The Equity Gap in Education

When I was in 4th grade, I had a teacher who embarrassed me by asking me to answer her question repeatedly by telling me to speak louder every time. She claimed that she couldn’t hear me and wanted me to speak up so that the whole class could hear me. She asked me, “Patricia, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I told her that I wanted to be a teacher. She responded with “How do you plan to be a teacher when you can’t even speak loud enough so we can all hear you?” With that final comment, she moved on to continue her lecture. I was humiliated and embarrassed. Public speaking has always been a challenge for me because I know that my voice does not carry well in a large room. To add to my nerves, I have this fear of not being heard above all other noises in the room, plus being able to communicate well when trying to capture my audience’s attention has always caused me apprehension. When researching a topic for my Communication and Leadership class, I knew that I wanted to look for a TEDx talk that was related to my challenges as a minority student growing up. I found one suitable for completing this assignment.

In her TED Talk, The consciousness gap in education-an equity imperative (TEDx Talks, 2014), Dorinda Carter Andrews effectively uses her voice to persuade us to reduce the equity gap, so our students can effectively use their voices. In this paper, Andrews addresses the challenges our minority students face and how the educational system must shift their thinking of pedagogy equity. Andrews shares her message through story telling of her own personal experiences and how much impact it had on her that called her to action. I will analyze the different components of this TEDx Talk by using Dr. Vrooman’s Speaking Rubric. The areas that I will be analyzing are introduction, delivery, visual aids, support, argument, organization, and conclusion. I will be analyzing what the speaker did well and what they did not do well. This critical analysis is grounded in The Zombie’s Guide to Public Speaking and Dr. Vrooman’s Speaking Rubric. 

Introduction

When done well, an introduction includes an attention getter, the topic or thesis and an introduction of self (Vrooman, 2015). Vrooman argues further that an added element for clarity is a preview of the main points. As you can tell from the beginning of this paper, my introduction includes an attention getter, the topic and a preview of the main points to be discussed in this paper. Likewise, Andrews began her talk by posing a question to the audience, “I’m guessing that last night at the dinner table you weren’t talking about white supremacy and whiteness as a cultural norm, and I figured this morning as you were preparing to come here the topics of power, privilege, and oppression weren't on your mind?” She poses this question in a joking way to grab the audience’s attention while also stating her topic. At 0:19 seconds she further explains how society has normalized us not to raise critical questions about these topics which exacerbate the racial and socio-economic inequities that exist. And how the educational system has not prepared young people to learn to respect each other across cultural differences.  Andrews shares her expertise as an educator with many years of experience and how racism and other forms of oppression are still major impediments to the academic underperformance of minority students. Again, she states her topic and the main points of her presentation at the 1:20 minute mark. She does not formally introduce herself other than sharing her years of expertise (TEDx Talks, 2014).

Delivery

Vrooman (2015) states that the energy that animates you should come from your commitment to what you are doing. Also, extemporaneous speaking is speaking “off-the-cuff” as Andrews was doing by being present and engaging (Vrooman, 2015). Andrew’s delivery of her message was with high energy as she expresses passion about her topic. She interacted with her audience, made eye contact, and commented on how nobody in the audience was laughing because her message was so real and sensitive to so many (TEDx Talks, 2014). It was evident that Andrews had a deep connection to her audience because of how she shared her experiences of vulnerability as a young person who experienced racism at the 2:01 minute mark. When looking at physical and vocal details, Andrews did extremely well making eye contact and not staying in one spot. She used a lot of hand gestures and moved closer to the edge of the stage to get as close as possible to her audience.   

Visual Aids

Visual aids were used by the presenter as a way to enhance her presentation. She did not overwhelm the audience with so many visuals that it was distracting. Her visual aids were displayed while she explained a data point and then she would go to a blank slide to capture the audience’s attention back to her. In one of her main points, she showed a slide about the cycle of critical self-reflection and how she has spent many years teaching educators how to do this effectively (TEDx Talks, 2014). She used this slide as a way to reiterate how this gap in consciousness is an equity imperative, and how important it is for educators to think about these issues if we are to better meet the needs of our struggling students. 

At 8:35 minutes, Andrews showed a slide comparing equality and equity which I thought was an effective method of portraying a clear representation of inequality in our school systems (TEDx Talks, 2014). An area that I felt could use improvement was using a variety of slides that included tables and charts; tables with a narrative were easier to understand and remember (Vrooman, 2015). 

Support

According to Dr. Vrooman’s Speaking Rubric, the support comes from narrative, numbers, humor, and figurative language. The TEDx Talk (2014) included one resource cited. It also included many details to make the presentation stand out. To add more detail, a presentation needs emotional detail (Vrooman, 2015). Andrews embedded personal stories in her presentation that added the emotional connection to meet this requirement. Andrews included statistical data which I thought enhanced and provided more credibility to her topic. She also used humor throughout her presentation and used figurative language as she transitioned from one point to the next.   

Argument

Vrooman (2015) argues that people usually have a separate hierarchy that places easier to do things as more important than hard things. Andrews stated that society are still placing resources in the schools for all students, however, not all students need the same support (TEDx Talks, 2014). Which is why we still see minority students without an equal chance of accessing the resources they need to be successful. Creating a change mindset in educators is harder to do in isolation, however, embedding equity pedagogy in professional development programs will ensure teachers are trained and prepared to help culturally diverse youth.   

Organization

 In a presentation, transitions are necessary to ensure it goes smoothly. According to Vrooman (2015), in order to keep your audience from being distracted, you must use transitions between ideas. It is a short summary of an idea that came before and a short preview that will come next. Another idea is to use humor or figurative language. Andrews did a great job of using transitions in her presentation which kept her audience captivated even with her speech on racism and oppression (TEDx Talks, 2014). Andrews also used internal previews and summaries to remind her audience of the main points of her presentation. When discussing the cycle of critical self-reflection, she pulled up the same slide with the visual to remind her audience of her topic.  

Conclusion

 According to Vrooman (2015), the conclusion is the first time in the speech you and the audience have agreed fully. When concluding a presentation, the speaker must be aware not to add too much more information that wasn’t already presented. The conclusion should be tying all the main points together to make it a seamless conclusion. Andrews concluded by asking the question, “When is the next time you will have a conversation about the system of white supremacy and whiteness as a cultural norm at your dinner table? When is the next time you’re going to take concrete action to change issues of power, privilege, and oppression?” (TEDx Talks, 2014). She poses this question to tie all the pieces together and add a clincher to ensure her audience remembers her message. If the speaker has a Q&A, they should do that before ending with the conclusion (Vrooman, 2015). 

References

TEDx Talks. (2014. March 10). The consciousness gap in education-an equity imperative: Dorinda Carter Andrews. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrgf3wTUbo

Vrooman,S. S. (2015). The zombie guide to public speaking: 2nd “dead”ition, reanimated. CreateSpace The Zombie Guide to Public Speaking: 2nd "Dead"ition: Vrooman, Steven S.: 9781515337799: Amazon.com: Books