Work that has influenced my teaching...

OKAY! I'm finally going to succumb to the pressure I've receiving about posting a new post. Sooo...this is what I have opted and is somewhat cheating in a sense. Instead of writing something totally new as a new post, I'm just re-using what I wrote for my "journey to become a teacher" assignment. :P

"As for my life in academia, I feel that a great many things have influenced my pedagogical approach. Prior to reading “The Ideology of Racism” by Frances Henry et al, I viewed myself as someone who held no racist views whatsoever. However, after reading this article, I examined my own beliefs and realized that my refusal to see colour as colour was naïve. Although no one espouses racial superiority in contemporary times, modern day racism views certain people of colour as being culturally disposed to deviant and criminal behaviours. I began to see the relation of this within the classrooms and schools I’ve been in, and even within my own attitudes. How many times have I seen a student labeled as ‘behavioural’ or having a learning impediment due to the colour of their skin? Having realized that modern day racism is to regard some cultures as having derogatory cultural characteristics, I am better able to evaluate my own attitudes and practice better discernment in labeling students.

Similar to Frances Henry’s work, the work of Lisa Delpit have influenced my teaching practice. Her book entitled, Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, enabled me to understand that there are power relations within the classroom that correlate to the ones within society. I realized that social and cultural modes of power are produced and reproduced within the classroom everyday. In Canada, where the annual immigration target has been set to 300, 000, there are increasing numbers of immigrant students who might not understand these modes of power. The relevancy of this for my own practice is that, in order to help learners succeed, I need to explicitly tell them the rules of the culture in power. However, what is equally important when revealing the codes of power is to acknowledge and value the cultures that students bring into the classroom. The task for educators then is to affirm the cultural identities of the students, but also to make it known to students that in order for them to participate in the “culture of power,” they need to understand those codes of power. It is my firm belief, as a teacher, that my job requires me to teach more than the prescribed curricula if I truly want students to succeed within our society.

Lastly, I want to briefly explain how the work of Jim Cummins has influenced my journey in becoming a teacher. Since hearing him speak at the Reading for the Love of It conference, I have independently read some of his works. His research mainly focuses on language development, primarily the literacy development of English language learners. Through his work, I was introduced to the plentiful ways of incorporating and validating the cultures and languages immigrant, or bilingual, children bring into the classroom. In particular, his project, in collaboration with Thornwood Public School, has opened my eyes to the wide variety of ways educators can use a student’s native language towards learning a second language (in this case, English). I also began to see that within schools, teachers often relegated the responsibility of the ELL student to the ELL teacher. However, I believe that all teachers are responsible for the learning of the ELL student because language is a medium of expression through all subjects. Therefore the terminology learned in science or math is just as important as the grammar and vocabulary taught in language class. The value of Jim Cummins’ work upon my own pedagogy has been significant, as I am now better able to direct myself in incorporating newcomer students into the classrooms. I believe that the works of Frances Henry, Lisa Delpit, and Jim Cummins have all impacted upon my journey as a teacher, and have taught me how to treat students equitably with respect and sensitivity."