Reflective Reflection

Introduction: Setting the Stage

I have been a teacher for 3 years now. My school is situated in a cosmopolitan area, rich in diversity and we admit students from various backgrounds, both economic, social and racial. Most of the students have English as their first language and have no much special academic needs, with academic performance being fairly spread across the racial divide. The dominant race among the students in the school is however the white, but the biracial and multiracial student population has been increasing significantly over the last few years. Being in such an environment, one would expect to experience some racial and economic discrimination between the various groups in the general public but not from the students since

My strengths include the fact that the results of my initiatives are clear. Everybody around can see that ever since I started 'shouting ' to have every student treated equally, the academic performance of all the students, including the white students has drastically improved since they now focus much of their energy on academic performance and not on the superiority contests. The enrolment of the students from the minority groups has also doubled and every student now has a positive attitude towards education and a hope for a better future. So I don’t need to speak out to defend myself, the statistics does. I have also experienced a great boot in the fight by having the school principal embracing the idea and promising to support it all through. The students, who are the beneficiaries have also been supporting the initiative all through and have promised to continue doing so. Today it is common to hear a student say that "If equality could make me improve my academic scores this much, it must have been sent from heaven. I 've grave grabbed it with both my arms and I 'm not letting it go any sooner."

The challenges I face are mainly from some of my fellow educators who view the initiative as an additional responsibility. Some say that, "Since your initiative has added us responsibilities in here, if you want us to continue supporting it, then look for ways to increase our salaries too." Other criticism come from both the educators and the students of the white race, who view equality as a threat to their status. Some say, "How could you even think about this, aren 't you white