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Mobilizing Equity and Social Justice through Teacher Activism Paper

The concept of teaching for diverse and equitable classroom requires that every teacher should

be aware of what constitutes a classroom in Ontario. We should understand what is meant by

diverse classrooms and why and how they may be equitable. It is this consideration that brings

into play issues like racism, classism, islamophobia and homophobia, just to name a few, which

are all areas in which every teacher requires an understanding of the dynamics to maintain a

certain balance in a classroom. Ontario has a rich cultural diversity which is reflected in our

classrooms. Diversity means difference, in this case difference in ideology, dressing, food,

language, skin color, etc. Difference is a source of strength but could be used otherwise when

interpreted from a narrow-minded perspective, which makes the teacher’s role even more vital.

It is very important to know how to act and speak when we are in a diverse classroom situation

because we may be ignorantly offensive to certain people which may pass the wrong message

and/create adverse effects. Also understanding history and perspectives may be to our

advantage so we do not have the “‘Aboriginal people are not the only people here” (St.

Verna,2011), attitude. Our goal in education is to make the classroom as comfortable as possible

for every student so that learning may effectively take place.

As a teacher it is our duty to make sure that our classroom is conducive and inclusive for all our

students, which requires a certain degree of activism. How we do this, depends on us as

individuals but at times our goal may prescribe how we go about it. Thus, we may want to

consider what we want to stand up for, create awareness about, or resist. My activism will be to

promote disruptive knowledge, by making my classroom a safe place where students may
express alternative ideas and learn different points of views. They should be able to navigate the

world with an open mind or rather challenge what they already know by “… changing how we

read normalcy and otherness…”. (Kumashiro p.45). It is different in the sense that it creates an

awareness in students and establishes a thought process in them which in a way conditions them

to see things from a purely objective perspective. From this standpoint let’s consider

multiculturalism in Canada. The grand narrative is that it is good, positive and inclusive, but when

considered from the view point of Verna St. Denis,” Multiculturalism is a form of colonialism and

works to distract from the recognition of inherent Indigenous rights.” Telling both sides of the

story gives the students choice to be able to use whole knowledges to construct what makes the

most sense to them and what they could term the truth. This helps to stop as Kumashiro puts it,”

…the repetition of harmful “knowledges” (both partial knowledges like stereotypes, and

presumably whole knowledges like neo-Marxist grand narratives…” (Kumashiro ,2000)

Another key topic where my version of teacher activism could prove very vital is gender/

identity. Who we are and who the world sees us, may be two different entities that must be

reconciled for purposes of real identity. The notion of gender or how people want to be seen is

very complex. The gender a person may be comfortable with may not always correspond with

his/her physical self or the gender attributed to them at birth. Therefore, we must not always

assume the gender of any person based solely on physical appearance, but understand that for

each person we don’t know, there is a possibility of them identifying with any of the existing

gender groups we know, as well as the ones we do not know despite their physical appearance.

It is only in a forum where students are provoked to think beyond the ‘normal’ or question the

raison d’etre of the obvious that they may understand and familiarize themselves with the
complexities of issues like gender and identity. This is part of the diversity in our classrooms and

we have to prepare our students to be able to understand and accept this to eliminate bullying

and homophobia. We as teachers should, “…advocate an approach to anti‐homophobia

education that seeks change through the creation of all three moments, and that locates anti‐

homophobia strategies on points in a constellation of “safe moments”, “positive moments”, and

“queering moments”. (Tara Goldstein, 2007)

Teaching makes people learn things, rethink what they already know, and consider the

usefulness what they know. To even talk of social activism, we need to be able know our rights

and discern the injustices done to us or other people we fight for. Teaching lays a solid foundation

for this to occur.” Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves

in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that

challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total

context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly

critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges,

followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as

committed”. (Paolo Freire,2000). Activism implies change and change does not affect everybody

in the same way. Thus, in putting up a fight to change the way students perceive and understand

we should be ready to resist the system in place and the power that be who draw their strengths

from the proliferation of injustices that this change may influence.

Although I think not all teachers need to be activists, activism is inherent in teaching because

if we want to apply the teaching professional ethical standards, then we will have to be open to

a degree of activism. A teacher would not be showing care to his/her students if their daily lives
are characterized by injustices to which the teacher gives a luke-warm attitude. In this light, I

must say the teaching profession presents quite a few opportunities for this to happen. For

instance, there are a lot of topics in social studies that any teacher may use for activism. e.g.

Global citizenship. If a teacher is interested in advocating for indigenous concerns, Heritage and

Identity will be relevant. Health and Physical education also have openings for issues pertaining

to gender and identity or cyber bullying. The teacher deals with children who are the future, what

they learn today is strategic for our future. However, the scope of action of the teacher is limited

by some policies and the responsibility of being relevant with the curriculum.

References:

Freire, P. (2000). Chapter 1. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed: New York; Bloomsbury. P. 43-70

Gaztambide-Fernandez, R. (2011). A Cultural Production View of Approaches to Anti-Oppressive Inclusion. In

Through Inclusive Curriculum. Toronto: OISE/UT, pp. 13-14.

Tema Okun, (2006) From White Racist to White AntiRacist: The Life-Long Journey. dRworks

Kumashiro, K. (2000). Toward a Theory of AntiOppressive Education. Review of Educational Research (January), 70

(1), pg. 25-53

St. Denis, Verna (2011) Silencing Aboriginal Curricular Content and Perspectives Through Multiculturalism: “There

Are Other Children Here”. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 33(4) p. 306-317

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Theory into

Practice 34(3) p. 159-165

Tara Goldstein, et al (2007) Safe, Positive and Queering Moments in Teaching Education and Schooling: A

conceptual framework. Teaching Education 18(3) Page p.183-199

Gorski P. (2008) The Myth of the Culture of Poverty

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