How do you experience privilege and marginalization?
As a white, middle-class, female, I don't think I have experienced marginalization due to my religion or race, but I feel like in the past, I have experienced some gender discrimination. This was more when I was a teenager working in a male-owned business. I used to work in an orchard that had been family-owned for many, many years, and the two male owners used to tell us what jobs we could and could not do. It was very obvious that the girls worked in the bakery section or at the register.
Who sees themselves and their own lives reflected in our curriculum and our classroom materials?
As a science teacher, our curriculum and materials reflect people in general. We don't work out of a textbook and we teach our students to observe and experiment. The students are taught to think critically, communicate, and solve problems. I tell my students that any of them can go into the science field and even if they don't, science affects their everyday lives.
How might you use your own privilege to make your classroom and school more equitable?
I make my classroom and school more equitable by teaching my students the science skills in the above prompt, but also by featuring many types of scientists from diverse backgrounds in my classroom with Scientist of the Month. I post a large picture of the person and a write-up of their accomplishments. I also teach my students classroom principles that lean heavily on respect. We discuss that respect is not an option, but a non-negotiable. I encourage my students to bring this mindset into the rest of the day after they leave our classroom.
