Teaching Tolerance is a free resource that can be found digitally or in print! The educational magazine focuses on helping teachers and schools create civil and inclusive communities where children are active participants in a diverse democracy. This magazine approaches sensitive and critical social topics and provides you with insight into the topics, as well as ways to t incorporate the issue into your classroom. The magazine provides educators with FREE materials and resources to supplement their curriculum and inform their practices. Check out their website out for more information on this illuminating resource!
In the recently published Fall issue of Teaching Tolerance, I found the article "The Thinking is the Work," written by Cory Collins. This article discusses the model that two educators are using to confront implicit bias and systematic racism in schools. Implicit bias, according to the dictionary, refers to the tendency to process information based on unconscious associations, feelings, attitudes, reactions, stereotypes. As a teacher candidate, I have learned about the importance of not only creating an inclusive learning environment but creating a learning environment and culture that represents every learner in my classroom. I chose this article because it addresses an issue that comes with trying to represent and include diverse learners in your classroom. This article specifically stresses the importance of being self-aware of your implicit bias and explicitly identifying those biases in order to address them. "Even the best teachers are not immune from bias and that goal of equity requires looking beyond accolades and numbers. It requires looking within" (Collins, 2019) an insight that will inform my future practice.
In the article, elementary educators, Wilkerson and Mann, began an initiative that led to a schoolwide goal for internal professional development: identifying one's own biases. The movement began an internal audit, starting with conversations. Participants named the disparities they saw and experienced, creating a community narrative that became the driving force of the initiative. This narrative allowed educators and professionals to "unpack the bias that's often associated with terms that our children are referred to, as in 'immigrant,' or 'first-generation' or 'black'" and stress the importance of understanding the contexts of history and systemic inequality, as well, as the importance of uplifting voices rather than telling a single story. Wilkerson shared her initial ignorance about the experiences of people seeking refuge from south of the U.S. border. She explains that she "had to seek out knowledge about those experiences to build understanding and become a more empathetic person."
“If I held a bias and didn’t know, and discover it, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad teacher. It’s about doing the work to uncover I’m holding that bias.”
As a future educator, I am going to be immersed in classrooms with a diverse group of students. Students coming from a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences I know nothing about. In order to serve every student, the issue discussed in this article must be acknowledged and addressed. Diversity in classrooms must be valued. Becoming culturally competent and not only discovering personal implicit bias but thinking about discussing biases will enable educators to be the most effective with students from cultures other than their own.
This article reminded me of another article I read about cultural competence. Cultural competence was explained as the awareness of one's own cultural identity and views about differences, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families. I have come to understand the importance of awareness and thinking of these differences that make each student unique and celebrating the variations that make our country a tapestry. This understanding will inform and expand my practices in the classroom.
"If thinking is the work, rethinking is the outcome. Rethinking biases. Rethinking curriculum. Rethinking the stories educators tell and to whom they grant agency to shape their own stories. Rethinking how they reached those conclusions and what it means for their practice going forward."
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