This year I was invited to take part in a round table during the Troika Experience conference.
I was given 10 minutes to introduce myself and answer the question: Is Education ready for Diversity and Inclusion?
While considering all the possible ways to do so, questions started sparking in my mind. Questions to ask myself and each one of those watching the table.
As my body sank in the sea of questions, I decided to write them down and came up with this sort of manifesto.
Here it goes (for a better effect, read it out).
My name is Cintia Rodrigues, I’m 40 years old and I am a Bilingual Pedagogical Coordinator, an English Teacher, and an International Education Counselor for Lumiar Schools.
I am mentioning the name of the school I work for because this is a perfect example of a place where I can be, I can talk about my being, I am asked about who I am. I am able to exist the way I am. What’s more, I am free to guide my students to understand and cheer for who they truly are.
For many years I was mostly a language teacher. All of my studies and interests were related to teaching techniques, especially phonetics and phonology. Languages were my biggest focus.
About 10 years ago, my focus shifted and I started studying and speaking about inclusion matters. I found space to take my first steps into these matters inside of Braz-Tesol conferences and especially through Voices SIG, but the voices that I really wanted to talk about have always been part of who I am: a hard of hearing, non-binary, and, perhaps, autistic person.
Now let’s talk about the reason we are here: Is education ready for diversity and inclusion?
I’ll answer this question with more questions for each one of you here today because education starts from you, the ones who chose to be educators.
Are you prepared to see different bodies? (By different, I mean armless/legless bodies, voices that sound different because the speaker can’t hear it, or does not have the same muscle flexibility you do)
Are you prepared to set your bias aside to truly understand your students interests, abilities and needs? (Or will you keep on infantilising people with disabilities, as well as taking away their right for love, sex, and social gatherings?)
Are you sympathetic enough to wait for your students to find the answer at their own pace?
Are you open enough to recognize that your student might need different strategies than you and the ones who are considered “normal”?
Are you prepared to look into the eyes of diversity and learn instead of fearing them?
Are you prepared to see a pre-teen dressed like someone from the opposite gender (there are so many issues in this sentence) and not mind or feel uncomfortable/afraid of what might come up?
Are you prepared to welcome and create a safe/accessible space for every single person that comes into your classroom?
I will answer this question for most of you → You are not!
Do you know why you are not prepared for it?
I will focus on people with disabilities here, but I can also show you numbers and laws related to other diversity issues.
How often do you see people with learning disabilities on the streets, in the shopping mall, at restaurants, having fun or working? (If you do not see them, you are not ready to truly
How accessible is your workplace? (if you teach online, how accessible are your slides/material/language?)
How many friends with disabilities do you have? How many artists with disabilities do you know? Have you ever been to a space where people with disabilities were the protagonist, where their voices were there to be heard and not spoken about? How many people with disabilities do you follow on social media? How many books have you read, I mean literature, where the main character was a person with a disability (as well as the book writer)?
How much do you know or at least have tried to understand about sign languages around the world?
Interesting factors that justify your ‘nos’, or ‘zeros’ above:
For many years, people with disabilities were hidden inside their houses. Did you know that up to the 70s it was more than acceptable to get rid of a child with disability in the USA? In Bagda it is still true (there are orphanages for people with disabilities only).
As Mittler says, “In the past, individuals born with any kind of disability were segregated, isolated from any social interaction, as their difference was seen as a curse, fate, a mark of the devil, and all sorts of superstitions” (Mittler, 2000, as cited in Santana, 2003)."
The quote above, in Brazil, would also include the words punishment (for a past life mistake) or a probation (like that bible guy).
Laws also impact the way we do things. Here’s a bit about the laws in Brazil regarding people with disabilities.
Late 90s/early 00s - LIBRAS recognised and bilingual schools mandatory.
Formal Education and Technology changed the lives of those who belong to the deaf community. First because they learned how to show their voices (Education), then they were able to talk about it and spread their to the world, to other deaf people communities using videos (Technology)
2005 and 2008 - First decrees on behalf of people with disabilities in Brazil (It’s been less than 20 years that our rights were finally written down)
2015 - Brazilian Law for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in schools, workplace, everywhere. Now you really need to deal with us. (It’s been less than 10 years - it is very new!)
Inside its text you can find:
Article 4. Every person with a disability shall have the right to equal opportunities with all other persons and shall not be subject to any form of discrimination.
Schools went crazy - how can we do it if no one has ever taught us so?
This law is still under development, to use more common words, because people are still not prepared for it. People still see people with disabilities as a burden.
So if everytime a student with any sort of disability is enrolled you roll your eyes, or you believe the school is the only ones responsible for organising the space for that child, you’re not being inclusive.
Being inclusive is not the same as understanding that everyone has the right to study and have a promising future. Being inclusive is embracing the differences, it is trying to learn the students needs talking to the students themselves. Being inclusive is to believe that everyone can thrive if given the right tools and space. Above all, being inclusive is to be willing to study, to discover the right tools and provide them to your students.
Being inclusive is to be reflexive. It is to understand that things change and that we also need to change our perspective. It is to understand that you might have made a mistake (be it with your use of language, lack of accessibility or whatever you do that makes someone feel uncomfortable) and that’s ok, because this is all too new and it is in constant change, so making mistakes and learning from them is part of the game.
After it all, one more question: Are you prepared to be truly inclusive?
*I am sure that while you were reading, you kept asking yourself: Why Comic Sans?? Why is this text highlighted? Why is there such a large space between lines? I made these choices on purpose to show that we can be inclusive following very simple guidelines. I chose Comic Sans to impact you and because it is one of the best fonts to help dyslexic and, sometimes, ADHD students. Using a highlighter helped me create a colour contrast to help anyone visual needs (especially dyslexia) read better. The space between lines helps students with several specific needs since it becomes easier to notice when one line finishes and the other one starts.
See, being inclusive is not that hard, you just need to be willing to.
*in the original text, the font chosen was Comic Sans, I used 2.0 in line spacing, and the full text was highlighted in light-yellow for the reasons described in the last paragraph.
References:
https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2015/lei/l13146.htm
Mittler, P. (2005) Working towards Inclusive Education: Social Contexts. David Fulton Publishers, London.
Solomon, Andrew, 1963-. Far from the Tree : Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. New York :Scribner, 2012.
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