The average teacher who reads this will be white, female, and in their thirties according to the OECD, UK Government, NCES, and various academic articles; but should I allow such averages to inform how I design my lessons?
As the world of education begins to slowly engage with pedagogies that are more inclusive, decolonised, and anti-racist, a remaining point of failure across the board is the use of data.
Our use of simple statistics whether introducing a country, using real-world numbers such as average salary for applied mathematics or explaining a biological phenomenon, can build harmful generalisations within our classrooms.
In order to Decolonise our pedagogies and teach inclusively, we must consider our use of statistics and our application of mathematics.
So Now Statistics are Racist?
In short, yes.
Racist, ableist, sexist, xenophobic, and elitist.
Statistics are dangerous and when used as a way to represent the world, averages may be the most dangerous of them all.
Averages and per capita normalisation has several failings which cause them to often be inappropriate representations of reality. Generally, extensive data is most easily collected from people who speak the relevant language fluently, have a high enough disposable income to have time to engage with the data collection, and more frequently, appropriate access to the internet and/or the medium through which the data is collected.
Considerations of the impact of the outliers — if a population of 1 million people all earn $20,000, and you simply add the 508 UK premier league football players with an average annual income of 2.6 million per player, the overall average income goes from $20,000 to $21,300.
If just 508 people can shift such an average by 5%, what do our salaried multi-millionaires and billionaires do to our statistics?
Click here for a simple classroom activity to help make this point.
An Example of Decolonised Statistics
Decolonised pedagogies acknowledge and engage with the diversity present in all presentations of reality. Ensuring that the voices and experiences of the people in the context discussed are actively and critically engaged with. A decolonised pedagogy ensures that generalisations are not used without explicit engagement with the common day-to-day experience, and the context which leads to this reality.
Thus, Decolonised pedagogy has critical engagement with data as a central requirement.
Though numbers and statistics may not have their own ‘voice’, and collective data may not have a clear individual behind it, they are used to tacitly narrate people and places.
Above, is an example of how many teachers may introduce a country making use of data to support their students’ ability to ‘paint a picture’ of the country. Yet, these figures often misrepresent and reduce countries to stereotypes especially when used comparatively. Using single data points to generalise is a failure from the get-go, and averages are no different.
Similar to the demonstration of how outliers can impact an average and make life appear much ‘better’ or ‘worse’ based on the numbers. These generalisations can hide the reality of struggles experienced in all countries due to inequality, while also ignoring the successes and contextual positives of data from countries that are frequently generalised negatively.
The UK’s average income is 33k yet over 70% of people in the UK who enter full-time work will never achieve this income. So why do we still make development comparisons using statistics like these?
Averages distort our understanding of the world — a form of generalisation that contributes to the dismissal of challenges and development issues found in the West and the exaggeration of the challenges and developments issues found elsewhere.
A decolonised version of the data above could be as follows:
Through providing contextualised data and comparison for simple averages, the data becomes much richer and gives birth to questions rather than assumptions.
- Why do both capital cities have a higher living cost than their median income?
- How does a countries colonial history influence present-day income and costs of living?
- Is a higher population density better, or what does it tell us?
From these questions, teachers have avenues into deeper discussions that provide a springboard for critical analysis which pulls our students away from harmful generalisations; decolonising the learning in the classroom.
Sites such as World Population Review are great sources of information such as medians which can be compared to averages.
A Realistic and Aspirational Solution
With the ball and chain of limited curriculums and time-limits imposed by examinations, not every lesson can accommodate a deep-dive; but brief engagement, whether ten minutes or a dedicated lesson, can enrich learning and inspire students to look deeper, perhaps completing their own further research as I have experienced in many classes.
How we look at data distinctly changes the questions we ask. Without appropriate and disruptive analysis, we limit our students with norms and generalisations that erase the experiences of communities that form the global majority. Stepping away from ‘Western countries have better numbers than Non-Western countries’ teaches students to be critical of simple statistical representations and understand the value of context, destabilising racism, bigotry and general small-mindedness.
Whether applications of techniques in Science and Math or the critical representation of place in Geography, our use of data implicitly shapes how we interact with the world.
How many of us present careers via an average income rather than an honest look at the reality of the modal income? How many students dive into careers, often at the behest of parents and career advisors, thinking they will earn the 70–100k wage and find themselves overworking, saddled with the modal 30–40k income?
Next time you are introducing real-world figures to your classes, especially in discussions of development and to compare, ask yourself — does this represent the most common experience of this context? Should I be looking at the mean, the mode, or the median for this information?
- When looking for the most common experience you want the median or mode.
- When looking for a representation of a country, use all three and give the students an opportunity to discuss the differences and why they might be there.
Moving away from our reliance on convenient single statistics which oversimplify our learning can protect us from harmful biases and misplaced expectations. This can be achieved with small steps and big questions — if you show the average, show the median or the mode, if you have an outlier, let the students consider why, whenever presenting data, make it clear that this does not represent everyone and discuss who might not be represented.
As we have established, you are not the average teacher. The fact is, it takes an exceptional teacher to consider their practice and improve their teaching for the betterment of their students. Thank you for making it this far, I hope that this article has opened your conception of how to deal with data and use data to support decolonising your classroom. Check out the links below to learn more ways to decolonise your pedagogy:
Using project-based learning to share everyday geographies
Operationalising anti-racist pedagogy in secondary geography classrooms
The truth of a day at school – students vs teachers – an exercise in empathy building
Questions to ask about our learning today – a DEIJ resource
About Daryl Sinclair
Daryl Sinclair is an educator, geographer, and DEIJ specialist who believes in a systems approach to educational success. He champions Systemic Equity™, taking a non-ideological approach to DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) that focuses on practical actions and indicators of impact that create learning environments that realise the learning community’s mission. Through his writing and consultancy work with exam boards, schools, and publishers, he champions the idea that the success of leadership and DEIJ initiatives is in what we DO, not simply what we believe. Daryl’s work focuses on your journey towards consistently equitable outcomes for all members of your learning community.
Take your next step with DEIJ at www.Dsinclairwriting.com/consultancy
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylsinclairgeography/
