Unpacking My Learned Ignorance
Throughout the first three weeks of our diversity class, we had already begun to unpack our learned ignorance's and that there are many more equitable lenses to view diversity issues through than what we had previously thought. This particular class was focusing on the topic of First Nations, Metis and Inuit and began to enlighten me right from the very beginning of class. To start the class, we began with an acknowledgement to the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe people who shared this territory long before we were there. This once again opened my eyes to just how ignorant I was to this subject as I had no idea that these people shared the territory that we were currently learning and studying on. Along with this beginning acknowledgement, another section of the class that really stuck with me was the fact that using the acronym FNMI is not appropriate and that to use it instead of saying First Nations, Metis and Inuit does not save any time so there is no reason that people should be condensing a culture into an acronym.
One of the readings that we were assigned for the week was regarding how we force our ways on First Nation, Metis and Inuit students. The article focused on a teacher who had a student that was
beginning to act out in class and not doing very well on their work. When it came to parent teacher interview night, the student's parent asked the teacher if they knew how to trap animals. When the teacher said no, the parent explained that he and his sons were excellent trappers but that he would never force this way of life on the teacher (Fingarsen, 2010). This passage from the article shows that in schools, we are perpetuating the dominant colonialist culture of Eastern Europeans and those that do not value or succeed in this culture are seen as inferior and outcasts from society. When teachers and the educational system push the ideals of the hidden curriculum and force these on diverse students, it becomes increasingly hard for these students to experience success and relate to the information that they are using.
When looking back into my childhood I relate this article to playing lacrosse as discussed in my last post. When parents complained or believed that the First Nation's team was not playing the game "correctly" it showed that we were forcing our ways onto their culture, much like in school even though the First Nations, Metis and Inuit were in fact the ones who began lacrosse and it is us who play the game differently. In both the educational and sport setting, this article and this week of class opened my eyes to the fact that as a society, we force a singular way onto diverse groups of people and try to get them to conform to the dominant ideals in order to assimilate and become part of this way. If people are not successful in this they are seen as less, or uneducated and ostracized from the "norm" as to keep these ideals dominant and other ideals as lesser.
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One of the readings that we were assigned for the week was regarding how we force our ways on First Nation, Metis and Inuit students. The article focused on a teacher who had a student that was
beginning to act out in class and not doing very well on their work. When it came to parent teacher interview night, the student's parent asked the teacher if they knew how to trap animals. When the teacher said no, the parent explained that he and his sons were excellent trappers but that he would never force this way of life on the teacher (Fingarsen, 2010). This passage from the article shows that in schools, we are perpetuating the dominant colonialist culture of Eastern Europeans and those that do not value or succeed in this culture are seen as inferior and outcasts from society. When teachers and the educational system push the ideals of the hidden curriculum and force these on diverse students, it becomes increasingly hard for these students to experience success and relate to the information that they are using.
When looking back into my childhood I relate this article to playing lacrosse as discussed in my last post. When parents complained or believed that the First Nation's team was not playing the game "correctly" it showed that we were forcing our ways onto their culture, much like in school even though the First Nations, Metis and Inuit were in fact the ones who began lacrosse and it is us who play the game differently. In both the educational and sport setting, this article and this week of class opened my eyes to the fact that as a society, we force a singular way onto diverse groups of people and try to get them to conform to the dominant ideals in order to assimilate and become part of this way. If people are not successful in this they are seen as less, or uneducated and ostracized from the "norm" as to keep these ideals dominant and other ideals as lesser.
References
Fingarsen, F. (2010). Why do you force your ways? ELL Tip of the Week, 92-93.
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