Focus Question 1: Teachers, Knowledge, Building Relationships: Invitation and Hospitality Core Questions: Using your own educational experiences to date, how did you see teachers honouring different ways of knowing and doing in the classroom? In what ways did teachers build a sense of community in the classroom? In what ways can teachers build hospitable and invitational educational environments and relationships with all students?
Learning in different environments has offered me perspectives on how teachers express invitation and hospitality within the classroom and the students. Teachers in the Philippines do not really have a choice but to instruct what the education department has given them. Although they honour ways of knowing by making sure students sufficiently know the information, having to teach more than five classrooms the same subject everyday makes it difficult for them to be flexible. One thing I dislike about the education system in the Philippines is the government makes the final exams in which follows the general information that they think students has learned in their classrooms. Students typically do not acquire similar materials in the finals, which results in generally low mark. The teachers in Philippines know this, so they would treat the final examinations like a quiz, and it has little to zero effect in students marks whether they got a low or high mark. In comparison, Canadian teachers have more voice and power to control what they are instructing the students. This allows them to assess students’ needs and plan accordingly to what students prefer. Consequently, Canadian instructors are more able to honour different ways of knowing and doing. In an education perspective, Filipino teachers would have more of a robotic teaching method while Canadian teachers would be more hands-on with their methods. Furthermore, they have built a sense of community in the classroom by engaging the students to participate in group activities. For instance, I remember my Mathematics teacher setting up a game based on the topic that we had just covered to help us learn and have fun. These types of exercises allow students and teachers to have a connection and positive relationships with each other. Another example is teachers setting up field activities for students so that they can forge a bond outside of classrooms. For example, another Mathematics teacher of mine gave us a group activity in which we would calculate the angles and distances of buildings around our school. Since teamwork is required for this activity, my groupmates and I have established a sense of connection in which we used to complete the activity. Overall, groupwork activities help students to feel a sense of invitation and hospitality in a way that they can communicate with each other and build relationships both inside and outside of the classroom.
Focus Question 2: Students & Learning Environment: Focus on places, spaces, and boundaries Core Questions: Using your own educational experiences, what did the learning environment look like? Describe and draw a sketch of what your classrooms looked like as you went through the grades. How did your classroom space indicate power relationships in your classrooms? Did the space in your classrooms provide you with opportunities to engage with all students in your classrooms? How did this space make you feel? What could teachers do to make classroom spaces more relational?
Classrooms in the Philippines are not as pleasant as the rooms in Canada, but it has its positives as Canadian classroom has its negatives. In a Philippine classroom, students are seated right beside each other, which means there are no personal boundaries or spaces for them. In a confined space, there are roughly 45 to 50 students compacted together and are seated in an old, wooden, sometimes broken, armchairs. However, this minimal space allowed the students to be more connected with each other and develop relationships. I am not fond of initiating conversations, so being seated beside a classmate encourages me to establish a connection with them. Comparing my experiences in a more spacious classroom like the Canadian classrooms, I was unable to make connections as much. My friends are still Filipinos in a Canadian classroom. It feels terribly uncomfortable talking with other races because the way us Filipinos talk with each other are relatively different than talking with other races. They might take what we conceive is a joke as an insult. As a result, I remain more comfortable talking with fellow Filipino classmates, and I think this could equally be applied to other students of various races. Considering my perspectives, I would say that Canadian classrooms did not provide to me opportunities to engage with all students. Even though we had a small classroom space in the Philippines, the connection, and the friendships we have made are incomparable to a more pleasant classroom space but lack any relationships. Teachers should make the classroom spaces more engagement friendly. For example, arrange the seats so that students are seated beside a student whom they do not know. Then, assign group activities in which motivate students to work with their seatmates to create conversations and possible friendships. As an introvert, it was hard for me to engage conversations unless I am assigned in group projects and/or discussions. These activities extremely helped me to engage in conversations and make friends since I could not entirely trust myself in making up conversations. Classroom spaces and seating arrangements truly impact the dynamics in a classroom. A confined space may not provide space and boundaries for students, but it allows students to greet strangers and turn them into acquaintances. Spacious classrooms allow for boundaries and privacies, but it confines students to engage merely around their area rather than the whole classroom.
Focus Question 3: Truth & Reconciliation Core Questions: Describe what you learned in your K-12 education about Indigenous history in Canada. What have you learned as an adult through media, family, friends and other learning experiences? As you read through the TRC booklet-Truth & Reconciliation: What is it about? What messages resonate with you? What do you need and want to learn more about? What would you do for a call to action?
Although I did not learn any Canadian Indigenous history in my elementary years, I have acquired a great amount of information in my later school years. During my early high school education, I was enlightened about the Indian Act; the set of rules the Canadian government have applied to Indigenous people as a way of restricting them of the land. Second, I learned about the status cards and how they are withdrawn from Indigenous women when they marry a non-Indigenous man. It is devastating for me to know that they must categorize themselves as Indigenous people and place such restrictions in terms of marriage. My later years of high school have taught me the sinister part of the Indigenous history: the “60s scoop”, the residential schools, the missing women, and the freezing deaths. My family or friends are not generally aware of Indigenous history because they did not learn Canadian history in their school years. The media, however, has provided a ton of information about the current Indigenous and Canadian government affairs. For instance, the media has reported the discovered unmarked graves that were just discovered years after the horrifying residential schools; this proved that people should pay more attention and listen to the stories of the survivors because it is difficult for them to share their stories. We are talking about the unknown children who may never be identified because of schools removing their names, culture, and languages. Another modern problem that the Indigenous people are suffering from is not having clean water at the reserves; while the cities are thriving with clean drinking water, Indigenous people had to settle with unclean water in an area provided by the government. People should pay attention to this news because it shows Canada’s real progress through the “Truth and Reconciliation.” The TRC booklet (2016) reveals information about the survivors and lessons to the readers about the definition of “Truth” and “Reconciliation.” Canadians must realize that it is time to confront the very “truth” no matter “how horrible it is” (p. 2). The part that most resonated with the was how “Canadians…value DIVERSITY” and yet we “tried to eliminate an entire culture of people whose only crime was being DIFFERENT” (p. 11). It is saddening how this “crime” is not entirely a crime. However, the Canadian government has seen it as one and tried to erase the culture from Indigenous people. Ultimately, they tried to remove the history for people to be informed of the “crime” the government had committed.
References
Canadian Teachers’ Federation. (2016). Truth and reconciliation, what is it about? : a discussion booklet for the classroom, grades 5 to 12. Ottawa, Ontario Winnipeg: Canadian Teachers’ Federation National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, University of Manitoba.