(My sixth grade teacher)...She taught us about racial injustice...how to be informed consumers...the design and unique qualities of Native art... I took solace in the fact that it wasn't (for lack of better words) primarily European-Canadian. As long as it wasn't "white", it applied to me. I felt a membership to the concepts of race."
S . Rana
An excerpt on my engagement in school from "Why (Not) Me?: Attaining a Position of Privilege Through My Teachers
Social Context of Education - Spring/Summer 2011
Social Context of Education
AS AN EDUCATOR AND LEADER - For many teachers, it is very easy to evaluate others, but it's very difficult to look inwards, and evaluate ourselves. This course, and furthermore this degree, forced us to do just that.
This course forced me to take a very insular view of how my life was in the elementary and secondary panel. I saw the effects bias, antagonism, privilege, socioeconomic status, race, religion, sexuality, gender, and inclusion (just to name a few) may have had on my educational experience, and how they influenced my point of view. Class discussions, both synchronous and asynchronous, were often controversial, at-times heated, but always enlightening. This course allowed me to engage in a lived-experience paper that truly changed my life. Yes - my life.
This course forced me to take a very insular view of how my life was in the elementary and secondary panel. I saw the effects bias, antagonism, privilege, socioeconomic status, race, religion, sexuality, gender, and inclusion (just to name a few) may have had on my educational experience, and how they influenced my point of view. Class discussions, both synchronous and asynchronous, were often controversial, at-times heated, but always enlightening. This course allowed me to engage in a lived-experience paper that truly changed my life. Yes - my life.
Often, the self-worth of students is lost at the hands of negative teachers, peers, or school experiences. This course compelled me to hear the experiences of other former students (my peers), and compare their experiences to my own.
I felt, that overall, my elementary school experience was above average. All experiences one would think I endured being a Muslim visible minority of two middle-class immigrant parents in Brantford, Ontario were contrary to my actual experiences. I feel that because of the reflection I had done about my experiences in the Ontario elementary panel, supported by theory and research, I have a better insight as to what pivotal role teachers play when it comes to a student engaging with the curriculum, and developing his/her own sense of self-worth, confidence, and efficacy.
However, in this course and through my research of my own lived experience paper, I did not have to go far to find an experience that was contrary to my own. My brother, seven years my elder, had the opposite experience that I did. As an accomplished student of law, and once former hip-hop artist in the Canadian music industry, he was quoted in an online magazine saying:
"..I owe my politicization and anti-racist framework to my experiences there (Brantford) and to the racists who made growing up there miserable…(then) I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X in grade eight and it changed my life, contextualizing my identity as a Muslim in the West and gave me the courage to confront, what I believed at the time, was an inherently corrupt system designed to see me fail.”
(S. Rana, 2008)
From both my experience and my brother's, I realized that be it teachers or a figure, something needs to speak to students in their education in order to engage them to learn. If the identity of a student is ignored, denigrated, or disregarded, engagement will be one of many other issues the student will lack in a learning environment. 'Who a student is' needs to be acknowledged and admired by teachers. A sense of believing in the student is needed for the student to believe he/she can learn, and take his learning to higher levels.
As I stated in my lived experience paper, I believe I was privileged. I am unsure of why my teachers advocated for me, provided me every opportunity possible to learn at a higher level, why they appreciated my perspective in the class, and why they brought topics that revolved around my interest into the classroom, but they did; and it took my elementary experience to levels I remember still to this day. However, I know vicariously through my own brother how one can be disengaged, forgotten, and suffer at the hands of teachers' low expectations and social ills such as racism.
I now know, both as a teacher and leader in education, I must place faith and positive energy in all students I work with. I must believe there is something they are all good at. If ever they demonstrate some interest or passion to me, I must play on that and allow the student to flourish. This is student engagement at its most basic level. Get to know your students, play on their passions, and believe in them.
Finally, never stop looking inwards. I must continue to acknowledge that as a human, I am prone to fall victim to bias, skewed, and uninformed perspectives. I must keep reviewing my point of view, and checking who I am. For the wrong that festers within me could negatively affect the lives of my students.
I felt, that overall, my elementary school experience was above average. All experiences one would think I endured being a Muslim visible minority of two middle-class immigrant parents in Brantford, Ontario were contrary to my actual experiences. I feel that because of the reflection I had done about my experiences in the Ontario elementary panel, supported by theory and research, I have a better insight as to what pivotal role teachers play when it comes to a student engaging with the curriculum, and developing his/her own sense of self-worth, confidence, and efficacy.
However, in this course and through my research of my own lived experience paper, I did not have to go far to find an experience that was contrary to my own. My brother, seven years my elder, had the opposite experience that I did. As an accomplished student of law, and once former hip-hop artist in the Canadian music industry, he was quoted in an online magazine saying:
"..I owe my politicization and anti-racist framework to my experiences there (Brantford) and to the racists who made growing up there miserable…(then) I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X in grade eight and it changed my life, contextualizing my identity as a Muslim in the West and gave me the courage to confront, what I believed at the time, was an inherently corrupt system designed to see me fail.”
(S. Rana, 2008)
From both my experience and my brother's, I realized that be it teachers or a figure, something needs to speak to students in their education in order to engage them to learn. If the identity of a student is ignored, denigrated, or disregarded, engagement will be one of many other issues the student will lack in a learning environment. 'Who a student is' needs to be acknowledged and admired by teachers. A sense of believing in the student is needed for the student to believe he/she can learn, and take his learning to higher levels.
As I stated in my lived experience paper, I believe I was privileged. I am unsure of why my teachers advocated for me, provided me every opportunity possible to learn at a higher level, why they appreciated my perspective in the class, and why they brought topics that revolved around my interest into the classroom, but they did; and it took my elementary experience to levels I remember still to this day. However, I know vicariously through my own brother how one can be disengaged, forgotten, and suffer at the hands of teachers' low expectations and social ills such as racism.
I now know, both as a teacher and leader in education, I must place faith and positive energy in all students I work with. I must believe there is something they are all good at. If ever they demonstrate some interest or passion to me, I must play on that and allow the student to flourish. This is student engagement at its most basic level. Get to know your students, play on their passions, and believe in them.
Finally, never stop looking inwards. I must continue to acknowledge that as a human, I am prone to fall victim to bias, skewed, and uninformed perspectives. I must keep reviewing my point of view, and checking who I am. For the wrong that festers within me could negatively affect the lives of my students.
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