Face-to-Face Contact Pedagogies to Humanize Unfamiliar Ethnocultural Differences

• In Event: Memories of Social Justice Teaching Practices

Abstract

In what ways do teachers implement subject matter and pedagogies probing and affirming perspectives in relation to ethnic, cultural, linguistic, racialized, and religious populations in rural classrooms, where such diversities are sometimes rare? Drawing from scholarship in multicultural citizenship education (Banks, 2009; Dilworth, 2008), this presentation will discuss a classroom case study that explores one social justice-committed teacher’s pedagogy to affirm ethnic identity diversities in her predominantly white, rural setting in southern Ontario (Canada). Mrs. Thomas designed a rural-urban intergroup encounter to introduce her Grade 9 geography students to newcomer immigrant youth in a nearby urban area. Face-to-face human contact pedagogies provided opportunities for students to humanize ethnoculturally different and racialized young people. This research contributes to teacher education and in-service professional learning, concrete ways of teaching for multicultural citizenship in understudied majority white and rural student populations.

Author

• Joanne Pattison-Meek, University of Toronto