Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Date
Question 2
Willinsky states that students in their first year base their identities on history or stories about their immigration. Canada has been establishing policies based on multiple cultures because of the notion that it is an immigrant-filled country. Canadian schooling and identity are built upon individuals’ connections to their origin and immigration experiences through alienation and assimilation into the Canadian culture. It is only by being colonized into this culture that one is considered authentically Canadian. In schools, cultures, race, color, and identity matter to students and are used to establish a diverse culture in academic institutions. Most students, according to Willinsky, identify with where they came from, where they were born, or the process through which they got to Canada.
Similarly, in present-day schooling, and especially in Canada, schools are specifically heavy on being inclusive for all students despite their racial, ethnic, or other differences. This is because the country upholds the belief that cultural diversity is valuable when considering a rich and quality life for the entire nation. So this is also applicable to student life. In Canada’s schools, mental health for students is considered a vital issue, and diversity is also paramount in all matters regarding education (Norquay 7). Although there might be minimal poverty cases that interfere with or limit the chances of education for some people, the percentage of people dealing with poverty is limited. Most academic institutions are performing fairly, but for a few mathematics cases, that are adjustable. Overall, education and cultural issues are significant in society.
Question 3
Children are perceived as innocent, and their innocence is considered to be needing protection. Characteristically, children constantly have a need for activity. At most times, they are incapable of making sound decisions, reasoning well, or arriving at the right conclusions. So to say, children are characterized by being too unreasonable and excessively active. Also, over and over, grown-ups have certain expectations regarding the standards they want their children to reach, and children are unable to achieve this goal. As a result, grown-ups refer to them as “children” to refer to their inadequacy (Prentice 2004). This lack and inability to reach certain standards necessitated schools’ need, seeing as they could not be left on their own, with devices.
Henry Arson denied the idea of protection of innocence as a form of protection or needing protection by trying to establish the fact that childhood development is a natural process and that there are always ways to improve this process. Of importance is human agency’s cooperation, whereby older human beings usher the child into the society and monitor them as they guide their lives. Child innocence originates from their lack of knowledge, and it does not require control and authority for a child to develop. A misconception of childhood as protection was like in the case of Canadian educators who, according to Prentice, found it necessary to exert control over children, to control them. Instead of being allowed to develop naturally and by themselves, they were perceived as desiring training and control.
Question 4
Critiquing difference is the opposite of celebrating difference. It is an evaluation of when the difference is produced and how it is treated. Antiracist education looks into the production of racial differences in schools, policies, and practices. It also weighs the differences in outcomes for both the affected persons and non-affected groups. Critiquing difference is about considering all the potential discriminations based on racial and other differences. It looks outside the box of comfortable diversity and into the change that has been or may be caused by difference (Harper 201). The multiplicity of differences is essential in understanding the concept of racial differences. Decolonizing education is about getting rid of racial bias in the education system. It is characterized by academic institutions that embrace the difference and diverse cultures. Decolonizing education entails changing the practices, policies, and systems that recognize and fail to embrace the racial differences and instead use it as a social tool to categorize students.
The difference between critiquing differences is that in critiquing it, no actual changes are being made. It is an evaluation of the differences, where they are produced, and how they affect the students or victims involved. On the other hand, decolonizing education is the entire process of reestablishing an education system, one where the teachers, students, and every involved party respond to every student’s needs, irrespective of differences. However, they are similar in that they seek to establish a system where different or rather, diversity is an advantage as opposed to a problem and a multicultural society.
Works Cited
Harper, Helen. “Difference and diversity in Ontario schooling.” Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l’éducation (1997): 192-206.
Norquay, Naomi. “Where is here?.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 8.1 (2000): 7-21.
Prentice, Alison. The school promoters: Education and social class in the mid-nineteenth century Upper Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2004.