Honouring Lived Experience

One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding.

Source: unsplash

Honoured Living Experience

Source: blacklivesmatter.caAlt: Yellow and black logo that reads: “Black Lives Matter.”

Source: Respecting Rights - A project at ARCH led by people with disabilitiesAlt: Black and white logo of three hands reaching up to text that reads: “Respecting rights.” Text at the bottom reads: “A project at ARCH led by people with disabilities.”

Source: cdbanational.comAlt: Blue and white logo that includes a wave and text in English and French that reads: “Deafblind awareness month. Make a wave from coast to coast.”

Source: https://idlenomore.ca/ Alt: Logo that includes a red circle with a hand holding a feather. To the right of the image, text reads: “Idle NO More.”

Source: OCAP - Ontario Coalition Against Poverty Alt: A logo that includes a black and white silhouette of a city street with a bright yellow sun above it. The text reads: “OCAP, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.”

Source: The Arquives - Canada's LGBTQ2+ Alt: A black and pink logo that reads: “The ARQUIVES, Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives.”

Source: Transgender Day of Remembrance - November 20Alt: A logo that includes nine lit candles against a black background and text that reads: “Transgender Day of Remembrance, November 29.”

We engage learners in the learning process when we consider them fully and incorporate their identities and voices in our learning spaces. So it is important to take how others identify into account. Since there is no one way that people identify, a good practice is to always use what the person has told you themself. You may also want to take the time to explore the course glossary – there are many terms included, although it’s important to note that the language of identity continues to evolve.

Challenging by Modelling

The terms curriculum, teaching and learning, pedagogy, and educational design and implementation are being used in various contexts and often interchangeably in this course. In all cases, our educator presence is relational. By this, we mean that students experience our methodologies and course content as a whole experience of instruction, feedback, and modelling, meant to guide them to success.

Modelling support and celebration of lived experience is an important component of teaching. In particular, we can model and normalize anti-oppressive strategies in our classroom spaces, countering the status quo. For example, using pronouns in our everyday communication and inviting (not requiring) others to use their own is a way to demonstrate respect for varied gender identities and expressions.   Modelling inclusivity in our educational spaces sets an important standard for our classrooms, our own workplaces, and the future workplaces our learners will enter.

Watch the following video, A New Beginning, for an example of the impact of modelling inclusivity.