This is music to my ears. So glad to see this collaborative among several universities named the "BlackStar Research Collaborative" taking a focused look at African American Studies getting taught in Texas schools. Their approach will consist of teacher and student focus groups, comparing lesson plans, and analyzing transcript data. How exciting! 

This study, of course, builds not solely on Ethnic Studies policy, but also on literally decades of research that shows how culturally relevant curriculum and teaching help students to feel safe, valued, and intellectually strong is positive. It simply makes a difference for students' identities and backgrounds to get viewed in an affirming way. This is NOT Critical Race Theory (CRT). 

Politically, the issue is that anti-CRT politicians and some parents don't want to say what they really think about not wanting to affirm the identities of youth of color. In contrast, what they really want is to affirm white identity. Why must this be either/or? Why can't this be both/and? What is white identity anyway?

In response to this question, I'm always reminded of the work of Foxfire that was squarely about this. Whites and all students, generally, would benefit from knowing about it. I encourage everyone to read this important piece on the matter authored by Dr. Carl Glickman titled, "Whatever happened to Foxfire? Still glowing?" 

We might think of Foxfire as Ethnic Studies for White people. I remember as a young scholar attending conferences where students, teachers, and researchers would present on their important work at Foxfire. Projects like these need to return. We would ALL benefit from learning about white identity from a multicultural lens.

Based on this piece on African American Studies getting taught in Dallas ISD, preliminary data are already positive and affirming in exactly the way our youth and their teachers would want. So heart-warming.💖

-Angela Valenzuela

What impact does studying diverse cultures, experiences have on Texas students?

Researchers will examine ethnic studies courses during a highly politicized climate over how to teach America’s history.

by Talia Richman, January 10, 2024

Tracy Smith sees her class as “adding back some fibers that were taken out of the cloth of American history.”

Smith teaches African American studies at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy — a Dallas ISD campus named for the first Black woman to serve on the school board. Her students analyze art from the Harlem Renaissance, study historically Black colleges and contemplate their roots.Ariah Barnes, 17, said the class opened her mind.

“You just get to understand history better, from not just the point of view of the struggle, but also the positive moments,” she said.

Student Ariah Barnes works on a laptop during an AP African American Studies class at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Amid a highly politicized climate about the way public schools teach history, Texas is considering expanding course offerings that explore the history, culture and experience of diverse communities. State education officials have heard from students and families about the power of these ethnic studies courses — yet the specific and quantifiable effect of the lessons is unknown.Now a group of researchers and professors wants to explore that impact. The BlackStar Research Collaborative is conducting a long-term study expected to run through 2028 that will examine the ways ethnic studies courses influence students’ grades, attendance, discipline rates and college enrollment.

Researchers from Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University-San Antonio are leading the work, in collaboration with the Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office.

For those involved in the research, ethnic studies already have proved to be transformative.

Marlon James was a C student when he graduated high school. He thought college was his pathway toward playing football, his contribution to the world would be in running plays like the Detroit Lions’ Barry Sanders.

As a freshman at Western Illinois University, he enrolled in an ethnic studies course. The lessons reshaped his life, motivating him to double down on his education, join the military, become a professor and now, launch a major study into the type of course that inspired him.

“We need research that can answer the question, ‘Does ethnic studies make a difference in the lives of young people?’” said James, a professor and assistant dean for the Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences at Prairie View A&M University. “And if it does make a difference, exactly what difference does it make?”

While the definitive answer to that question is years away, it could carry big implications for Texas schools.

The researchers’ work will unfold alongside fights over what students learn about America’s complex past and present. Conservative parents and politicians have accused public schools of promoting a “woke” agenda, pressuring teachers to constrict lessons about race and racism. Some have argued the lessons are teaching children to hate their country.

Related:Texas approves social studies tweaks to comply with anti-critical race theory law

James pushed back on that idea.

“I joined the military after a year of ethnic studies courses because it actually made me say, ‘America is worth the full investment of my talent, my energy, my commitment to this social experiment,’” he said. The study will focus on what can be measured in the classroom.

“While it is taking place within this political context, our research has to remain objective,” James said.

They will hold teacher and student focus groups, compare lesson plans and analyze transcript data.

Lawrence Scott, an associate professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, is another lead researcher. He helped create the African-American studies course approved in Texas in 2020 and heard from teenagers about the power it held for them.

Related:‘A dream come true’: African American studies course gets final approval to be offered across Texas

“We saw students of all races talking about, ‘Now I understand why these disparities and inequities exist, and I have more empathy for my brother from another race, my sister of another race,’ ” he said.

Texas’ history of ethnic studies

Advocates say the state’s diversity is not always reflected in schools’ history lessons. Children need to see themselves reflected in the story of their country, James said.

The Texas State Board of Education adopted Mexican-American studies standards in 2018, after years of advocacy. The African-American studies class — largely modeled after Dallas ISD’s innovative course — gained approval two years later. Both are elective courses.

More than half of Texas’ 5.5 million public school students are Hispanic. White students make up about a quarter of enrollment, while Black students constitute about 13% of those attending Texas schools. About 5% of public school students are Asian.

Related:North Texas course on Native American history, culture aims to combat stereotypes

“If you want people to find their purpose in helping to perfect America, they actually have to see the role that their ancestors played in the country,” James said.

Over the past year, several students and parents have asked the State Board of Education to expand its ethnic studies offerings.

Education officials are preparing a proposal for a statewide American Indian/Native Studies elective, which was piloted in Grand Prairie. Many people urge the creation of an Asian-American studies course. A Round Rock ISD high school is piloting a class now.

Too often, advocates say, diverse communities are mentioned in history books only because of atrocities inflicted on them. These ethnic studies courses take a different approach.

Related:Texas schools need course highlighting Asian Americans, advocates say

African-American studies in action

It’s easy to get students hooked, DISD’s Smith said. Her classes do immersive projects, such as creating a “museum” of Texas’ historically Black colleges and universities to display in the school’s library.

Related:Texas’ new African-American class expands after a summer of Black Lives Matters demonstrations

On a recent Friday, her students began a lesson about the Harlem Renaissance. Smith guided them through Langston Hughes’ poetry, played them Bessie Smith’s music and showed them Jacob Lawrence’s paintings.

“The writers, the artists and the musicians are going to focus inward. They’re going to focus on themselves — the African-American community,” she told her students. “They’re not asking themselves, ‘Will every single group enjoy it?’ They’re simply making it for themselves. And then, of course, everyone else can enjoy it.”

Roughly 1,920 DISD students take African-American studies. About 2,360 are in Mexican-American studies.

For 16-year-old Madison Jackson, Smith’s lessons take her much deeper than other history courses.

“Whenever I was younger, it was more surface level. You just go through the timeline of what happened: slavery, civil rights movement,” she said. In Smith’s classroom, “We go through the other events that actually happened.”

Teacher Tracy Smith led a discussion of the Harlem Renaissance during an AP African American Studies class at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy on Dec. 15, 2023, in Dallas. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Political pressure

The findings that stem from the researchers’ study could help shape the debate over the future of ethnic studies in Texas.

Statewide, nearly 10,800 students enrolled in Mexican-American studies last year, while about 8,400 took African-American studies.

There appears to be a hunger for more. During a State Board of Education meeting last year, students and advocates asked for lessons that break down stereotypes and show role models within the Asian community.

State Board of Education member Aicha Davis, a Dallas Democrat, is a staunch advocate for these classes.

Still, Davis is cognizant of the politicization of history lessons, with conservatives across Texas tapping into anti-critical race theory rhetoric.

Related:What is critical race theory? Behind the concept that is impacting Texas school elections

Critical race theory is an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism. Conservative pundits in recent years have decried it, conflating it with diversity and inclusion efforts, anti-racism training and multicultural lessons.

Texas passed an “anti-CRT” law in 2021. Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, told his House colleagues his legislation was necessary “at a time when racial tensions are at a boiling point” and that “we don’t need to burden our kids with guilt for racial crimes they had nothing to do with.”

Related:Students worry Texas will ban AP African American studies course, following Florida

Some Black history classes were in the political crosshairs. Last year, for example, Florida barred a new Advanced Placement course on African-American studies. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the lessons were pushing a political agenda.

“Ethnic studies have nothing to worry about as long as they teach history,” Toth said in an emailed statement this week. “There is no place for revisionist history in Texas classrooms. Let’s give the brutal facts. Let’s not blame people for things they had no control over — like the color of their skin or what their great, great, great, great, grandparents did.”

Sherry Sylvester, with the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, noted Texas laws do not ban the teaching of Black history. The anti-CRT law, she said, ensures social studies classes don’t teach the 1619 Project and “the premise that every American institution is rooted in racism that hopelessly persists throughout our society today.”

The 1619 Project is an award-winning initiative of The New York Times that reframed American history around slavery’s consequences and the contributions of Black people.

Davis said she hears positive feedback from students enrolled in the various courses delving into diverse experiences and cultures.

“Overwhelmingly, I hear the same things: The course helps the students to open their mind and be more respectful to all of those around them,” she said.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.

Talia Richman, Staff writer. Talia is a reporter for The Dallas Morning News Education Lab. A Dallas native, she attended Richardson High School and graduated from the University of Maryland. She previously covered schools and City Hall for The Baltimore Sun.

Whatever happened to Foxfire? Still glowing? by Carl Glickman, Phi Delta Kappan

This is a blog about Ethnic Studies for white people who may feel left out of the Ethnic Studies conversation, and that's unfortunate, as we all need to know each others' histories, cultures, and stories. To this end, this is a powerful story published in the Phi Delta Kappan of a social justice curriculum in one such community that I was reminded of at a Kappa Delta Pi Diversity Summit that I attended this morning. I just located this wonderful piece by my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Carl Glickman, that documents the 50-year impact of this social justice curriculum in the Appalachian town of Mountain City in Rabun County, Georgia, otherwise termed, "Foxfire." It's important that we share these stories as they are educative in and of themselves. However, they further illustrate how those of us of all backgrounds have a stake in the Ethnic Studies movement. Enjoy! 

-Angela Valenzuela 

#EthnicStudiesNow

Whatever happened to Foxfire? Still glowing?

Carl Glickman | February 1, 2016




Fifty years later, Foxfire’s practices are often embraced by educators, even if they no longer know its name.

A first-year teacher was frustrated over the behavior of his bored and belligerent high school students, many from the small Appalachian town of Mountain City in Rabun County, Ga. He confronted them about their behavior and asked them what would make English class more interesting. After some discussion, students agreed that they would rather learn the state-required English curriculum of composition, punctuation, and sentence usage through a class project.

Together, the teacher, Eliot Wigginton, and students decided to create a community magazine and call it Foxfire, which was named for the glowing, green fungus found on decaying trees in the adjacent forest. The year was 1966.

What began as one teacher’s pursuit of making learning interesting for one small group of students helped change beliefs about the potential of ordinary students to become deeply involved in school learning. The teacher’s approach put to action John Dewey’s progressive premise that classroom learning should be a form of democratic life in which students actively demonstrate their knowledge and skills by immediately using them to improve society (Wigginton, 1985).

Foxfire was perhaps the best example of this premise for its time. Said researcher Julie Oliver about the school, “Foxfire is distinctive in the history of American education owing to its legacy of . . . student work outside the classroom. One might argue that Foxfire did this as well as any other pedagogical program for public school students in the history of American education” (Oliver, 2011, p. 125-126.).

The Foxfire magazine was intended to help preserve local Appalachian culture including history, labor, music, crafts, arts, and spiritual and religious beliefs. Students contributed feature articles, interviews, drawings, and photos of neighbors and family members to the magazine. The first magazine sold for 50 cents, and the cost of production was 65 cents. The classroom experiment would soon go broke, but after positive reviews by editors of local and state newspapers, increases in price, and grants from local merchants, the project was saved.

By 1972, the magazine had attracted widespread interest from outsiders who wanted to know more about living on the land, self-sustaining farming, and the pioneer ways of everyday life. That year, students selected their best stories from previous issues and compiled them into what was to become an annual Foxfire book published by Doubleday Press. The first volume made The New York Times best-seller list.

Then came more best-selling books (over 9 million copies sold), a nationally distributed movie, a 32-building Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center on Black Rock Mountain in Georgia, multiple archived collections of Appalachian life, and three decades of courses and workshops on the Foxfire Approach to Teaching and Learning for teacher education students, practicing teachers, and school leaders across the country. Royalties and donations over the years have accounted for more than $1 million in college scholarships to Rabun County high school students, and new scholarships continue to be given every year. Foxfire — both the magazine and the broader part of its work — became a national phenomenon with a well-endowed, nonprofit organization to support its work. But later tumultuous times threatened to wipe out the organization.

Foxfire had an enormous influence on the students in Rabun County, Oliver said. “Foxfire provided . . . extraordinary opportunities for students to build communication skills. By requiring students to conduct interviews, speak on behalf of Foxfire at various organizations, . . . students were given opportunities that most high school students would never receive in a more conventional curriculum program. . . . Students learned, through their work with Foxfire, to appreciate and better understand the older generations and the past. . . . Students developed a greater appreciation for their native culture and with that developed the confidence that they could carry themselves proudly as mountain people anywhere. The result was that Foxfire students became more productive citizens in our democracy” (Oliver, 2011, p. 208).

Evaluating Foxfire

I returned to Black Rock Mountain recently after an absence of more than 20 years and couldn’t help but think about the issues of sustainability in education and whether Foxfire could be judged as a success or failure. In the mid-1980s, I headed a University of Georgia network of public schools called the Georgia League of Professional Schools, which focused on democracy, education, and public purpose (Glickman, 1993). We partnered with Foxfire to provide professional development to K-12 classroom teachers eager to engage their students in learning activities that extended into their communities. That collaboration with Foxfire continued until 1992.

In every education endeavor, unilateral claims of success and failure are highly suspect. Education is a social science, not a hard science of strictly controlled studies, and a major element is the period of time in which the program is evaluated — its first five, 15, 30, or 50 years. I chose the longest term since this year marks Foxfire’s 50th anniversary. So has Foxfire’s approach to education been a success?

As Oliver pointed out, Foxfire clearly benefited many students in Rabun County and continues to do so today. As an outreach effort to influence classrooms and schools throughout the nation, according to teacher survey responses, Foxfire had a major effect on individual classrooms in schools that were members of the Foxfire Regional Networks in the 1980s and 1990s. But today, the name Foxfire is no longer used to describe education practices that support student activity, audience, and service to the community. I reviewed the research on current activity-centered programs that have kinship to the core practices of Foxfire. Those programs have titles such as project-based learning, place-based education, deep learning, academic service learning, experiential learning, and civic learning. These programs boast many examples and studies showing student success in academic achievement, higher interest in learning, lower dropout rates, and progress beyond school in both higher education and professional careers, and greater participation as adult citizens in local and state affairs. Few of them, however, credit Foxfire with showing that these practices could work in real schools.

Can an education approach to learning be successful if nobody uses its name? I think the answer is yes. Foxfire influenced many of the current, progressive education practices. The downside is that these practices have not become as widespread as they should. Educational approaches that promote student engagement and student contribution remain a glaring need for all students. Unfortunately, such experiential, inquiry-oriented learning is often only found in honors classes or in those with gifted students and in schools with a preponderance of students from middle to high socioeconomic backgrounds. The students who need an active and contributory education most are the ones who receive it least (Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, 2011; Levinson, 2012; Levine, 2007).

Navigating troubled waters

I alluded to tumultuous times with Foxfire. How these difficulties have been navigated is particularly relevant to education and schools and communities of the future.

For many reasons, Foxfire has no business to be still standing and planning for its next 50 years. After Foxfire reached its national iconic stature, Wigginton was named Georgia Teacher of the Year in 1986 and received the MacArthur “genius” award in 1989. But, in 1992, he was indicted for child molestation, pleaded guilty, served prison time, and was ordered out of state, and removed from any further involvement with the program. He was convicted on a single count, but prosecutors contended that his victims numbered many more.


Due to public outrage, Foxfire was nearly disbanded. But current and former students took it upon themselves to post notices on the windows of downtown businesses asking the community to keep the program and museum alive.

It was tough going for many years. A Foxfire board member volunteered his time to negotiate legal settlements, which helped the organization avoid bankruptcy. But then the program encountered other financial problems, which forced former students, staff, community and board members to make difficult cuts in Foxfire’s expenses and to reorganize staff to protect the Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center, the Foxfire class in the local high school, and a different, trimmed-down education program for teachers taken over by nearby Piedmont College. The essence of the Foxfire premise survived (Rechtman, 2015). The local community, students, and Foxfire board and staff never stopped believing in the worth of their students who have made such a difference in preserving the past and countering the negative stereotypes of mountain people.

I surmise that Foxfire, less known nationally as a reform approach to teaching and learning, will remain vibrant in the place it was created. It belongs to the community as an irreplaceable contribution to the world showing the staying power of students, classrooms, and schools partnering with their community to make education a contribution to both. This past October, Foxfire received a 2015 Georgia Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities for its sustained contributions to the welfare of schools and communities. It is unrealistic to think that every classroom and school along with its community could replicate what happened over 50 years ago in Rabun County resulting in best-selling journals and books and a vast museum. Yet it is realistic and imperative to expect that students today can apply what they are learning in English, math, science, history, and the arts to making their communities healthier, more caring, economically viable, and aesthetically better places to live. That would be the ultimate success for Foxfire and for our country.

References

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. (2011). Guardian of democracy: Report of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. Silver Spring, MD: Author. www.civicmissionofschools.org.

Glickman, C. (1993). Renewing America’s schools: A guide for school-based action. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Levine, P. (2007). The future of democracy: Developing the next generation of American citizens. Medford, MA: Tufts University Press.

Levinson, M. (2012). No citizen left behind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Oliver, J. (2011). The story and legacy of the Foxfire cultural journalism program (Doctoral dissertation). University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

Rechtman, J. (2015, November 2). Jamil’s Georgia: Foxfire, still aglow — after catastrophic event, an organization’s lessons learned. The Saporta Report. http://saportareport.com/foxfire-still-aglow-after-catastrophic-event-an-organizations-lessons-learned/

Wigginton, E. (1985). Sometimes a shining moment: The Foxfire experience, 20 years teaching in a high school classroom. New York, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.



Foxfire Core Practices

Modified over the years, the Foxfire Core Practices include these:From the beginning, learner choice, design, and revision infuses the work teachers and learners do together to fulfill all curricula givens.
The teacher serves as facilitator and collaborator.
The work teachers and learners do together clearly manifests the attributes of the academic disciplines involved, so those attributes become habits of mind.
The work teachers and learners do together enables learners to make connections between classroom work, the surrounding communities, and the world beyond their communities.
Active learning, in an atmosphere of trust and equity, characterizes classroom activities.
The learning process entails imagination and creativity.
Classroom work includes peer teaching, small group work, and teamwork.
The work of the classroom serves audiences beyond the teacher, thereby evoking the best efforts by the learners and providing feedback for improving performances.
The work teachers and learners do together includes challenging, ongoing assessment and evaluation that then guide subsequent work toward higher levels of achievement and understanding.
Reflection, an essential activity, takes place at key points throughout the work.

Source: The Core Practices. http://paws.wce.edu/mherzog/foxfire.htm

Citation: Glickman, C. (2016). Whatever happened to Foxfire: Still glowing? Phi Delta Kappan, 97 (5), 55-59.

CARL GLICKMAN (cglick@uga.edu) is university professor emeritus of education, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. He is a member of the board of the nonprofit Foxfire Fund, Inc. This essay is not an official position or statement of Foxfire Foundation.