Assignment

Write a Self-reflective paper on social location and educational experiences

Length: 8-10 pages (max. 2500 words)

Our life experiences help to shape our values and beliefs, as does our social location. Social location refers to the relative degree of privilege and oppression we each hold/face as members of various social groups. Exploring the connections between life experiences and social location can help us to become more effective educators, counsellors, and administrators, particularly when working with students and teachers who are members of equity-seeking groups. The purpose of this assignment is to provide an opportunity for you to identify and critically reflect on your own social location as it relates to your educational experiences to date - as a K-12 student, as a university and/or college student (undergraduate and graduate), as an educator, as an administrator, as a counsellor, as a community activist, as a citizen. You are encouraged to make use of relevant readings from this and other courses in the MEd program and to refer to pertinent theory and literature, as this will strengthen your self-reflections and help demonstrate your ability to connect theory to practice (or everyday life). This assignment does not require a literature review, however. If you use a model or diagram to socially locate yourself, then please include this as an appendix; appendices are not included in the word count.

Your paper should address questions such as: How does this program and this course in particular make me feel about who I am: my identity, my values, my social location, and my life experiences? What impact does this have on how I think about identity categories like sex, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, Indigenous ancestry, (dis)ability, age, faith, marital status, national origin? How do I make sense of my own educational experiences in light of this mean for my future practice as an educator, a counsellor, and/or an administrator? Discuss both a personal and practice perspective- direct (teacher/counsellor) or indirect (administrator/policymaker).