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Curriculum & Privilege /Inequality. Blue King Brown – ‘Water’ Brother Ali – “Tight Rope’ John Legend & The Roots - ‘Hard Times’ Michael Franti & Spearhead – ‘Stay Human’. Curriculum & Privilege /Inequality. Kumashiro Primer Curriculum & privilege/inequality
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Curriculum & Privilege /Inequality Blue King Brown – ‘Water’ Brother Ali – “Tight Rope’ John Legend & The Roots - ‘Hard Times’ Michael Franti & Spearhead – ‘Stay Human’
Curriculum & Privilege /Inequality • Kumashiro Primer • Curriculum & privilege/inequality • Identities – review of ‘who we are’ • Foregrounding Schools • Anti-oppressive Education • Defining • 4 models • Questioning Formal Curriculum
Kumashiro Primer • Common sense • That collection of ideas that doesn’t have to said out loud, that we assume to be true and valid and right. • Partial Knowledge • Incomplete knowledge • Invested in what we know • (Im)possible
Curriculum & Inequality/Privilege • Structural Inequality/Privilege • School Infrastructure • Funding • Hunger • Formal Curriculum/Hidden Curriculum • Myths, Stereotypes, Silences • Participating in the commonsense • The Production of Identities
Privilege & Inequality:Who are we? Racialization • Whiteness • Privilege • Masculinity • Heteronormativity • I think therefore I am … • The self and the not self… • The self and the ‘other’ ------------------ • Race • Social Class • Gender • Sexual Orientation ---------------
Privilege & Inequality:Who are we? • Each of these identities is socially constructed • Dominant Self depends on an ‘other’ • Dominant term is ‘unmarked’ • In each case – dominance is partly dependent upon this hiddenness • Dominant term does not need to understand • No real choice • Science/dominant knowledge has shaped our understanding of these identities • Identities are multiple and work together / against each other in complex ways • Identities • Race • Class • Gender • Sexuality • Abilities
Foregrounding Schools Schools are identity forming institutions. Inequalities (and privileges) are attached to particular social identities. Schools become necessary sites to struggle against these inequalities. This struggle is part of the history of schooling…
From the writing you brought to class… Make a list of the ways that Kumashiro describes Anti-oppressive education. From the list, see if you can come up with a useful definition for yourself. Take 2 minutes and share you definition with a neighbour…
Working Towards Justice Kevin Kumashiro (2000) Toward a Theory of Anti-Oppressive Education He identifies and analyses the work that researchers and teachers do around inequality in four broad categories. He argues that each of the categories is necessary to bringing about change.
1. Education For the Other • Education that tries to improve the experiences of students who are Othered. • Often, this is expressed through the mitigation of harm. Examples • Lunch or breakfast programmes • Community Schools • Native Studies? • ‘At-risk’ programmes
2. Education About the Other • Education that addresses both the silence and the myths about the Other. • Often this involves changes to curriculum. Examples • Aboriginal Perspectives and Worldviews in the curriculum • Native Studies • Indigenous Studies 100 • Black History Month
3. Education Critical of Othering • Education that also examines how some groups are favored, made normal and privileged. • Often this will include not just knowledge about oppression, but planning and action against that oppression. Examples • Critical Pedagogy • New STF Special Subject Council - Social Justice and Anti-racist Anti-oppressive Forum on Education • This course
4. Education that Changes Students and Society • Education that recognizes both the power of discourses and the need to resist dominant iterations and reinscribe different citational practices. Examples
Questioning Formal Curriculum • Official Documents: • The Renewed Social Studies Curriculum • Depth versus Breadth • Outcomes & Indicators Grade 8 Social Studies
Questioning Formal Curriculum: As a group • Imagine yourself as the curriculum designer for a group of students in that grade. Read through the outcomes and indicators for your grade level – get a general sense of the themes for that grade level. Choose 1 -2 Outcomes and a few indicators and consider the following: • How might this curriculum document support teaching in ways that are anti-oppressive? How might it support teaching in ways that are oppressive? • Think about some of the commonsense ways that your students might take up the outcome/indicators. What might not be taken up – in the document, in the classroom, in the community? Where is whiteness, middle-classness, masculinity or heteronormativity assumed? • On the Index Cards – Record one example of how your outcome/indicator might be taught in an anti-oppressive way. Record one example of how your outcome/indicator might be taught in an oppressive way.
