I am white. There is nothing that I can change about this fact of life. I recently read a chapter in the book ” Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools” by Benedicta Egbo. In this chapter something stuck me; I had a real “ahah” moment. Egbo comments on how typically in western society the members of the majority rarely see inclusive education as including them. They see it as including others.
Even though I am white I am completely different from other white people, in our class, in my community, city, province and country. I am of Italian, Swedish, and English decent; my history is a combination of many different cultures. This is similar to other white people but the beautiful thing that we typically miss is that each person has a slightly different history behind them. Each person is slightly different. So why is it then that white people, including myself, saw inclusive education as include others and not everyone.
Recently I have had a number of interviews with school division in and around Regina. While preparing for these interviews I was thinking about the notion of inclusive education and I failed to see the amount of inclusive education I was involving in the class. I failed to see it maybe because to me it was simply what I had to do and not something I saw as different. Perhaps it is because it was within a mainly white school and I simply played it off as nothing. At any rate having this “ahah” moment two weeks ago would have greatly helped me in my interview process as I would have had plenty to talk about instead of a couple of sentences.
What I have learned from this reading is to be aware of what I am doing and to realize that inclusive education has little to do with others and lots to do with everyone. It is not about the minorities, nor about the majority but about everyone together. Each person needs to be included in the classroom in the process of inclusive education.
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Nice aha moment here Michael. Thanks for sharing!