Teacher Education

 

 

Anti-Arab Discrimination: What Teachers Can Do 

From the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee 

                                           

The Basics

 

  • Learn, read. There's no substitute for serious study. Lots of good resources are now available. And the Arab world is interesting. (Check the book catalog in the magazine, "Washington Report on the Middle East.") Reach out to the Arab American community. 
  • Invite Arab American parents and others to give presentations to classes; plan field trips to Arab American community institutions. Reach out to Arab American educators. Make contact with the local ADC chapter. Attend Arab American speakers, films, symposiums, community events. Develop a relationship. Really "getting it" is a slow process of cultural osmosis. There's no substitute for personal contact. 
  • Remember to include Arab Americans and the Arab world. Persuade your colleagues and the school/district to make this a matter of policy (footnote 1). Avoid the standard laundry list - "white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American" - which makes Arab Americans culturally invisible. 
  • Consciously integrate Arab materials into all classes at your school: American and world history, literature, music, geography, math and science history, government and democracy, sociology, current events, cooking, reading, etc. Think through how James Banks would integrate Arab material through all four stages of his paradigm for restructuring multicultural education. (footnote 2) 
  • Review textbooks, curricula, resources for bias. Review library resources. Compare the coverage of the Arab world with the coverage of other regions and civilizations. Use the textbook critiques prepared by the Middle East Scholars Association (footnote 3). Beware of student current events periodicals which sensationalize issues. Inform ADC about problems you identify. We may be able to help. 

 

Resources 

 

  • Ask the district Social Studies or Curriculum office to review, approve and purchase key educational resources for all schools. 
  • Counteract the stereotypes children absorb from popular culture. Teach students to recognize stereotypes. Give them an in-depth understanding of the social, cultural and historical reality of the Arab world. Teach them critical thinking skills; prepare them to critique the rhetoric of the media, government officials and "experts." This is basic preparation for responsible citizenship. 

 

Interrupting Prejudice 

 

  • Anti-Arab incidents: Use incidents and opportunities. Anti-Arab "jokes" and epithets are common problems. This often is simply a hurtful, adolescent frivolity. It is a chance to bring home to students that personal identity is serious, that other's feelings matter and should be respected. The movement from frivolity to a deeper seriousness is one of the most important of all lessons. 
  • Report problems and their solutions to ADC. Let others learn from your experience. 
  • Don't avoid the Middle East conflict as "too complex" or "too controversial." The Middle East is a major part of the 20th century world history; students need to understand the region in order to be responsible citizens. 
  • Teach students to appreciate the Arab world - on of the great cultures when Europe was still a backward, under-developed region on the periphery of world civilization. Study how the efflorescence of the European later Middle Ages and Renaissance was made possible partly through trade, cultural, and scientific links to the Arab-Islamic civilization. Celebrate the values found in the contemporary Arab world: family ties, hospitality, ethics and morality, community. There is poverty in Cairo, for example, but little street crime or violence. The streets are safer than in many U.S. cities. 
  • Write articles for educational periodicals about your experience of teaching Arab American students or teaching about the Arab world. ACD might be able to help you get them published. 

 

Citizen Action 

 

  • Sign up to be on the ADC action alert list. Ask students to write letters of concern about anti-Arab incidents and media stereotyping. (Banks - stage 4) 
  • Persuade educational officials to recognize Ramadan and other holidays: Allow Muslim students time off; arrange the state and school testing schedule to avoid Islamic holidays. Remember not to order pepperoni or sausage for the class pizza party 

 

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(1) Ask the school and district to create an Arab American category on data forms listing racial and ethnic categories. Federal regulations do allow this, since such data can be re-amalgamated back into the "white" category. 

(2) Banks has numerous books and articles. See, for example, "Integrating the Curriculum with Ethnic Content: Approaches and Guidelines" in James A. Banks and Cherry A. Banks, Editors, Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1989) or "Transforming the Mainstream Curriculum" in Educational Leadership (May 1994). 

(3) The Middle East Scholars Association has prepared evaluations of the coverage of the Middle East in 80 textbooks in American and world history and geography. For more information, call (520) 621-5850.

© ADC 2005

American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

ADC Philadelphia