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The idea of being a teacher for diversity, means to understand all aspects that separate us as people. I thought it meant being a different colour, different race or different religion. But it goes deeper than that, looking within a classroom full of students, apart from race, religion and colour, we have to look at their learning levels, abilities, talents, thoughts and ideas and how they develop them. There are So many different aspects that make us who we are. This is why I look at every child as being unique. I believe everyone has a talent or skill that makes them better than someone else. As the teacher of diversity, I look at it more of being a teacher who brings out the student's uniqueness. Because everyone deserves an equal chance, but some may need more of a push and some may need more attention.

I do understand that there will be challenges, and not everything will go to plan. There could be major issues with other students who don't agree or get along with each other because of certain differences. Even parents could be concerned by those issues or could even disagree with the way I approach things. That is also another factor that I understand that those Parents influence their children the most, the child's attitudes and values come from their family (Dawkins 2008, p. 10) But that is where I would hope the school makes a clear statement of where we should stand, showing respect and appreciation for each other. That will always be a rule in my class, to respect each other at all times. Although I have had a minor experience being a teacher, I have had students respect me, in what I do and what I say. This is what will sustain my commitment to what I believe in, as a teacher for diversity.

The 6 topics I have chosen are, Streamed classes, stigma, looking at 'what is normal' in context to transgender, addressing racism, cultural knowledge and privilege. The reason for choosing streamed classes is that I have experienced this in my teaching rounds. Stigma is something I knew about from a cultural point of view but not a classroom standpoint. Looking at transgender because it is an issue that will continue to grow within our society, also because we had a heated debate on it in the seminar and it caught my interest. Then cultural knowledge, privilege and addressing racism all relate but are looked at separately. These interest me because of my background and my situation growing up in Australia and how I can use that to my advantage when being in the classroom, and being a teacher for diversity.

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We spoke about privilege in the class. Why is it that white privilege, is more understood and well known than black privilege or brown privilege? It is basically because in history, white people have been superior. But the term ‘white privilege’ is hardly used today because the idea behind it is becoming scarce. It is hard to say which people can relate to it, because many white people today won’t. In one of the seminars, a few students who were white said they didn’t really feel they had white privilege, or felt they were ever racist. But it is hard for someone to tell if they are being racist, because they have most likely never been on the receiving end of it, so it could be accidental.

An example taken from a personal experience, is in my workplace (Liquor Shop), where many older white men have told me I speak well or have really good english. I just say I was born here, So I'm Australian. They are not being racist, but in this instance I speak well, just like them. If I didn’t speak well, would that make it harder for me to adapt in that workplace? Yes, because the communication standard would be hard for a foreigner working in a bottle shop in that area (predominantly white) with many customers speaking in slang which would be difficult to understand. That is were privilege makes a connection, looking at two people who have the same amount of experience, the person with a name that sounds foreign would not get a job interview, where as a person who sounds white will get one, because they simply would fit in better. This can be unintentionally done. I have been on both ends of it, and In my opinion, it all has to do with privilege.

Unfortunately it will take part in the classroom. Some students may have it better than some, but at the end of the day, from my point of view, they are all equally treated and looked at. Being a teacher that has a Fijian Indian background, helps me connect with many students of different cultures. It is always the boys who ask, and some actually get excited and mention another student who is the same or know someone with the same background. A connection is made which makes the students feel safer and more comfortable in my classroom. Not saying that I won’t connect with the white students, but another similarity could be made whether it be in sports, music or anything else. This way I make a connection to every student, regardless of how privileged they are.

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An important pedagogy for being a teacher of diversity is having cultural knowledge. Julien S. Bourrelle has stated in his TED Talks, the importance of understanding of 'cultural glasses'. Every single person looks at the world with cultural glasses. It is through these lens' that our brains see the world, which then shapes our reality. (TEDx Talks)

Personally, I feel like I have grown up with a good understanding of cultural knowledge. I was born in Australia and raised a Hindu with a Fijian/Indian background, attended a Catholic primary and secondary school, have friends who are Indian, Anglo-Indian, Mauritian, Greek, Serbian, Italian, Sudanese and Asian. Even adding that they are Christian, Catholic, Orthodox, Buddhist and Muslim. There are many more characteristics, but initially they're are my friend, their colour, race and religion matters after. Through my cultural glasses, I see more similarities than differences, but still have the respect to learn about what those differences are.

This leads to the classroom when as the teacher, I need to understand and respect every student's cultural glasses. But, these glasses can also blind us. Bourrelle speaks about how it affects the way we behave. A student in my class could make a racist comment towards a Muslim student because of what they hear and see in the media and from what they possibly hear from their family. That student sees hatred coming from their parents towards Muslims and that is how they see the world, Muslims are bad, everyone hates them. That is why it is important for me as the teacher to not just punish that student, but educate them on what they said, because it is out of ignorance, not hatred. Most importantly, keep my class educated on where I stand, so they can learn and make a positive difference, even if it is just a fragment.

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Racism is a large concept. It involves people being ignorant towards another person who is different to them. The positive outlook on this issue is that It is very different from what it was half a century ago, where there was segregation. Black people basically would be treated lower than to that of a human standard. The same was looked at any other ethnicity. Although we have progressed immensely as a society, there are still people who are racist. This is due to ignorance. People simply don’t know and are filled with the wrong information.

This Video speaks out to me and can be a good source, when addressing racism.

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I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White (2025)

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Looking at what is normal in the context of gender

Today we live in a society where it is becoming more and more agreeable for gender change. Only 50 years ago, people would be afraid if they were gay, because it could literally get them killed. There has been more acceptance on the gay community, even though it is not perfect, society keeps moving forward and progressing towards these ideas. I understand that it is somewhat normal to change your gender now, even though initially I didn’t really accept it due to ignorance.

I found it confusing at first, that people would change their body to be the gender they felt they 'really' were. In my mind, you are you, that mean's being a male or female. But being further educated and looking at it with an open view, it can be understood that some people just don't feel like that. If there is a student in my class who has these issues, then I cannot treat them any less than that of a 'normal' student. But a normal student to me is a student who wears the uniform, comes to school to learn and wants to achieve something in their life. Whether it be a disabled student, male or female student, a transgender student or a gay student, they are still in my classroom looking at me, the same way they would any other teacher. It is my obligation to give those students my best effort when teaching. That means respecting and treating them the same, but not confusing it with academic levels. Some students may need more attention than others due to their abilities, but not because of who they are or choose to be.

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'Stigma refers to attitudes and beliefs that lead people to reject, avoid, or fear those they perceive as being different' (Disability Rights California n.d.).

Looking at Stigma within schools, it is focused more on mental health. I have been lucky enough to be part of schools that always support students with mental health. In a situation given that a student is suffering, I would take the right approach and make them feel as comfortable as possible in my classroom.

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Still Human: Students Fight Mental Illness Stigma

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A Sun Prairie High School student tells the story of his own struggle with suicidal intentions, and he and two peers explain their program, Still Human, to help remove the stigma from talking with peers about mental illness.

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I personally had the experience of streamed classes, when being on placement. It was unknown to me, until I got to university because I never experienced it while attending school. When I first started observing and helping around the classes, I watched how the different levels worked. It seemed like it was a good idea that students at the same level are learning together. Then, when having a chance to actually teach a streamed class, I was told to take it easy (for the lowest streamed class), when teaching the middle-level, was told to choose different questions for the different abilities (easier questions for the weaker ones and harder questions for the stronger ones). It was easy for me to tell my mentor teacher that some students belonged to the higher group and a few could be put lower. Her response was simple but fair, as "it will never be perfect". Then it got me thinking, why do it then?

When you look empirically at the characteristics of the children in classrooms, children are extraordinarily diverse in all sorts of ways, if you group them on one characteristic, there will still be a huge amount of diversity and variation on other characteristics. This theory then leads to the understanding of when we target these particular groups, we are only limiting their learning (Ability grouping, tracking and grouping alternatives 2010). It is only the higher-level groups that seem to benefit from this idea.

"On average, it does not appear to be an effective strategy for raising the achievement of disadvantaged students, who are more likely to be assigned to lower groups" (Evidence for learning 2017).

The unfortunate situation for me is understanding that whether I like it or not, If I'm teaching in a school, I have to follow their system. Some teachers agree with the idea of streaming classes, but some don't. As long as the students get the proper attention and are helped with the best interests from their teachers, who understand their different characteristics, streamed classes can be somewhat effective.

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Ability grouping, tracking and grouping alternatives 2010, YouTube, Teaching Tolerance, 5 April, retrieved 11 August 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tItvMjRxL_c>.

Dawkins, P 2008, Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians, Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, Melbourne.

Disability Rights California n.d., Definitions of Stigma and Discrimination, California Mental Health Services Authority, retrieved 13 August 2017, <http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/CM0401.pdf>.

Evidence for learning 2017, Setting or Streaming, The Education Endowment Foundation, Australia, retrieved 7 August 2017, <http://evidenceforlearning.org.au/toolkit/setting-or-streaming/>

How Culture Drives Behaviours | Julien S. Bourrelle | TEDxTrondheim 2015, YouTube, TEDx Talks, 10 July, retrieved 11 August 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Yy6poJ2zs>.

I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White. 2015, YouTube, Prince Ea, 2 November, retrieved 9 August 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qD2K2RWkc>.

Still Human: Students Fight Mental Illness Stigma 2015, YouTube,  WisconsinDPI, 28 August, retrieved 16 August 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0W4ef09VE4>.