Of course no one person can enter a classroom completely biased free because you have some background information on the children you will be teaching. If you happen to be a new teacher there is plenty of information on the web (infoworks) that provide you with information on the school and city or town.
Walking into my VIPS experience I wanted to be a close to biased free as possible. I did this by not looking up the school on infoworks, which left me to think on my own what the school might be like. The only real biased I had was of the location of the school, in which I had only heard bad things about growing up. I wanted to have an open mind walking into this experience and I wanted to leave it with knowing that I was part of the solution!
"You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem." -Eldridge Cleaver
While I was growing up I attended a predominately white school. The school was 96 percent White, one percent African American, two percent Asian, and one percent Hispanic. The school I tutor in is 61 percent Hispanic, twenty percent White, 16 percent African American and four percent Asian. Its obvious this was going to be a new experience for me, but I was ready more than ever.
The advantages of teaching in this class would be that it is a diverse classroom setting, but a challenge may be a language barrier. I mentioned this in one of my other posts as well. I do believe that even though there may be a language barrier I would still try to find ways to make it easy for the parents and I to communitcate without it being uncomfortable.
Johnson's article Our House is one Fire, I believe fits in here! In Johnsons article he says " The problem with race is not a problem of difference. The problem is a society oraganized around differences that are significant only in relation to and oppressive system of privilege." I do believe that what I quoted from Johnson's article is completely true, I feel this way because when I think back to my political science class I recall when we talked about Brown v. Board of Education and the black codes and when there was cases brought to the surpreme court, they kind of denied what the laws really were saying and making up there own version of them to satisfy the court decision. One example would be when the law said to desgregate the schools, but yet there were students who were not allowed into white schools, or the state wanted to take its time instead of just doing it quickly.
Hi Maeghan,
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this i feel like i was the same way when entering into the classroom, i think being free of bias thoughts is one of the best ways to go into the experiences that we went through. The whole not knowing factor is what really interests me and keeps me on my toes, you never know what students are going to say or do. I also thought it was interesting when you talked about having a diverse classroom is and advantage, i was just curious in who you feel that it is advantage to you? I feel the same way because becoming teachers we are going to be lifelong learners. An with having diverse classes of students we will broadening our knowledge because we will be able to learn more about different backgrounds and ethnicity's. Although it i nice that alot of middle class white students are in the education program, i feel it would be nice to see a more diverse group of people so white people don't feel that they have a privilege over any other race in the teaching Field. I feel as if we are all equal in this world, no one person is better than another. As teachers i think this is something we should teach to our students so that later in life maybe they will become teachers and teach it to the students or even just there family and friends. It is important to make people feel special and wanted, this is what makes alot of people strive to be the best and that is what we want for all of our students.
I feel it is an advantage to both the student and teacher! I believe that for the teacher you are learning more about the different cultures and the kids are bringing new things to the class that you have never known before! Secondly for the teacher if the students are fluent in another language I believe that you could have a few lessons where the children teach the class their natvie language and so on and so fourth. For the student it can be enriching by them learning new things on a culture that they may know little about as well. It can be a learning experience for everyone!
ReplyDeleteHi Maeghan,
ReplyDeleteYou discuss your desire to reduce your bias by not gathering information ahead of time on your students. I understand your reasoning--it is best to form your own opinion about students. On the the other hand, we need to plan our curriculum. If we do so without knowing anything about our students, we risk having a unilateral, teacher-centered curriculum.
The other part of examining bias is taking stock of your own biases that come from your past experiences. We cannot reduce or challenge biases that we do not recognize.
I love your Johnson quote. I believe that it is the central argument. Your application of that to your political science class is excellent.
Keep thinking on these things,
Dr. August