Sara Tinney

Critical thinking is a major focus in education, developing and using critical thinking to examine everything from curricular material to our own lives. Inclusive education requires us to examine our perceptions of students and the diversity created through their unique experiences, perspectives, and identities. People are complex and every individual operates within their own unique set of influencing factors (McMahan and Thompson, 2015, p. 230). These factors include the communities, cultures, and medias that each individual participates in or has been influenced by. Bronfenbrenner's (1989) ecological systems theory is one way to conceptualize these complexities (p. 230). Local communities are the "ecosystem" and the broader culture, subculture, or social class in which communities are located are the "macrosystems" (p. 230). Media is everywhere in our technological society, influencing and being influenced by every system in Bronfenbrenner's theory.

I have grown up within a "western" context since I was born in Alberta, Canada, to caucasian parents whose families have been in North America since early colonization. This means that I have not experienced the cultural atmospheres of other geographical locations. The cultural context I have experienced, a "western" cultural context, has supported certain beliefs and values about the world, and about identity. One important aspect of an individual's identity is their views and beliefs about gender. Gender is a socially constructed concept and gender roles are "a set of shared cultural expectations that outlines the attitudes and behaviors a typical male or female should display" (p. 268), which links gender to community, culture and media. The process of creating gender in a "western" culture begins at, or even before, birth as babies are assigned a "sex" and parents begin collecting the blue/masculine objects that are for a baby "boy" or pink/feminine objects that are for a baby "girl". The arbitrary connection between the biological sex assigned at birth, the gender of the individual, and the types of objects and activities they will prefer is created by the interactions between community, culture, and media. "Western" culture has created these stereotypes, the media reinforces them, and individuals internalize them so that they will belong to the larger community. Each of us has "a need to belong" (McMahan and Thompson, 2015, p. 231) and this desire for a sense of community can drive our actions, influence our beliefs and values, and cause us to actively or passively perpetuate the same cultural conditions.

These cultural conditions, these gender stereotypes can be limiting or even deadly to some individuals. So, as a teacher, I need to be aware of these conditions and stereotypes, and how perceived conformity or non-conformity effects individuals. I also need to teach my students to think critically about our class materials, the world around them, and the possible interactions. All students should feel their identity is accepted and valued, that no part of who they are is a handicap or a reason to feel ashamed. The movement towards safe and caring schools and inclusive education are part of the changes made to the Education Act and should be part of every schools policy. 

My classes will encourage critical thinking and challenge adolescents to question their own beliefs and values as well as those of other communities and cultures. The materials below could potentially be analysed by teachers, parents, and adolescents, as they are all interconnected. Scrolling down you will see:

• Bronfenbrenner's (1989) ecological systems theory model - one way to understand the interactions between individuals and their surroundings

• Alberta Educations vision for inclusive education in a video series - the videos themselves are a great resource and the website as a whole is an important source of information, policy, and legislation for all parties interested in education

• Resources on inclusive education from Medicine Hat and Edmonton Public School Board - understanding how different schools realise inclusive education is important and can inform your own process of creating an inclusive classroom

• A list of resources pertaining to inclusive education, the adolescent brain, gender, and gender neutral/inclusive education - could be relevant for teachers, parents and, adolescents

• Additional resources I might use in my classroom - all of the information presented below could be shared with the class and analyzed by students, but these resources could spark more focused discussions about how community, culture, media, and gender are linked (we could also include other factors of identity, beliefs/values, political issues/movements, and any other topics students are passionate about or feel are relevant to our discussion)