The readings of this week focused specifically on issues surrounding race and gender inequality found in all societies around the world, and how these prejudices or discriminations work within and between each other to shape a person’s experience. Being able to understand how these aspects of human experience interact on a personal and professional level as teachers is extremely important. Personal and social beliefs based on race, gender, religion and all other hierarchical perceptions will usually play a role in student, teacher and community interaction and understanding in classrooms. It is therefore important as a teacher to recognize how differences between students can positively or negatively affect their time at school.
The first reading I read was What It’s Like to Travel as a Black Women. This article was written by black women discussing her experiences travelling to different parts of the world. One thing I found extremely interesting is how in certain situations, her skin colour contributed to her feeling invisible (for example, when a friend said “no one goes” to a market that was very popular in the black community), while in other situations, she was too visible, and for extremely biased and inappropriate reasons (another example being when she went to Spain and was mistaken as a prostitute). This article really emphasized how different people are able to experience the same thing (in this case, travelling) in such different ways based only on their personal characteristics and identities. As a teacher, it is critical to take into consideration how student’s experiences will vary because of differences between the students. Every child will have a different past and will be affected by things differently in the classroom. Therefore, teachers should remain sensitive to individual experience while promoting positivity and understanding between the students in the class. A teacher should also be aware of who they are and how society’s pre-determined and skewed perception of who they are shapes their own experiences. This sensitivity, however, should not be mistaken for lowered expectations of weakness. Students should be pushed to express their best selves in and outside the classroom while growing to be aware and respectful toward others’ personal identities and experiences. This concept of reflecting upon personal experience in a world full of intersecting beliefs is seen in more detail in the second reading, I wouldn’t want to be a woman in the Middle East: White female student teachers and the narrative of the oppressed Muslim woman. This piece speaks mainly to white female teachers entering the teaching profession and their perception of patriarchal structures around the world. More specifically, the author feels that white women tend to use the narrative of oppressed women in the Middle East as a contrast to their own lives in order to diminish any personal experiences of patriarchal oppression in the western world. In a society where people are placed in concrete binaries or ‘us’ and ‘them’, Muslim women are seen as the ‘other’, lesser group in comparison to white women. This can, in turn, remove attention from the other powerful binary of men and women, while creating negative and unequal space between different women. These binaries are so harmful as they are always created in order to benefit one side. In a binary, one group is always superior, leaving the other group to be seen as the ‘lesser’; less deserving of opportunity, less important, less ideal. The author of this article suggests that white women must consider their role in western patriarchy instead of harmfully comparing themselves to women with other forms of intersecting differences. In a way, it is almost as if western women make themselves feel more liberated by putting other women down instead of facing the true issues at hand. I found it important that the author clarified that she was not arguing that Muslim women were not oppressed; rather, she was arguing that female oppression occurs in all areas of the world, in all races and in all classes, and that no discrimination should be avoided by focusing on other groups. I found this reading very interesting and the author brought up points that I as a white female teacher have not had much opportunity to consider. As I was able to clearly see in the first paper, personal experience and “social positionality” play major roles in personal experiences and perceptions of the world. As mentioned, it is important to consider social differences when reflecting upon the student experience. Nonetheless, it is equally as important to consider that a teacher’s knowledge is also structured on their position and experiences. This will, just as equally, play a major role of student-teacher, teacher-teacher and teacher-community interaction. As a white female teacher, I must reflect on my position and my experiences and realize how they shape me and the way I teach and interact with others. Only then can I authentically present ideas, build relationships and better understand societal norms and individual perceptions of the world.
1 Comment
linda radford
10/17/2015 09:28:34 pm
Nicole, Thank you for writing another post that really tries to get beneath the significance of what the readings offer. I especially appreciate how you are using the last reading as a mirror to think about your own social positionality. You are doing some very important work here!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2015
Categories |