Month: November 2021

“As a Sort of Blanket Term”: Qualitative Analysis of Queer Sexual Identity Marking]: In what ways is queer sexual identity marking both similar to and distinct from other forms of sexuality marking? 

– I find it very interesting that the term queer as a sexual identity label can mean different things to different people, depending on the situation. Since sexual orientation and identity is such a multi-faceted concept, most people understand it through three different dimensions: attraction, behavior, identity, but these three alone still leave room for more. “Sexuality marking serves as a way to assert one’s sexuality to others through language. Behaviour, aesthetics, and/or other non-verbal cues” (Kolker, 1339). It is fascinating how sexual marking can vary in different forms, from wearing a pride flag, aesthetically gender non-conforming appearances, and calling our statement jokes such as “no homo.” Sexuality marking can be used to express whether an individual is gay or not. The term queer has a unique history and marking. “Queer not only refers to an identity label but a framework of thought though queer theory.”(Kolker,1340). Queer is the umbrella term that accepts anyone instead of assimilation to the norm.

[Queering Curriculum Studies]: What does integrating queerness into curriculum studies mean to you? What will it look like, sound like, feel like in your classroom?

– The depths of queerness in curriculum studies go farther than I could have imagined. Colonialism, white heteronormativity, and capitalism are all things I would not have expected to be involved in the queer curriculum. Queerness in the curriculum is essential because a classroom should be where all students feel comfortable and accepted. I want to have a classroom that includes inclusive discussion about queerness as well as inclusive literature. I would not want a classroom heavy with white heteronormativity.

[Post-gay, Political, and Pieced Together- Queer Expectations of Straight Allies]: This research suggests that the idea of allyship is not fixed but can vary within a marginalized population, having different meanings for different people. With this in mind, what are teacher implications for allyship?

• As a future teacher, implications surrounding allyship will be a topic of inclusion. Especially since within a classroom, you have a wide variety of students of all ethnicities.

– I find it very interesting that the term queer as a sexual identity label can mean different things to different people, depending on the situation. Since sexual orientation and identity is such a multi-faceted concept, most people understand it through three different dimensions: attraction, behavior, identity, but these three alone still leave room for more. “Sexuality marking serves as a way to assert one’s sexuality to others through language. Behaviour, aesthetics, and/or other non-verbal cues” (Kolker, 1339). It is fascinating how sexual marking can vary in different forms, from wearing a pride flag, aesthetically gender non-conforming appearances, and calling our statement jokes such as “no homo.” Sexuality marking can be used to express whether an individual is gay or not. The term queer has a unique history and marking. “Queer not only refers to an identity label but a framework of thought though queer theory.”(Kolker,1340). Queer is the umbrella term that accepts anyone instead of assimilation to the norm.

[Queering Curriculum Studies]: What does integrating queerness into curriculum studies mean to you? What will it look like, sound like, feel like in your classroom?

– The depths of queerness in curriculum studies go farther than I could have imagined. Colonialism, white heteronormativity, and capitalism are all things I would not have expected to be involved in the queer curriculum. Queerness in the curriculum is essential because a classroom should be where all students feel comfortable and accepted. I want to have a classroom that includes inclusive discussion about queerness as well as inclusive literature. I would not want a classroom heavy with white heteronormativity.

[Post-gay, Political, and Pieced Together- Queer Expectations of Straight Allies]: This research suggests that the idea of allyship is not fixed but can vary within a marginalized population, having different meanings for different people. With this in mind, what are teacher implications for allyship?

• As a future teacher, implications surrounding allyship will be a topic of inclusion. Especially since within a classroom, you have a wide variety of students of all ethnicities.

1. How has your upbringing/schooling shaped how you “read the world?” What biases and lenses do you bring to the classroom? How might we unlearn / work against these biases?
2. Which “single stories” were present in your own schooling? Whose truth mattered?       

Throughout early education, the single story of the Indigenous peoples was told to the younger students. As a white Canadian student who went to a kindergarten to grade eight school with 100 kids, my classmates were all white Canadians whose families also grew up right where we were growing up. Everyone in our small white rural town grew up with the same beliefs, opinions, and values; all were passed down throughout their children. For myself, I grew up in a home environment that pushed the “Cowboys and Indians” narrative. We watched old western movies with my dad, grandpas, and uncles, and for the majority of my childhood, when I thought of indigenous peoples, I thought of the characters in the John Wayne movies. Building off this “single story” that I already had, our school taught us about Indigenous peoples in ways that catered to our existing “single story.”
In many ways, my early education on Indigenous peoples was very stereotypical. We were taught about their ways of life before colonialization through methods of creating diagrams of their communities and teepees and watching films such as Pocahontas. I now realize that these stories about Indigenous peoples are just feeding the “single story” I already had of the peoples. There were aspects of learning about their culture and history that are valuable and significant information to be taught. However, the way the story is told was of the most significant harm. As I grew older and excelled through my education, the narrative was shifted to after colonialization and the residential schools. In University the Treaty Education, that foundation of Indigenous knowledge can still be embedded in people’s brains. I have seen in people who have not taken classes that have opened them up to the whys and hows of racism. Students came to school young, already with a “single story” of the indigenous peoples, and then they were feed information that just grew that “single story.” So then, as they grew up and learned other aspects of Indigenous history, they still have that blueprint belief that will affect how they absorb the new information, such as Treaty Education. To help these issues, teachers must find ways to teach Treaty Education effectively, and most importantly, the issues need to be stopped at the source. Early education of Indigenous peoples needs to be taught in different ways to eliminate indigenous peoples’ “single story.”

Worldview is all about interpretation of the world, and it can be completely different from culture to culture. One’s values and beliefs are deeply rooted in their culture, so everyone’s worldview is unique to their way of life. Not one specific worldview is better than another is; it is just because some people only can understand their philosophy, values, and customs. The quote states that colonialism “tries to maintain a singular social order by means of force and law, suppressing the diversity of human worldviews. … Typically, this proposition creates oppression and discrimination” (p. 77), representing the belief that the Eurocentric worldview should be dominant. The Eurocentric worldview values linear and singularity, static and objectivity, and using force and law to maintain a particular social order is built upon these values. Whereas the Aboriginal worldview values harmony, balance, and beauty, law and force do not fit within their values and views on culture and law. Discrimination and oppressive actions can also be found within teaching and learning mathematics. The education system is deeply rooted and based on Eurocentric values. Mathematics strongly supports the value of linear and static, it is scientific academia where students work with numbers, and there is one correct answer taught through a teacher. The aboriginal belief and value that education is through experience taught by relatives as well as storytelling. Collectively aboriginal education is focused on creating good people, where mathematics is not a priority. With colonization, both worldviews, Eurocentric and Aboriginal, were mixed for Indigenous people like a jigsaw puzzle.

After reading Poirier’s article: Teaching mathematics and the Inuit Community, identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenges Eurocentric ideas about the purposes of mathematics and the way we learn it.

1. Inuit mathematics challenges the idea that mathematics is a universal language by implementing that Inuit children learn mathematics in their mother tongue. The Inuit also have a base-20 numerical system, their culture and worldview, what they learn in the mathematic world does not benefit them in their day to day life as Inuit.
2. The Inuit also challenge the Eurocentric ideas about math by using their language for the start of a child’s education and their numerical system.
3. The traditional Inuit calendar in mathematics goes against the Eurocentric calendar because it is pretty different. The Inuit traditional calendar is not based on the lunar or solar patterns but on natural independently recurring yearly events that are more connected and meaningful to their culture and way of life.  

Bear, L. L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Batiste (Ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous voice and vision (pp. 77-85). UBC Press.

Poirier, L. (2007). Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 7(1), p. 53-67.