Mandy Marchant: The Role of Curriculum

I find it interesting that in Manitoba there is no mention of homosexuality in the health curriculum. I remember in my Grade 10 and 11 health classes we were educated on homosexuality by our teachers and health professionals. As this issue has become a popular topic in society in the last few years, I think it is unfortunate that this is not mentioned in formal curriculums. If educators are trying to move away from the hidden curriculum and perpetuating old social norms, they need to include homosexuality in their health lessons or lessons on family. My next question would be if the curriculum is under revisement to include homosexuality? This past October I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation on providing support to LGBTQ students and the whole school population for early years. The speaker presented the notion that early years students often identify with LGBTQ, even before sexual maturation. I found this topic to be beneficial because it is not something I had considered would be an issue in early years. Thus, homosexuality needs to be addressed in our curriculum so all students can learn and accept it, which will move towards a better understanding like society is currently striving for.

I liked comparing my experience with multicultural education to the five stages of development of multicultural education by Ghosh. I would compare my secondary school education of diversity and various cultures to the adaptation stage. Our community has recently welcomed many immigrant families from countries such as South Korea, Russia, Germany, Belize, Mexico, Italy, etc. As a result, our community has adopted a strong multicultural policy that is focused on celebrating the new cultures in our community. The community hosted a multicultural fair and family celebration night, which show cased food, traditions, games, clothes, etc from different cultures. However, in our school the new cultures were viewed more as exotic because there was not an integrated multicultural policy put in place yet. I would assess my university career as similar to the incorporation stage. I had professors from various ethnic backgrounds and was encouraged to work with students from different cultures. Furthermore, I learnt more about different cultures and traditions like in the incorporation stage.

Discussion Question: How do we as teachers dismantle cognitive imperialism?