Today we had a discussion on aboriginal youth in classrooms. Coming from Mississauga I’ve always sort of prided myself on knowing a lot about different cultures and religions, especially in how they played a role in inclusivity in the classroom. However when the group today presented a quiz on aboriginal people, I was humbled about how little I knew about this group, especially when it came to education.
One thing that got me was how different the socio-cultural aspect and cue differences between Eastern-European culture and Aboriginal culture. This included a difference in importance of punctuality, the idea of praise, all the way to even eye contact while speaking to an individual.
As educators, we can often impose our own beliefs and ways of doing things in the classroom. This often isn’t a huge issue when we all come from the same sort of background or heritage, but when we get into more diverse classrooms there is an exponential number of things we have to consider.
At the end of the day we may think we know about a particular subject, or at least more than others, but don’t let that cloud your ability to be humbled and take the chance to grow. Admit you don’t know something and learn from it. Cause I definitely know what I’ll be doing before I get into my next placement.
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