Using your own educational experiences to date, how did you see teachers honoring 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 education environments and relationships with all students?
In my elementary education, I found that the curriculum dictated what was taught in class, so I was weaned on a colonial perspective as opposed being exposed to other ways of knowing, thinking, and doing. Naturally, whoever the curriculum represented was who felt invited into the classroom. In high school, however, we were often given the freedom to express our knowing in our way. In my history courses, traditional exams were replaced with projects. Students could use their artistry to create posters and other visual representations, while they still had the choice to write traditional papers if they chose to do so. Students were encouraged to seek out topics that were related to their culture, as long as it was relevant to the learning outcomes. Through these freedoms, teachers established a sense of community, where different perspectives were welcomed and encouraged in classroom discussions. We weren’t given strict “prompts” to follow, but were offered opportunities to learn in a way that was meaningful to us. We each performed our part in establishing a collective knowledge: one that was not solely based on colonial ways of knowing.
I believe teachers can build invitational learning environments by making the course content as diverse as the curriculum allows. Learning strictly about colonial perspectives can isolate students of other cultures, for they might feel they are being underrepresented, or not represented at all. For example, instead of reading poetry strictly from English poets (such as Shakespeare), teachers should seek out poetry of different cultures, and see how the style and content compares. This inclusion will not only make course content more diverse, but it will invite more students to actively participate.
