Blog#3

In education, it is important to have a diverse professional learning network to learn from other people’s perspectives. When we learn from other people’s points of view, from faculty to students, we gain a more comprehensive recognition of that particular subject matter. In my opinion, my own professional learning network is not that diverse because I stay with a small circle with the same major, and this is something I need to work on. I learn from primarily the same points of views of like-minded people who study and teach the same topics I am interested in. I should expand my professional network in order to hear the opinions of people who are studying other topics or have different learning approaches than myself. Although I do not have much diversity in my network, I do listen to several different voices, and, even though their opinions are different than mine, I do not think I am the loudest voice in the room. Instead, I prefer to listen and hear what each voice has to say so I can learn from them, rather than making sure my opinion is heard loudly to portray that my voice is more important.

Unfortunately, I also tend to participate in a silo of information sharing. As I previously mentioned, my professional learning network is not diverse, which consequently generates a space that produces information silos. Since people in my professional circle share similar view points when approaching teaching and student learning, they inadvertently share the same perspective on information that is relevant and of interest to me. If I had a more diverse professional learning network, the result would be greater diversity in how I consider teaching perspectives. The diversity in those individuals alone would create a more a space where more inclusivity would occur, such problem based learning or inquiry. Instead of only gaining information in a silo, I would instead be able to gather information from multiple perspectives, which would broaden my thinking on a variety of different subject matters, which would create more inclusivity. To me, inclusion means to include as many people as possible regardless of the varying attributes one may have. If I could diversify my professional leaning network, then I would be able to include many more voices into the different subject matter I am interested in, and ultimately gain a more comprehensive understanding, instead of only learning from one singular perspective.

However, in regards to professional settings, education, I do not believe inclusion is actively embraced. Although education actively promotes inclusion of students, the more practice integrating or mainstreaming students, but when they do this, it sometimes feels as though they are doing it to meet standards rather than doing it to benefit the child they are including. Although the may ensure marginalized students are mainstreamed into certain courses and activities, that students may actually feel worse off because they are either struggling as a result of the inclusive practice, or they may feel even more left out because of the accommodations that are having to be made for them in order to be in that particular educational setting. These modifications that they need are more apparent when they are in a big group setting in education, rather than if they were in a different area getting one-on-one support.

The goal of my professional learning network in education is to improve my professional practice. To do this, I am focusing on diversifying my network so I can learn from a variety of people who have different experiences and opinions, including working with teachers who specialize in special ed or disability so I can help students who might be “slow learners.” Expanding the diversity of my network to include students and teachers whose backgrounds are so different than mine will improve my professional practice by having a more complete understanding of practices that are utilized in our professional setting. Additionally, by focusing on diversifying my professional learning network, I think greater inclusion can be achieved by understanding the lived experiences of the individuals in my network.

My view about inclusion and professional learning networks has changed after reviewing the course resource because I have learned that inclusion has evolved over a period of time. It is not an all or none principle. Additionally, I have learned that inclusion is not just about including someone, it is about making that inclusion meaningful.