If you asked a high
school student what the role of education or the educator is in a democratic society,
they would probably provide an answer revolving around teaching students
content so that they can go on to college or the working world and know what
they are doing. Prior to this course, I may have responded somewhat similarly,
focusing most on preparing students for the world in terms of what they know.
The role of the educator is much more than that. The role of the educator is to
balance their own personal and cultural beliefs, the beliefs of the students
and their families, and the values of the American education system in order to
best educate students to be good and active citizens within their society. The
educator also teaches students how to value diversity and differences in
opinion and how those differences are good. It is also to get students to work
together despite their differences to work toward a common goal and collaborate
to be successful in meeting their goal. It is also to advocate for all of their
students while also teaching them how to advocate for themselves and be
advocates for others. Education is about much more than passing on knowledge
about certain subjects; it is about teaching students to learn to work together
and set aside, yet value their differences with one another.
The role of the educator
in a democratic society is two-fold; the educator must balance the beliefs,
norms, and biases that youth may bring to the classroom due to their upbringing
while also managing the cultural beliefs that are deeply ingrained in the
American system of education. The US education system is affected by democracy
as it promotes democratic values such as deliberation, compromise, and
diversity. Many of the documents we assessed in the first two or three tasks of
the semester outlined the principles that the society as a whole decided to
agree upon and base their society upon. This was the case with the Federalist
Papers, the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, etc. To celebrate diversity,
the Gettysburg Address and the “I have a Dream” speech appreciated the
differences that others would bring to the society and open up possibilities of
acceptance. These values are ingrained in the US system of education as
students learn to balance their own beliefs about the world and learn to compromise
and learn to accept and value differences.
The role of education in
a democratic society is also to teach youth about people with different
beliefs, cultures, and norms than our own. Through multicultural study in our
classrooms, students get to learn about people that may differ greatly from
them but begin to understand a different way of life. Education is supposed to
open up our eyes to a world that is different from our own. Multicultural
teaching brings diversity into the classroom where there may seemingly be very
little among the students themselves. This type of learning makes students
consider who is advantaged in any given society, and they may also practice
skills that value and celebrate diversity. We need to teach them how to
collaborate and work with others who may not agree with them or have anything
in common with them. Every society in the world has differences within itself,
so we need to educate and prepare our students to work with people who may not
agree with them. The role of education in a democratic society is to prepare
students to value diversity, and be able to work and come to compromises with
those who are different from us.
The role of the educator
is to advocate for the wellbeing of all of our students. To advocate we have to
do more than act on behalf of our students; we also have to empower young
people to advocate for themselves, for their rights and beliefs, and for their
wellbeing because we may not always be there to advocate for them. Educators
must have students recognize that they may not seem to have anything in common,
but they may all have a common goal that they can work toward as a team despite
their other differences. To teach them to advocate for themselves, we have them
consider as a group what social forces are inhibiting them from achieving their
goal. We help them to uncover injustices that are taking place and inhibit
success. Then, we have them try to do something about it. By helping them
recognize that they have something in common and that they can try to make
change, we are empowering them to recognize injustice outside of our classrooms
and be able to take a stand against it when necessary. Educators need to
believe all of their students can be champions, and they need to set aside
their own beliefs and values when they step foot in the classroom so they can
best serve all of their students.
The role of education and
the educator is much more than simply teaching content and knowledge about
certain topics. Educators may use content by studying the Gettysburg Address
and the true meaning and underlying values behind the Pledge of Allegiance in
order to model to students how to uncover injustice and hidden values. The role
includes teaching students to recognize their own cultural beliefs and biases passed
to them by their family and their upbringing and learn how to value diversity
in opinion and thought. Educators teach students how to recognize inequality
and injustice around them and how to address it and make a change. By teaching
students how to advocate for themselves, educators are helping to shape a
better society. Students will learn how to collaborate to achieve a common
goal. Through this, they learn how to come to compromises and set aside their
own thoughts and beliefs in order to make a necessary change. Teachers model
this daily by setting aside their own biases to the best of their abilities and
by bringing new perspectives into the classroom daily to enrich the education
for their students. The role of the educator is to open up the eyes of their
students and make them see issues that they had never considered before and
understand how cultural beliefs and norms in American society may be affecting
their education without them ever realizing it.
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