Below is a vignette I wrote as part of the Education 3503 - Language in Education course. I've included it here as an artifact of my past personal experience, as this experience drives me as a teacher to create and sustain learning environments where all students are not only welcome, but are safe. This artifact helps show how I will meet part 4 of the TQS, "Establishing Inclusing Learning Environments."
Each pixel on your screen, each little magical dot waits to explode into colour and show you whatever you desire, does it not? While you might intend something that when shown in those specific arrangements of pixels it will mean one thing, will your audience actually comprehend what you intended, or take the time to read thoroughly enough to comprehend as intended? My specific experience with these digital misunderstandings was email, where I learned that no matter what I wrote, there was a good chance it wasn’t being read, or at least not read thoroughly enough to grasp what I actually meant. Sadly, there aren’t any flying monkeys in this story, no matter how much I’d rather it was not real. Unfortunately there is intolerance and discrimination all across our world towards those who are different, and our post-secondary educational institutions are no exception. This story recalls the second time I had a major encounter with such.
The issue of reading between the lines to find something that isn’t truly there is long and old, existing since things could be written and read without the intonation of the author to support the meaning. With the sense of immediacy in our digital systems and the often overwhelming amount of information at our disposal too, perhaps it causes more people now to become skim readers, even of information that needed to have been read in detail. Their skimming, in the case of my scenario, lead them to consistently miss key points.
While misinterpretation of the writer’s tone and voice can happen in any reading scenario, those misinterpretations become ever more likely when it comes to a heated subject. When I was placed into a situation where I could not safely participate due to a compromised immune system, I thought nothing of how complicated the situation could be. It started out with an email providing the requested information, and I figured that a clear, detailed explanation accompanied by a signed document from an expert should be more than enough to ensure I was not put in danger due to my disability, after all, the solution was obvious and readily existed. I was even asked to provide reference to the possible solutions, which I happily did to assist, trying to ensure my health caused as little inconvenience for others as possible, but shortly after that is when the threats directed at me began to appear.
I cannot recall how many times I was threatened in that situation, but after the first civil two or three email replies I received, almost every email in reply I received after that, over and over started bombarding me about the consequences of my breaking the rules in all of the scenarios they suggested as being possible or near violations. Each one of their scenarios they conveyed about me though were things I had never once done, but things that they had created from their own skimmed interpretations of my emails, their misinterpretation of my voice.
Eventually a Zoom call occurred, and with such a constructive and reasonably understanding perspective that a member of that side seemed to have, it seemed all misunderstandings had been resolved, but I could not have been more wrong. Next the accusers eventually began to even misinterpret each other, stating one solution would be acceptable in the call should it be available, only for another of them to reject such a situation, yet be unwilling to provide much of any clarification as to why such a solution would or could be rejected. I wondered how they could be so unwilling. Did they not realize what was at stake for me, even though I’d stated it so clearly? It’d be hard to feel less worthless to a system when your very life seemed to not be worth the effort to them to try and find a better solution.
There came a point in the discussion where I was shown that I had no choice but to stand up for myself, knowing full well that not only did I have no backing in a situation clearly pitted against me, but that I could likely suffer major consequences for looking out for my own health. When the object you’re betting is your very life being at risk by being forced into a possibly deadly situation, I certainly can’t think of a better reason to stand up. Misunderstandings were still ever present though, and the same repeated threats, no matter how many times I clarified how those rules were never once violated and that I’d been doing as they themselves had instructed me, continued to be tossed forth at me until the point where not only did they misunderstand, but they refused me the ability to ask for clarification all together when they posed me with an ultimatum.
Continue as I might to only seek to be understood for the legitimate concerns I had, and for the reasonable solutions that already existed to be seen as well, it was irrelevant. No matter how many people I brought in, no matter how high up, no matter how clear my writing, their misinterpretations and intolerance were the same. They consistently came to the same conclusions, conclusions that simply were exclusion.
There are a few key things the situation I’ve shared with you has compelled me to be mindful of in my teaching, and some are related to literacy while others related to my teaching as a whole.
I will strive to make my classroom a place of inclusion. For example, when it comes to literacy (or any subject for that matter) I will always seek to differentiate my instruction as much as is possible to help those struggling students to advance their literacy skills and grow both personally and academically. I will put in the effort to seek out solutions and experts to assist me in doing my best to help the diverse learners in my classroom, all the way from those who struggle to those who excel. I hope that with the literacy skills they’ll build throughout their education, my students will be able to be understanding of others and also be capable of one day being their own advocate, as they likely will be required to do such for themselves one day out in the real world.
In the Educational Psychology class that is part of Professional Semester One, we learned how punishment, while a way to temporarily shut down a situation sometimes, can often have difficult repercussions or side effects, hence why there can often be more effective techniques for changing behaviours. In the case of my story, what I would call the other party’s attempt at punishment, by repeatedly threatening me with disciplinary action for something I had never once committed, is a fantastic example of punishment which resulted in the opposite effect they intended. I hope that I can seek to make constructive solutions in my classroom to solve disputes, and that I can use more effective ways of encouraging favourable behaviours such as positive and negative reinforcement.
Almost everything we do and encounter shapes how we will go forward into the world. I look forward to bringing with me my desire to ensure proper understanding, requesting clarification where I am unsure of the actual meaning, into all aspects of my teaching and learning. I hope that I can always be open to hearing clarification from my students and their parents on their learning situations, and open to helping build ways to be successful for each of my students.