Reflections of a Teacher

Introduction

The ideal of an evolving school is when it keeps expanding its capacity and the capacity of its teachers in order to accommodate as many diverse students as possible. Hence the first thing that I noticed in this article was part of the title “K-12 School Districts Work to Improve Inclusion Through Teacher Training”. (Healy, 2016) I read this article several times to understand their perspective in trying out different strategies.

What caught my eye

Guilford County Schools (GCS):“…GCS analyzed student data and found that achievement outcome gaps were most profoundly noted around race and class.” (Healy, 2016). This was a surprise as I have blindly maintained that achievement and race or class are not connected all that or they can be managed. I now understand that we do have implicit biases that we become aware of only in certain situations. Since I have not been in a situation with students of multiple race in my classroom, this sentence made me sit back and recheck my views.

To check this, GCS started “…encouraging conversations about social justice, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, in the classroom”. (Healy, 2016) Hence they created a system.

I don’t think the society expects so much from any other profession than teachers. No one seems to understand that a good teacher is made through a series of experiences focused on creating a good teacher. Fresh out of college, how many individuals can be their best? Teachers also need continuous training to come to be their best.

GCS started “…. workshops called Equity Wednesdays “Lunch and Learns.”” (Healy, 2016). These were focused on building teachers’ awareness towards the subject of race, ethnicity and class.

GCS set up a diversity office to understand the challenges of “…LGBTQ individuals and provide them services and safe spaces.” (Healy, 2016) At a very practical level, they are trying to solve the restroom issue for the transgender students.

This is truly an eye opener! For one would never know what the LGBTQ community goes through unless one sees it from their own eyes. I don’t know the result of the experiment but it has made me sensitive to the plight of those who are different from mainstream. How do they live?

Portland Public Schools (PPS): PPS created a program where “…male students are paired with a mentor with whom they meet three times per week during the school year.” (Healy, 2016). What struck me here is the detailing of the program.

In order to have a faculty that reflects diversity too, they decided to “…recruit and retain employees from minority populations”. (Healy, 2016)

Cedar Rapids Community School District: My learning from the article was complete when I read “Simply having diverse students doesn’t do anything to shape their learning environment and instruction,” says Kenneth Morris Jr., the manager of student equity in the Office of Learning and Leadership at CRCSD. “What’s important is the community learning to interact with a multicultural mind-set.” (Healy, 2016)

I realise that these communities worked on 2 dimensions: Mind-set and systems. And I understood why Indian education has repeatedly failed. It has focused on mind-set and not systems.

My own classroom

I need to work on three areas: (1) a multicultural mind-set for myself, (3) getting data about students in my classes and (3) developing systems that makes it possible. One without the others is not of much use. Understanding leads to action and action deepens the understanding. Both work on each other.

(1)

Developing a multi-cultural mind-set is a way of looking at the world. It is “…nurturing the capacity to employ multiple perspectives.” (Segers, 1970). In the current world where so much is at flux by way of social evolution, it becomes imperative to develop a non-judgmental approach, which as I understand is the essence of a multi-cultural mind-set.

This not something that can be localized and like a tap turned on in the classroom and off when outside it. It needs to be a way of life.

This clarity reiterates my base into meditation focused on learning to develop what Jiddu Krishnamurti called, “Awareness is the silent and choice less observation of what is”. (Krishnamurti, J)

So, I would meditate regularly in order to maintain a strong base of acceptance that naturally comes when one is aware.

I would also research on the laws protecting the minorities. For example, I recently discovered that India has a law prohibiting anyone talking down minorities. In a set up that is creating paranoia for Muslim community, I can make students and faculty aware of such a law.


(2)

I would collect data about the diverse students in my classes. India is as diverse as the rest of the world. Even if I have only Indians in my class, I would need to know their backgrounds. And if I have students from other countries, it adds to my data.

• Who are they?
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• Which culture are they from?
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• What is special about their culture?
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• How is it related to developments in Maths?
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• How is the social set up of their culture?
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• Is there a gender bias in the culture related to Maths?

(3)

I would need to develop systems in my class to ensure that inclusion is a way of life. This would be in the form of (1) developing lesson plans that integrate cultural awareness, (2) having collaborative learning as a main fulcrum of my class so that students are repeatedly brought together around a task and work as a team, (3) I would build a skill based curriculum in order for students to be engaged fruitfully around developing skills that will outlast the curricular knowledge and (4) I would bring in a lot of inquiry in the classroom so students learn to ask questions and not take knowledge for granted.

A lot of work around these ideas is on my blog, “humanemaths” (Kochar, 2009). Now that I have understood the nature of my own work, I can do it consciously.

The basis for all my systems would be my core: developing choice less awareness and operate out of it.

References

• Healy, L. (2016). K-12 school districts work to improve inclusion through teacher training. Insight into Diversity. Retrieved from http://www.insightintodiversity.com/k-12-school-districts-work-to-improve-inclusion-through-teacher-training/
• Kochar, M. (2009). reviewing area and % using the newspaper. Retrieved from https://humanemaths.blogspot.com/2009/01/reviewing-area-and-using-newspaper.html
• Krishnamurti, J. (n.d.). Choiceless Awareness: Beyond Myth and Tradition Series. Retrieved from https://kfa.org/teaching/choiceless-awareness-2/
• Segers, R. (1970, January 1). Developing a Multicultural Mindset. Retrieved from http://robsegers.blogspot.com/2014/01/developing-multicultural-mindset.html