Being able to teach culturally relative pedagogy [defined as: effective in entering the cultures, languages, and experiences that diverse students bring to the classrooms to increase engagement, (Lopez 2011)] would be incorporating diverse cultural texts so that I can represent and reflect each student the best I can. I think no matter what, starting with information about the land and who truly discovered it is the first step. Teaching the importance of indigenous peoples life, as they were the start of life. A quote I read from my indigenous class reads "I have lived here since the world began," which is beautiful and important to educate the truth of indigenous peoples. To be in culture rather than reading about it is also important because then students truly experience the different lives that are lived in our social world. Field trips and community activities can help students understand the world and be fully be indulged in it, ideally strengthening their connections of their surroundings. Teaching in a place-based curriculum "acknowledges importance of diversity in community and through exploration one can understand the contexts" (Brook 2013). This creates active members of the world and helps students recognize what goes on outside of school.
I learned through Afrocentric pedagogy that students of colour are feeling distanced from experiences in the classroom which is why they do worse and feel unmotivated towards school as materials only reflect and emphasize white people. This is an easy fix as long as we stray away from Eurocentric teachings and critically analyze the content of what we are teaching so that we do not subconsciously or "accidentally" keep teaching topics that marginalize our students; placing them in a corner as lots of education texts like to put it. Critical Literacy "should engage students in developing a critical consciousness that interrogates the lack in distancing of subjects" (Lopez 2011). in order to understand the world. It is important to lets our students think and express their thoughts on issues freely without silencing them so that they can start putting their own thoughts to use on the world.
Therefore, for students to become engaged and excited to learn, our teachings have to reflect relevant examples in our current life. The world has changed since traditional teachings and our schools should evolve with our society. In order to do this we need to teach our students to become consciously critical on the society that surrounds them, places them, and defines them. Break down how and why society is constructed. To place an emphasis on alternative material as we are all not the same and we should not be teaching conformity.
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