“When the reflected image is generally positive , the individual (adult or child) will be able to a feel that she is worthwhile and competent. When the reflection is generally negative, it is extremely difficult to maintain a coherent sense of self-worth.”

Doucet, F., & Suarez-Orozco, C. (2006) Ethnic identity and schooling: The experience of Haitian immigrant youth. (pp. 168)

Doucet and Suarez-Orozco explain that a child’s sense of self is profoundly shaped by the reflection mirrored back to her by significant others. I think this is crucially important for teachers to recognize and address. What are lessons saying about certain people – are the pictures on the wall representative of the students in a class, is whiteness decentered in the classroom? I, as a white female, in school  never had to question that someone who looked like me could be successful in our society. While powerful and successful white women likely appeared less than powerful and successful white men in my textbooks and on posters around the school and in my classrooms, they were nevertheless present. Because my “reflected image” was positive, both from seeing successful people who looked like me and my teacher affirming my white, middle class norms, I could come to see myself as someone who is competent and feel worthwhile.

The teaching force in the U.S. is made up of mostly white individuals whose schooling experience, I would guess, was one in which positive representations of people who looked like them was given. While positive white presentation is already in our textbooks, on posters, and in the media and the effects of that positive representation may go unnoticed because it is the norm, I think it it critically important that teachers work to provide positive representations for all of their students. If a teacher who is not intentional about showing a diverse representation of successful people, students of color may internalize a message of people of color being less than. As Doucet and Suarez-Orozco explain, youth may respond to a negative social mirror by becoming resigned to negative reflections leading to self-defeating behaviors. This doesn’t have to be the case, however! The authors also write that “As educators, we have a responsibility to place tolerance – and even celebration – of cultural differences at the very core of our educational agenda” (pp. 182). All children in a classroom should feel that they are valued, that their culture is valued, and that they have a place in this world. One crucial way to ensure this is meaningful and intentional positive representation of all students.