The Importance Of Equity In Education

As my field work at Carter Elementary comes to an end, I can honestly say that nothing better prepares you for working with children than doing just that. No matter how many hours I sit in UTSA’s lecture halls and classrooms, or study the socially just and proper way to respond to each situation, it will never be more beneficial that being in an actual kindergarten class for two hours a week. As we progressed in IDS 2013, I was eager to visit my students in Mrs. Ferguson’s class and witness what I had been learning about in action. I walked out of her class each day having been taught a valuable lesson and understanding myself as a teacher a little bit better. Since my field work was at the same time each week, I would almost always arrive …show more content…
Ferguson’s class are social justice and equity. Although we only had one day of actually taking notes about those two aspects in IDS 2013, we frequently revisited the topic. The essay “Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice” (1994) in The New Teacher Book (Burant et al., 2010) contains bullet points which clearly define what “…curriculum and classroom practice must be” (p.158). I never witnessed the promotion of critical thinking, multicultural outlooks, activism, or culturally sensitive methods of teaching or learning during my field work (“Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice”, 1994). I do understand the difficulty behind encouraging those thought provoking matters to five year olds during their first year of schooling though. How can one help a kindergartener understand the importance of cultural diversity when said student does not even comprehend the difference between two cultures? It is a complex question with more than one answer. I do however, firmly believe that students are underestimated and given the chance, they would begin to slowly grasp these intricate ways of