Laura Gillett

Culture & Inclusion

Week 2 - Reflection 1

Reflection Prompt:​ Studies have emphasized the role of self-reflection and challenging internal beliefs as a necessary
component in becoming a culturally responsive teacher (Cochran-Smith, 1995; Merryfield, 2000). The reflections are in
place to challenge your thinking and develop your knowledge of the content we are exploring. The reflection will only be
read by me and will allow you a quick place to reflect on how the topics affect you as an educator. These do not need to
be longer than 600 words but may be as long as you need them to.
Please write a 60-word reflection on colorblindness.

As an educator, I have always been taught that it is important to engage in self-reflection. During my early
years as a teacher, I reflected a lot on my lessons, the ways my students were learning, and what I could do
better to make sure my students were learning the content. I mostly reflected on my students’ academic
learning and the way it related to assessments. Being an early childhood educator, I was definitely aware of
different developmental domains, such as social emotional development, however, most of my reflection was
around literacy and math, as those were the areas most stressed by tests and administrators.

Somewhere along the line, I was taught about equality and I’m sure I was taught that all were equal. I
remember thinking then, and now, that not everyone is treated equally. I got an uneasy feeling thinking that we
should ignore race or skin color and act colorblind. I didn’t grow up or go to college in a racially diverse
environment, however, I remember always being aware and interested in differences. During my college
education program (of mostly white, middle-class students), we talked about race, ethnicity, and culture. I
remember this being a class or a unit of study, not an issue we talked about often or an issue that was part of
every discussion. I don’t think I was very phased by this at the time, planning to teach in an area that was not
racially or ethnically diverse. I spent my first three years teaching in a district of all white students that grew up
with similar backgrounds and experiences. I do remember thinking that I, as a teacher, wanted to have a more
diverse class, I wanted to move on to “bigger and better” things and look at life through a different lense. I
remember not fitting in during those first three years, not because I looked different than my students or my
families, but because I felt different. I realize now that the factors and experiences that helped shape my
personal culture were very different from my students and colleagues.

As I have learned about culture and what makes someone’s culture, I have thought a lot about my own culture.
My views are very different from those of my immediate family. I supposed the way I was raised did help shape
who I am, even if I am very different from my family.

The environment in which I live and teach now is so different from the environment in which I was raised. I am
happy to live in a diverse place, even if I am sometimes nervous or anxious. I do at times experience the “white
anxiety” that Strauss referred to. I am constantly wondering how my actions and my teaching affect my
students and my families. I want to be culturally sensitive but I am still learning. I like living outside my comfort
zone and I love to learn about people who are different from myself. I often find myself asking why we do
things the way we do them, especially in education, even if they are not working. Having had the experiences
I’ve had now, I realize that race, culture, and ethnicity are intertwined in everything we do and in everything we
teach. Many of the staff meetings or professional development opportunities I attend through my current school
site focus on culture and being culturally competent as an educator. One thing that has stuck with me is the
idea of equality versus equity and knowing that what is best for one student may not be best for another. I
definitely relate this idea to colorblindness in that everyone is not equal, so we cannot ignore our differences.
Through my experiences, I feel so strongly that it is wrong to be “colorblind” to people’s differences. I feel that it
is so important to talk about race and ethnicity. I really connected with Kajitani’s idea that talking about race
and ethnicity in itself is not racism. The only way that we can learn about each other and our differences is
through open and respectful conversation. Thinking about where I came from (just a small town, white girl from
the Midwest) to where I am living and teaching now (IUSD, where we serve families with 90+ home languages
that differ from English), I can truly say that my eyes have been opened. I feel that my reflection related to my
teaching and classroom now revolves around my students’ and my race, ethnicity, and culture and how those
all affect us as students and as an educator. I hope to continue to grow in my reflection and I look forward to
embracing others different from myself.