P. DuPont's Blog Spot

Here are a few questions that I have after this week's readings: What does liberating education include? What is the difference between engaged pedagogy and feminist pedagogy?  What are the similarities? What impact has Paulo Freire made to social justice? Are you influenced by Paulo Freire's work?  If so, in what ways?

I really liked how Christina Torres stated that we need to teach  with intersectionality in mind.   Teaching in this manner is extremely important because it forces teachers to consider the whole child and not just what’s on the outside.  It’s important that we recognize our students’ race, gender, homelife and experiences when making assumptions about their character, abilities and academic performance.  For instance, Teaching at the Intersections mentioned a ninth-grader named Nicole that school’s performance was unfortunately hindered by her circumstance. Nicole was not only responsible for herself but her siblings as well.  Nicole’s situation is the reason why we as educators need to continue to look at our students as individuals because each one is different in their own way in regards to their upbringing and life experiences. The #say her name movement resonated with me for several reasons because I am a woman, a woman of color and am raising tw...

Blaming Mothers:  A disability perspective   This article discussed the many ways in which some school districts tend to take aim at blaming the mother for their child’s disability, which to me is by far the most unfair, unjust and wrong approach.   Instead, school districts should be offering support and resources to these mothers and children. It also provided four different stories that demonstrated how some school districts blamed the mothers for their child's’ behavior.  The mothers in these scenarios were often blamed for being incompetent, assertive, passive and for having a job outside of the home. The story of the working mother resonated with me the most because I am and have always been a working mother.  In this story, the school district passed judgement and blamed the mom for her child’s social emotional problems which resulted in the child often times running away from home and engaging in prostitution.   Unfortunately, the sc...

Here are a few questions that I have after this week's readings: What are some good literature books that educators could use to teach students about the term "difference" in regards to race, class, ethnicity, gender, age, body, size, etc? What resources are available for parents of children with disabilities? What could be done to help with displaying more positive images of people with disabilities? What other inclusive teaching practices should regular education teachers be aware of that will assist in helping special education students?