In this week’s workshop we were split into 5 groups. Each group was presented with an envelope containing a number of resources, with these we were told to make something that would benefit a student starting in first year, something we wish we had been given. However what we didn’t know is that there wasn’t the same materials in each envelope, some groups had far more materials and resources to work with than others. Proving the task to be unfair from the beginning and more challenging for some groups than others. It was interesting to see which groups noticed that some were less fortunate than others, those with the most materials didn’t notice that other groups had way less.
After 10 minutes of discussing with your group you had to feed it back to the class. When we were sharing our ideas each group got a very different reaction from the lecturer. I was in Group 5 and we were one of the groups with the smallest number of resources; a pencil, three paperclips, a sticky note and a small bit of blue tac. The reaction to my groups idea was negative and patronising whereas the groups with more materials were complimented and praised for their efforts. Needless to say this left our group feeling pretty insignificant as our idea was so quickly dismissed, especially as we had put in such effort to come up with something with so little in front of us.
Brenda, our lecturer explained the purpose behind the workshop once each group had finished presenting and got there scores. Personally I thought this was a perfect way to make clear to us the problems of inequalities in the classroom and in schools. This workshop gave me a much better understanding of how these inequalities will affect a child’s development and self esteem. Also the importance of how every child in the classroom should be given the same chance and opportunities no matter what their background or circumstances are in order to give them the best start possible. It made me aware of how people from less privileged backgrounds work so hard with what they have and don’t receive the support or praise they deserve which upsets me. It’s important that every child feels respected and all are given equal opportunities.
