As educators, it is important for us to understand inclusion beyond its misconstrued definition as tolerance, but rather as a celebration of diversity within learning, social, and professional settings (Moore & Schnellert, 2016). With our own individual identifiers, we exist collectively in which we learn and teach others about our differences. Therefore, it is important for educators to implement our diverse identifiers as unifying efforts in embracing one another within institutions; to ultimately redefine diversity as inclusive, rather than segregative or exclusive.
My Personal Learning Network in relation to Inclusion and Diversity; and How This Reflects Within My Professional Spaces
Growing up an immigrant who moved to Canada fairly young, I initially found it very difficult in existing within many diverse environments alongside understanding my own identity. I soon found comfort in knowing that I wasn’t the only person struggling to belong, and eventually was able to find people that I ‘fit in’ with. Something I appreciate my early educators doing was not excluding me from the classroom, as many of my other classmates were also from other backgrounds and abilities. I have grown up exposed to many people with different backgrounds, languages, experiences, and identities. It is through these inclusive environments in which I was able to understand my position as a learner and thus prioritize it in my personal and professional spaces as an adult. Although this is not a universal experience for everyone, it is important for educators to incorporate inclusive strategies amongst learning spaces to foster networks that advocate for diverse learning experiences.
My personal learning networks now continue to develop within academic spaces and social media platforms I participate in. It is through the strategies my professors use in fostering an inclusive space, the material I am taught, and the conversation I exchange with diverse classmates in which I am able to learn what influences the perspectives of others, and thus what I can learn from them. I can confidently say that University is where I successfully solidified the importance in understanding intersectionality and inclusivity within multiple aspects of my life. In order to establish a welcoming, inclusive learning environment for everyone, it is important for us as students to practise inclusivity by accepting how we interpret learning as well as the many viewpoints and ideas of our professors and classmates. For this to happen, instructors must also foster an inclusive environment that takes into account the variety of learning styles, abilities, strengths/weaknesses, and differences in perspectives. A parallel I found within Moore’s chapter and my own learning in Sociology is that we must consider the existence of intersectionality to achieve inclusivity, “and not try and homogenize them [identities and experiences of others]” (Moore & Schnellert, 2016, p. 9).
How Social Media Plays a Role in Establishing Inclusive and Diverse Themes
Growing up with social media, I found many of my community belongings on the platforms that I interacted on. Interacting and existing in diverse online communities fostered a safe and inclusive space in which I related to and learnt from various perspectives. Like Moore mentioned in her talk, social media, for me, acts as an interactive and communicative space in which I am exposed to a far greater range of diversity to exist and interact within. Through social media, individuals are able to exchange ideas and expand their understandings across a multitude of different matters. An example I thought about when Moore mentioned social media spaces and the pandemic was the use of Zoom. Although the pandemic limited inclusive classroom environments, we collectively redefined our ability to use social media as another outlet of inclusive learning. It is through Zoom in which we were able to continue to connect with not only just our classmates, but people from around the world. In this way, social media further enhanced access to additional educational platforms, in which individuals are more freely exposed to greater diversity and an expansion of their PLN’s.
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