Reading Between The Lines as an ETFO SA participant

 Last week, August 11-13, 2020, I attended the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario's Summer Academy session run by Kenisha Bynoe and Angelique Thompson called Reading Between the Lines: Exploring Literacy Through a Culturally Relevant and Responsive Stance.

 It was an excellent three days of learning and unlearning and I wanted to reflect on my thoughts and feelings during the course. Big thanks to Kenisha for giving permission for me to share the images that I have that are from their presentation. 

How do you get people that do not know you or know each other to authentically reflect on their own biased assumptions and notions, and to do so virtually? Kenisha and Angelique had several activities and strategies that they employed to help their participants become more aware. One task from the first day was called the "Airplane Activity". We were given a list of six people that we might have to sit beside on a very long flight and had to rank our preferences for seat mates. The wonderful thing about this activity was that, even when we were cognizant of the purpose of the task, our presumptions snuck in. The follow-up to this activity, conducted in small breakout groups, was that Kenisha and Angelique gave an example of someone who fit that description that we may not have expected; this exposed our preconceived ideas that were based around just hearing an occupation or life situation. (I'm trying not to give specific examples because I don't want to reveal anything in case they use the task with other groups.)

Another activity conducted was when they asked us to draw (or use words to describe) four archetypes. I took photos of mine so that I could describe how I tried to fight against my assumptions but how bias still leaked in.

The first concept was "villain". Now, I knew what was possible with villains, because I had helped write the AML article about villains. I was going to avoid drawing a swarthy, dark-complexioned scoundrel. I was ready to deliberately choose things that were not going to draw on stereotypes, right? 

Well, wrong. My illustration was of a non-humanoid character, but still had shades of Ursala from Disney's The Little Mermaid. Ursala's characterization contains elements of sizeism (she is large and curvaceous), ageism (sultry older women are seen as deviant), and her resemblance to drag queens suggests an anti-queer lens. The other thing I noticed was some ableist notions - the hands aren't hands, but claws, and the feet aren't feet but tentacles. So much for making an obvious attempt to counter my biases.

Then we were asked to draw a hero. Once again, I felt like I was going to be able to circumvent, by sheer force of will, the various stereotypes associated with heroes. I drew my person in a way that you could not tell what gender they were meant to be. The top of the head could even be a hijab - take that, Islamophobia! I remembered that during this pandemic, front line workers (especially hospital employees) were hailed as heroes, so I added a cross to the outfit.

Wait a second ... why a cross? A cross denotes Christianity. I could have just used an H for hospital. I quickly looked up Red Cross and saw this explanation from Britannica's online encyclopedia:

The Red Cross is the name used in countries under nominally Christian sponsorship; Red Crescent (adopted on the insistence of the Ottoman Empire in 1906) is the name used in Muslim countries.

When asked to draw something to symbolize "innocent", I automatically drew a young person. Many others did too. I tried to disguise any obvious gender by excluding bows and hair and by enlarging the eyes. 

Examine those eyes - why are they so large? I looked up symbolism of big eyes and the Internet seemed to agree with my ideas around innocence and vulnerability, but also added an association with feminine beauty. 

What does that imply for cultures or ethnic groups for whom large eyes aren't common? Are they less innocent? 

The last image was "ruler". I tried again to be as general as possible, but the quotation I scribbled was from one of my favourite poems, Ozymandias. It suggests that the ruler, Ozymandias, was a male tyrant. A crown suggests wealth - are all rulers rich? 

Another task we undertook was on the second day of the course. Kenisha and Angelique asked us to "bring in" a book that we liked that we felt was culturally relevant and responsive. There were lots of great titles recommended. What they asked us to do later on was do a deeper consideration of the texts. How might the text be interpreted? What's missing? What biases might be identified in the text? How might these biases impact our next steps in reading? Kenisha and Angelique reinforced this message earlier by sharing four different titles of books that are commonly acclaimed for their diverse content. After the participants picked which books they would be inclined to select if they were forced to do a quick read-aloud without any preparation, Kenisha and Angelique described how each title had problematic elements. It's important to re-evaluate books in our collections (school library, class library, or personal collections) because we may change our opinions of them and how we use them as we become increasingly aware of societal attitudes and shifts and learn more about the creators and the explicit and implicit messages that exist.

In my opinion, one of the most challenging but necessary aspects to examine is the lived experience of the authors and illustrators. We talked about the #ownvoices movement briefly during the course. This was the area where, when I took a second look at the book I had offered during the discussion, my choice could be improved upon. I am not saying that authors cannot write from their imaginations and research, but the sad fact is that often Black, Indigenous, and authors of colour are often passed over in favor of white authors who are writing stories about BIPOC characters and experiences. This was just one of many realizations and reinforcements during the course.

Excellent reminder from @booklamations and @a_thompsonclass that even books with animal characters reinforce dominant narratives (2 parents, live in house, etc) #DisruptTexts #ETFOsa2020

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) August 12, 2020

 

Bears repeating: @a_thompsonclass says we should examine our book choices critically for use in modeled reading (read alouds) AND shared, guided, independent reading options and 1 book can’t do it all @booklamations #ETFOsa2020

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) August 12, 2020

The course wasn't all just about confronting our own biases and those in literature. We examined the International Literacy Association's Children's Rights to Read as well as the comprehensive reading framework (modeled, shared, guided and independent reading). 

 We reviewed the differences between activities, learning invitations, and provocations. I was grateful that I had already learned some of this information during my Kindergarten Additional Qualification course in the winter; it was an excellent chance to strengthen my existing knowledge.

At the end of the course, Angelique and Kenisha gave us some wonderful gifts: links to all the resources mentioned, a thorough lesson plan for the book The Day You Begin and a virtual playspace.

Sidenote: The problem with thinking critically is that you cannot "turn it off". Once conditioned to question picture books, even ones we love to read and use, questioning other media texts just happens. My mind is always considering constructive feedback, whether I'm in a course as an attendee or as a facilitator. I am not going to list things here because I think it will distract from the purpose of celebrating what a great learning opportunity it was; plus, that's what the course evaluation is for.

I also question my own conduct during classes. I worried that I was "taking up too much space". I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one with that concern - my dear colleague Lisa Wallace from PDSB shared the same sentiment about herself during one of the breakout sessions. To try and remedy the situation, I deliberately did not type or say anything during the third day of the course. It made me realize how I learn through bouncing thoughts off others (a very verbal-linguistic and interpersonal style). 

Big, big thanks to Kenisha and Angelique for creating a great course, to all my fellow participants, and to ETFO for offering these kinds of professional learning opportunities.