An Ethnography of Two Teachers’ Antiracist and Critical Multicultural Practices

Dolana Mogadime

doi:10.26522/brocked.v21i1.235

Abstract

Educational theorists concerned with antiracist and critical multicultural practices have identified the need for teachers to begin changing the processes of social exclusion which children of colour experience in the school system. An ethnographic study of critical educators teaching practices is provided as a useful directive. The study examines how two critical educators respond to the diversity represented in their school by incorporating antiracist and critical multicultural approaches in their teaching practice. Of interest in relation to Julia Neuman’s practice is the question: How do white teachers negotiate their ‘whiteness’ in relation to the diversity in student population? In the case of Sita Ramana a South Asian teacher, the study considers how cultural and linguistic congruence with her students engages their interests in culturally response reading programs that involve dual language books as well as parent - student active participation in heritage language programs.

Highlights

First Nations Peoples: “Houses of Adobe” and “Native Dwellings3. African American Pioneers: “Wagon Wheels” (Author: Barbara Brenner)
Educational theorists concerned with antiracist and critical multicultural practices have identified the need for teachers to begin changing the processes of social exclusion which children of colour experience in the school system (Dei, 1997)
I do so, by investigating the following questions: How does an educator who shares an insider’s knowledge of the community’s children use this knowledge to reconceptualize teaching practice? Further how do these practices engage the interests of students whose linguistic and cultural backgrounds are congruent with their teacher’s? These questions allow for the inclusion of culturally diverse teachers’ special knowledge and sensibilities which have been subjugated in Canadian educational discourse

Summary

First Nations Peoples: “Houses of Adobe” and “Native Dwellings

3. African American Pioneers: “Wagon Wheels” (Author: Barbara Brenner). 4. African American Pioneers: “I Have Heard of a Land” (Author: Joyce Carol Tomas). “Ghost Train” and “Tales from Gold Mountain” (Author: Paul Yee). (Drop Everything And Read)Time: Students self-select children’s books for independent reading (books read during read aloud were available for students, some chose to read these during D.E.A.R. time) D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read)Time: Students self-select children’s books for independent reading (books read during read aloud were available for students, some chose to read these during D.E.A.R. time)

Read Aloud

Written

Conclusion