Kumashiro: Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice
After reading this article on “common sense” by Kumashiro, my understanding of common sense has differed than previously. This article really helps the reader understand that common sense primarily has to do with where you are from, your background, your community, even the way you are raised. Simply, every body’d common sense will be different because every body’s background is different. In the text, the author travels halfway across the world to become a teacher in Nepal, he quickly realized that their common is much different than someone’s from North America. Simply because of the living conditions they are accustomed to in Nepal. The example I really liked that the author used was the part where one of the students brought up a stick to be used to punish another student by hitting them with it. Just that simple gesture proves how different our way of life is compared to those in Nepal.
That thought then leads me back to my future teaching. In my career I am 100% sure that I will encounter dozens, if not hundreds of students that come from different backgrounds and societies as of those in the text. This reading definitely reminds me that as an educator I need to be mindful of others backgrounds and the differences that we may or may not have grown up in. As an educator it is my goal to be diverse in the classroom and be able to connect with each student no matter where they come from and no matter what conditions they have grown up in. This wont be a simple task, but I do believe it is an achievable one.
Smith 2000: Curriculum theory and practice.
Four Models of curriculum described in the article are:
- Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted.
- Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product.
- Curriculum as process.
- Curriculum as praxis.
In my experience, I would say that all of these models of curriculum were present during my youth in schools. From the beginning, curriculum has always been looked at as what we are going to learn throughout the year as students. Which is true, but this idea can be expanded, and that is where the product and process approach come into play. Thankfully, growing up in sports teams environment I already had a good understanding of the difference between product and process approach. In simple terms, product approach means that the educator only looks at the final outcome of the student that he/she is teaching. Whereas the process approach has a strong focus on HOW the knowledge is being passed down, so basically the events leading up to the final product. Unfortunately, the product approach was prominent in my own schooling experience. I can think of countless times where I was given an assignment and a due date with absolutely no explanation or guidance in the assignment. This type of thing has its place but I would argue that it is taken advantage of too much. Luckily, I was able to get by with these methods as a student, but these types of assignments are based under the impression that every student can receive and retain information at the same pace. In other words, slower learners were either behind the due date or the assignment was not up to standard. This type of learning makes it impossible for the slower learners or students with disabilities to complete the assignment up to standard. However, it does teach the student independence through figuring things out on they’re own. For those reasons I much prefer the process approach in a classroom setting, especially for younger years. I also prefer the process of learning much more because it gives the student the ability to go at a pace in which is more suitable for them. This will allow the student to understand the material much stronger. Not only will the student understand material stronger but he/she will also get the opportunity to learn more than just what the teacher is telling them.
Curriculum and Treaty Education
After reading this article I felt as if I got a strong feel for how difficult it would have been to create the curriculum. There are so many arguments and debates that could be made as to why or how the curriculum should be and what it should consist of. For that reason, I believe it is important to have a higher power in the education system to make those final decisions on what should make up the curriculum. Otherwise, there would never be a concrete curriculum to teach. I do enjoy how each provincial government is granted the freedom to create their own curriculum. This way, many ideas are put to action. With that being said, I would like to see more collaboration between provinces in Canada to share what are the best ways to get the most out of our students. If more collaboration were to take place than it is likely we would all have more tools as educators to get the most out of our students.
I have to say, after reading this article I am extremely satisfied with how curriculum policy decisions are made. “Teachers of the subject will often be in the majority, with representation from postsecondary subject experts as well”. (pg, 17) I agree with the teachers being the majority of curriculum policy decisions simply because they are the ones in the classroom with the kids. So it makes absolute sense that their input should be the strongest.
I also am extremely satisfied with what the article had to say about what shapes these decisions. The article states “Political leadership will take account of expert opinion, but will inevitably take much more interest in public opinion and particularly the views of opinion leaders in key sectors or constituencies”. (pg, 18) I really like how the government takes into account the general public’s opinion. To me, the general public that is giving their opinions would be the parents of the students. I firmly believe that having the parents input on this matter combined with what the experts say is necessary, will make up a great map of what we should be teaching our youth in schools. Another positive with this is that the families of these children will be put at ease knowing that they’re getting a proper education.
Curriculum as Place:
The quote “The way that you think about the relationship (between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples) has a distinctive bearing on how you take it up in the classroom” is an extremely important quote to consider as a Caucasian male like myself becoming a teacher in the future. There are many roles that come into play when it comes to people like myself and what we think about aboriginal peoples. It is known in our society for many young Caucasian people like myself to have missed pre conceptions about aboriginal peoples as a whole because of the environment of which we are accustom to. I am no exception with this as I was raised in an environment where It was drilled into my brain that aboriginal people as a whole are bad people. It wasn’t until I reached university level that I was educated properly about aboriginal people to learn that these accusations are extremely false. It is absolutely crucial to become educated about topics like this so that we don’t pass on negative false information to our youth. If these missed pre conceptions somehow got passed our university level of schooling and made its way into the work force than it would end up having catastrophic affects. To be specific, it would create a never ending ripple affect on our younger generations passing down negative persona about aboriginal peoples. In my opinion, this has already happened in our society and I am a victim of having these negative thoughts passed down to my generation. This is where I believe the education program at this university does a fantastic job of intercepting these labels and reversing them to the truth and I am happy to be apart of the generations that will reverse the labels that was placed on aboriginal peoples.
When I think of what kind of education would I have to have in order to believe that I have no culture. The only word that comes to my mind is isolation. I believe you would have to be isolated from your community, be isolated from your previous ways of life and finally isolated from your background. This is the only way because growing up with your family, culture is automatically placed upon you. Every family has their own traditions that they will do that have been passed down from generation to generation and being taken away from that as a child would have a devastating affect on the child’s knowledge on the history of their family. A prime example of this is residential schools, the children were taken away from their families and were educated in isolation. Therefore were not raised in the cultural environment of their people. This lead to them believing they had no culture, or anything they did know about their culture was forgotten.
Teaching Portfolio 