Diversity is ingrained in throughout society and especially in school, but it’s not always recognized in a similar aspect. Diversity is often seen as a visual indicator but is also shown through our process of doing certain tasks. In Leroy Little Bear’s article, he speaks on colonialism’s influence on a single view and oppresses the opportunity of diverse thoughts. This is extremely applicable when it comes to viewpoints or procedures that can be done in separate ways retaining the same result, however the colonial way is often referred to as the “right” way even though the end result is the same. In mathematics, I have been fortunate enough to never have encountered a problem myself with teachers in this way, however I have had a friend who was rather intelligent but solved his problems in his own way. He would almost always get the correct answer, but his method of getting their was unorthodox. He was difficult to learn from because if you couldn’t understand the way he did it, he was really uncertain on how to help.

This is displayed perfectly by both Poirier and Gale in the content we covered. Gale explains how the Inuit system uses their own numeracy system by base 20 instead of the traditional base 10 system that many of us learn throughout our academic careers. Another example of difference that both presenters highlight is that each number can have multiple names depending on the context that the number itself is being used. The most surprising to me was the difference in measurement of time brought forward by Poirier about the measuring of time in months according to the Inuit people. They do not have a standardized calendar with set dates for each month, but measure the months by the activities associated with it. For example he uses the month of september relating to the length the Caribou take to shed their coats. These ideas aren’t seen as “normal” to our colonized eyes which can cause us to see it as wrong therefore giving a sense of discrimination towards the individuals using this system. This is why diversity is more than just visual indicators and must be taken as so when looking into our daily lives. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMroBFmnZxw

Growing up, I think the lens that shaped my perspective in classrooms growing up was my naiveness. I do believe that white privilege is something that certainly affects so many people and doesn’t show itself in communities with very sparse diversity. I believe being a white male in the catholic school system really made me blind to these issues or ways of thinking when it came to being analytical in an inclusive way. It made me think everyone was getting the same support at home as I was, was able to have the same opportunities for extracurriculars as myself, and shared the same viewpoints of myself when relating to personal experiences. Not being self aware is incredibly damaging not only to oneself, but to those we interact with. Having gained this self awareness through my years, I am determined to bring this into my classrooms and address in a way to engage my students. Making them feel bad for how privileged they have been can be damaging and cause more pushback than help. Challenging a student to see, acknowledge, and interpret this difference and act accordingly can make them more insightful and critically think about their approach to education and how they can benefit from it and make a difference themselves. Naivety is one of the largest crutches i had to overcome and I want to bring my experience and insights into the classroom to help students broaden their views.

The most relevant idea of “single story” perspective was when we were separated into Christian Ethics 9 and Health 9 depending on which schools we went to. The public school kids were taught about sexual health, safe practices, etc. while the catholic students were taught about abstinence  and how these ideas were reflected on by the bible. My issue with this is growing up in the catholic system, we were taught very little about sexual education but because we were deemed catholic, we were taught with this single perspective and that this was the correct way. Being put in a seperate class in high school that was supposed to be equivalent in learning outcomes but differed because of the beliefs placed in the catholic system seemed a little unfair to me. Everyone should be learning the same information about these issues especially in our society regardless of your background. Going forward, I was able to get different perspectives on the subjects through other classes which made me once again, more self aware. By no means do I think anyones truth is right or wrong in this scenario as we are all entitled to our own beliefs, but to have unequal learning opportunities based on a school decision seemed a little ridiculous to me. We all deserve equal education on all topics, no matter what walks of life we come from because we may not always agree, but we can always try to see from one another’s perspectives.

Throughout my time in school, I can only recall a few times we had mentions of citizenship or talking about what citizenship means. It wasn’t until really middle years or early high school when I can even recall addressing the issue. Our sovereignty from the British was a big topic for history in later years and the significance of our own identity. The problem with the way I learnt it, was that we got a very eurocentric view on citizenship that really began to mold an almost ignorant view of proper citizenship. Luckily coming form a family of immigrants, it was still easy to the struggles and difficulties there are when it comes to citizenship.

In school I was given a very personally oriented citizen with some teachers taking the initiative and pushing a Justice oriented agenda. Although I graduated nearly a decade ago, it was still extremely eurocentric with little coverage of common events or why they were happening. I admit, even the example we used in class was rather eye opening as I was aware of the situation, but not the underlying circumstances causing it. Having just a personally oriented view on citizenship really makes it hard to be a progressive society and help our students taktion themselves. It does try to promote volunteering and important qualities like compassion which makes them more community oriented, but we need to challenge students to think more critically really look deeper into the issues themselves. Engagement very much is a two way street and until we can get students to actively participate and engage themselves, the shift in orientation towards citizenship will be incredibly hard to change.

The problem of colonization is constantly a battle we face in life and in the classroom. It is evident in the way we speak, the actions we take, and the traditions we carry on. In Learning from place, they conduct an experiment with interactions with elders and youth to determine how succumbed to colonization the youth have become. They use different methods showing for example on how the land is referred to differently by each of the generations or even the disconnect from the land and language itself. The article itself however, also shows brilliant examples of how decolonization and reinhabitation can take place.

The most prominent example is by using the radio documentary to spread awareness and reconnect the community to the land through knowledge and proper use of language. This caused the community as a whole to reconnect through the spread of information from traditional storytelling from elders. This is a great example of decolonization through knowledge by using an elder who is familiar and relatable to the audience to rehabilitate the sense of culture lost by the audience.

Another excellent example is the river trip taken by youth and elders. The elders share their knowledge of the current land through past uses to reconnect the weakened tie by the youth today. It is demonstrated how the abbreviation of the name of the land is an example of lost resemblance and they use direct interaction to involve the youth making it an interactive experience. This directly brings the youth into reconnection to the earth and see the land how their ancestors and elders experienced it before. 

I truly believe both of these examples are incredibly practical and useful applications for the classroom. I am a firm believer in the use of interactive methods to get students involved in their learning. Leading by example and showing your own ability to combat the overwhelming amount of colonization in the classroom allows the students to be engaged with critical thinking.  Showing while participating can engage students directly but this isn’t always applicable to all students. This is why I believe having a variety of tactics is essential. Using relatable and also knowledgeable presenters is always a proactive way to break the paths of colonization by allowing students to get a different perspective on subjects they believe to know

Common Sense has been a term we have thoroughly discussed in class and analyzed as how it impacts us in the classroom. With the definition of commonsense relating to the information and normatives that a particular demographic is accustomed to, how do we determine what makes a good student in the sense of this? In this mindset, a “good” student is going to be a person who follows in the norms of society and doesn’t disrupt the flow of learning. By not questioning why things are the way we see them or challenging our perspectives on the content we are learning, it allows you to mould and go into society with the best possibility of becoming a contributing citizen. This is seen as ideal as the education you are given is circulated back into society fulfilling the holes society needs to fill.

The problems that this can cause is that even though it is developed to fit the “majority” of society, doesn’t mean it is benefiting the individuals participating. With having different ways of learning and perspectives on topics, each student has the opportunity to embrace their uniqueness and contribute to society in their own way. By using the “good” student mould, we discourage the individualism of these students and inhibit their abilities to learn. This makes equality an incredibly difficult goal to reach as this becomes disadvantageous to students simply by the way they process information. This mindset is also incredible favoured towards people with accessibility. Many factors play into this concept such as social class and wealth as they are opportunities for these students to get ahead and fit this mould. Students should be more than rhetorical robots and be free to express themselves as unique individuals.

I chose to do my project on Maxine Greene. I was intrigued by her approach to education through aesthetic approaches and a more creative approach to the curriculum. She believed in teaching about the social imagination and we focus to heavily on the instructional based learning where.students aren’t allowed to question the way things are done. By embracing their creative aspects and approaching problems with an inquisitive focus, it allows students to shape their own identity instead of being molded by the system. She often used metaphors to engage students minds and open them to this aesthetic way of thinking encouraging students to act, think or engage in new ways from the understandings they would perceive interpreting these metaphors. 

She combines philosophy and education to try and achieve these goals. She believed that the school was not only the child’s place of work, but also much like a second home spending large amounts of time there, in turn, should be a place reflecting happiness to encourage students in the environment. She believed that the classroom itself held infinite possibilities and that we as teachers had some responsibility of facilitating that. This included entertaining the non traditional methods of teaching as it explored the unimagined possibilities this kind of openness to creativity nurtures inside of children. Opening new ways of experiencing things leads to new innovative ways of approaching problems that can tackle the ever involving roadblocks we face today.

My approach continuing this is to see the experimental work has been done with aesthetic experience and how we are planning to engage students with it. As someone who is a visual learner, aesthetic experience has always intrigued me in how we can use it to our advantage form the smallest of pictures in classrooms, to organizing projects to engage certain students. I would like to find articles showing the impact these aesthetic learners have had on society and whether this approach is as impactful on society as it can be for individuals. With the constant of integration of technology into classrooms, it would be great to find some innovative strategies to implement this philosophy in classrooms side by side.

The Tyler rationale provides an interesting perspective on curriculum and has a solid address to give optimal learning objectives. It provides a very structured plan to transfer information from the teacher to the student in direct manner. It has set goals, how to accomplish these goals, and what the desired outcome will be for the students. Many of the shop classes we took in high school were structured in this fashion to ensure we learned the proper skills in a particular way in order for us to be successful. There were only certain ways to obtain these skills correctly and made it easy to demonstrate how we were to accomplish these goals.

Although this can be extremely helpful in some aspects, it also limits the students and teachers involved in the process. This type of rationale has only one way of determining whether a student is learning and a very linear way of marking which can really restrict the students to the amount of critical thinking and creativity they may use to solve certain problems. This also in turn shackles the teachers, making it a very straight forward of passing on the knowledge without allowing them to use different methods of teaching to engage different types of learners. This system can be very detrimental to learners who aren’t taken in by direct teaching and need more visual or engaging ways to absorb the information.

This system does however benefit the small group of people who are able to adapt and learn with very basic reciprocative styles. It is organized extremely well to allow students to follow along on how they can be successful and what methods to use in order to attain that as well. This enables students to take the initiative and prepare themsleves in the proper ways to identify how to be successful.