perspectives of White fifth graders tended to resonate with mainstream school curriculum, perspectives of many Black fifth graders diverged." This is a perfect example of adults making decisions for kids that don't work out. If educators and text book writers listened to students opinions the learning experience could be enriched.

   
   

Sleeter argues that “mainstream curricula contribute to the academic disengagement of students of color. Ethnic studies can reverse that disengagement”.