Reflective Essay On Education

The aim of this assignment is to give a reflective account on group presentation and the peer assessment process as well as the development of a personal action plan. It would involve using ‘The What? Model of Structured Reflection’ (Driscoll 2007) to analyse the experience of using a group designed assessment tool to assess my peers and the experience of being peer assessed. Additionally, experience of completing a group presentation would be reflected upon. A personal action plan which identifies areas for personal development and the designed assessment tool is attached as appendix 1 and 2 respectively.

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

As a practicing teaching, it is responsibility to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment for students. Whilst on professional experience at a local school in Cairns, I taught a series of lessons (artefact 4) for a year 8 Health and Physical Education class. In order to effectively teach each lesson, I had to manage the classroom activities and challenging behaviours. I used the ten micro-skills for classroom management to not only manage students’ behaviour but also ensure inclusive student participation and engagement.

My interest in education was sparked after reading an article "America's broken bootstraps" by George F. Will. The article and my classes led me to learn more about justice and inequality in the United States and discovering the role education plays in perpetuating the system.

Thus far the discussions of how race, culture, and socioeconomic status plays a role in education has been a very enlightened one. Up until now I really have never thought about how many things play a part in the education a child receives and how a teacher’s career is also impacted. Like many others I assume, education is something that we all receive and never think about it in great detail. For me going to school each day was just a routine and the end goal was to graduate high school and go onto college, always thinking that it was that easy for all others. Not until now have I discovered that it is not that easy and that there are many obstacles in the way of a good education.

Many people see education as a privilege, however I see it as an opportunity. As an African American male I make it my mission to continue the work of those black men and women who worked tirelessly to make sure that have the option to obtain higher education. I realize that I stand on the shoulder of those men and women. Hearing and understanding their stories of doing whatever it took to make sure that they were educated – knowing that education brought them dignity and respect that no one could take away from them; helped me understand that education is the key that unlocks doors. Education will allow me to be a change agent in the world and fight against social injustices and on behave of those who are unable to speak for themselves. Education

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people that are prepared for today.” These heartfelt words were spoken by the civil rights activist Malcolm X who believed that people should never stop learning. I’m very much like him in that way. I believe that everybody should have the right to a fair education. I certainly enjoy learning at my current school, Julia R. Masterman. Masterman has taught me many things that I never thought I would learn. In this essay I will discuss how my education, so far, has impacted my life through improving social skills, rigorous academics and has increased my sense of independence.

“The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man’s thinking you not have to worry about his actions. You do have stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it” (Woodson p. 5). In the Miseducation of the Negro he focused in on the problems of the education system for African Americans leading to the dire effects of plight of the Negro. This timeless work is relevant and parallel today; he speaks on the lack of racial consciousness and the self-hatred through education that teaches him to despise himself/herself. For African Americans and other peoples of color, hegemony has placed us as at subordinate class in a white supremacist patriarchal society. Combining theories of political theorist, Antonio Gramsci, historian Carter G. Woodson, sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, and social theorist Michael Foucault a theoretical and practical coherence can show the relationship of knowledge and power. Critical Pedagogy links the relationship of knowledge and power, in which knowledge is socially constructed and rooted in a nexus of power relations (Darder, Baltodano, & Torres p.63). Critical consciousness within critical pedagogy has us consider as students and future educators the role of education and knowledge when it comes oppression and decolonization.

It is important to critically examine institutions and institutional systems through a feminist and intersectional lens because it’s important to notice all the sexism, racism, and classism that goes on in todays society. It particularly stood out to me how educational systems can oppress so many types of people without even considering their feelings. In the movie Precious Knowledge, students of primarily a Mexican background faced the odds they were put against to attend school. They were privileged with an Ethnic Studies program where they finally felt as if they were accomplishing something and someone actually had faith in them to graduate high school. The educational system wanted to take the program away from these students because they did not feel it was fair to students of other races. They even got to sit in on one of the classes and it was clear to see they just didn’t even care what the students had to say. The students felt as if the educational system was against them not wanting to go to school. They are being born into a world as a statistic and are basically being set up to fail and not succeed. Looking at this through a feminist and intersectional lens, it breaks my heart that so many schools across the world are diminishing a students education due to the

In addition to empowering individuals, effective education systems strengthen communities by building bridges between people, thus preventing conflict and ignorance. Most importantly, our education systems cannot simply cater to the powerful and privileged. In making donations and investments, we must look to those who are most vulnerable in the world – women, those from developing countries, and many others who are often relegated to the shadows when governments think about the public they serve. In doing so, we can build a more well-educated, prosperous, and socially just

When thinking about this, however, I begin to wonder what kind of world could exist outside of this oppression. I have always thought I can overcome and see pass educational curriculums and systems but now that I internalized Freire's “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, I question just like him what is “authentic existence”? But I can appreciate and continue my journey in my college HED 120 class where I am in a comfortable learning space that will encourage me to participate more in class because I know voicing my opinion is important. I will remember that Freire writes “problem posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of persons as beings who are authentic only when engaged in inquiry and creative transformation” when I am teaching others. Steve Biko once said “The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed” but we will grow in our educational systems, our communities and environments. It just takes

There are three major tenant to my philosophy as a educator. The first is that all students deserve a quality education and that when students are denied a quality education society as a whole suffers. I strongly believe that getting a good education should be mandatory for every student in America. . It is clear to me that being deprived of the best education possible is a form of oppression. Education has the power to liberate. It can be a catalyst in helping to reshape the thinking of both the uneducated and educated, allowing for actions that can lead to social change. If we leave the oppressed uneducated, then any progress for social change can never truly be effective. This in turn hurts the country as a whole, not just the oppressed

Education is inevitable. It is all around us because we can learn from virtually anything. When you are cooking, dancing, talking or any other activity you have actually had to learn several things to be able to do them. In the educational perspective, I am a pragmatist and I tend to follow after Dewey's footsteps. The concept of Pragmatism is one that developed in the 20th century. My philosophy is based on the idea that learning should involve real-life situations. Learning becomes more concrete to a student when they apply it to real-life situations, as where learning things that do not connect to them has more of an abstract sense. Personally, I would have to agree with Dewey when he said, "I

“Be a reflective teacher. Honestly look at what you do from time to time. Evaluate the purpose of your role as a teacher.” (Robert John Meenham, 2011)

The first week of this unit I had a mix of emotions, excitement and stress . The topics covered each week have giving me the opportunity to increase my knowledge in many areas. Having an interest in teaching when I started this course has now grown to having an interest in learning as well. Reflecting on my education as a child has shown me the growth in teaching and our current education system.