These are the prompts for this particular blog post, my answers to both are below.
- How has your upbringing/schooling shaped how you “read the world?” What biases and lenses do you bring to the classroom? How might we unlearn / work against these biases?
- Which “single stories” were present in your own schooling? Whose truth mattered?
Bias is definitely a tricky thing, well not all of us believe that we have a bias, that's just not true. I have many of my own personal biases, such as a bias for judeo-christian values, my generally conservative viewpoints, as well as other personal beliefs. I grew up going to a Catholic School which somewhat supported my biases growing up, as I come from a Christian family.
For myself personally, despite going to a Catholic School my beliefs were constantly challenged and I was constantly told that I was wrong and that I needed to change what I believed from teachers to my peers. My politics were almost never welcomed growing up, or in high school as many people don't try to understand my "biases". It was not an enjoyable environment to grow in and I don't want to develop that environment for my students. While many people think Catholicism and Christianity are the same, they are not. And that caused a lot of issues for me in my early years.
I always attempt to remain unbiased in a teaching environment, I think it's extremely important to do that so that children can develop their own identities and opinions. That's my overall classroom goal.
When it comes to "single stories" my perspective on many things were shunned, and nobody bothered to try to understand anything I was bringing to the table. It was really toxic from all sides, luckily as I've grown older I've found better ways to introduce my values and I still always give the other person the ability to defend themselves and their position. However, religiously and politically motivated issues are all I can really speak on as that's all I remember from my early and later schooling.
Hey, I liked your take on this subject. I didn't think of it from a political or religious viewpoint so it was nice to consider what my biases would look like after reading your discussion.
ReplyDeleteI can relate a bit to what you are saying. In my home town we have a catholic school system that runs from grades K-8 and a public school system that runs from K-12. That being said, when the catholic students reach grade 9 they are forced to transfer into public school were there views are not commonly valued and there are many arguments that surface based on religious values. These arguments could have been avoided if both sides were given time to defend themselves and open their eyes to not just the single story and more to what the world has to offer.
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