Discussing with the group broke down the pages we read into four concepts: uncomfortable, activist, fragmentation, and transformational.
If we as teachers feel uncomfortable with the way the system is working, we should be striving to change it and if we feel comfortable with how things are, then we missed something and need to revise.
We as teachers are activists in the classrooms, striving to be inclusive of everyone’s cultural backgrounds.
We need to avoid fragmentation, fighting over whose “problems” are more important; including and accepting all cultures’ problems as important will result in better equality in representation in the classroom.
Finally, a transformational paradigm should permeate through the curriculum, schools, and classrooms to be inclusive of all.
The activity was a great way to divvy the work among the groups to retrieve a coherent image of the readings.
To be be uncomfortable with our own comfort, thats something that we remember to be effective activists for our students. In taking this stance, will we ever really achieve the inclusive multicultural classroom we want or is it always going to be a process?
Thank you for your post, you really hit what we discussed in class. Changing what needs to be changed will be uncomfortable times, but necessary as well. Being activists and transformation is something we should understand and strive for.