2) Do teachers have to be in the same ethnic group to understand culturally specific topics of conversation? It is necessary to gain different perspectives and acquire new skills when working in various communities. I can see this at my community placement in how different family dynamics can affect a child's learning experience as a whole. How I, a future educator educator, approach each student is unique!

3) My community placement welcomes various perspectives through student teachers and external programming (e.g. reading clubs, guest speakers) to give students the chance to not only grow within their studies, but to grow as a community.

Another connection to the article is defending the community I was placed in (Jane and Finch). Whenever I mention to people that I am completing my community placement at Sheppard Public School, one of the first things they all say to me is, “What a terrible area to be in! Aren’t you scared to be around there?” My answer is “no” to these questions. No part of me is scared about working with my students or being in that area. I firmly believe that my group of students are great. They work incredibly hard, are intelligent, and have many unique talents. I want to help them shine their light. I only speak highly of them. The parents are also lovely. They are very involved in their children’s school life and continuously thank the staff for helping the students with things like homework or learning a new sport. 

One last connection between the article and my community placement is fostering an inclusive framework responsible for a co-learning model between the teacher and student. An example of this from my placement is learning how Christmas is celebrated worldwide, an activity implemented with my students in the BGC at Sheppard Public School. Rather than completing something as typical as a Christmas craft, I wanted to give the students a voice to share how each of their families celebrates Christmas. I wanted the whole group to learn from one another and respect each other's differences and cultural celebrations. 

The article also highlights the importance of encouraging students to participate in constructing their own knowledge and experiences while also embedding their cultural practices and funds of knowledge throughout the whole process. Within my community practicum, nothing is structured in the classroom without consulting the students first. When it comes to designing the learning, on a weekly basis, educators ask students what kinds of projects, clubs, and learning experiences they would like to be a part of. They allow students to brainstorm and come up with ideas based on their own innate and personal interests and cultural experiences. Democratically, students will get to vote on the ideas that they want to be a part of and construct their own learning. 

The article further talks about promoting an environment that is culturally appropriate and relates to the communities and individuals that the school serves. I absolutely agree with this point wholeheartedly as I am a big proponent of creating a culturally responsive space and working towards celebrating the lives of communities on the school grounds. This is actually one of the reasons why in my practicum experience, I approached the vice-principal of the school to communicate about the ways in which anti-Black racism, LGBTQ Rights, and Indigenous Rights are discussed and policies in place to address some of these issues. The vice-principal was thrilled that I was taking an initiative to be interested in working towards creating an equitable and welcoming learning space that celebrates the lives of communities and individuals. My interest in this area has granted me an opportunity to become the leader of the social justice project with student ambassadors from the school. I became the leader with the goal of promoting student voice and allowing students to engage in artistic projects that showcase anti-Black racism, LGBTQ Rights, and Indigenous Rights. These artistic works will be displayed all over the school and pictures sent home to parents in a PowerPoint format and newsletter. 

Explain why I gave my journal this mark?

            I gave myself a level 4 because the ideas presented in the article are themes and research I am very familiar with. In fact, that is precisely why I am I want to become a teacher. My approach to learning and teaching has to be culturally responsive and recognize that the lives of students and their communities inform my practice. Why can’t education be a space for students to communicate about their families’ and communities’ experiences and take social action to address that? As an educator, I need to provide that space! A space where they challenge issues that directly affect them and issues such as anti-Black racism, sexism, ableism, Indigenous Rights, LGBTQ+ rights, etc. A space where they are encouraged to hope and take an active role in how the learning occurs, develop relationships, and gain perspectives to transform their conditions. 

2)The article mentions that a community-referenced approach to education is required for students in marginalized communities if they are to engage with and benefit from their schooling. My community practicum also reinforces this concept. In a community-referenced approach, educators must have knowledge of the community and culture if they are to effectively facilitate a teaching and learning process in which students are able to see the relevance of their learning to their lives. This has been evident at my placement because all the educators come from the same and/or nearby communities. Therefore, they have a great extent of knowledge of the community and the social situation of Scarborough village. As a result, resources have been created such as housing and shelter, counselling, family therapy, community outreach etc. These programs are specifically aimed at the Scarborough village community. Likewise, the article states that when students witness the validation of the culture within the educational process, they concatenate their identities as family members and students. Pathways to Education also hosts many events for youth in the area such as Halloween and Diwali parties.

 3) The article states that teachers whose teaching is informed by an equity and social justice framework have classrooms where there is a free exchange of ideas, tools, and the democratization of knowledge. My community practicum reinforces this idea because pathways to education also provide tutoring services online. I have attended these sessions and noticed that it is a safe welcoming environment where students who do not need homework help are able to join the main room and discuss any topics they want. They have the spaces and time provided for a free exchange of ideas tools and democratization of knowledge. In fact, I have learned about various topics just by dropping in and listening. As long as the language and topic are appropriate, the host encourages students to debate, share their ideas, and talk about current events happening around the world. Topics have ranged from debates on basketball players to the use of homophobic comments in class.

The second thing I observed in this article was when Kulsoom says “ I am the first piece of curriculum in my classroom (James, p.118)  this made me reflect on the importance of  ensuring cultural awareness within the classroom through my lesson planning and educating myself to create better learning experiences for my students. This also made me think about how important it is to make the effort to understand students’ backgrounds, hobbies/passions, and their learning styles. 

The third thing I observed in this article is how Kulsoom’s and Sam’s reflections made me think about how reducing students’ experiences to a single narrative would mean failing to give attention to the complexities of living in diverse and marginalized communities. Which made me reflect on why it is important to learn the children’s beliefs and cultural nuances as it can strengthen the communication between the families which in turn helps support the student. This article also gave me the chance to reflect on my own experiences with living in a marginalized community growing up think and how there was was a lack of cultural incorporation within the curriculum and overall classroom settings, I remember being pushed to assimilate into Eurocentric values and traditions by my educators because there was a lack of diversity and an education surrounding it. 

Secondly, James (2012) also mentions that, “strong school-community relationships exist in White middle-and upper-class communities where principles, values and norms of schools are reflective of those of the community” (p. 124). This is evident within my practicum as the children participating within the Girl Guides program all attend the same school or have met through other programs. Being that most of the children within the program are white, James’ idea that strong school-community relationships exist within White middle to upper class communities can be connected. This is also evident in the way that I have observed the children interact and communicate to one another. I have noticed that many of the children share the same perspectives and ways of thinking. From what I have observed, these perspectives are relatively the same amongst the children. This can also be related to James’ idea of “principles, values and norms of schools are reflective of those of the community.”

Lastly, James (2012) highlights that higher income neighbourhoods are more likely to receive funding that would enable them to obtain educational resources in addition to those provided by school. This is not evident in my school practicum but also my community. With Girl Guides, they are infamously known for their cookie fundraiser. With this group of children I am working with the community in which they lives, these children may have a more successful outcome of selling and receiving funding. That is, in a more affluent community neighbours may be more likely to afford to buy and donate money. This may be because James’ (2012) correlation between neighbourhoods and social class.

I give myself four points for this journal. I throughly read through the article and made various connections to my placement experience. I made two connections that reinforce the article as well as one connection that challenges the authors view of social class and neighbourhood. As I read through the article I thought about both my community practicum and school practicum which allowed me to form deeper connections with the text. 

 

Another important aspect is inviting and involving students in the learning process. Research has demonstrated that engaging students in the learning process increases their attention and focus and motivates them to engage in higher-level critical thinking. “Allowing students to participate in constructing the learning process encouraged them to perceive education as their project, something they create.” (pg.125). With the studies done by experts as to what would be the best approach to learning, they have come up with a single result, that the child should be the center of the teaching-learning process. The child is perceived as a unique individual with hidden skills, talents and potentials that a teacher needs to unlock.

 

Lastly, education is a fluid process, it doesn’t not need to have concrete strict rules, it should be diverse and open-ended. Students should be encouraged to use their voice and advocate for themselves. “It is certainly important to encourage young people to have hope, hold onto high aspirati0ons and believe that through their agency they can succeed in life” (pg.126). Curriculum can be adapted, modified and/or differentiated to meet the needs of all students while also building a positive classroom/school community where students feel accepted and appreciated for simply just being themselves.

Moreover, I would have to develop a sense of what I might have to take into account as I prepare to teach the students. For example, do teachers have to be in the same ethnic group to understand culturally specific topics of conversation? I do not necessarily have to be in the same ethnic group; however, considering how I would approach to different students and families is required. This will be connected to the notion of culturally responsive teaching. Additionally, I have observed in my school practicum that the school welcomes various perspectives through teacher candidates or any other internal or external programming, such as guest speakers, community gardeners, or field trips to allow students to learn but also to grow as a community member. I have seen that the school represent many cultures in the environment and create an environment where promotes culturally responsive and welcoming atmosphere.

The theory also talks about promoting an environment that is culturally appropriate. In my school placement, students and their families are very diverse, and the school support many of the families’ inclusiveness even within the school environment. Students and families can see their cultures and themselves represented in the classroom in a variety of ways (e.g., artworks posted on the hallway, school events, etc.). This is through the food, some of the artwork as well as the school events. Having a good relationship with the community you serve allows to connect with the people you work with and allows you to better understand their educational journey.

My first placement in this program was at an inner city school which in my opinion, had a negative connotation towards it which was evident as soon as I stepped through the doors. It was hard to see past this narrative or even get another one that was different or more positive than the one I was initially given. Many of the students were not white, and many of the teachers were white. In my opinion, I think that it is important no matter what to learn about your school community but in a case where your identity differs from one of your students, I think it is even more crucial. This article highlights the importance of learning about your students and the school community and how that affects students’ experience at school. 

The idea of schooling in low-income, disadvantaged neighbourhoods should not be merely about preparing students to “get out” of the neighbourhood (124)

In this same school, I felt a lot of times that students were being swayed to leave their community for something “bigger”. This may not have been the intention of the educators however, even as someone who was not part of the community, I felt that this was an underlying undertone of what the students were being told. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with leaving a community to explore new places of the world but, if your community has such a great negative narrative around it and you’re only being told to leave, how would that make students feel about their experiences in the community and their identities?

If schools in urban and suburban disadvantaged neighbourhoods are to effectively meet the needs of their students, then they must develop educational programs, curricula and pedagogy that reference the community (127) 

I think that this is the overall message of this piece and in an ever-changing multicultural society, it is important to take a look at the school communities we are a part of as the narrative around the communities plays a big role in how students will feel at school and outside of school. 

James, C. E. (n.d.). Life at the Intersection. Retrieved from https://eclass.yorku.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=1725792