The article "Teaching for Equity and Justice" calls for classroom practices that are
- Grounded in students' lives,
- Involving critical thinking,
- Multicultural, anti-bias, and pro-justice,
- Participatory and experiential,
- Hopeful, kind, and visionary,
- Activist,
- Academically rigorous, and
- Culturally sensitive.
We all know that we need to find a way to include multicultural stories and perspectives in our classrooms. But what do we do if the curriculum we're given doesn't have "enough" diversity? How can we supplement what we are given with several perspectives, all within a small amount of instructional time?
- What aspects of your classroom management strategy incorporate these traits?
- What parts of your instructional strategy allow for hands-on work, engagement, and academic diversity?
- How would you respond to a student or parent who expresses distress over our history of racism (as in "Unsung Heroes" by Howard Zinn). How would you respond to a student or parent who expresses dissatisfaction (racism, homophobia, conservatism, etc.) over your curricular choices?
I believe that having a multicultural classroom library may be useful given your address to the limited instructional time one may have as a teacher in addressing inclusion issues.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if a parent had issue with my curricular choices I would try and focus their attention on the content the text provided (such as Persepolis as a bildungsroman, good visual aid for students, examples of metaphor and imagery) and tell that parent that those reasons are what guided my decisions in including that text, and that I viewed the multiculturalism as just provided with the text.
I agree with Rebecca. I also believe having a classroom library is VERY useful if a teacher is faced with the dilemma of incorporating multicultural stories and perspectives with only a small amount of instructional time. With a classroom library that include multiple genres that embody messages of anti-bias and pro-justice, and includes characters of different races and backgrounds (which are apart of being "multicultural") during independent reading, students will most likely choose a book that embodies these principles giving them that multicultural perspective that you as the teacher may not have been able to do formally. If a parent express disapproval over my curricular choices I would again, like Rebecca try to focus their attention to something other than the subject or topic they may be distressed over. I would try to show them a bigger picture and explain to the parent my reasoning on teaching such material.
ReplyDeleteSome students may not go for the diverse books in the classroom library. A lot of the time, books featuring diverse characters are limited to certain genres that certain students might not find interesting. (Of course, the diversity-and-genre thing opens a whole other can of worms that I won't go into...) Additionally, by pushing diverse books into the library, without affording them any direct classroom attention, you might fail to make your classroom see those perspectives. Specifically covering a book in class, you can draw attention to important themes surrounding diversity and multiculturalism, that students might not notice if they're reading independently.
ReplyDeleteReading diverse books for fun is important, because they will learn many different perspectives. But it also means that they're not exploring the topics very deeply. How could you draw students toward those kinds of books and themes if they're only reading them for fun?
How do you feel about things like Black History Month, Women's History Month, or April Poetry Month? Would you follow that kind of schedule, or would you try to incorporate people with diverse backgrounds into the curriculum throughout the year?