Educating Rita & Belonging

Her job and dialect optimize the way she grew up, and how the expectations of her upbringing limit her future, as being a working class woman she is expected to get married, have children and then become a housewife, ‘I should've had a baby by now. Everyone expects it.’ There were no further expectations for women and certainly no need for them to have an education, ‘Denny gets dead narked if I work at home’. Rita doesn’t like the housewife stereotype and decides to rebel against it by taking the pill and starting a formal education, ‘But I mean, I don't want a baby yet. No. I wanna discover meself first.’ Rita’s family refuse to see the benefits that this could give her and this leads her father to feel sorry for Denny and to feel annoyed at Rita’s lack of commitment to her family, ‘Denny, I'm sorry for you, lad. If she was a wife of mine I'd drown her.’ When Rita thinks about quitting the course to please her family, it’s her mother’s unintentional comment at the pub, ‘There must be better songs than this,’ which drives her forward in the course, ‘And I thought, ‘All I'm doing is getting an education. Just trying to learn. And I love it. It's not easy, I get it wrong half the time, I'm laughed at half the time but I love it because it makes me feel as

Belonging brings to our attention the potential that all individuals are affected by not only their choices but the attitudes of others. The Notion of time allows for an individual’s perception to change and in-turn, form different attitudes towards people as we see through the characters in Rainbows End by Jane Harrison and Othello by William Shakespeare. An individual’s choices and the attitude of others plays an important role in shaping the way that characters perceive their sense of belonging, in both negative and positive ways in “Rainbows End” through the Koori women, Nan Dear and Gladys and in

indeed a person who has a lot to say and Frank listens and responds to

* enhance children’s understanding and knowledge of people who are like themselves and of people

     Identity is one of the main questions throughout all of our readings, because it is hard for people to accept who they are in society. Accepting their identity as a minority with little if any freedoms

“We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” This quote from the New York Times shows the perception of belonging as the idea about connecting to a place, person, group or a community. 'Feliks Skrzynecki' by Peter Skrzynecki, 'I'm nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson and 'The Rabbits' by John Marsden & Shaun Tan show the concept of belonging as being contrasted towards the New York Times quote, showing the alienation and non-existent connection towards it. These texts have furthered my understanding on the perceptions of belonging by recognising the different concepts of connection to people, places and things.

Concurrently, a full sense of belonging is therefore achieved. This is evident in ‘Neighbours’ by one incident which requires a thorough deconstruction and full understanding of the text to see that there is a sense of acceptance within the community. Belonging in this story is achieved when the young man evolves and understands the generosity of the neighbours. ‘On

25). The key outcome tries to get “educators…to broaden students’ understanding of differences and different groups of people” (Kumashiro, 2004, p.xxv), through embracing their students’ diversity. The idea of embracing student diversity and experiences within the classroom ties into the idea of culturally relevant teaching. As described by Pelkowski (2014 p.7), is “described as [the] critical consciousness, or an individuals’s awareness of how herself and others are impact by the dimensions of culture, race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as how these dimensions are related to the political, social, and economic systems”. I think if students have a fundamental understanding of how these structures/systems impact them and those around them is of paramount importance within this unit, especially within the Canadian context. Through student learning, they should be able to understand how some factors will contribute to how someone identifies or refuses to identify to certain types of

While reflecting on what culture to choose for my cultural immersion project, I thought about the many different areas we have reviewed in this course. There were several groups/areas that would not apply to me simply because of my own family and my gender. I thought about my own cultural background and belief system and which area I was the least culturally knowledgeable. I wanted to learn something new and grow during the immersion process. During the course of this paper, I will be looking at some stereotypes (both negative and positive) about this particular culture, language differences between homosexual populations and heterosexual populations, my observations of the group and my thoughts on the cultural immersion experience. I chose the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ) community because, to the best of my knowledge, I do not have any family members of friends who identify with any of these categories. I have had coworkers or classmates that identify in this way, so I feel like I have always been tolerant, but I have never been close with anyone who is LGBTQ.

Earlier this Semester, I participated in "The Power Of Assumptions Activity" which took place during a training I was helping facilitate. I was asked a series of questions and then I had to stand by a sign in the room that answered the questions being asked. The signs had different pieces of a person 's identity listed on them. A few examples included: Socioeconomic status, Family, Education, and Race. As the activity progressed, I realized that I don 't think about how the Racial piece of my identity affects my life as much as some other pieces. "The Power Of Assumptions Activity" allowed me to experience the uncertainty of not knowing how I would answer one of the questions on the contrary experience the opposite by answering many questions right away and which sign to stand under. "The Power Of Assumptions Activity" surprised me as I saw myself standing alone and also with other people depending on the questions that was asked and how each person decided to answer the questions for themselves. I chose this example to illustrate to introduce my paper about my Racial identity and also the challenge of writing this paper and reflecting on my Racial identity.

Good morning/Afternoon teachers and students today I will be showing you how a sense of belonging or not belonging greatly influences an individual’s identity. A change in identity occurs when belonging is found through meaningful, intimate relationships, with senses of place, community, safety and familiarity. The free verse novel, The Simple Gift, composed by Steven Herrick, the dramatic fairy tale film, Edward Scissor hands, directed and created by Tim Burton and the novel Matilda composed by Roald Dahl, all explore the concepts of belonging and relationships through the strong use of literary techniques; and focus on a changing Identity as a base for belonging. All texts have significantly different perspectives of

After oiling the door, Rita's next action reinforces this relationship. She refuses to sit down in the chair with 'its 'back to the door' conveys how unsophisticated and insecure she is. The way that Frank offers her his chair, but she refuses with her comment, 'You're the teacher' shows how she sees their separate roles, with him with a greater status, again introducing the theme of superiority. Rita even feels Frank's taste is superior to hers, 'That's 'cos you've got taste.' Although Frank has not yet commented how he feels that he is superior to Rita in terms of both education and class, the way he responds to her clearly shows how he feels they are not on equal terms. The fact that Frank is amused by Rita wondering whether or not she has reformed him reflects this, and throughout the scene he uses education as a

‘Educating Rita’ explores the way in which a woman, in her late twenties, Rita, has to deal with everyday life, conflict change and different phases as she becomes educated. The play is based on Willy Russell’s own life. At the start of the play, Frank is a more relaxed character. Rita is a hyper and open minded character, searching for adventure. She comes from the working class society and tries to become educated and well respected. Frank on the other hand is from the upper-class society, well educated but has lost most of his respect through drinking. As the play progresses Frank starts to show a romantic and affectionate side of himself towards

Educating Rita tells a story of a 26-year-old married hairdresser, Rita, who decided to get education by taking a course in English literature from the Open University. Through the development of the relationship between Rita and her alcoholic and cynical tutor, Frank, this story brings up many concepts in adult development and education. After watching the movie, I have a further understanding of the concepts of changes, motivation to learn, freedom, and stability.

She barges into Frank’s office harassing him about the “bleeding’ handle on the door” testing Frank with her swearing and reference to the “tits” on his religious painting. She later admits that this is because she’s nervous, but because the start is so memorable, the audience are struck by the change in Rita at the end. Although Frank is taken back by her brash behaviour and tries to counter it and take control with long words, like “embrace a more comprehensive scholarship” you can see him warming to her. Despite the social differences I think that they are alike in quite a few ways, they are both unsatisfied with their situation and their partners and they both share little rebellions against authority. Smoking, that Frank promised not to do and which “everyone seems to of packed up”, “afraid of getting cancer”, swearing which “doesn’t half cause a fuss” in the hairdressers where Rita works and drinking which “kills y’ brain cells”.