One of the most powerful moments of my career happened during a visit to Harminder Sahib, while teaching and leading a Pre-Service Teacher Education program to India. I reflect on that moment in my thesis in Chapter 8 of my thesis (you can click the link at the bottom of this post to download a copy).
I've shared an excerpt from Chapter 8 below.
...now, at this defined moment, in the communal space, on the marbled platform at the Gurudwara, my Punjabi Sikh heritage is invited to unfold itself into my Canadian educator identity.
"Silently, I whisper, you are the teachers of the future. You have a lot of influence, power and privilege. With privileges comes great responsibility. You are the individuals, who can create spaces for children, to invite them into the learning process or not. You are the teachers of the future who have the choice to be curious about children or not. You can choose to encourage children to share their words, their actions and their stories of who they are or not. You can choose to respect their words, actions and their stories or not. You can choose to see children as humans with a mind, body and spirit that deserve respect. You have the power to create deliberate and conscious space for students to extend their heart out to others or not. My hope is you will always be the teachers of the future who delicately and sacredly hold all students’ vulnerabilities living in their stories as precious treasures.”
Thank you for reading. This post is an excerpt from my thesis: Pre-Service Teachers in an International Teaching Practicum: (Im)possibilities, Interstitiality, and Encounters with Difference. If you'd like to learn more, you can click on the link below to download a copy.
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