- Date: Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996
- Time: 7 p.m.
- Place: Robson Square Conference Centre, conference
room 2
Are teachers succeeding in the struggle against racial intolerance
in Canadian classrooms?
“Racism is not always visible to educators, except in cases
of overt hostilities between individuals at which time it’s
simply the tip of the iceberg,” says Kogila Adam-Moodley,
holder of UBC’s David Lam Chair of Multicultural Education.
“Teachers try to cope in a variety of ways, from ignoring
it and assuming it will go away to treating all children equally.
Often, they are constrained in what they can do by increasing
demands for varied and differentiated education in a climate
of dwindling resources and inadequate preparation.”
Adam-Moodley will present these and other views on the implications
of new immigration for educators in primary and secondary
schools, and education’s role in fighting racism, at a free
public lecture Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Robson Square Conference
Centre.
Adam-Moodley, a widely published scholar on race and ethnic
relations, says that studies exist which suggest that teachers
may contribute to the problem of racism in the classroom and,
although it has long been considered a tool to combat the
problem, education may subtly reinforce cultural and racial
hierarchies.
“Some research reports how teachers make assumptions about
students’ capabilities based on their ethnicity and class
background,” she explains. “Others assume that minority children
enter school as an empty slate with little to offer or maintain
that is distinctive and, therefore, proceed with a curriculum
that seeks to assimilate them into dominant society traditions.”
She believes that education today is heavily influenced by
corporate ideology, where concepts of community, co-operation
and equity are being replaced by an emphasis on choice, competition
and excellence.
“In this climate, schools are wedged between contending forces
in the delivery of an appropriate education,” Adam-Moodley
says. “Hence, the previous emphasis on compassionate solidarity
and the benefits of diversity now sound old-fashioned, yet
schools continue to struggle with everyday racism.”
She defines everyday racism as the numerous ways in which
people who `look different’ are constantly regarded as `strangers’
and never belonging.
Entitled The School’s Struggle With Everyday Racism, the
lecture is part of the Faculty of Education’s lecture series
on important educational issues. For more information, call
822-6239.
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