Roberto Germán [00:00:00]:
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Roberto Germán [00:00:46]:
Hey, what's good, peeps? Roberto here with Lorena once again.
Lorena Germán [00:00:50]:
Hello.
Roberto Germán [00:00:51]:
How you feeling, Lorena?
Lorena Germán [00:00:53]:
I'm okay. I'm tired.
Roberto Germán [00:00:54]:
It's all good. It's all good.
Lorena Germán [00:00:57]:
But I'm happy to be talking about this today.
Roberto Germán [00:00:59]:
Talking about what?
Lorena Germán [00:01:01]:
Sociopolitical context.
Roberto Germán [00:01:03]:
Let's get into it.
Lorena Germán [00:01:04]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:01:04]:
Can you explain what teaching sociopolitical context means and why it's important in education?
Lorena Germán [00:01:10]:
Yes, it is very important, and I'll get to why in a second. But what it is, is it's essentially the idea of teaching around a concept or a text. So let's say you were teaching a book, and often what we'll do is we'll be like, okay, well, who was the author and when was it written? When were they born? And that gives you some info, but we have to go a little bit deeper to understand the time period, what was going on in that author's life, what, from their upbringing maybe impacted them or caused them to write this thing? What does it mean to read a book about this topic at this time, for me, in this moment?
Lorena Germán [00:01:47]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:01:47]:
So, for example, let's say that you read a book about immigration and maybe like refugees in 1991, that has one impact. But what if you read that same book, right, with a class or by yourself in 2017, right at the height of. Right after the campaign, and these claims and the stuff happening at the border between Mexico and the US reading it there, that would have a different impact on the reader. That's what sociopolitical context means. The same happens with a concept, right? Like, what if I'm learning about the, you know, let's say Confederacy and the Civil War and the statues? It's one thing to have read that in 1989, and it's another one to have read it in 2019 when they were knocking down confederate statues all around, all across the United States.
Lorena Germán [00:02:40]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:02:41]:
And so sociopolitical context is the stuff, if you will, the meat or the academics, the. The research, the context around a particular concept or a text. And I hope that that in of itself shows why it matters. But it matters because we have way too many people that are talking about different things in society, at, you know, at their dinner table, on podcasts, in books, on social media, and they just do not have the socio political understanding of the meaning of things.
Lorena Germán [00:03:17]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:03:18]:
When someone says something like, oh, I'm not pc. I don't care about pc language.
Lorena Germán [00:03:24]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:03:24]:
Which is political correctness, what they're saying actually is, I don't understand the socio political meaning of this word or this idea. And so that's kind of the short of it. I think that.
Roberto Germán [00:03:36]:
Or maybe they do understand it, but they don't want to get into it.
Lorena Germán [00:03:39]:
That's a whole different thing because it.
Roberto Germán [00:03:40]:
Makes them feel a particular way. They don't want to wrestle with the discomfort.
Lorena Germán [00:03:43]:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. But we have to have these conversations.
Roberto Germán [00:03:47]:
You mentioned that teaching sociopolitical context is a skill builder for students.
Lorena Germán [00:03:52]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:03:52]:
In the blog post that you wrote, can you elaborate on how it fosters deep learning and social emotional development?
Lorena Germán [00:04:01]:
Yeah.
Lorena Germán [00:04:02]:
So it is skill building because we need that in order to do some meaningful analytical work.
Lorena Germán [00:04:09]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:04:10]:
I could analyze a concept or a particular idea in an academic concept, like a content based thing. So let's say in science we're studying the cardiovascular system. We could analyze some stuff about that by thinking critically, by saying, well, what positively impacts the heart so that you can have a effective and healthy cardiovascular system. So that's one way to go. But you could also just go deeper by thinking sociopolitically, by thinking sociologically. That's another way to think about that.
Lorena Germán [00:04:46]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:04:46]:
And so I could be having that same conversation about the cardiovascular system and the role of the heart and all that stuff, but I could then say, well, how does environmental racism impact the heart? How do food deserts impact the condition of the heart? And how might that play a role in the cardiovascular system of the people in that community, for example.
Lorena Germán [00:05:09]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:05:10]:
And so those are the ways that we can embed sociology, we can embed sociopolitical context into all of these conversations so that we can actually do more meaningful skill building work that goes beyond the test. Yes, we're back to the test. And then how is this related to Sel, or social emotional learning in every single way?
Lorena Germán [00:05:32]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:05:33]:
Like, if I am learning things at school that help me process who I am and what I'm seeing in my own community and neighborhood immediately, that helps me with certain skills around, like self management, self awareness, collective responsibility, things like that, that can help me just engage with others better and process the things I'm feeling too.
Roberto Germán [00:05:53]:
Good stuff. The blog you wrote emphasizes that teaching social political context, media respects voices and is restorative. Can you provide examples of how this is implemented in educational settings?
Lorena Germán [00:06:11]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lorena Germán [00:06:13]:
So teaching sociopolitical context absolutely welcomes often excluded voices because you focus on the complexity of situations and topics.
Lorena Germán [00:06:26]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:06:26]:
So instead of continuing to learn the same thing from the same point of view, what you're doing is adding nuance and welcoming complexity by bringing in additional voices that curriculum has often excluded. And so by doing that, you are already, you know, you're respecting voices. You are honoring experiences that act in and of itself is restorative. So a student who is sitting there is like, man, this teacher is really considering who I am, is considering my community, this place where I live, that I leave this school each day and go to, right, my neighborhood. Like, this teacher is considering these points of view. So what are some examples?
Lorena Germán [00:07:08]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:07:08]:
So let's take that cardiovascular example because I'm already on it. What's a way to bring in voices and respect voices and to do that in a restorative way? Well, by considering that environmental racism, right, that I mentioned, maybe you bring in a doctor from that community, virtually or in person to talk a little bit about the ways that the food deserts are actually impacting the healthy food choices that people have access to in that very community. And so that way you're already doing some restorative, even social justice work by helping kids develop awareness and identify these problems and name what they're experiencing. More examples. You know, maybe you're doing a unit on the water cycle. I'm going with science today. I was working out of school, and we were talking a lot about science today. So let's say you're doing the water cycle, right? And similarly, you're going to center the community.
Lorena Germán [00:08:07]:
This is also all like Textured Teaching. That's what I'm talking about here. But anyway, you're studying the water cycle with some little people, 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade. And what you want to do is spend some time thinking and understanding the pollution in the community, right? Like, what is going on in this neighborhood? And how is it that we don't get the support we need from our local government or our state government? But this is actually a diverse but working class community. And so now we can have actually a conversation around access to resources and funding and economics, right? We can talk about how working class people, even though we're the ones holding up the economy, right, in our local communities, we're not the ones that are necessarily benefiting from living in conditions that are going to improve our quality of life. So these are some ways to do some of that socio political work. But fine. Let's turn to literature, right? Let's say you're reading a book and something like, for example, let me think, let me think.
Lorena Germán [00:09:10]:
Like, the hate you give, right? If we were to, if I were to be doing a unit on the hate u give, which I have, I don't stop at simply, you know, let's study this. And black lives matter, right? Because obviously there's references to it. But actually, let's get into a conversation around the history of policing in the United States. How did we get here? What, what do police officers, what are their takes on some of this? How can I find some video? How can I discuss what it's like to write this book in this time? Who is Angie Thomas, the author, and what does she believe? What does she, you know, what is her role, her identity, maybe her upbringing? What role does that play in this book? Why was this book published at this time, et cetera? Like, what is the sociological context or the socio political context for this book? And one of the things to know is that, for example, hip hop was a big influence for her, continues to be. She was growing up during the nineties riots, the early ones.
Lorena Germán [00:10:07]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:10:07]:
And so she, you know, after Rodney King and everything that happened there. And so that has directly impacted what she writes, why she writes and how she writes it. So that's deeper than simply identifying theme or symbol or conflicts between the police and Khalil and star, you know, that's good.
Roberto Germán [00:10:29]:
That's good. Thanks for that breakdown. And there's a clear distinction made between teaching sociopolitical context and engaging in partisanship, promoting specific political ideology.
Lorena Germán [00:10:42]:
Thank you for that clarification.
Roberto Germán [00:10:43]:
Delve deeper into this differentiation for our listeners.
Lorena Germán [00:10:48]:
Absolutely. So partisanship, meaning political parties, that's complete. That completely has nothing to do with any of this. Notice that I haven't mentioned politics once. I haven't mentioned Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, because none of that is necessarily relevant to these conversations. This is not about guiding kids to believe in one party or another to pick a particular candidate for some political thing. Absolutely not. This is completely about understanding the human condition, quality of life, and the way that society works in this country around particular issues.
Lorena Germán [00:11:22]:
That's all it is. It's equipping young people with the skills they need to be able to go out and be productive and to be problem solvers, to be community builders and, you know, solution oriented, which might not leave them at all to a life of politics, you know.
Roberto Germán [00:11:41]:
True, true. And I'm sure there's gonna be some folks who just see the title or come up on a phrase, socio political, and they gonna trip off of that. People don't take the time to understand the. What, the context.
Lorena Germán [00:11:56]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lorena Germán [00:11:57]:
Can I just say something real quick about that? Cause semantics is important, right? Like folks are legislating against particular words and phrases. If sociopolitical context is touchy. And you're like, I don't want to even. I don't want to do that. Call it sociological or just call it like a deeper analysis. I mean, it really doesn't matter what. You're human, right? Like anything, right? You can call it anything. Oh, I want to understand more about when this book was published.
Lorena Germán [00:12:24]:
Call it a study of time and setting. I don't care. As long as you're doing the work, right. Of this sociological. If you need to use that, use that.
Lorena Germán [00:12:34]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:12:34]:
Like, what is the sociology around?
Roberto Germán [00:12:36]:
Some people don't like that either. Keep in mind in Florida, they're trying to get. They're trying to get rid of or have gotten rid of sociology programs on the university level.
Lorena Germán [00:12:46]:
Yeah, you're right. Fine, whatever. Use other language. Use other language. It doesn't matter. Or don't even use language. Keep calling it.
Roberto Germán [00:12:54]:
Or just use the language.
Lorena Germán [00:12:56]:
Which one?
Roberto Germán [00:12:57]:
This. This same language. Cause the folks that gonna trip, they gonna trip, right? Like they're gonna hear no matter how we try to mask it. The folks that on the side of resistance.
Lorena Germán [00:13:09]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:13:09]:
They're gonna continue to resist. You know, they're hard to harden. Like, don't even take the time to listen. And we can't even get you to the table, which is part of the mission. Let's get to the table. Let's talk through our differences. You know, we ain't always right, but we definitely ain't always wrong.
Lorena Germán [00:13:27]:
Yeah, I mean, another phrasing too. Or because it also can help to visualize. So there's this image, this concept that I share in the anti racist teacher. Well, in the second edition, it's not in the first one, where I talk about a concept that my professor shared with me when I was in graduate school, which was around teaching within, around and against a text. So within is for, like, searching for meaning, right. Understanding, comprehending, going against the text is critiquing it and what's missing and. Right, like, just asking questions around it and then teaching or understanding around the text. Reading around the text is what I am describing here.
Lorena Germán [00:14:04]:
What was going on around the time of creation of this text publication and even reading of the text. Because the book could have been written in 1922, but I'm reading it today, and it has a different impact.
Lorena Germán [00:14:14]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:14:15]:
So all of those, like, teaching around a text, that's another way that you can describe this. Or background building, even, like, there's so much language that we can use.
Roberto Germán [00:14:24]:
What professor was that?
Lorena Germán [00:14:25]:
Doctor David Kirkland.
Roberto Germán [00:14:27]:
Shout out to Kirkland. Yeah, shout out to doctor Kirkland. What up? So could you share some insights from your book, Textured Teaching?
Lorena Germán [00:14:38]:
Right, right.
Roberto Germán [00:14:39]:
Texture teaching. Folks, if you don't have that, you need that. It is A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies.
Lorena Germán [00:14:49]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:14:50]:
Can you share some insight from your book, particularly the chapter that focuses on teaching sociopolitical context?
Lorena Germán [00:14:56]:
Yeah, I think the best, like, the best chapter that's gonna speak to. This is the chapter. Gosh, let me see.
Lorena Germán [00:15:03]:
Two, three.
Lorena Germán [00:15:03]:
Chapter three on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. That is where I spend time outlining a three step process for actually how to do that. I go over how to get into topics, what to research. What does it mean to have these touchy words and taboo words that people don't necessarily feel comfortable talking about? How do I address that? How do I bring in critical thinking? Like, I just break it down all the way? So I would say that chapter, interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Lorena Germán [00:15:33]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:15:34]:
And how does teaching sociopolitical context intersect work with culturally relevant teaching practices?
Lorena Germán [00:15:40]:
Oh, absolutely.
Roberto Germán [00:15:40]:
For that culturally sustaining.
Lorena Germán [00:15:41]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:15:42]:
So one of the tenets of. Or let me use another word, because that's used for critical race theory. So one of the elements of Doctor Gloria Latzon Billings framework includes developing consciousness among young people.
Lorena Germán [00:15:58]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:15:58]:
And so doing this actually helps them to also develop a sense of consciousness when they're reading as readers, their own bias, the text bias, the author's bias. And bias isn't even necessarily a bad concept here, but just like, kind of what we walk in with.
Lorena Germán [00:16:17]:
Right?
Lorena Germán [00:16:17]:
Like, this book is about x. Yeah. Well, it's written in the United States. That's a particular lens.
Lorena Germán [00:16:23]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:16:23]:
Or it's written by a woman. That's a particular lens. And then who is this author? Oh, this author's from the south. Well, that's a particular lens. Oh, I am reading this, but I'm from the north and I'm a male. Okay, well, that's a particular lens. And so all of that actually goes into culturally relevant teaching because it very strictly falls into the framework, but it also helps the teacher and the student engage in this kind of relationship, if you will, with the learning, where it's very much humanized. It's like, who are you? Who am I what is this space we're in? What is this thing we're trying to do know?
Roberto Germán [00:17:01]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, hey, folks, if you're looking to integrate sociopolitical contacts into your teaching, once again, I recommend. Highly recommend textured teaching.
Lorena Germán [00:17:15]:
Yes.
Roberto Germán [00:17:16]:
A framework for culturally sustaining pedagogies.
Lorena Germán [00:17:20]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:17:21]:
All right, so we'll leave you with that. Lord. In any final words, before we wrap.
Lorena Germán [00:17:26]:
Up, um, can I shout out a couple other books, too?
Roberto Germán [00:17:30]:
Yeah, why not?
Lorena Germán [00:17:31]:
Yeah.
Lorena Germán [00:17:31]:
Okay. So I would. I would add to that list, let me see, Sara Ahmed's Being the Change, because there, she does a lot of work on that identity piece, which I think could be really useful in getting into some of those conversations we should have.
Roberto Germán [00:17:48]:
Sara Ahmed on the podcast.
Lorena Germán [00:17:49]:
Yeah, I know. Now that I think about it, I would also shout out, um. I would also shout out Kim Parker's book. She does a lot of good work, I know, on, like, these small groups and how to bring this work. I think it could just, like, add. It could be really helpful to these types of conversations. I would also shout out.
Roberto Germán [00:18:15]:
Dr. Parker's book is Literacy is Liberation.
Lorena Germán [00:18:19]:
Yes. Yes.
Roberto Germán [00:18:20]:
Dr. Kim Parker. Literacy.
Lorena Germán [00:18:21]:
Literacy is Liberation.
Roberto Germán [00:18:22]:
Liberation. Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching.
Lorena Germán [00:18:28]:
Yep.
Lorena Germán [00:18:29]:
I would also. I think that there's some really good and relevant ideas in Carla and Luz's En Comunidad. They're talking specifically about, like, Latina immigrant and bilingual emerging bilingual students.
Roberto Germán [00:18:43]:
And those are Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experience of Bilingual Latinx Students.
Lorena Germán [00:18:49]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:18:50]:
And I think it's relevant because it helps you do some. Or think through some of that, like, teacher facing work.
Lorena Germán [00:18:56]:
Right.
Lorena Germán [00:18:56]:
Like, what is it like for me to walk in here with. With a particular demographic? I'd have to think about some more books, though, around teaching sociopolitical context. But I think a bunch of, like, a lot of these social studies books, too, could be really helpful.
Roberto Germán [00:19:13]:
All right, well, we give y'all a few resources that you can tap into, if you haven't already. We appreciate you listening to this episode of the podcast, and we'll catch you next time.
Lorena Germán [00:19:24]:
Bye.
Roberto Germán [00:19:26]:
As always, your engagement in Our Classroom is greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, and write a review. Finally, for resources to help you understand the intersection of race, bias, education, and society, go to multiculturalclassroom.com. Peace and love from your host, Robelto Herman.
