I would like to think that I live a fairly unbiased life, however, this class has definitely brought forth my naiveness to that understanding. As a student, I always had good relationships with my teachers and found it easy to make friends. The school was always comfortable for me, a safe place, somewhere I enjoyed being. I always knew that some people didn’t like school or some of the teachers, but I didn’t really think beyond that. I did not question the deeper meaning as to why they had those negative feelings about school. After taking this class, I now realize that oftentimes, those students did not enjoy school because it wasn’t designed to favour a specific kind of student. A single-sided story of a student who got good grades played on the sports teams and attended SRC meetings was favoured. I bring a number of biases to the classroom, most of which I’m sure I am not even aware of yet. This class has brought forth some of my biases such as that everyone had a positive experience in schools. That they ate supper last night and breakfast this morning. That students all have a welcoming home to go to at the end of the day. I didn’t begin to think about the reason I had such a good experience in school was because my teachers looked and had the same lifestyle as me. Moving forward I need to be conscious of my biases and understand that not everyone has the same walk of life. In being conscious of my biases as a teacher, I hope that it will reflect in my teaching and in my classroom to make an overall more positive experience for all students.
