Embracing Change
Let’s face it: most of us were taught in classrooms where styles of teachings reflected the notion of a single norm of thought and experience, which we were encouraged to believe was universal. This has been just as true for nonwhite teachers as for white teachers. Most of us learned to teach emulating this model. As a consequence, many teachers are disturbed by the political implications of a multicultural education because they fear losing control in a classroom where there is no one way to approach a subject— only multiple ways and multiple references. Bearing that in mind, among educators there has to be an acknowledgment that any effort to transform institutions so that they reflect a multi-cultural standpoint must take into consideration the fears teachers have when asked to shift their paradigms. There must be training sites where teachers have the opportunity to express those concerns while also learning to create ways to approach the multicultural classroom and curriculum. Making the classroom a democratic setting where everyone feels a responsibility to contribute is a central goal of transformative pedagogy and as the classroom becomes more diverse, teachers are faced with the way the politics of domination are often reproduced in the educational setting.
Adapted from hooks, b. Teaching to Transgress: A Education as a Practice of Freedom. London/New York: Routledge, 1994.
The text above reinforces the importance of:
Let’s face it: most of us were taught in classrooms where styles of teachings reflected the notion of a single norm of thought and experience, which we were encouraged to believe was universal. This has been just as true for nonwhite teachers as for white teachers. Most of us learned to teach emulating this model. As a consequence, many teachers are disturbed by the political implications of a multicultural education because they fear losing control in a classroom where there is no one way to approach a subject— only multiple ways and multiple references. Bearing that in mind, among educators there has to be an acknowledgment that any effort to transform institutions so that they reflect a multi-cultural standpoint must take into consideration the fears teachers have when asked to shift their paradigms. There must be training sites where teachers have the opportunity to express those concerns while also learning to create ways to approach the multicultural classroom and curriculum. Making the classroom a democratic setting where everyone feels a responsibility to contribute is a central goal of transformative pedagogy and as the classroom becomes more diverse, teachers are faced with the way the politics of domination are often reproduced in the educational setting.
Adapted from hooks, b. Teaching to Transgress: A Education as a Practice of Freedom. London/New York: Routledge, 1994.
The text above reinforces the importance of:
