BUILDING POLICY ANALYSIS FROM PUBLIC DISCOURSES
(MODULE
# 2)
…
BRAINSTORMING POLICY ISSUES:
THE FIRST STEP IN POLICY ANALYSIS IS BRAINSTORMING
THE ISSUES SURROUNDING THE TOPIC OR SOCIAL PROBLEM. BRAINSTORMING PUBLIC
DISCOURSES PRECEEDS ISSUE DEVELOPMENT AND IS BASED ON “CREATIVITY.”
CREATIVITY CAN BE DEFINED AS – RE-ARRANGING
WHAT WE KNOW IN ORDER TO FIND OUT WHAT WE DON'T KNOW. THE IMPORTANCE OF
CREATIVITY IN ASSEMBLING AND DIS-ASSEMBLING (OR DE-CONSTRUCTING) THE PUBLIC
DISCOURSES SURROUNDING A SOCIAL ISSUE/PROBLEM CANNOT BE OVERESTIMATED. IT IS A
NECESSARY STEP AND PRECURSOR TO COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS. IT ALLOWS YOU TO SORT
OUT, AND THROUGH, THE PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS AND THEMES THAT SURROUND, AND ANIMATE,
A SOCIAL PROBLEM.
RESEARCH PURPOSE: TO IDENTIFY AN IMPORTANT MATTER OF PUBLIC INTEREST OR SOCIAL PROBLEM
AND ITS RELATION TO PUBLIC POLICY.
DISCUSSION PAPERS: DISSEMINATE RESEARCH
QUICKLY IN ORDER TO GENERATE COMMENT AND SUGGESTIONS FOR REVISION OR
IMPROVEMENT. THEY MAY HAVE BEEN PRESENTED AT CONFERENCES OR WORKSHOPS
ALREADY, BUT WILL NOT YET HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN JOURNALS.
[SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?]
== POLICY PAPERS OFTEN BEGIN WITH DISCUSSION PAPERS AND BACKGROUND PAPERS
AS RESOURCES, BUT ARE MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE IN GOAL AND SCOPE.
***POLICY PAPERS: ARE CRITICAL ANALYSES
OF AN IMPORTANT SOCIAL ISSUE OR PROBLEM THAT INVOLVES THE RESEARCH AND
DEVELOP OF A DEFENSIBLE PLAN (POLICY PROPOSAL) FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM AND
FORMULATE WORKABLE STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN.
THREE KEY FOCI:
[1]
AIMS TO IDENTIFY KEY POLICY ISSUES;
[2]
APPLY THE BEST AND MOST UP-TO-DATE RESEARCH TO HELP UNDERSTAND THESE ISSUES;
AND
[3]
EXPLORES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH FOR THE DESIGN AND CONDUCT OF
POLICY.
THE PROSPECTIVE OUTCOME:
POLICY PAPERS ARE GENERALLY
EXPECTED TO INCREASE THE INVOLVEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS IN AND
IMPORTANT EFFORT AT SOME LEVEL,
[1]
WHETHER IT BE SUPPORTING AND/OR ENDORSING THE POLICY PAPER,
[2] ADOPTING THE USE OF THE
SET OF CRITERIA,
[3]
JOINING A WORKING GROUP, COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP, ETC., AND/OR
[4] EDUCATING OTHERS ON THIS
TOPIC.
****POLICY
PAPERS NEED TO BE FORMAL, CONCISE, STRAIGHTFORWARD, ORGANIZED, LOGICAL,
THOUGHTFUL, WELL RESEARCHED, WELL SUPPORTED, WELL WRITTEN, AND WELL ARGUED.
DISCUSSION OF BLACK FOCUSED
SCHOOLS
Premier rejects black
schools
No evidence they improve
learning, McGuinty says
Equity boss says they may
save students `lost to the system'
Sep. 15, 2005. 07:03 AM
RICHARD BRENNAN AND LOUISE BROWN
STAFF REPORTERS
Premier Dalton McGuinty spoke out yesterday
against the idea of a black-focused school in Toronto, saying he hasn't seen
any proof it would improve learning for black students.
"I'm not comfortable with that concept,"
McGuinty told reporters after a Toronto Star report that the new equity boss of
the Toronto District School Board favours an experimental black-focused school
for teens on the brink of dropping out.
"I'm much more comfortable with the
concept of bringing children from a variety of backgrounds together and
simulating the communities in which they are living and are going to have to
grow up,"
McGuinty said.
Lloyd McKell, executive officer of student and
community equity at Canada's largest and most diverse school board, pointed to
anecdotal evidence that black students often lag behind their peers, can be
subject to stricter discipline and are more likely to drop out. He said the
evidence indicates is worth launching a pilot project to see how a high
school with more black staff and more black studies might "save black
students who otherwise would be lost to the system."
However, McGuinty said he would want to see sound
evidence that clearly demonstrates "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that
schools for black students would constitute an improved learning environment,
adding: "I have yet to see that information or that evidence."
Meanwhile, the proposal stirred up both cheers and
cries of segregation.
Toronto sociology professor George Dei hailed the
call for a black-focused school as long overdue in fighting the sweeping
disengagement he says many black students feel with the public school system.
"I'd rather see four black-focused schools
across Toronto, but I'll take one as an experiment," said Dei, a
researcher on black education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
at the University of Toronto.
"It's not just about teaching about
Africa and slavery. I'd like to see an experimental pilot project school with
more black teachers that focuses on black achievement and culture and black
contributions to society that sends students out into the world well-affirmed
on who they are,"
said Dei, whose research on black dropouts says many of them blame a lack of
black role models and too little relevant curriculum.
However, he does not suggest that black-focused
schools should only have black teachers.
It was Dei's suggestion of black-focused schools
last February at a Toronto forum on black education that sparked fiery debate
among educators and black community leaders more than a decade after the idea
was first posed by Ontario's Royal Commission on Learning in 1991.
"We've been talking about this idea for far too
long. It's time to try it, and if it fails, then we'll shut up."
In the United States, black-focused schools have
been a controversial experiment in cities such as Detroit, Washington, Kansas
City and Akron. There, "Africentric" schools with black staff and a
sharp focus on black issues have met with mixed results: Some have shown major
leaps in achievement, while others battle low enrolment and sagging test
scores.
Stewart Elementary School in Akron, Ohio, launched
an "Africentric" approach in 2000, where its 183 black children start
the day with a traditional African drum ceremony, chanting
"Harambee!" ("let's pull together" in Swahili).
Some teachers dress in traditional African clothing,
students pledge allegiance to both the United States and to the African race,
and students sometimes are called by African names. Not all teachers at the
school are black, however, but all have chosen to work there.
Black volunteers, many of them men, bring African
art and history to students as well as the standard curriculum. Finally, last
year, test scores began to climb, said board spokeswoman Karen Ingraham.
"There was a lot of controversy at first.
People said, `So why not have an Irish-focused school too?' But this year there
have been huge gains in every subject and the school has gone from being ranked
as an `academic emergency' to showing `continued improvement.'"
While black-focused schools spark cries of
"segregation" among critics, a successful native-focused program
already runs in Toronto for First Nations students at risk of dropping out.
Likewise, the Toronto board also runs a special high
school program for gay and lesbian students with a heavy focus on equity
studies, located in an alternative high school.
Why not give black-focused schools a try?
May 18, 2007 04:30
AM
Royson James
Black-focused
schools.
It's a simple
concept, really. But anything wrapped up in "race" soon becomes
defaced beyond recognition.
The issue surfaced
again this week when a fledgling and little-known black youth organization held
a rally to press demands for the establishment of black-focused K-12 schools
and the overhaul of the public school curriculum to reflect contributions of
black people to world civilization.
What their leader
Nkem Anizor, 26, said jibes with the arguments for setting up alternative
schools for gifted kids, schools for the arts, schools for kids prone to drop
out – all set up using the public's dime.
Black-focused
schools make as much sense, more even, as the city's harm-reduction program
that provides alcohol for alcoholics, clean needles for drug addicts. Ideal
solutions they are not. But compared with the alternative, they are a desirable
option, an essential, though controversial, remediation tool.
Many can't handle
this.
"The curriculum
should NOT be changed in any way to reflect the minimum of black influence in
OUR history," one emailer wrote, proving exactly why Anizor and others
have called for the changes. "Minimum influence ... OUR history."
There is an underbelly of disrespect, resentment bordering on anger, at
initiatives that attempt to raise consciousness about positive black images.
The sentiment of
many emails received was: Why can't they just get along, work hard, stay in
schools, grow up to be responsible citizens? Why all this talk about separation
and race? We should be pushing a colour-blind society.
Noble ideals, all.
My worldview is
shaped by the Eurocentric world that dominates Western thought, philosophy and
culture. Anizor and a large and growing number of Torontonians reject that
view. They dub it "white supremacy," a provocative appellation that
affects their credibility by engendering ill will where there might be
cooperation. But, then again, that's my worldview.
A byproduct of
youth is the attempt to frame a more impatient, radical agenda. One era's
radicalism is the next's norm.
From where I sit,
black people and the Jews share, as Larry Himel wrote to me yesterday, a
"common history of trauma and satanic persecution." My sensibilities
were fashioned out of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King's
non-violent, let's all "sit at the table of brotherhood ... Jews and
Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants ... and sing in the words of the Negro
spiritual of old, free at last, free at last ..."
But without a
Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and the other radicals showing the raw, rough
eye-for-an-eye side of the movement, there would have been little movement to
embrace Martin – though assassinating a man is a strange way to show one's love
for him.
So, multiculturalism
is great. And so is Canada, a most blessed corner of a most ugly and racist
world. Still, there stirs in the breasts of even the most docile, middle-class,
professional black person – driving a BMW or running a downtown office or on
the floor of the stock exchange – an abiding weight of sadness that the
history, achievements, accomplishments, worth and strivings of people of
African descent are and have been discounted, diminished, disputed and written
out of history as told by a Eurocentric world.
That's all Anizor
meant when she talked about rejecting the system of "white
supremacy." She's right that, based on what we learned in our schools,
black people basically did little or nothing to advance mankind. She used a
volatile description but, if you want to, you get her point.
Most black citizens
plow on, riding advances secured by so many committed to equality. The majority
lead normal lives, struggling with the ravages and legacies of enslavement in
ways they don't even recognize.
But that never
means, "We're cool now, so let's just move on and forget slavery
happened."
Every generation of
black youth that discovers the history of African people will be awakened to
anger and resentment or to a determination and motivation to achieve. Self-preservation
alone suggests all of us build a path toward a positive awakening. Use new
tools, if need be.
What several
reports and studies have said is, try this:
Create a setting
where black children are taught by teachers who are attuned to building positive
images of black people. Infuse the school with staff that have high
expectations of black students. Let them follow a curriculum that promotes and
elevates the great civilizations of Africa before the white man came. (And if a
Grade 9 student hears that black people taught the Greeks and Romans everything
they know – and later discovers the claim was a bit hyperbolic – what's the
harm, when it counters centuries of indoctrination that black people are slaves
and nobodies.)
Incorporate
learning techniques historically more suited to people of African descent. And
maybe more of these black youths will stay in school and out of jail. Win-win.
And no, the schools
wouldn't be solely for black students. As Anizor said this week, anyone who can
"handle this curriculum" can attend school there.
So far, we haven't
been able to "handle this." Little wonder it is driving young
activists like Anizor crazy.
BACKROUND
INFORMATION
THE FORMER TORONTO BOARD OF
EDUCATION STOPPED COLLECTING RACE-BASED STATISTICS WITH AMALGAMATION IN 1997.
SINCE THEN, IT HAS COLLECTED ONLY "STUDENT SUCCESS INDICATORS,"
WHICH CORRELATE STUDENT PERFORMANCE WITH PLACE OF BIRTH. THESE
STATISTICS ONLY CAPTURE CHILDREN BORN OUTSIDE CANADA.
THE STUDENT SUCCESS
INDICATORS FOR 2001-02 SHOWED THAT 54 PER CENT OF STUDENTS BORN IN THE
ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN HAD 14 CREDITS OR FEWER AT THE END OF GRADE 10.
(STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE 16 CREDITS AT THIS POINT IN THEIR ACADEMIC CAREERS.
ANYTHING LESS THAN 14 IS AN INDICATOR THAT THESE STUDENTS COULD FAIL TO
COMPLETE HIGH SCHOOL WITHIN THE NEXT THREE YEARS.)
THE SUCCESS INDICATORS ALSO
FOUND THAT 45 PER CENT OF STUDENTS BORN IN WEST AFRICA, CENTRAL OR SOUTH
AMERICA WERE AT RISK OF NOT GRADUATING ON TIME, AS WERE 39 PER CENT OF EAST
AFRICAN STUDENTS. SOME 27 PER CENT OF CANADIAN-BORN STUDENTS WERE FOUND TO
BE AT RISK. STUDENTS BORN IN SOUTH ASIA, EASTERN EUROPE AND EASTERN ASIA WERE
LESS LIKELY TO BE AT RISK OF FAILING THAN THOSE BORN HERE.
(PROVISO: TORONTO DISTRICT
SCHOOL BOARD
– CANADA'S LARGEST SCHOOL BOARD WILL ASK EACH OF ITS 270,000 STUDENTS TO STATE
THEIR RACE, ETHNIC BACKGROUND, DISABILITY, WHICH PARENT THEY LIVE WITH AND
THEIR PARENTS' OCCUPATIONS AND LEVELS OF EDUCATION, IN A LANDMARK SURVEY TO BE
DISTRIBUTED IN THE FALL OF 06.)
SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
RACIALIZATION - REFERS TO THE ASSIGNING
OF RACIAL CONNOTATIONS TO THE ACTIVITIES OF MINORITY PEOPLE ======è
STIGMATIZATION: REFERS TO A MARK OF
DISGRACE IMPOSED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BY OTHER INDIVIDUALS OR A SOCIAL GROUP.
IN POPULAR USAGE IT OFTEN REFERS TO ANY NEGATIVE SANCTION OR DISAPPROVAL FOR
NONCONFORMITY. AN UNDESIRABLE DIFFERENTNESS OF AN INDIVIDUAL THAT
DISQUALIFIES HIM OR HER FROM FULL SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE. SOCIOLOGISTS
ORIGINALLY USED THE TERM TO SHOW HOW HUMANS NOT ONLY SEEK TO CONTROL THE
PHYSICAL WORLD BUT THE SOCIAL WORLD ======>
MARGINALIZATION: REFERS TO THE STATUS OF
A GROUP WHO DOES NOT HAVE FULL AND EQUAL ACCESS TO THE SOCIAL ECONOMIC, CULTURAL,
AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF SOCIETY.
THE CONCEPT OF BLACK-FOCUSED
SCHOOLS
EXPERIMENTAL BLACK-FOCUSED
SCHOOLS
WOULD HAVE MORE BLACK TEACHERS, GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS, AFRICA-CENTRIC
CURRICULUM AND MORE OPEN DISCUSSION OF RACE {?}.
THE PHRASE HIDDEN CURRICULUM
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS =======> DRAWS ATTENTION
TO THE IDEA THAT SCHOOLS DO MORE THAN SIMPLY TRANSMIT KNOWLEDGE, AS LAID
DOWN IN THE OFFICIAL CURRICULA. IT IS OFTEN USED TO CRITICIZE THE SOCIAL
REALITY OF SCHOOLING – HIDDEN RULES AND UNCONSCIOUS PROCEDURES.
THE PHRASE "HIDDEN
CURRICULUM" WAS REPORTEDLY COINED BY THE SOCIOLOGIST PHILLIP JACKSON
("LIFE IN CLASSROOMS", 1968). HE ARGUED THAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND
"EDUCATION" AS A SOCIALIZATION PROCESS {?}. SHORTLY AFTER
JACKSON'S COINAGE, MIT'S BENSON SNYDER PUBLISHED THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM, WHICH
ADDRESSES THE QUESTION OF WHY STUDENTS—EVEN OR ESPECIALLY THE MOST GIFTED—TURN
AWAY FROM EDUCATION. SNYDER ADVOCATES THE THESIS THAT MUCH OF CAMPUS CONFLICT
AND STUDENTS' PERSONAL ANXIETY IS CAUSED BY A MASS OF UNSTATED ACADEMIC AND
SOCIAL NORMS, WHICH THWART THE STUDENTS' ABILITY TO DEVELOP INDEPENDENTLY OR
THINK CREATIVELY.
MORE RECENT DEFINITIONS WERE
GIVEN BY MEIGHAN ("A SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION", 1981):
THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM IS
TAUGHT BY THE SCHOOL, NOT BY ANY TEACHER...SOMETHING IS COMING ACROSS TO THE
PUPILS WHICH MAY NEVER BE SPOKEN IN THE ENGLISH LESSON OR PRAYED ABOUT IN
ASSEMBLY. THEY ARE PICKING-UP AN APPROACH TO LIVING AND AN ATTITUDE TO
LEARNING.
THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM
CONSISTS OF THOSE THINGS PUPILS LEARN THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF ATTENDING
SCHOOL RATHER THAN THE STATED EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES OF SUCH INSTITUTIONS.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND FEEDBACK
{HOW DO YOU MAKE MCGUINTY
“COMFORTABLE”?}
1) CURRENT
FINDINGS OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT LITERATURE SUGGEST THAT “MARGINALIZATION” OF VISIBLE
MINORITY YOUTH BEGINS WITH THE QUESTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM AS THE VITAL
INGREDIENT IN THE FORMATION OF IDENTITY. WHAT DOES THIS IMPLY?
2) RESEARCH
SUGGEST THAT FOR STUDENTS TO HAVE A HEALTHY IDENTITY FORMATION, THEY NEED A
STRONG SENSE OF COMMUNITY THAT IS CONSISTENT AND ORGANIZED. THE COMMUNITY
HISTORY, THE STORIES, THE LEADERS, THE WRITERS, THE POETS
ARE ALL ELEMENTS OF “CULTURAL CAPITAL” THAT INSCRIBE A WAY OF
THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF. HOW CAN (IS) THIS BE (BEING) ACHIEVED IN THE CURRENT
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM?
3) IF A
SCHOOL OFFERS NOTHING THAT REFLECTS A CHILD’S HISTORY, LANGUAGE, OR HIS OR HER
LIFE, IT FORCES CHILDREN TO MAKE AN IDENTITY THAT IS ANTI-SCHOOL. SCHOOL
BECOMES A MEANINGLESS JOURNEY. IF THIS IS CORRECT, WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS/
CONSEQUENCES?
4) SCHOOL
IMPROVEMENT LITERATURE SUGGEST THAT BELONGING TO AN “INTENTIONALLY LEARNING
COMMUNITY”{?} PUSHES BACK ON THE LARGER COLLECTIVE IDENTITY {?}. THEREFORE,
INTENTIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES CAN BE THE CONTEXT FOR MINORITY STUDENTS TO ACQUIRE
AND PRACTICE THE TOOLS TO BE ACHIEVERS. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE CONCEPT OF
BLACK-FOCUSSED SCHOOLS.
5) WHAT
IS THE FEAR OF THOSE WHO SUGGEST THAT BLACK-FOCUSED SCHOOL WILL PRODUCE “SEGREGATIONISM”?
6) THE
RECENT REPORT PREPARED FOR THE ONTARIO COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS,
INDICATES THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF “THE SAFE SCHOOLS ACT” {ZERO TOLERANCE
CODES?} AND RELATED POLICIES EXACERBATE THE IMPACT ON STUDENTS AT-RISK. THE
MOST COMMONLY IDENTIFIED ELEMENTS ARE NEGATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT, LOSS
OF EDUCATION, HIGHER DROPOUT RATES AND INCREASED CRIMINALIZATION
AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR. HOW COULD BLACK-FOCUSSED SCHOOLS RELATE TO THIS
PROBLEM?
7) MANY SOCIOLOGISTS ARGUE THAT THE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM DOESN'T
REFLECT THE LIVES OF PEOPLE OF COLOUR, THERE ARE TOO FEW BLACK TEACHERS, AND
THE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES STIGMATIZE THEM. IS THIS AN ACCURATE REFLECTION
AND, IF SO, WHAT WOULD BE THE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES?
8) IS THE MODEL OF THE “PEACH PROGRAM” A BETTER OR MORE VIABLE
ALTERNATIVE TO BLACK-FOCUSED SCHOOLS?
PEACH {PROMOTING ECONOMIC ACTION
AND COMMUNITY HEALTH}RUNS THREE PIONEERING AND COUNTERVAILING PROGRAMS FOCUSED
ON YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE JANE/FINCH CORRIDOR. THE THREE
PROGRAMS ALLOW VISIBLE MINORITY STUDENTS TO BELONG TO INTENTIONAL LEARNING
COMMUNITIES. THE SUSPEND AND STUDY PROGRAM (SAS)
MATCHES UP EXPELLED AND SUSPENDED STUDENTS WITH A CERTIFIED TEACHER AND A YOUTH
WORKER IN ORDER TO ADDRESS THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS OF COLOUR. SAS
PROVIDES A SUPPLEMENTAL AND ADDITIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE THAT ENABLES KIDS TO
ACQUIRE THE PRACTICES AND TOOLS TO BE ACHIEVERS.THE GET ON THE BUS
PROGRAM (GOB) IS DESIGNED TO CONNECT KIDS WITH EMPLOYERS FOR SIX
MONTH PLACEMENTS FOR JOB TRAINING AND LABOUR FORCE EXPERIENCE. THE INCLUDES
A SIX WEEK PRE-EMPLOYMENT SKILLS TRAINING INCLUDING RESUME WRITING, JOB SEARCH
TECHNIQUES, TECHNICAL AND COMPUTER SKILLS AND OTHER SOFT-SKILLS THAT IMPROVE
PROSPECTS FOR GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT. FINALLY, THE WRAP AROUND PROGRAM
IS A COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR YOUTH DESIGNED TO
IDENTIFY THE STRENGTHS OF HIGH NEEDS STUDENTS AND BUILD ON THEM BY SETTING UP
AN ENTIRE SUPPORT TEAM, WHO NURTURE AND RESPECT THE STUDENTS AND WHO
WANT TO SEE THEM SUCCEED. THIS SIGNITURE PROGRAM EMPHASIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF
COLLABORATIVE, OR PARTICIPATIVE, DECISION MAKING WHICH AIMS TO ENGAGE ALL
EDUCATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS INCLUDING TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS, AND
COMMUNITY MEMBERS.