The Transition from Student to Teacher

Month: March 2019

ECS 210 Mar. 22nd

a) When looking back upon my time in elementary and high school, I can see the attributes that it formed for my world view. Major contributors to this would mainly be my friends and teachers. I like to think of my friends to a high caliber, but looking back, many made choices and believed things that I would disagree with today. Some even to the degree where I feel that it could change our relationship. Growing up in a small town, I understand that world views are not very diverse, and people tended to gravitate to the one that was the most popular. This ‘contest’ of opinion is something that I feel has allowed me to attempt to look for more than one story, as I never wanted to conform to one side (although this obviously happened). Teachers also were a major impact in shaping how I see the world. I feel as if everyone has had some really bad teachers, and as bad as they were for me at the time, they proved to be beneficial for me. Bad teachers allow me to see the problems with the education system and society today. They reflect the ignorance for the future, as they don’t feel the need to ensure the next generation is properly educated. Conversely, good teachers are what I remember as being the most influential to me. They reflect the change that is being made in the world, and in terms of how see the world, this is one of my highest priorities. 

    Biases have formed as a result of my upbringing and education. My entire life up to university had followed a line that is very stereotypical of a white male. There had been very little diversity in my life, and I think without prior knowledge of the importance of diversity, my biases would most definitely follow me to the classroom. Primarily, my knowledge of what is ‘normal’. I continue to find it challenging to see other ways of life being what others consider to be normal. I embrace the value in learning new things and understanding other perspectives, but I still find an unconscious bias towards believing what I believe to be right. I want to make sure that my students are secure and comfortable with their environment, and unlearning this bias will have a great effect on this. One way I feel could result in unlearning this unconscious bias is to stop generalizing ideas, people and the way people think. This is something that I feel is an incredible task, as generalizing is just something that people do and is virtually unavoidable. However, to work towards being the best educator I can be, I will need to work at avoiding making assumptions. 

b) Single stories were a major contributor to what I knew in high school. Things such rumors were the most prominent to me. Due to the small number of students in my school, when something was said, it really made no difference if the truth came out. Not everyone knew the specific person so their side of the story was seldom heard. This resulted in whatever they said having little to no chance of diffusing. In essence, the only truth that mattered what was originally said, as the full story never reached everyone. This led people to be continually impacted as rumors were often associated with labels. Single stories also allowed for ignorance in my school. Many conversations with those who I knew did not have a big effect on what they thought, as they believed their one-sided opinion was the only opinion to be had. The result of this was prejudice spreading in its own miniature cycle, one that probably started long before I was in school and will continue if educators do not influence students to deter from single stories. 

ECS 210 Mar. 15th

When looking back at my own math education, it seems to me that it did include oppressive aspects in what was taught. My math teachers in high school were very inclusive in their practice, so at first, I couldn’t see any inequity. When revisiting what I had been taught and remembering the way that I learned, there are definitely aspects of eurocentrism. Mainly, example problems played the biggest role. In my earlier years, where diversity wasn’t reflected on as a major priority, the examples focused on problems of the majority. Even in my last years of high school, the math problems where still majority based, although there were some questions that used international problems. For me, this stuck out to me as the most prominent form of inequity to the minorities, but I feel as if my teacher, who was very focused on diversity, allowed for discussions about how math was taught around the world, and was open to new methods that may be culturally different. 

 Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas surrounding math in many ways. One way is teaching math in the language of the Inuit people – Inuktitut. They teach math in Inuktitut until grade 3, where they switch to English. I feel as if this creates a foundation for these students, as learning math is already not an easy task. Students who immigrate to Canada at a young age are put at a disadvantage, as they have to learn math, as well as English at the same time. Another way is the basis that they use for math itself. Math in public Canadian education is a base ten model, wile the Inuit model is a base twenty model, with a sub-base of five. This is due to the cultural differences between the Eurocentric model that Canada has adopted, and the Inuit model. Both serve their cultural purpose in their own environments. I find it hard to picture a mathematical world where we don’t use base ten, but this is solely due to me being so accustomed to it. The one major way that I felt was most pivotal on the influence of mathematics education was language. Inuktitut is a language that is based on three vowels and fourteen consonants. Furthermore, it is a suffix-based language. This is very different when compared to English, where there is five vowels and twenty-one consonants. This language change acts as a barrier for Inuit students, and I can imagine it being very difficult to learn a new language to expand upon my education of a subject I had already started to understand. 

ECS 210 Mar. 7th

I feel as if my education provided me with limited opportunities to learn about citizenship. The three types of education were not mentioned during my education, although the values of each were taught subconsciously. During school, my understanding of the three types of citizenship had never been looked at consciously until now. I can remember teachers teaching students to become personally responsible, participatory and justice oriented, but not what they are outright. Primarily, citizenship was addressed in my education as more of an identity, which permits rights for people of certain citizenships. Out of the three, I believe personal responsibility was the aspect of citizenship that was stressed the most. This was mostly done through the social studies and history curriculums, as it could be considered that politics is a priority for Canadian students to learn. Informing students of how politics work is something I believe should be a priority, as politics has its roots in every other career and social sector. Personal responsibility is always being addressed in schools, through class activities to community service projects. This type of citizenship allows for students to encounter and relate to real-life situations of inequality and need. It can teach important traits such as empathy and urgency for change, as well as promoting integrity and hard work (in both themselves and others).  Contrarily, this creates limitations for those who feel the need for responsibility in order to address problems in society. For example, the marginalized groups in society are still taught to be personally responsible, but there may be social, financial or health-related restrictions that create difficulties in fulfilling what they are taught.