After reading the materials of topic three, I have a better understanding about equality. The design principles stated by Kral and Schwab (2012) have a huge impact on my understanding about the equality of learning.
Among all the principles explained by Kral and Schwab (2012), what impressed me most is that they state the the importance of reading When they explain the first principle. Previously, I thought books and online articles were effective ways to understand learning materials and read news. However, I did not realize that some people from deprived families lacked basic reading skills and reading materials until I read the Design principles for Indigenous learning spaces.
In Design principles for Indigenous learning spaces, Kral and Schwab (2012) state the reading problems that aboriginal people in Australia are facing. However, lots of people living in other countries are also facing the same problem. Take China as an example. Although the Chinese government provides lots of financial aids to help students with deprived backgrounds finish the nine-year compulsory education, there are still lots of kids from underdeveloped countryside who do not have opportunities to go to school.
There are two main reasons causing this problem. Firstly, lots of parents in those villages do not realize the importance of education. They hold the belief that reading skills are less important than practical skills. The other reason is that lots of villages do not have any schools or teachers. Even worse, in some villages, none of the residents can read.
In order to change this situation, the government and people living in other provinces try their best to help kids in those villages. In terms of the government, they offer more and more financial aid each year. Currently, most people do not have to pay tuition fees until Grade 10. As for people from other areas, lots of teachers from other areas volunteer to teach students in those villages. Also, schools and libraries from other provinces donate books and newspapers on a certain basis.
References
Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design principles for indigenous learning spaces. Safe learning Spaces: Youth, literacy and new media in remote indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012
July 19, 2022 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for the post, Ruoxi! It is really great to see you making connections between the readings and your previous knowledge (i.e., reading skills in China). One question I have is if the children in the “underdeveloped countryside” need to be able to be educated in the same system as others in the country? Might they have their own education that is different, but still effective for their ways of life? I don’t know the answer, but it is an important question to consider. It relates to how colonizers came to countries like Canada and have worked to assimilate Indigenous peoples into their way of life, rather than respecting that they were already here for thousands of years and were, in many ways, thriving.
Back to your post, if you couldn’t using writing in your teaching materials, what other methods might you use? Do you see an opportunity for open pedagogy to support this?
Also, try to give your post an intriguing title. Hook the reader!
Thanks!
July 20, 2022 at 10:13 pm
Hi,ruoxi. I agree with you. A unique advantage of open education is to greatly reduce the cost of education. This has helped children in many comment areas to get a better education. Yaqi
July 20, 2022 at 10:18 pm
my blog3: https://yaqi.opened.ca/edci339-topic3/
July 20, 2022 at 10:20 pm
Hi Ruoxi, I also think education is one of the most important thing to a child that helps him or her to get rid of poor situation, lots of countries have compulsory education but not every child who should go to school can catch this opportunity, like you said, some of them have parents who do not care about their education, thats one of the problem that governments must need to solve to help children in poor.