Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

I first heard this phrase in a discussion on workplace transformation consulting, but I think it rings equally true for schools. What do we expect of our students and what do students expect of themselves?

On School Choice + Racialized Learning Pathways:

• The design of STEM learning contexts actually carries affordances for racialization
• School culture is intimately tied to school choice (who feels like they have a safe space to learn; who feels ostracized)
• How do we combat imposter syndrome????

On School's Rat Races + "Good" Peer Pressure:

In high school, we often talked about the distinction between being a "tryhard" versus being "naturally smart" and capable of getting good grades without trying (gross!). It perpetuated this fixed mindset that there are people who are inherently more intelligent (and implicitly, better) and others who have to "make up" for this with grit. Arguably, you'd be better off with grit (~in the real world~) as "winning at school" really just means you are better at taking tests.

As second gen kids, we also talked a lot about tiger parents — for me personally, I was barely pressured by my parents to do well in school, which seems to go against the dominant narrative. They never worried about me, because they knew I worried enough myself. I already felt pressured enough by my peers obsessing about getting into college around me. I'm not sure if I'm reading the right publications or peeking into the right circles, but I don't see a ton of adults/academics talking about this rat race (prior to college or climbing up the ranks of your career) because I feel like it influences and gets recycled into other institutional cultures.

Implications for Teachers + Expectations:

For teachers + parents: Have high expectations for kids! They are curious and capable of great things.

• Having a sense of agency matters —> if you feel like you're just naturally "bad at school," it'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • re: Learning Disabilities; Math Anxiety
  • re: Scaffolding (scaffolding only works when students feel like they are capable of going the extra mile without aid)
• Expectations are correlated with whether or not they'll achieve —> not necessarily class size/technology use/$
• Representation/anti-racist training matters: how teachers perceive students and their abilities actually affects learning outcomes

  • re: Teacher demographics should match student demographics

    https://twitter.com/bielleogy/status/1316082017243549696?s=12

For students: Remember when everyone talked on and on about "good peer pressure" versus "bad peer pressure" ?