Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

This week for our blog assignment we are going to discuss the impact on stereotypes and prejudice will have on the teacher. So far in my teaching career I have suffered from one type of prejudice. I had a father tell me basically that I didn’t know how to discipline kids or know anything about behavior, because I was not a parent. This was my first year of teaching and for the most part I think I handled the confrontation well. However, it really upset me and it made me question everything I did with that specific child and family all year. As I said that is the only major issue or “ism”, if you can call it that, that I have dealt with in my teaching career. 

Other “isms” that I can possibly foresee myself having to deal with are sexism, racism,  and ageism. For ageism, I am considered still a young teacher and some see that as a disadvantage. They can possibly think that I might not have enough knowledge or not know how to handle their child. There could be a bunch of different reasons why people think that being young is a disadvantage. However, there are also people out there who think a new young fresh mind is an advantage. For sexism, being a female can come across as a disadvantage to some people. Some might think that I maybe I can’t teach a certain subject because men do a better job at it. Or, that females can’t be physical education teachers because, that is seen as a mans job. Who knows what kind of stereotypes and prejudice people think of. For racism, being white, blond, and female, so people might have prejudice against me, just because of that. 

As I said I have never dealt with any of these ‘isms’, but if I did, I know that I would be greatly upset by it. This would cause me not to want to talk to the families who have an issue with me, or possibly I could get very defensive and fired up and deal with it in a bad way also. Depending on how severe the situation was. I could see it going either way. As I mentioned above I would second guess every decision I made regarding the child as well. Would parents think that I am being racist, or sexist because I chose to do something this way. It would be a very stressful time and I know that it would affect my work and my life. As it would affect other children and families that I am working with and not just the family or child that I am having a problem with. I guess you never really know how it will impact you until it happens though. 

I hope I never have to deal with any of these “isms” or others that I have not mentioned, and I hope that families and children that I work with don’t have to deal with it also, and when they come to my classroom, I hope they feel welcomed, loved, and respected.