I grew up going to a predominantly white, middle-class school. Through this educational experience, I have found many biases and misconceptions about certain topics. Our history classes were unintentionally ‘whitewashed’ and I found coming to University eye-opening.
One thing I really appreciate about this class and many others that I have taken thus far is the transparency. I have found value in being open and honest with students about not knowing it all but working towards knowledge from numerous perspectives. Many topics in this course and others have challenged me to think beyond myself and realize my own biases. Before coming into education I thought I had no biases, wow was I ever wrong.
This week we read Chapter 7 from Kumashiro Against Common Sense. This chapter was filled with great points and suggestions for reading against racism and oppression through English literature. I think it is important to realize the preconceived biases we have even in the texts we read. Kumashiro makes a great point in also suggesting that we have biases in the questions we ask ourselves in response to texts.
The reading from Kumashiro and the video The Danger of a Single Story go hand-in-hand for the topic of bias education and literature. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains the effects of her access to only predominately white books as a child. This supports the notion of the importance of picking the best books and having meaningful conversations about them. In my schooling many of the single stories told were about white settlers, white poets and white scientists. Because of my education experiences, I am going to have to be even more concious of my own biases as I continue on into teaching.