Culture is married to history and there is no getting around that. For a long time I struggled with the idea of creating anti racist curriculum - specifically having difficulty understanding the difference between an “Anti Racist” lesson and just a “not racist” lesson. Culture is similar, in which it’s essential to encompass compassion and understanding in order to achieve relevance. You can’t simply celebrate a culture, you have to encompass it in the learning. I believe a successful teacher needs to understand the culture in order to become empathetic of the students. It’s important to become tied to the culture in some way. Not simply an outsider. As a teacher the connection is going to start with the students. Learning what they know, what their history is, what their daily lives look like in order to connect with them on more than a superficial level.
The one sentence in A Barrio Pedagogy that struck me as so obvious, so important yet so overlooked was when Tina said “ Looking at our own history and culture was really important, it gives you pride and makes you feel like you belong.”
It’s really hard to put yourself in the shoes of a different culture, especially when you don’t know a lot about it. I think my best resource for learning about those other cultures is going to be my future students, but as they did in the reading, it’s going to be so important to establish trust and a safe space. The more I think about it and the more that I recognize the systematic racism that these children go through in their young lives, the more I start to understand just how challenging it will be to provide that.
If a student doesn’t feel like they belong, or have had instances of racism that made them feel unwelcome, it’s going to be uncomfortable for them to present information, history and background on those things one on one, let alone in front of the entire class.
As I read the “I Am” poems I also wonder what it was exactly the teacher wrote and shared with the class. I’m trying to imagine what I might share to put kids on the right path and to open myself up to them as a person.
I would need to write something age appropriate that they could relate to on a basic level. I might include something silly like I like bees, hopscotch, chips and salsa, etc. but I also need to include deeper things so the students can begin to feel comfortable and interested in sharing things about themselves. For me as a future teacher this already feels like it’s going to be one of the hardest things for me but I also know it’s going to be one of the most important. Opening up and sharing with the students. Connecting with them, so they can feel safe connecting with me and with each other.
"Our praxis helps us to understand that the opportunity to create a picture that is representative of the students' interpretations of the concept, theory or key word is the opportunity to construct new understanding and add meaning."
It took a while to decipher the meaning of this particular quote but my interpretation is that this practice helps you realize that by having the students illustrate their understanding of a concept and discuss it, it opens up the chance to offer them new understandings of those concepts. When the student gives you insight into their understanding of something, that's when the teaching and deeper learning begins.
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