Review
Stereotyping – we all do it, even if we try not to do it. It is defined by Noel (2008) as “the creation of mental categories in order to group people, items, or events” (p. 44). It is a cognitive strategy we use for dealing with the multitude of information we are bombarded with on a daily basis from many sources such as, the people we encounter, television, radio, newspaper, social media, and other websites. This information can be as trivial as the type of clothes a person is wearing or as crucial as a news report involving an individual. As human beings, we stereotype, innocently. Stereotyping becomes a problem when we allow ourselves to form judgments about individuals because in our minds they are part of a group based on race, gender, ethnicity, or other factors. For example, if I walk in Monday to find out that I will have a new student joining my class from Japan, and I automatically say, “Oh, I bet my new student is awesome in Math!” Just because many students from Japan are good in Math, that doesn’t mean all Japanese students are good in Math. Likewise, it becomes a problem if we allow ourselves to form judgments about an entire group of people based on what we know about one member of that group. For example, if I had a negative encounter with a father of a student from Greece, I may think that all Greek men are like him, which is probably not true. When we allow ourselves to judge others in this way, we have become prejudiced.
The theories on prejudice are many. People become prejudiced because of traumatic experiences, fears of economic loss, and racial differences, to name a few reasons. This is part of being human. As long as we continue to share communities and interact with each other, prejudices will form. So, all we can do is be aware of our own feelings and, as teachers, not allow those prejudices to make their way into the classroom.
Reflect & Refine
To me this chapter is about being aware of my own human tendencies towards stereotyping and prejudice. If I can recognize when I am stereotyping, and stop and think about my students as individuals, I will be much less likely to allow myself to prejudge them based on their race, ethnic group or other factor. With these conscious efforts to be more tolerant, I can know that racism will be eliminated as a possible danger in my classroom. For example, I know that “9/11” was a traumatic experience for all Americans. It was also the first time I became aware that there were groups of Muslims who don’t like Americans, and that Muslims, in general don’t like Christians. Now, the fact is that there are many Muslim children in our schools. Since “9/11” I have had them in my classroom a few times. My first instinct when meeting one student’s parents was to think, “Do they hate me because I’m American? Do they hate me because they assume I am Christian?” Then, I talked to them, and they were nice. They did not appear to have any ill feelings toward me. In fact, they showed me respect and thanked me for teaching their child. Most importantly, I told myself that the child was just a child, and they certainly did not have political views regarding Americans. They were just there to learn and looked up to me as their teacher, just like all of the other children who weren’t Muslim.
Next, once I feel well-practiced in recognizing when I stereotype people, I hope to be able to teach other teachers how to recognize when they are doing it, and educate them about the negative effects of stereotyping, prejudice and racism, so that they will want to avoid them.
Noel, J. (2008). Developing multicultural educators (2nd ed.) Long Grove, IL: Waveland
Press Inc.
Challenging yourself to become more aware of when you stereotype is a good thing. I think as educators we want to be free of judging our students and their families. I like how you shared your feeling about your Muslim student. It is easy to judge people based on what we hear or learn but much harder to take the time to notice differences. I also agree that children are just children. We can't judge them based on their families or culture groups.
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