I continuously strive to embed Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) in to my classroom and into the courses of the department I lead.
Every single English course no matter the grade level or pathway looks at concepts such as racism, discrimination, privilege, equity and marginalization.
Last year, I previously wrote about the impact of teaching through a social-justice lens on students. You can see that blog post here. Although the resistance is limited from the students, the resistance is being heard loudly from some other teachers.
- “Stick to the English curriculum.”
- “English courses should not teach ideological concepts.”
- “It’s the teacher’s job to tech them how to be a better English student. The parents can teach them how to be a good person.”
When I hear these statements from other teachers, my instinct is to want to roll my eyes and balk however, that’s not what I do.
Instead, I listen. When people have concerns, it’s important to understand where those concerns are coming from. Creating a space for the others to share their concerns is so powerful. Once you’ve heard the concerns, you are able to take the time to mitigate some of their fears.
The concept of fear has so many layers that I’ll explore further.
Fear of change. Teaching is a difficult job. It’s so hard to figure out what works to engage our students but to also figure out how to ensure students can succeed. Once teachers find something that works, they have likely spent hundreds of hours getting there and once there, it can be difficult to be told to throw that away and try something different. For example, in the past, I used to use the text Of Mice and Men. I taught it through an anti-oppression lens. I taught the concept of marginalization in great detail. I lead a workshop about language and how it was used to oppress but also how it harms individuals who are the recipient of discriminatory language. I know the text and the activities I designed engaged students but also taught them important lessons. It took me years to figure out how to do it well. With my school board’s new policy, I cannot use that text anymore. This creates fear because it will take me years to find another text and to figure out what will work. We can overcome this by designing evaluation tasks that are not dependent on a text. That allows us to easily swap out texts while minimizing how many things within a unit we need to re-design.
Fear of the unknown. When teaching something new, mistakes happen. I may not know the answer to a student’s question or may not know how to overcome an unforeseen obstacle. This fear can lead teachers to be reluctant to welcome change. Many teachers feel like they need to know everything and be the vessel of information. However, we need to change our position to being facilitators of learning. That allows students to be empowered by learning alongside the teacher in a journey of exploration.
Fear of confrontation. When talking about topics that involve inclusion, it can often challenge the values that parents are instilling in their children. This can create confrontation. I’ve encountered students and parents who have said that the things I’m teaching go against their beliefs or religion. For example, I talk about the Canadian Human Rights Code which outlines that individuals of the GLBTQ+ group deserve equal treatment. This has led to confrontations with students in my class and angry parent emails and phone calls. These confrontations can shake a teacher and, if I were a new teacher, it would probably deter me. However, we need to always seek the support of our administration in situations like these. Inclusion is board policy and if we’re doing what our job mandates, then we need to recruit a team of defenders who will advocate for us.
Why? Why should we create a classroom where students see themselves? Why should we embrace cultural and linguistic identity and diversity?
- One of the roles of education is to teach students how to be citizens in society. We live in a global world so teaching topics such as diversity and equity allow students to learn how to be global citizens. They learn how to communicate and collaborate with other students who are different from them.
- If we teach about inclusion and create an inclusive space, then students will feel safe. When students feel safe, they will engage and take risks in their learning. That’s when authentic and meaningful learning occurs. That’s when growth happens and when students see their own growth and learning, it fosters a growth mindset.
- Learning about people from different cultures and with different linguistic identities helps to dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. Confronting our own personal biases and stereotypes allows us to critically think to draw conclusion rooted in facts and experiences.
When students are learning skills that will help them function as a citizen in their community, city, country and world, that’s when students are participating in authentic and relevant knowledge construction. #SPARKC
Stories from a 21st Century Classroom 