To understand how technology is influencing equity in Education
For the first few years of my career, I worked as a young able-bodied enthusiastic teacher. I frequented the special education room as I had a couple of students, full time, that required assistance I could not provide in class. I came to know the Educational Assistants and the students quite well. I then moved to work overseas where students with disabilities are often orphaned or receive little to no education. Upon my return to Canada, I was diagnosed with my own disability and my life has remained ever changed. I have seen how technology can bridge gaps to allow for equity and also experienced how it can be used as a tool to oppress and other.
My most profound experience in my MET journey was during ETEC 565C: Ableism Equity and Technology. I have always worked closely with the special education department, not only locally, but also as an educator in the B.C. Global Education Program in an offshore school. Until the onset of my own disability, I had little idea of the important work that still needs to be done to address the vast inequities that exist in the B.C. education system. The ongoing project I started with fellow students in this course, has lead to global conference presentations and potential research from grant applications. I have really attempted to be more sound in my accessibility for online content as you will find throughout this site. I have included video with closed captioning options and audio files for all of my written work. Sadly, inequity is part of the infrastructure of educational institutions, and intersectionality serves only to deepen the issues. I find myself diving deep into these problems on a daily basis, and ask you to explore how equity for the disabled is being approached in our open online educational resource. You can get to the full site with the link under the video.
Current events in North America have highlighted the ingrained racism and white supremacy that perpetuate inequity based on racial structures. ETEC 521: Indigeneity, Technology and Education, has offered a unique opportunity to look at truth and reconciliation in B.C. and the preservation of aboriginal cultures worldwide. I was shocked to discover the well-known motivational theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, was appropriated from Blackfoot's ways of knowing and being. That new knowledge has impacted how I have navigated the content in this course. I have been researching how cultural appropriation is being used under the umbrella of "Indigenizing curriculum." during this course, I have had deep conversations with the Indigenization Coordinators in my district and Elders in the community. We have talked about the inequities created by systematic implicit bias. Please have a look at some of our conversations in my research project for ETEC 521.
In a project for ETEC 512: Applications of Learning Theories to the Analysis of Instructional Settings, we explored the persistent myths in neuroscience being used to perpetuate erroneous pedagogical decisions in education. These myths, based on misinterpretation or adoption of faulty science have created, and continue to create, inequities in infrastructure for students. Thanks to my Bachelor of Science, I thought myself fairly discerning regarding scientific myths. However, I was astonished to discover vetted scientific studies on issues like brain gym (which I used), were promoted based on partial truths. That is not to say all Neuroscientific based pedagogy is bad. In fact, I believe it should be a major part of how we make decisions in education. However, we must become adept at fact-checking our data (especially trends) to avoid disadvantaging a group of students, or every student.