"You're so gay"

Throughout the semester we were introduced to key concepts within Critical Pedagogy within EDUC3195. Whilst I was beginning to understand how I could incorporate these aspects of Critical Pedagogy subliminally within my teaching career, I was at a loss as to how I was able to incorporate these ideals into the classroom during my prac.

The opportunity would quickly arise during a Year 9 Drama class.

I had hit a goldmine with my 9DR class. I discovered they had an obsession for Harry Potter puppetry on YouTube, so I developed a small puppetry unit where they had to create their own puppet character and present a short group devised piece to the class.
The class was creative, hilarious and forward thinking when it came to creating group devised pieces; they were a drama teachers dream!

It became time to present their performances to the class.

“Oh my gosh Ron, you are such a f****t”
“No Harry, you’re the one that’s gay!”

I stopped the class and discussed the latest news on the media about the possibility of introducing same sex rights, such as adoption and marriage. I referred to examples from Critical Pedagogy studies, such as the ‘day of silence’ in order to publicise and identify same sex rights within the educational setting (Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. D, 2009, p. 271). The entirety of the classroom supported the notion of same sex rights.

“So why use words like ‘f****t’ or ‘gay’ to describe something?”

My Year 7 Visual Arts class provided me with further opportunity to stretch my critical pedagogical muscles. When ‘Jeremy’ produced some less than satisfactory class work, I made a comment that he usually works harder in class.

“If I was black, I know you’d just leave me alone sir to do whatever I wanted.”

It shocked and saddened me that such an attitude could be adopted by a student; such an attitude was the social reproduction theory we learnt in Critical Pedagogy put into practice. It also did not help that the school had a very low Indigenous student population. I made a note to discuss this with the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) head teacher in order to inspire some sort of change in attitude or awareness of the Indigenous culture within Australia. As we learnt in EDUC3195, ‘Race’ is a culturally constructed concept used to separate and pigeonhole human beings (Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. D, 2009, p. 151). As a future teacher, I realised that only we can change the attitudes of the students to be tolerant and accepting of other cultures and their customs.