This week the reading focused on how the literacy we read in the classroom shapes how we read the world. This applies to not just literacy, our entire schooling shapes how we read the world based on actions, implications, and even unintentional biases. When I was in school, the students with disabilities were separated out from the regular classroom for most of the classes during the day up until grade 9 when they would be permanently separated from the regular classroom. This caused me to think that students with disabilities are different than me and should be treated very differently. This action led me to believe that people with disabilities should be separated from the rest of society which really is not fair. Most of the literature I read in my English classes were about white family’s written by white men (Shakespeare) and sometimes women. This applied to almost all of my classes. Learning about famous white male scientists, historians and authors shaped some of my biases about what a woman, or people of other ethnicities can and cannot do. Most of our Indigenous perspectives felt like they were being forced into the classroom and were pulled out of thin air. We did read quite a few Indigenous poems but the reading made me think about how we could have been asked more applicable and deeper thinking questions about these poems. Another bias or lens that I bring into the classroom is that white teachers work better with white students, the same goes for African American or Indigenous. The reading mentioned that although it is helpful to share culture and traditions, there are problems with assuming that this is the case (p. 77). Often students will identify in a few different categories of ethnicities and might need another perspective to connect with.
Some single stories that were presented in the school were about white heterosexual people getting more representation and attention in the classroom. My schooling did not mention very much about different ethnicities either. I did not learn about Asian, African American, Indian or any other ethnicity other than the Indigenous peoples. The only book I read about racism was The Help which I read on my own time.
After having the opportunity to read both your blog post and the resources for this week, I can see many of the ways you have experienced literacy in the school context. Certain classes were not established such as Treaty Education, and for classes that were in place, there were no other perspectives discussed. I think another way this limits students learning is through how they interact with the content. If there is no chance for land-based learning or discussion circles then only some students are able to engage.