Challenging Adult Supremecy
I had the privilege of attending a talk by Darnell Fine in which he explored the idea of breaking free from adult supremacy in the classroom. First of all, I loved how he ran the session, even though we were virtual it was interactive and allowed time for thinking. As someone who is a bit of a slower processor herself, this immediately endeared him to me. His talk left me thinking and reflecting on many different aspects of ideas of teaching and learning- so I know I will be writing a few more posts based on his talk and the ideas of Stephen D. Brookfield.
I consider myself a progressive teacher and felt very much in agreement with all Darnell was presenting, but at the same time had to pause and reflect on how consistently I am actually practicing all that he had outlined. Critical reflection was the heart of his talk and thinking about who and what we are valuing in our own classrooms.
Three main objectives to reflect upon were:
to have an ongoing interrogation of who WE are and what WE know.
value critical reflection for both our students but also of ourselves as teachers
reimagine school as being a site of radical self-inquiry in both adults and students
These objectives are important as we should be rethinking the idea that teachers are the holders of knowledge and students are waiting to be filled with our wisdom. While I feel most teachers today are aware of the value of their students and all they come into the classroom within experiential knowledge and other funds of knowledge, I, unfortunately, am also aware of teachers who don’t equally value the input of students. There was the idea that we teach who we are and are potentially being agents of oppression when we don’t take the time to critically reflect on our practice. Are we celebrating the different identities and the different ways of knowing or are we asking students to show their knowledge in ways we are most comfortable with?
Another idea that I want to ensure I am taking time to consider is am I acting in a way that supports young people to feel their thoughts and ideas are important and worth hearing or am I somehow making students feel their thinking is only valuable if it is in some way a reflection of me? This question had me reflecting on my parenting as well as I see my boys reaching middle school ages themselves and still at times looking for my approval when they make a choice and I feel some guilt that somehow I have been telling them that my opinion in some ways trumps theirs.
Thinking about how we may be impacting our students’ ideas of if they are valued or changing students inner dialogue if their thoughts or opinions have worth, by possibly showing them they lack the privilege and making them feel they are a marginalized member of our classroom or that we view them as lacking credibility and validity. I know I do not want to be another adult that would make a child/teen/another adult feel that I consider the knowledge they possess is something to be ignored or denied because it contrasts my current thinking or knowledge. We as teachers must be open to challenging our currently held ideas and be willing to take in new information whether the person sharing it with us is a Ph.D. or an early years student.
I will leave this post with the 5 main points to consider when being a critically reflective teacher.
How do you feel you are doing with these different parts of critical reflection? I would assume many of us feel good about certain points and less confident in others. In any case, I plan on posting these 5 points by my desk to help check myself throughout the year.
