It is important as teachers to understand and respect our student’s cultural and religious backgrounds and be able to embed learning which incorporates this. As Petty states “Many teachers believe that all members of the profession should model fair-mindedness of equal opportunities to their students” Petty ( 2009 pg90). When delivering my sports leader’s courses, I always aim to create a programme which is comprehensive, inclusive and respectful of all humans, faiths and values. As part of my lesson planning I am required to write down how I have embedded Equality and Diversity into my course programme. At times I have found it difficult to understand how to do this without making Equality and Diversity become the forefront of all teaching and take away what I am actually trying to teach learners. After sitting with my other tutors we went over ways on how we can embed Equality and Diversity into the classroom without making it too obvious and over bearing. Examples of this will include using appropriate language which does not insult anyone, encouraging all leaners to share their experiences regardless of their background. Developing activities where groups will be of a mixed age, ethnicity and abilities.
In a recent course I delivered I decided to do a project with my learners about the barriers Asian women face when taking part in sport. According to a study by Sporting Equals in 2011 “ Often BME women and girls perceive sport as a ‘male’ orientated activity and are often not interested in, or do not see the benefits of, sport”. I put this question to the class and started a group discussion on their initial thoughts to this and how we could break down this barrier. I embedded this into the course by stating they would have to deliver an activity to a minority group of women and how would they make sure it was inclusive and fair. As this was a gender, cultural and religious subject, as the teacher I remained non-judgemental, yet challenged any direct or indirect stereotypical and prejudice comments. It was important that, as well as myself, other learners also respected each individual’s thoughts and opinions around the subject as equality is about everyone having a say in their own way.
The key to this activity was allowing the students to have an open debate on the subject and find a solution, they did this through presenting and talking as well as developing activities. I found using a practical activity like this to incorporate Equality and Diversity was more useful and the students learned more from this and how to develop and change their own behaviours. In a study written by Hanum I agree with her conclusion that practical education around Equality and Diversity stimulate peaceful interaction and creates a more tolerant and together society.
References
Farida Hanum (2012) Classroom practices in multicultural context [Online] http://staff.uny.ac.id/sites/default/files/pengabdian/farida-hanum-msi-dr/classroom-practices-multicultural-context.pdf [08/05/2013]
Petty,G (2009) (4th ed) Teaching today: A practical guide. China. Cheltenham
Sporting Equal (2011). Engaging BME Women and Girls in Sport [online] http://www.sportingequals.org.uk/PICS/Engaging%20BME%20Women%20and%20Girls%20in%20Sport%20Toolkit.pdf [08/05/2013]
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