Educational Philosophy Statement

I have always wondered when I would finally feel prepared for my future career as a primary educator. In a world with so much diversity, school needs to serve all students equally, by accommodating to individual differences. This issue is constantly overlooked, and students fall through the cracks for not fitting into perfect molds, predetermined by the dominant culture. As a pre-service teacher, I am a blank slate that has been etched with my past experiences. These inspire me to reinforce what worked in my schooling, and work towards positive change from what did not. With a newly opened mind, I have the information to see the sociocultural issues around me, and the empowerment to fight back for every student in school.

My identity has many

My white privilege is something I have noticed from a young age as unfair, and yet I reap the benefits of it every single day. In this class we read Coates, and I learned about what it is like to grow up in a black body, not in pale white skin. I felt the weight of my white guilt more than ever in my life, and I learned to face it, and improve from it. I learned about the Dream and the Dreamers, and how I was one of them. Because of my white skin, I can blend into the dominant culture, I can remain silent and still get my white picket fence, but I do not want this. I want to do everything in my power to work against all that my ancestors did, and use this privilege I have been gifted to enact changes for those ignored systemically in our country. Coates (2015) states, “Mistakes were made. Bodies were broken. People were enslaved. We meant well. We tried our best. “Good intention” is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that ensures the Dream” (p. 33). While reading this, I felt as though I had just woken up. I looked back to all the times in my life when I saw a black or brown child receive different treatment from a white one, and saw the flaws in education and society. As a teacher, I will often see students more than their own families do. Because of this I must be understanding and loving towards each and every child, despite their diverse

People often disenfranchise educators because they believe it’s easy to be a teacher, and I too used to hold this vision. I now see teaching as a way of connecting every child with their own passions, after giving them the tools to navigate the world around them. I am still learning how to do this as well, and I am nowhere near done educating myself on sociocultural issues in our world. I have found a passion I never knew I could hold, and I refuse to quit working towards my goals until they are met. I desire a world where education is accessible for every student, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, religion, education level, etc. Although this task is daunting, it does not negate the fact that this is imperative for the future of our society as a whole. There must not be a common belief that our work here is done. We must “question how education can be “equal” for all social classes…[as] education can never be “free” or “equal” as long as social classes exist” (McLaren, 2015, p. 17). Before taking this class, I saw myself as lacking power, as a pawn in life just trying to find purpose. Now, I know my purpose is to teach, and I have been given the navigational capital I needed to be taken seriously along my journey towards professionalism, and proving