My upbringing/schooling has shaped how I read the world into a narrow tunnel. Although I was not raised to be racist, judgmental, or oppressive to those of diversity around me, it does not mean that I wasn’t. I definitely read the world with a white settlers eye. A young, white, female eye. I challenged “sexist” jokes and was not aware of my white privilege until I began university. I admit that I was warned to be weary of first nations people in the street. I was told of the biased and assumed opinions of how all First Nations are perceived within society. I was made to see them in a negative light without any rightful justification. I was not aware of how racist I am until attending university. I am not intentionally racist. I do my best as to not offend, but I do partially blame the literacy’s to which I was exposed to in my schooling for thirteen years. Although I was in the Advanced Placement English, and I do feel as though we were introduced to quality books in which challenged discourses and provided diversity, it was not main points of discussion. And most only involved Dark skinned characters in respect to racism. We did not approach any other forms of perspective such as sexual identities and they were definitely not valued as main characters or important to positive plot structures to support diversity.
As an educator, I bring the biases to the fact that I am female, white settler of an abled body. I cannot correlate personally to the diversities to which will be present within my classroom. I need to work against these biases by ensuring that I greet every person who enters my room with love and hospitality. Everyone is of equal value and importance within my classroom and they must be aware of the safe space our classroom is. I will also supply resources within my classroom library that engages in celebrating diversity and provides examples of all student diversities which may be present within my classroom. My students need to feel appreciated, important, and acknowledged.
The “single stories” which were present in my schooling were of the teachers biases, which in my case were all white settlers. And all educators never once approached the topic of Treaty Education within my thirteen years. The white settlers truth mattered. THAT was the Canadian history. And no other perspectives were noted within history. Was always the whites. Even in representing diversity in the classroom, there was no support of diversity in the posters on the wall or in the majority of resources used. Discussions were not even had in supporting and approaching different perspectives and races or abilities or identities. The teachers biases are the ones in which take over in a classroom, and as a future educator I hope to avoid this from happening. I hope my studies in teaching anti-oppressive education has helped me to engage appropriately with diversities in the classroom. I feel as though I am gaining the knowledge to incorporate quality reading resources into my classroom as well as how to engage in creating safe spaces for my students such as supporting the LGBTQ+ community as well as engaging with the Treaty Education appropriately.