Social Class Lens : Appleman

"For students to be able to understand themselves and each other, they need to be able to contextualize their knowledge in terms larger then themselves; in other words, they need to be able to place their own particular situations and the texts they read into a larger system or set of beliefs." (Appleman, 54). Canada has claimed to be a country that has accepted multiculturalism for many years but it seems to be just lately that we are beginning to deconstruct the Eurocentric views that have been expressed in the curriculumn and the classroom of Canadian students for years. By introducing the social class lens it helps are students understand the culturally diverse communitys that they are now growing up in. Students have now hopefully begun the process of learning about multiculturalism and through introducing these materials the teachers will be providing background information of the cultures that are being studied. By doing this we as Teachers will be able to help the students understand the values and traditions of other cultures. By gaining these realizations of different perspectives hopefully the students will be able to do what the quote says and place their own particular situations and the texts they read into a larger system or set of beliefs. By teaching through a social class lense it will hopefully help students understand and appreciate the differences between them and their peers and really begin to realize that although we may all different beliefs but even though they are different all these beliefs are equally as important. Setting up a classroom with these ideals would discourage any one view as right and would work towards helping these students understand that being accepting of many different views is very important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVg0NgIrFTQ&feature=related