Stephanie Evans

EDL 318E- A
Inquiry to Curriculum Project First Assignment
Autobiography
The background of my life is a similar-sounding story to many that have been shared
before me. I was raised in a loving home with two parents who greatly cared for me and my
sister. My father has worked the same job for all of my life to support my family and my mom
stayed home to give us more attention as we grew. I grew up in a rural area just outside of a
small town similar to Oxford. I went to the elementary school that was out in the country as we
called it, where we lived. The school was very small, with one classroom for each grade K-5 and
all the teachers knew the students, the students knew the teachers, and the students knew the
other students. My life was centered on family and school and that was pretty much it as I grew
up in elementary school. My perception of the real world and how society works was well
guarded and looking back I seemed quite oblivious to what was going on outside of my little
bubble.
Everyone in my small elementary school was pretty similar with similar family
backgrounds and environments. In sixth grade we all moved to the middle school in town. This
transition opened up my mind to how other people lived. I realized that there was this whole
other world out there that I hadnt paid any attention to. It sounds crazy but my concepts of what
made up life was very sheltered until then. In middle school all of the elementary schools in our
town came into one large middle school. Here I learned more and encountered people with
different backgrounds such as students whose lives were fairly independent from their families or
who seemed to have so much more life experience. During middle school I also became more

involved in a church that was near my house. Here I became very involved in the youth group
and became part of their community. My life was changed when I decided to follow God and put
my faith in what he wanted for me. Instead of living a selfish life, I have since then tried to focus
my attention on serving other people and it has made me look outside of myself and my
situations. It has given my purpose as an educator more than just assisting the learning of
children, but to really benefit their lives as people too.
When I was in 8th grade our youth group took a missions trip to inner-city Chicago,
Illinois. This was a very eye opening experience for me. It was my first real look into a world
that was completely different than mine. It was my first time in a big city and with this came
many new realizations about the world. I had never really experienced people whose lives were
greatly affected by their race and I had never experienced seeing homelessness first hand. During
our time there we went to serve local homeless shelters and women centers, cleaned up vacant
lots in the South side and served a local church that needed help remodeling. At this church there
was a particular room that was a large open space and the walls had been painted with
chalkboard paint. On the walls were names of people and then dates or years written underneath
of them. I came to find out that these names were people in the community that had fallen victim
to crimes, such as shootings or stabbings. What really broke my heart was that most of the names
were children. The dates were the years that these people had lived and died. I found one name
of a three year old. This sparked something inside of me. It made me see that there are real issues
going on in the world and that not everyone has had the same upbringing as me. This also put a
desire in me to help the children that live in these types of situations become better learners
because knowledge is power.

As I mentioned before, I sort of lived a very sheltered life growing up, and this was also
true of my awareness of my familys financial status. My parents did a great job at always
providing us with what we need, but our family did live with an income level that put us below
the poverty line. This meant that we lived with a lot of financial assistance and had a lot of
outside support for our needs. I know what it is like to have a free lunch at school, or get the
grocery bag full of non-perishables. Although my circumstances were nothing like I have seen in
environments completely submerged in poverty where families are barely getting by, it has made
me mindful of living within my means and valuing everything that I do have.
The most current life-changing experience that I have had was my semester that I spent
living and studying abroad in Costa Rica last spring. It changed my whole perspective of people
and how the world works even more than my other experiences. I learned how to live among
people of a completely different culture and how to make bonds over language barriers. There is
more to human connection and interaction than being able to converse, it is about seeing each
other and really caring. The people of Latin America are so friendly and joyful and relaxed, at
least from my experience and learning. My biggest take away was probably just learning how to
be on my own in a completely unfamiliar situation and also being a part of a community where I
was the minority. I saw what it was like to have to be conscious of my decisions because of my
ethnicity and the fact that I was foreign. This has helped me to be more mindful of race and
culture in my everyday life.
I have grown a lot in my life since I was a nave child. I still have a lot to learn, but each
experience that I have had has really allowed me to look at the situations that I am in and see the
big picture. I am conscious of how I interact and act in every situation that I am in. This has
impacted my life in that as a teacher I want to serve people in the way of educating them. I think

that my mindful attitude also will help me to really reflect on my teaching and really tend to
every students needs and care for each individual.
Issues & Challenges of Poverty and Race for Educators
There are more than half a million students who are homeless (Poetter, 81). These
students do not have a place to call home. They leave school and are unsure of where they are
going to rest their head for the night. Their parents or guardians have so much on their plate that
they more than likely cannot help their children grow in their knowledge when they are worried
about failing their children in providing basic needs. With all of this going on how can students
focus on learning when they are dealing with this at the forefront of their lives? Their sense of
security is probably thrown off a bit and this affects their focus and motivation. As educators we
need to recognize this and do our best to understand that our classroom may be the only stability
in a childs life. We need to make it a safe and positive area to alleviate the stress of the
circumstances they are in sometimes. We also need to be sensitive in this in what homework we
give. If students do not have a home, homework is going to be last thing on their minds.
A second alarming statistic that goes along with some of the challenges of children living
in homelessness is that more than 14 million students live in severe poverty and may come to
school hungry (Poetter, 81). I believe that Maslows hierarchy of needs holds true and if students
are not getting their basic needs met, then the rest of the pyramid with safety, love/belonging,
self-esteem and self-actualization cannot be attained. If a student hasnt eaten breakfast or even
dinner the night before and they come to school, they are not going to have the energy to put
forth effort into their learning. I really like how in my field placement everyone gets breakfast as
soon as they come in in the morning. It isnt a special breakfast time for certain students in a
separate place at an inconveniently earlier time like I have seen in most other schools. Every

student is offered breakfast and it makes the day a lot smoother with focus on learning a lot
easier. This is nice, but it is not the norm for many schools.
There are many other challenges that come with the issue of poverty. In the longitudinal
study we read about in The Long Shadow being raised with low socioeconomic status often time
leads to a higher chance of dropping out of school and ultimately repeating the cycle of living in
poverty. This brings a challenge onto educators to stop this trend. If we just work a little bit
harder and go the extra mile to make sure we get through to students who are struggling, then we
might be able to help student dropout rates decrease. This doesnt seem probable because of the
fact that even if we do get through to students, we only have them for one year and then they are
off to the next teacher in a new classroom. A second challenge is that often times families who
live in poverty struggle to invest time in their children. Like other parents, low-income parents
may make tradeoffs between their work hours and their time spent with children [and] have less
control over their work schedules and have fewer resources to purchase quality child care
services and provide for childrens developmental needs (Yeung and Glauber, 3). Many times it
is single parents trying their best to provide the basic needs that actually investing time is
difficult. With low parental involvement in their lives, students dont have the desire or
encouragement to do their homework, or sometimes they dont see school as something
purposeful. This also is not helpful for teachers who want to form a connection and partnership
with parents who are unavailable. A challenge that comes with lower parental involvement is the
fall in using what students learn in school during the summer when their parents are not very
involved or cant afford preschool to prepare students for school. They come to school already
unprepared. (Alexander, 176-177). This isnt to say that parents dont care, but this still makes an
issue for teachers.

In the Urban Teaching Cohort we discuss these issues in great detail. One thing that
almost always comes up is the idea that the communities that have high poverty rates do not
make it easy on families to move above their situation and definitely do not help students in their
school life. Many studies have applied Regression Analysis to poverty, crime and population
data to show that there is a significant positive correlation between poverty and crime, meaning
that where there is more poverty there will also be higher crime rates (Feldman, 3). When this is
what a majority of our students are subjected to, at least in urban environments, classroom
behavior that is normal to our standards is hard to find. The students we work with in the UTC
have all either witnessed a murder/shooting or know someone that has been shot. A study done in
Chicago Public Schools found that exposure to this type of frequent violence may be an
important factor shaping already disadvantaged students educational experiences in ways that
reduce their opportunities to learn in the classroom (Burdick-Will, 2013). With these chaotic
things happening right where you live to people you know and care about, life becomes a little
bit harder to grasp and then sitting in a classroom to learn or following rules is even harder,
especially with young students.
A big issue and challenge with race and education is that there is a significant gap in the
demographics between teachers and many students that we will encounter. Most teachers are
white, female, and from the middle class. Most of the students in big cities are students of color
(70% of them) and the majority of students come from lower income families (Poetter, 81). This
gap between race and socioeconomic status makes relating to the students difficult. Connecting
with the students and building a firm foundation and connection with them is so important. I fear
that my students may not feel that I truly care about them because of my lack of similar
upbringing and experiences.

If so many teachers are like me, white and female, we all have this idea of white privilege
that was discussed in class last week. It is something that isnt our fault but our lives are a lot
simpler than the lives of people and students of color or of different ethnicity. We dont have to
worry about the color of our skin and what that says to people. Our students do and we have to
take that into consideration when we teach them. The issue of race and the complications it
makes in society is something that is prevalent, noticeable by students and carries over into the
classroom. Sure it would be nice to just shelter students from these ideas, but I think that it also
should be brought up and discussed in our classes so that students are aware and prepared for
what they might encounter. This means making our classroom one where race is not an issue and
people respect everyones differences, while at the same time discussing the issues that students
might encounter in the real world.
There is a huge correlation between race and behavior issues in classrooms. According
to a College Board report published earlier this year, black male students are 2.4 times as likely
to have been suspended and twice as likely to have repeated a grade as white males (Kirp,
2010). With these statistics about school-aged children it is hard for a teacher to not have a bias
towards students of color, to almost expect misbehavior or to accredit their poor achievement to
their race or socioeconomic status. This poses a challenge for teachers to manage their students
better but it also is a call to change their bias about race and their students.
Research Question
I have discussed my desire to really serve my students in the future and I feel that
although I am aware of a lot of the issues surrounding students who live in poverty I would like
to find out practical, specific ways in which teachers and/or schools are sensitive to and actually
help students situations when they are living in poverty. I feel like this important to learn about

because as I mentioned in the issues and challenges portion of this paper, poverty affects a
numerous amount of children. Our jobs as teachers is to ensure learning and a lot of times
helping to improve the circumstances of our students the best we can in any way, shape, or form
can really be beneficial and break down barriers that are stopping growth/learning in students
with those struggles. I also feel that the information that I find from researching this question can
better help me see if and what is actually being done for these issues. It is one thing to discuss
these issues, but it is even better when something is done about them, and I am just curious if
much is being done, and what is being done by those who work in education.
Method of Investigation
I plan on using my time in field very wisely in making observations to support my
investigation. First I want to identify if there are any students in my classroom that are dealing
with high poverty/ low socioeconomic status/ other circumstances and make sure to notice how
they go about the school day. I also want to take note to see if my cooperating teacher does
anything in class or deals with students in a different way to support them or not. I will keep a
running record of my notes in my field notebook. I also would like to formally interview
multiple school personnel on the subject of poverty, their idea of how it affects their school/
student population and what they feel they or the school does to help the need of their students
living in poverty. This could include talking with the principal, the school nurse, the school
psychologist (if there is one) and anyone who might work with students and special
circumstances. I dont want to focus just on institutionalized solutions to meeting students
needs, but I want to see what I can do as a teacher in the future with my students in the classroom
to help them in their situation and provide a venue for better learning for all students, no matter

what they are going through. I may find that there really is not solution, but I at least am
interested in what is being tried, and what is working or not.
Outside of field I can research across different sources various ways in which the issue of
poverty is being dealt with. I know that poverty is a very large issue facing students, and
narrowing it down would make it easier to find specific action taken for it, but I think that all of
the other problems that come with poverty can each be dealt with and aided by schools and
teachers. I can also look at what the education system is doing as a whole maybe in policies or
programs that are implemented/ not implemented. This can be asked in my inquiries/ interviews
of my host teacher and the other school personnel and I can also look up some scholarly sources
and ask some of my other teacher contacts their thoughts on the subject.

Work Cited
Alexander, Karl, Doris Entwisle, and Linda Olson. The Long Shadow. Russel Sage Foundation.
New York, 2014.
Burdick-Will, Julia. (2013). School Violent Crime and Academic Achievement in Chicago. US
National Library of Medicine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3831577/.
Feldman, Jed. (2015). The Statistical Correlation between Crime and Poverty. Retrieved 4/8/15
from http://www.academia.edu/4757612/The_Statistical_Correlation_between_Crime_
and _Poverty.
Kirp, David. "The Widest Achievement Gap Publications National Affairs." The Widest

Achievement Gap Publications National Affairs. National Affairs, 2010. Web.

Poetter, Thomas S,. Teacher Leadership for the Twenty-First Century. 2nd Edition. Van Griner
Publishing, 2014.
Yeung, W. Jean & Rebecca Glauber. Childrens Time Use And Parental Involvement In Low
Income Families. National Poverty Center Working Paper Series. National Poverty
Center, 2007.