Continuing on from my previous post ‘The Goodes and the bad’, this article from The Age newspaper was a fascinating part 2 for me to read and think about in consideration to the Adam Goodes racist slur scandal. For me it really hit home for 2 reasons. One, I believe the major issue in this story was not the racial slur itself, although any racism of any kind is unacceptable, but the issue that it came from a 13 year old was the element that made this story that one level more frightening. For me, it is impossible to ignore the need for education in acceptance, tolerance and respect of not only different races, but to individuals in general. It presents teachers with an opportunity that I believe they can’t ignore, connecting to Ladson-Billings, (1995) point, “By observing the students in their home/community environment, teachers were able to include aspects of the students' cultural environment in the organization and instruction of the classroom” (pp. 467). I believe by starting with the youth, a domino like effect will soon follow.
This leads me to the second reason that I was so
interested by this particle article. As stated previously, being an Art
education student that has already done my internship, I loved reading this
article and the message it was putting across. The use of this particular
situation, students being shown Adam Goodes' press conference for them to understand
in a real way how racism and bullying cannot just effect children, it can
effect grown men too. Men like this one who for many youths hold at a hero type
status. I believe for students to see and identify with a person like Adam in a
situation like this is the best and most effective way to get across
the fact that racism is simply not on and should never be a part of
any society.
I believe the point raised by Sharon Gewirtz, (1998)
in our course, “Within recent studies of
education policy, social justice has been an under-theorized concept” (pp.
469), the pure and simple understanding of tolerance and respect is simply
being lost in schools and society in general. Too many excuses for behaviour
such as racism and bullying are a part of our society, the right for people to
live freely and without prejudice is unfortunately not present in the way it
should be.
Presenting this to students in a
classroom and the idea of using it to educate them on the simple yet I believe
most important lesson of right, wrong and being a good person also made me
connect with Storms, (2012) research into social justice in education where he
asked students to carry out the activity of writing a ‘coming out’ letter to a
family member in order for them to truly understand the experience of an actual
young adolescent homosexual (pp. 554). For students to truly understand the
various beliefs, preferences and opinions around them is extremely important,
not only teaching them about individual identities but also helping to develop
their own, something as a future teacher I hope I will use and pass on to my
own students one day.
Gewirtz, S. (1998).
Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), pp. 469-484.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995).
Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American educational research
journal, 32(3), 465-491.
Munro, P. (2013). Schools to recirculate anti-racism
material. The Age. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/schools-to-recirculate-antiracism-material-20130526-2n5dv.htm
[Accessed 26 September 2013].
Storms, S. B. (2012). Preparing
Students for Social Action in a Social Justice Education Course: What Works?. Equity & Excellence in
Education, 45(4), pp. 547-560.
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