Evangelin Francis - Blog #5

For this week’s blog we were required to read chapter five, The Role of Curriculum. I found this chapter to be fairly interesting. One of the first things that stood out to me was the idea of “teaching to the test.”  This is where teachers feel the need to “teach materials similar to those found on upcoming assessments – rather than engaging in innovative pedagogical ways to deliver curriculum” due to the pressure to perform well on large scale assessment (i.e. provincial, national, international exams) (144). As a student, I have often talked about “studying for the test,” meaning that all the studying I did is was for the test and then two days later I pretty much forgot it all. So, it was kind of funny to see there is such a thing called “teaching to the test” - that teachers experience on the other side.  Personally, I agree with the textbook that this approach does more harm than good. In the sense that, if the teacher is feeling pressured for their students to do well and therefore they either “greatly aid” the students (perhaps through “over instruction”) in what the material is to be tested or rush through it – I just do not see the students benefiting (all that they could) from this.

Another thing that stood out to me in this chapter was in regards to the five stages of development to multicultural education, put forth by Ghosh in 2004. I have often only heard of the first three terms (assimilation, adaption and accommodation) when learning about multiculturalism within a school setting. However the textbook outlines two addition steps, these being the (1) incorporation stage and (2) the integration stage.  The incorporation stage places focus and attention on encouraging and “creating alliances between different groups” part of this is related to the hiring of teachers from various ethnic backgrounds (148). While, the integration stage promotes a more global outlook within an anti-racist education framework (148). Personally, I wish that the text could have elaborated a bit more on this final stage, as I would have liked to have seen some examples or case studies on how this would look in a classroom. However with that being said, I think this would be a great thing to use as I think it would remind our students, first and foremost that people come from all different places, histories, practices… etc and they are all still perfectly acceptable / respected (even if they do not fit into the dominant cultures norms & values). In addition that the world I think it would broaden students view and show them early on how globalized and interdependent our world is.

Lastly as a short note, I found the segment on “myth of meritocracy” interesting. As a refresher that is the “belief that white success is due to hard work alone – [and] is a subtle way that White domination is secured in today’s society” (152). As my discussion question: I am just wondering if you agree that this exists and if so, to what extent? In addition what are some of the ways we can combat this notion / change the system to be fairer to all?