Blog Post #10

My upbringing/schooling has shaped how I “read the world” by providing a narrow view into storytelling. I had more variation of views and worlds when I was in elementary school. We read a lot of stories by First Nations and Metis authors and received more perspectives through their voices. However, in high school, all of the literature was through a Eurocentric perspective. I find it interesting that there is such a drastic change on providing resources to students that have multiple perspectives.

While thinking about my own personal biases that I would bring into the classroom, it’s sad to admit that unconscious bias will always be a part of teaching. I believe that we are making progress as educators if we acknowledge that these biases exist. We do our students a disservice when we ignore what will always be apart of our teaching process. For example, our personal feelings about a student or their behaviour in the classroom should not be used as a grading tool to determine if that student has completed a particular outcome or not. I think this plays into how the education system continues through the same cycle as teachers tend to teach through the perspectives that they were taught, and this is were repetition occurs.

I think we might unlearn or work against these biases by offering development programs for administration and staff. These are important to having discussions with colleagues on resources to use as a school community to change certain biases teachers may have. In addition, teachers could also self-reflect on their personal biases after each unit and brainstorm ideas of how to change their content in positive ways. Some questions that could be asked: Are students being treated equally in all aspects of the classroom? Assessments, grades, etc.

Which single stories were present in my own schooling? Usually the perspectives of white males. All of the stories studied in high school were written by British male authors in 1590, 1600, 1862, 1954, and 2002. I missed reading perspectives from contemporary authors, females, LGBTQ community, Indigenous perspectives, and other various cultural views. The main characters were always heroic males who survived some type of tragic event. All of the novels were termed “classic” but had very repetitious plots. The white male perspective seemed to be the only truth that mattered in education.