Teachers as gatekeepers: Validating diversity in the classroom
During my practice teaching block, my associate teacher introduced letter writing to her grade 1 and 2 class. Every year in December, this teacher introduced parts of a letter and then her students wrote and mailed letters to Santa Claus. She said her students loved this yearly tradition because they were always excited to receive letters from Santa right before the winter break. However, this made me feel uneasy as I knew my associate teacher was aware that many of the kids in her class did not celebrate Christmas, or if they did, many did not believe Santa was real. Nevertheless, she insisted this was a harmless activity, it’s a great way to introduce letter writing and it “worked” every year. As I walked around the class asking students what they’re thinking to write, many did not know where to begin – they did not celebrate Christmas, they didn’t have a Christmas tree or a chimney in their home. Despite this, many students pretended to celebrate Christmas and wrote their entire letter based on what they commonly observed in the media. This year, a grade 2 student named Steven (pseudonym) refused to write a letter because he did not celebrate Christmas. Steven was also was known for his behavioural disorder, so to avoid an unwanted situation, my teacher gave him an alternate task while the rest of the class continued to write their letters. My teacher was annoyed with the situation, as she believed this was an innocent act of writing a letter to a fictional character – what’s the harm?
To learn more about this scenario, including the author’s own response, please attend the Intersections of Diverse Teachers and Diverse Learners at CSSE 2013, or stay tuned to the DiT website because we will be posting those details in the near future.
Until then, please leave a comment so that we can read your responses to this scenario. Here are some questions to consider interacting with each other and the author (Sama Hamid, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto) about:
- If you were my associate teacher, how would you respond/address this issue?
- Do you think this teacher appropriately accommodated the cultural/religious diversity of her class?
- Given the various constraints educators face – such as limited time, resources, a vast curriculum, etc. – how can we balance our responsibilities as educators and still give our students a broader knowledge of human diversity that is representative of their class and their communities?
- How can teachers create a balanced multicultural environment?
I think this teacher missed a great opportunity to focus on diversity. She could have offered the letter to Santa as one of several options, providing options appropriate to other cultures and then asking if some students wanted to share someone related to their culture they would like to write to and then allow students to select who they write to and whether that person is imaginary or not.
1. I agree with Diane’s comment above, the teacher could have given choices for writing letters to either imaginary characters or real people, one of which could have been Santa. This would have also helped in avoiding the debate of whether Santa is real or not.
To promote diversity and inclusivity the teacher could have asked the students to write to someone explaining how do they celebrate their cultural or religious festivals.
2. I think the teacher did not accommodate diversity in this event.
3. The above essays can then either be displayed on the walls for others to read, or read out aloud by students. Another way of allowing students to experience diversity and providing real readers is exchanging the finished essays with at least three other students and asking the other students to write one positive comment about one thing they learnt from the letter. Similar approaches can be applied in many situations where not only the students but the teachers can learn more about diverse students in her/ his class.
4. Teachers can balance multicultural environment by providing choices and allowing students to ‘heard’ and have ‘real voices’.
I am glad that you shared this story. What might seem to be a “harmless” writing exercise on the surface is actually highly problematic. I agree with Rufeeda’s final comment about the need for writing to be authentic, to draw upon children’s real and imagined experiences, and to employ children’s unique voices. Writing a letter should be purposeful from the young writer’s perspective, and involve genuine communication with someone who also responds authentically. Even if this had been an inclusive letter writing exercise, which it was not, how would “Santa” (I am assuming this is the teacher) respond to the children’s requests? For the child who believes in Santa, what would this response mean (that she or he should expect to receive what she or he had requested?)? How would families be made aware of “Santa’s response” to their child’s letter.
Beyond questions of ethnicity and religion, this Santa letter writing also has socioeconomic consequences. How does a child feel who knows that requested items would never be under his or her Christmas tree? How could this letter writing have been an opportunity to help young children mediate experiences with consuming? gendered messages from advertisers, stereotypes in popular culture, etc.? Culture is much more than ethnicity and religion. Letter writing should involve choice, draw upon children’s purposes and experiences, and not constrain children to “exercises” that have no real or personal purpose or meaning, and which are outside of what children know and genuinely care about.
Further, all teaching should be responsive. Designing alternative engagements is what teaching for diversity is all about. Diversifying should never be a source of annoyance.