author Savindi Jinasena
Paul Gorski's article "Avoiding Racial Equity Detours" resonated with me because it made me reflect on my Sri Lankan educational experiences. It made me wonder if racial equity in conflict-ridden countries could be a possibility when considering society's trauma. Sri Lanka has experienced a civil war for 30 years, resulting in a broken social fabric. Despite the war "ending" in 2009-at least from a military point of view, tensions between the Sinhala majority, ethnic Tamil minorities and other groups remain high. Furthermore, tensions became high once again when last year ISIS claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday Attacks on Churches in Sri Lanka. The Easter Sunday attacks resulted in a lot of Islamaphobic violence towards the Muslim and Malay communities. Going back to the article's point on "Celebrating Diversity Detours" (Gorski, 2019), I remembered one of our New Year's Day assemblies held at my majority Sinhala Buddhist school. My school invited students from a Tamil Girl's School for a day of activities and performances. However, looking back, I never really interacted with any of the Tamil students. I only watched the performances. I feel this day was mainly for Sinhala students like myself to become acquainted with Tamil students. The article points out- Diversity is for white students (in my case, it was for Sinhala students). However, nothing authentic or productive happened on this day. Friendships were not formed, cultural exchanges were not made, and at the end of the day, we all went home, happy to have had a "free day" at school. I look back at this day and my education in Sri Lanka with disappointment and sadness. Disappointment at a curriculum absent of the country's tumultuous history, disappointment at educators who did not care about all students and sadness at the refusal to teach Sinhala students of their privilege regardless of class and caste. My only answer to racial equity in conflict-ridden countries is that the whole system needs to be overhauled, and the entire teacher's college system should be redesigned. I don't know if this is a realistic possibility at all; however, I believe educators in a privileged position have a responsibility to acknowledge their privilege and face uncomfortable truths about it. The question for me is, can they become educators for all students in Sri Lanka.
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USWe are a collective Group of Educators in many different fields, all completing (or have completed) a Masters of Education at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. we all have an interest in teaching and learning with equity in mind. Archives
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