Learning Goal: I’m working on a cultural studies project and need guidance to help me learn.
Culture and Inclusion
Over the past few weeks, we have been hearing about being allies, Anti-racist education, defunding police, taking down statues and ongoing protests against a system that was built on a racist ideology that has never been dismantled. As we move through this course, I would be failing in my role as your instructor not to ensure that all of us leave this course having learned something that we did not know prior to our work here. Strategies that we can employ in our classroom, navigating the changes that are taking place in our cities, the impact on us as educators and our responsibilities as teachers are to help all students learn during this unique time.
Teachers are often more than purveyors of information. Teachers often serve as confidants, cheer leaders, mentors and role models. We are tasked with a multitude of responsibilities to be undertaken regarding the students in our classroom. In addition to delivering curriculum, we are faced with a myriad of issues.
Current teachers have been tasked with virtual teaching which has highlighted disparities regarding race, culture groups and class and the ability to access educational information. Our mandate as educators is to impart education all students particularly our most vulnerable students. WebQuests are one teaching strategy that will assist you in engaging your students.
In this class, everyone will be designing a webquest for their final project. This is a teacher-led research project that is designed to utilize technology. A WebQuest, as a teacher directed research project, was designed by Bernie Dodge at SDSU. The concept was to use technology in this innovative approach. The process provides teachers with an opportunity to direct the research, verify the resources and implement strategies that benefit students learning.
Technology has dramatically changed over the past ten years. The advent of social media has changed the landscape of technology use and the impact on education has been stunning.
You will develop a WebQuest that addresses any of the issue that have been discussed in our class. If you are currently teaching a specific grade level/subject, you can create a webquest to use with your students. The content of your WebQuest must demonstrate your ability to transform the curriculum.
Here is an example of how to transform the celebration of Independence. As educators we have a responsibility to our students to ensure that the history that is taught is not based on the perceptions and memories of the Victor. For example, the 4th of July is Celebrated as American Independence Day. If Massachusetts celebrated Independence Day in 1781 who was Independent or Free from Tyranny?
The BLM protests have demonstrated that the curriculum that we use in the United States sanitize US History. Students are not provided with the opportunity to explore all the voices of those who shaped this country. Students are not aware of the codification of laws that ensured that African Americans and other people of color were going to always be relegated as second-class citizens
When Barack Obama was elected to the White House, the irony of the First Family, an African American Family were living in a home built by slaves was glossed over.
Another way to think about being inclusive in what we teach is to reflect; Why do we need to have a month set aside for Women or Black History Month? Why do we have these as add-ons to the curriculum instead of being integrated in the curriculum?
