Relying on a Professional Community

In order for us, as educators, to look for opportunities in situations for us to strengthen the values we want to pass on to children, we must first be aware of our own social, political, cultural and gender assumptions. It can be so challenging to view a situation from an unbiased standpoint because each one of us views every situation through our own lens. We must continuously be evaluating ourselves and asking questions like: What do I know about this particular issue? What kind of experiences have I had in my lifetime that may influence how I’m viewing this situation or this child? Am I responding to this incident with my heart or my intellectual reflection? What personal social-political experiences and identities do I bring to my observations?

Because the way in which we view a situation or a particular child directly relates to how we may approach subtle “teachable moments” in our classrooms, it is essential to know ourselves as individuals and as teachers and to strive to always remain unbiased.

As professionals just entering the field, it is comforting to know that in our professional community, we are encouraged to work closely with one another and pass our ideas and work through other teachers’ eyes. If we encounter a situation in class that we want other opinions on, we should, and need to be asking: Am I doing this right? What do you think about this? Do you see anything that I am missing in this situation? Not only will we always be pushing ourselves to know more, we will be doing what we can to ensure that we are bringing clarity and awareness to our planning and our teaching. Through relying on a whole community, we will also be justifying that what we are doing is valid.