Community as a Prism for Students From Historically Marginalized Communities to Shine

• In Event: Research as Whole Truth-Telling: Polyvocality and Collaboration as Necessary Disruptors in Educational Research

Abstract

Being a Pakistani-American student and teacher has been a journey of self-actualization, empowerment, and prioritization. According to norms, I am considered a “traditional college student” who went into a 4-year university immediately after high school with my major in mind. The reality, however, could not be farther from the norm. As a student, I often felt like education was being delivered in a foreign language I did not have access to or help understanding.
My biggest motivator in becoming an educator was to be the teacher I needed when I was younger. During my time in teacher prep, I joined a program that was built to bring clarity to the inequities of traditional teaching practices and took the necessary steps to prepare aspiring teachers to raise their voice to create a positive community in our classrooms. As an undergraduate student, this program not only recognized my full identity, but empowered me to become an educator who values an educator-learner centered classroom community. This program has been like a clear prism allowing the light in me to shine in all its splendor.
In my first two years of teaching, I prioritized relationships putting students first. The program prepared me by acknowledging the need for creativity in a learning space–that learning is not linear and requires thinking outside-the-box to connect the fun to content. I found this practice very successful in setting a mutually respectful tone for the school year and creating a community that students wanted to be in.
It was not long after I started teaching in a conservative community, that I learned of angry parents creating and signing petitions to remove me out of fear that I will teach Islamic ideologies instead of the English curriculum. I was the only Muslim person in my school district–this combines students, faculty, and support staff. Random evaluations, lack of trust in my teaching methods, and being blatantly disrespected became common behavior as a price to pay for being Muslim. For most of my students, interacting with me was their first and only true interaction with someone Muslim. This meant that they had a lot of questions based on what their prior knowledge and biases were. The need for diverse teachers is incredibly important not just to make diversity posters, but to allow for true learning that transcends beyond the curriculum.
The opportunity to be on the research team gave me the valuable opportunity to advocate for students who are going through an education that they may not relate to…an educational system that was never built around their specific needs. I am and will continue to be a voice for students who are on the outside looking in, for the students who are waiting for their voice to be part of the education system they are expected to go through, and for the student who is the minority hoping to find an educator who looks like them and can encourage them to be themselves unapologetically.

Authors

• Aisha Ahmad Tahir
  Presenting Author

• Keith L. Johnson, Ypsilanti Community School District
  Presenting Author