Local Matters Reflection

 One of the points that resonated with me was the "promising girls" idea. I had never really felt any explicit distinction between any gender in high school, however, during one of my on-call E.A. days last month, someone said to me, "You will enjoy that class - it's a bunch of girls." The implication here was that boys are harder to handle and girls are generally well-behaved. I actually noticed that at the elementary level in the city that I am in, there was a greater reference to/use of gender stereotypes in comparison to the high school. Phrases like, "boys and girls," splitting the class into boys and girls, and talking about student behaviour in terms of "The boys in this class are...." and "The girls in the class are..." were much more frequent. Part of the reason may have been the generation of the teachers who were teaching. For example, "Hey guys" is a phrase that was common when I was growing up and so I say it a lot. I've been trying to switch out "guys" with "folks" "class" "crew" (during hybrid lessons it was "online crew" and "in-person crew") but it is hard to break out of language that was deemed appropriate for the entirety of my life (I of course understand why it is necessary in terms of creating an environment where everyone feels included). Another part of it may have been because the high school has an active GLOW (Gay, Lesbian or Whatever) group, so the school environment as a whole may be more aware of these issues as a whole. I think these points, which may seem subtle to some, tie in well with the point "[we need to]... move beyond the moderinst habit of assuming that self/identity is separate from knowledge/learning" because there are non-binary students and students that don't fall under the stereotype of their gender that are being underrepresented or completely neglected in the environment in which they are meant to learn. If they are not seeing themselves reflected in the content or when they are excluded this way (e.g. "Boys and girls"), they aren't connecting with the content to the same degree and therefore their learning is negatively impacted. 

Although it is mentioned that race may or may not have been a contributing factor to these generalizations of "unpromising boys/promising girls," I was also reminded of biases in my own community and how this negatively impacts students - more specifically, the idea of "unpromising Indigenous students." Growing up, we did learn about Indigenous culture, but did not focus on Indigenous history or Truth and Reconciliation and I frequently heard racist or stereotypical descriptions of Indigenous peoples being said in everyday conversations. One of these stereotypes was that Indigenous children all came from unstable homes, apart from a few exceptions, and therefore they wouldn't be able to achieve academic success. Of course, this is a terrible outlook and negative stereotype which would have negatively impacted the self-image and self-esteem of Indigenous students and had a direct impact on student learning. This is why it is so important to be aware of these biases and to actively empower these students as well. Of course, the history of residential schools and Indigenous Peoples' relationship to school is an additional factor at play. However, even allowing the space for students to be themselves without predetermined assumptions being placed upon them based on something they can't control, such as gender and ethnicity, is a huge part of our jobs to ensure these negative stereotypes are not perpetuated and so that students aren't inhibited by what society/teachers view them to be.