Category Archives: 1.1 Social Justice

Racism and Patriarchy

I attended a lecture on Tuesday morning about Racism and Patriarchy which made us aware of what has happened many years ago and what is going on now to do with these subjects.

The first section of the lecture was on Racism. We firstly looked at how the concept of race emerged in the 18th century and looked at the sociological perspectives on racism. We then looked at a young 14 year old boy, Emmet Till’ story. This story was an eye opener for me as it emphasises how much has changed since 1955. It emphasises that everyone should be treated the same no matter how they look or the way they live. This section on racism made me even more aware of the importance of treating every child the same with respect and as a future primary teacher I will bring this attitude with me into the classroom.

The second part of the lecture was on Patriarchy. We firstly looked at the Portrayal of women in power in Greek drama, it was emphasised that Ancient Greek was a male dominated society. We then looked at the sociological perspectives of patriarchy. Equality of women, we spoke about the suffrage. We looked at how in 1922 women were being kicked off the beach for wearing too short swimming costumes. In 2016 women are still being told what to wear or what not to wear. In the late 20th century images it showed how much women were discriminated. We watched a video called #likeagirl. I group of young girls and boys were gathered and were asked questions about girls for example “run like a girl”. The boys and girls both did actions and both portrayed that girls are not motivated and are much weaker than boys. However some young girls portrayed them as being strong and trying their best. Women have been given this stereotype of being weaker. This has made me realise that it is very important in my role as a future primary teacher to make sure these stereotypes don’t effect the children and that all children should try their very best.

The outcome of this lecture was to make us all aware of the importance of racism and patriarchy and what is going on in society nowadays. This lecture certainly did this and made me realise that it has changed very drastically since 18th century however racism and patriarchy still take place to this day.

Workshop on inequalities which grabbed my attention.

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My first workshop I took part in from my Values: Self, Society and The Professions module, with my classmates and lecturer, was on structural inequalities. The workshop was done in a very clever way.

We all were split into groups with approximately 6 people in each group. We were given an envelope with certain resources in each pack. Our task, as a group, was to create a new product which would help a new students at Dundee University. Each group had different resources, some groups had more of a variety of materials whereas other groups were very limited to what they could make due to lack of materials. At the end of the session we would have to do a two minute presentation on out new product.

We all tried our best with what we had and all created a product. When creating our product the lecturer did not interact with my group at all but would be commenting on other groups ideas as ‘fantastic’. The groups with more resources were the groups he would give very positive feedback whereas the group I was In had less resources and he was very negative towards my group. It came to presenting the presentation and again he emphasised the same feelings to each group by ignoring our presentation but engaging with the other groups and making comments. The lecturer explained that he was just acting and that he was emphasising the structural inequalities.

This opened my mind as it was very enticing way to put the point across about inequality. It emphasised more to me that every child should be treated the same no matter what situation that child is in. You should not jump to conclusions as you do not know the circumstances that the child is in.

I am glad I was in the group which was treated more negatively than others as it made me realise what the child would be feeling if this were to happen to them. I felt so disheartened that we had created a product that we thought was very good considering the lack of resources whereas the other groups felt very good about themselves and were very motivated throughout the task as they were getting praised. It is very important to treat every child the same as this may have a big impact on their learning how well they achieve.

Structural inequalities reflect four areas in Standards for Registration by the General Teaching Council for Scotland. They are Social justice, Integrity, Trust and Respect and Professional Commitment. All children come from different backgrounds, some may be from more deprived areas whereas others may be from wealthy areas. This should not matter and every child should get the same learning experience no matter what. All professions should work together and communicate to give the child the best possible experience at school, to make them feel safe.