Part 2: The Questions

How diverse is your personal circle and why does it look like it does?
I think I’m good with my personal circle. I love trying different foods, traveling to different places, and experiencing different cultures. This definitely creates different layers of culture that I like to experience. 

Who are the ‘others’ in your life?
Othering is who we consider as us vs them. I am trying to have fewer THEMs within the high school and open up to create a bigger circle of US. It’s amazing how many teachers stay in their rooms all day and don’t talk to many others. We work with each other for 20-30 years, and barely know each other sometimes. 

Three of Hedreich Nichols’ reflective questions that really made me think were #3, #5, and #8. For #3, “How often do you use generalizations?”, I realized that I sometimes lump my classes together when I talk or plan, like saying “my 3rd period always…” instead of recognizing the variety of personalities, strengths, and needs within each group. I tend to give certain groups a bad rap and that might not be fair to the individuals in that class. #5, “Do you consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics?”, stood out because I do believe it’s best practice. When we include diverse perspectives in our teaching, we’re helping students and ourselves see a fuller, more accurate picture of the world and give our students opportunities to see representation of their own identities. Lastly, #8, “How much cross-cultural literature, TV, and movies do you consume?”, made me think about my own media habits. I do try to engage with different perspectives, like watching Black-ish, Bridgerton, or even following creators on TikTok who share different cultural viewpoints. Social media alone has broadened my horizons to the immense diversity of culture that exists around the world. I know there’s always room to broaden that exposure even more. Each of these questions helps me slow down and think about how the small choices I make reflect the biases I’m still learning to recognize.

Question five is a hard question in today's political climate- especially in education where what we "can" or "do" teach in a state such as NY is very different than some of the more Southern states. We have to be very careful about how our students, and in turn their parents, interpret some of the things we talk about or say in class due to the many different perspectives on this. Personally, I do agree that we need to incorporate diverse historical perspectives simply because it is important to understand that people have different experiences depending on their own upbringing, trauma, life's events, and even identity and by teaching the idea of differing perspectives on events, we can show the idea of subjective vs. objective POV.  

Number 6: Who is on your “free pass” list is interesting because I tend to give older people a free pass when it comes to some of their bias and thinking. I see myself saying "Well, they're just older" or "they haven't experienced this" more often when it comes to the elderly and given them a pass for some of their bias/ignorance.

Number 7: When do you tend most toward non-acceptance and judgment? I find myself being more non-acceptant or judgemental when I hear other people make generalizations about groups, especially when it comes to people having more traditional viewpoints on gendered roles. I role my eyes or get more offended when people have the perspective that women belong in the home, or aren't as "strong", etc  compared to men. I have a few family members that fall into this category and I find myself paying closer attention to what they say when talking about women's roles and probably are more judemental of them. 

Select several questions and explain why they are important for a person to uncover their own biases.

I think #3 using generalizations is something we use more than we should in education.  There are some assumptions that can go along with generalizations like "the Sped class" or "ENL class" that can be harmful to the students and teachers, I think it's an easy switch to make that can be helpful.

The 5th & 6th questions are so important, especially in today's climate.  It is so important to consider all perspectives.  We need to understand while that there is no person that is perfect.  People can do both good and bad things.

I love the 8th question, in the past few years I've really tried to make an effort to read books that represent people and cultures that are different from mine.  I've really learned so much, and even more come to find out there's so much more I want to learn. 

This section was great and opened up my eyes to some things.  I like how she mentioned:  How diverse is your personal circle?  When I think about my classroom, I have kids sit in groups of 6 all racially mixed.  When it comes time for free choice either outside or inside, African American kids tend to play together and white kids play together.  We need to have kids at an early age try some of her ideas, such as play outside of your comfort zone or bubble. 
Question 4:  I totally agree with what she says, when I call customer service and receive someone with an accent I tend to roll my eyes and think here we go again.  I need to change that bias and realize that person just has a different nationality than me and they are there to help me.Question6:  Who is on my list for a free pass.  Love this one!  I love when she said, "What if my child said that to grandma?  All kids should have the same free pass and be treated equally.
After listening to this part, I realized as an educator I have some work to do.

Questions to reflect on and consider...
1. How diverse is my personal circle and why does it look like it does?
I definitely have been around diversity my entire teenage to adult life. From attending Sweet Home High School, which was and still is a very diverse school for being in the suburb of Amherst. Playing on the basketball team for four years, which allowed me to become friends/teammates with a number of African American students. Then attending Buffalo State College, which was also a very diverse college campus. Working at Cardinal O'Hara HS and now Sweet Home HS. My (our) friend group between work, church, and my son's school has grown to include African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. It's very important to us, and to show our son, the importance and benefit of having different friend groups and people in our lives. The importance of living out diversity in our own lives...
5. Do I consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics? As a social studies teacher (and mainly a US history teacher), we try to teach the idea of having and incorporating multiple perspectives into the understanding of our history. We look at the perspective of the Native Americans during the First Encounter with Columbus; Native Americans during the Trail of Tears; the role of African Americans and women during the Reforming Age and Progressive Era; pro and anti-imperialism views; Japanese-Americans living on the west coast after Pearl Harbor (internment camps). We are constantly learning about and considering different audiences, purposes, biases, and point of views in history. It's very important to expand our knowledge/understanding of these topics and to see them from a different historical lens (bias, POV) than the one that we're always taught in our schools, etc. To learn about different cultures, backgrounds, races and religions and their struggles throughout the course of history.

1. How diverse is your personal circle and what does it look like?
2. Who are the "others" in your life?
3. Who is on your "free pass" list?
4. When do you tend toward non-acceptance and judgments?

These questions are all important to understanding where your blind spots are, what triggers you, and where you can dig deep to overcome your biases. These questions can help us dismantle the stereotypes and assumptions we make about certain groups so that we can be more objective. These questions helped me gain insight to my own patterns and underlying issues - uncovering things I may have been taught early in life that still linger and color my interactions with others. I realize that i sometimes have a tendency to talk over certain people when I intend to speak up for them. While I'm working on being more accepting and understanding of marginalized groups, I can tend to be judgmental of people who seem to be non-accepting, who aren't "doing the work" to overcome racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. I see that, to me, "others" are family, friends, colleagues, etc who don't seem to accept people of different races, religions, ethnic backgrounds or LGBTQ+ people. 

Reflecting back on most of my answers, I, unfortunately, have not given these answers much thought until my college experience began a few years ago. In my hometown, I only went to school with two or three black students, and everyone else was white and mostly of the same culture and background; there is not much diversity. I did not really encounter diversity until college, and it was easy to open my circle of friends because I was very eager to meet and establish relationships with people of all races, cultures, and backgrounds. Therefore, questions 1, 5, 7, and 8 are most important (to me) for a person to uncover their own bias. People could use these questions to reflect on how much empathy and acceptance they have for others. I found that if a person is unwilling or hesitant to expose themselves to a range of diverse people and experiences, they can “peek” as Hedreich said into the lives experienced by others using social media, literature, TV, and film. Ultimately, a person needs to be open-hearted and open-minded to accepting their implicit biases and working through them. I do this through attending plays and musicals that express different stories than those I am used to; for a person to uncover their own biases and change, they need to carve time out to explore on their own.

1. How diverse is my personal circle? My circle is not super diverse. I went to public school K-12 with students who were almost all white middle/working class. I went to UB, so I did meet quite a few very diverse professors and students, but still my circle still remained similar to me. In addition, I work in a school district where most of the teachers are similar to me. I am currently very good friends with an Hispanic person.
4. Person with an accent - I do not necessarily think that just because a person has an accent that they are not intelligent. If I am calling customer service, I do need to be able to understand the person helping.5. Diverse historical practice is best practice (and yes, it is divisive for some people). I have always tried to teach through diverse lenses. It is a good thing for me! I want the truth of history, even if it is unsavory. Thomas Jefferson is the perfect example of a dichotomy in history.
8. How much cross-cultural literature or TV do I consume? I watch a lot of historical TV about many cultures and times. I do follow many diverse people on Instagram. I do not watch a lot of fictional TV, but when I do, the characters tend to look like me. I did read a lot of diverse literature in college.

In particular, thinking about when I use generalizations, and who is on, my pass, list were interesting to me. I think of the education examples that they gave such as using the term sped for a wide range of very different students or ELL for a group of students who are so varied in their experience and grasp of language and you name it, that it stuck out to me that I probably think or use generalizations in speech way more often than I should

As far as who is on my “pass list”. Because of my background and life experience, I find that I give a huge pass to athletes that I route for Tiger Woods is a train wreck in his personal life yet I excuse that constantly because I want to watch him golf. if he were my neighbor, I would have nothing to do with him in any way, shape or form so thinking about passing people along and excusing behavior is interesting and something I have not done before as a reflective practice. I need to think about that more in my professional career to ensure that I am not. doing these types of things unknowingly.