Small communities on Vancouver Island, unlike big urban centers in Canada, are relatively new to welcoming new Canadians, refugee families and students from other countries. . .
Published on Jul 31, 2018
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Small communities on Vancouver Island, unlike big urban centers in Canada, are relatively new to welcoming new Canadians, refugee families and students from other countries. . .
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With Truth and Reconciliation, we have begun to confront racism and the legacy of residential schools but that has not been a simple process nor does this understanding necessarily spill over to confronting racism in a larger sense.
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So, I believe that creating a culturally responsive pedagogy in our schools begins with a conversation on racism.
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Teachers, for the most part, are caring people. We seek to create a safe and caring environment in our classrooms. We want all of our students to have a sense of belonging and we are vigilant about watching for bullying or any unkindness. .
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In a small community, we know our students’ families and, for better or for worse, we know where they live and where they are coming from.
When new students from other countries come to our schools they are warmly welcomed but not necessarily understood.
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The results of not confronting racism openly and being unfamiliar with where new students have come from, in their experience and education, is that students who could excel and could be part of the school community have not achieved this
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Step one is creating a welcoming school with multi-lingual signs and systems in place to welcome both students and families.
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Administration needs to take the lead in supporting teachers, students and families. Staff professional development on supporting our ELLs and recognizing racism in ourselves is important.
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Step 2 is in the classroom. Learning about your students, recognizing that not only each child is unique but that they approach learning in a way that has been influenced by their culture and experience.
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Learning about different styles of schooling and learning about different cultures helps a teacher to better respond to the needs of his or her students.
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Experiential teaching, being mindful of the ‘zone of proximal development’, teaching using a variety of strategies and creating various ways to show learning all support our students whether they are ELL or English speaking.
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Become informed and sensitive towards trauma. Be aware that each individual may have greater or less resilience. A clearly affluent Chinese student may suffer deeply from homesickness and culture shock and being dealing with racism and cultural dissonance that is difficult to recognize because hiding emotions is expected behavior at home.
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Finally, be conscious of our ‘hidden curriculum’. Whether we are aware of it or not we teach Canadian values in all of our subjects and while that is not a negative it can be a source of dissonance.
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