Beautiful Question Project
Beautiful Question: What if there were more classrooms around the country that reflected the diverse landscape of the United States in their curriculum and in their student populations?
The subject of diversity in education has deeply intrigued me, especially when I attended a majority white institution for high school. I decided to center my beautiful question around the disporpprtionate reality of diverse representation in education that is disadvantageous to minority racial groups and those in lower socioeconomic levels. It is commonly said that education is the great equalizer but as we see the correlation between low-income schools with majority minority populations and low high-school graduation rates, is this caveat simply a pipe dream? The motivation behind my question stems from a 2012 report showing that more than 15 percent of the nation’s African-American students still attended “apartheid schools,” a term coined by Gary Orfield, the codirector of the Civil Rights project at UCLA, to describe schools in which at least 99 percent of the students are black. Overall, my question is more leadership-focused, due to the fact that it is questioning the educational systems of our time and beckons the individual to consider and implement change into the issue of diversity in education.
In Warren Berger’s novel, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, he provides a framework for formulating questions to spark actionable change. Berger posits that in this incredible globalized and ever-changing world that we live in, one should begin to value the innate human action of curiosity and begin to raise more questions than expect answers. He dispels the myths of curiosity equating childishness, and that even a simple question can even evoke actionable change. This framework for actionable inquiry follows with a What If/How/Why beginning, to try to bring “semblance of order to a questioning process that is, by its nature, chaotic and unpredictable” (Berger 33). Reflecting Berger’s ideology, this process of asking more questions than seeking specific answers, has led me to think more about the issue I chose through multiple perspectives. In my question, I wanted to be a little less specific and look at diversity and education and see the effect of the issue through many facets to truly dig deep into the root cause of this systematic injustice. I feel as my question not only forces one to step back and see the big picture, but it allows more future conversations about diversity and the education realm, about those who are receiving the education and those who are leading the class.
In Professor Chris De Pree’s (Professor of Astronomy) lecture, I learned that even the simplest questions can spark change through the process of asking. A beautiful question does not need to be overly specific and can be simple and broad to challenge and promote more inquiries about the subject. That is why I chose to allow my question to be less specific and have two key factors to analyze that can provide an understanding of bigger problems in our society. This way the subject matter of the question not only illuminates other issues in this systematic injustice but links these issues by a common theme that is helpful to further constructive action.
Through Professor Andrew Hayes’ (Professor of Theatre Studies) lecture on the connection between theatre and leadership, he shows that theatre has left an indelible mark on social and political movements that has helped answer and create questions that help shape society today and in the future. One of the questions we discussed in this rotation regards history of diversity in theatric performances, both on stage and behind the scenes. This relates to my question’s premise since it elucidates the concept of the power of diverse representation that can be used to empower and influence the audience or beneficiaries. This rotation helped me frame my questions subject matter of how diverse representation in the educational space reaps more benefits than it sows and helps questions how this is not a reality today. Along with its poignant subject matter, this question is actionable in its approach since it illuminates a systemic problem that is rooted in many other issues, which helps bring more issues to the spotlight to analyze and solve further.
Works Cited
Berger, Warren. A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
