A Personal Reflection on Privilege

1. At The Front Of The Line
Reflecting on my personal and historical privilege and how it will
improve my teaching practice and leadership

2. EDUC534 Foundations of Education
Entering this program I rarely thought of my position in society. It has always just
been what it was… then Dan came along... and forced me to think
about my life.
A Privilege Walk, the Timeline Activity, colouring the flower and throwing the ball in
the bin…
Well it has been enlightening and I hope will improve my teaching practice
immensely.

3. Family History
Knowing your family story informs you about who
you are. From there you can start to unpack your
invisible knapsack...

4. My Family Story
Born in Halifax in 1971, eldest of two boys, both parents professionals (Dad in the
Navy and Mom a teacher) though my Mom stayed home until my brother went to
school, then she returned to work.
My ancestry traces back from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland
over the last 150 years. Before that Ireland and England, maybe elsewhere…?
So I am Canadian, at least 6th generation, and as far as I can tell my families have
always done well for themselves.

5. The Ritchie Family

6. The Ritchie Family
In the family garden, North St., Halifax. Circa 1940.

7. Family home and business, circa 1980.
The Smith Family

8. The Hoyt and Smith Families

9. Privilege
So after that brief history lesson, what do we know…
On both sides of my family my ancestors were well off for their communities, were
community leaders and businessmen and in all likelihood enjoyed enormous
privilege for the time.
Which means...

10. Personal Level
So did I.
English, White, Male, Middle Class, Catholic, Athletic,
Healthy and good in school made everything “come
easily”.

11. Privilege Growing up
● Teacher Independent learner
● Nourished, well rested and comfortable
● Two caring parents to support my learning
at home, one being a teacher
● Opportunities to be active in sports
● I fit in - white, christian, male, english
● I saw myself in society and the media
● I had toys and books
● …..

12. Cultural Level
On a cultural level, growing up I was socialized by my family and
my community, and it was largely an english white, Catholic,
middle class community.
My parents upbringing put them in a position to teach me the
proper ways to dress, to behave, to eat, to speak, proper manners
and mannerisms...

13. Types of Cultural Capital
Embodied
● Acquired consciously and inherited passively through socialization over time
Objectified
● Physical objects owned
● Can be transferred for economic profit
Institutionalized
● Recognition (mostly in the form of academic credentials and qualifications)
Source: Robinson (2016)

14. Family Social Capital
● Economic currency
○ while never rich, the Ritchie family has always lived comfortably as middle to upper middle
class
○ while never well off, my mother’s family was definitely well to do and a middle class family in a
working class community.
● Symbolic currency
○ both my Great Grandfather and Grandfather Ritchie held valued places in public life in Halifax.
○ The Smith/Hoyt Family owning the community store afforded the family many advantages
● Cultural currency
○ my father was educated and in the military, his father was educated and a business owner, his
father was educated and a politician and businessman.
○ my Grandmother was a Teacher at the Blissville schoolhouse for many years.
○ Family being members of high society in Halifax - proper dress, manners, education, speech...

15. Personal Capital
Economic
● Living in comfortable homes owned by my family.
● Have always had enough for the “extras”.
Cultural
● Designed to succeed in school, BA, BEd, MPE and now MEd…
● Acknowledged for coaching abilities, program management abilities
○ IFAF Youth Coach of the Year for 2006, IKON Awards for Volunteer and Coach of the Year,
FNS Awards for Volunteer and Executive of the Year.
Economic Capital refers to money, property, and
other assets. Social Capital refers to networks of
influence or support based on group membership
(such as family), friends, or other contacts.
Cultural Capital refers to forms of knowledge,
educational credentials, and skills.

16. Halifax - birth to Gr 1
Ottawa - Gr 2-4
Victoria - Gr 5
Gloucester - Gr 6 - Uni.
Today
My Family Homes

17. Discrimination/Oppression
There were a few instances of Prejudice,
Discrimination and perhaps even
Oppression that members of my family
endured.
“Discrimination occurs when we act on
our prejudices” (Sensoy & DiAngelo, p32)

18. Religious Discrimination

19. Class Discrimination

20. So what does all of this mean?
These last few minutes represent the reflection and contemplation that I have
experienced over the last two weeks. This is me, but what does it all mean?
See the student (as an individual) and see the groups
to which the student belongs. You need to see with
both views otherwise you are not seeing the whole
person.
Enid Lee
Source: Robinson (2016)

21. What it means for my
Teaching Practice
● I must use the language and concept of privilege in education - racial, sex, class, religious, age...
● I must “check their privilege” at the door, they must be aware of it and how it affects the students that they interact with.
● I must reflect on the own preconceived beliefs, prejudices, and even discriminatory beliefs. Then they must be careful to not
invoke them on their students.
● Few people will openly admit racist beliefs, but I must accept that I do in fact have privilege based on the colour of their skin.
● I must understand the community in which my students live and the economic currency that they come to school with in
comparison to my personal economic currency.
● I must realize the social and symbolic currency I possess within the community where I teach and use it to the benefit of the
students and the community.
● I must understand the binary nature of oppression and the dominant and minoritized groups that make up society. Then when
interacting with my students and the community I need to role model behaviors that minimize any differences between students,
families, teachers and the community at large.
● I must enforce rules and limit behavior among students that oppresses individuals or groups.
● I must know what is in my invisible knapsack and always keep it in the back of their mind when planning, preparing and
presenting lessons for my students.
● I must reflect on what my students will have in their virtual backpacks and make every effort to ensure that each student will
have what he/she needs to be successful in school.

22. What it means for my
Leadership
1. Do not allow prejudice to get in the way and recognize that all teachers are learning and offer my support and
expertise to assist others.
2. Think critically and speak openly about matters about which I need to learn more about.
3. Expand my sense of identity and partner with new, a diverse group of teachers to learning something new.
4. Support hospitable environments in which divergent perspectives can be considered.
5. Demonstrate openness to divergent perspectives so that I expand my knowledge and critical thinking and question
preconceived opinions.
6. Recognize that through social justice literacy I can help to bring prejudices to the surface, reflect and challenge them
and assist groups in which the participants disagree.
7. Through reflection and attention to opportunity, offer for new visions of what might be.
8. Reframe and ask questions that shift the lenses by which teachers see what is happening in society/school/the
classroom.
9. Ask questions that emphasize learning while accounting for the personal experiences and circumstances of the
listeners.
10. Support learning that enhances knowing as well as doing.
Source: Toll (2010)

23. Finally unpacking my REAL Knapsack
1. I possess the cultural currency that comes with good relationships with the police, politicians and others in
roles of power.
2. I possess the cultural currency needed to understand how to code switch my identity as needed in any given
situation.
3. I possess the cultural currency gained while in school as my family, school and community beliefs all lined up.
4. I posses the economic currency of being a homeowner, employed full time with a spouse also employed as a
professional.
5. I possess the cultural currency of being a member of the dominant ethnicity, dominant language, and
dominant sex of my country.
6. I possess the symbolic currency I gained through coaching and management of football programs in NS.
7. I possess the social currency to implicitly know that I will be hired for work based on my skills, that I can walk
comfortably at night in my community and that I will not be harassed when shopping in a store.
8. I possess the social currency to go almost anywhere in my community and know that others will not be
intolerant or scared of me.
9. I possess the symbolic currency of a grad school educated teacher.
10. I possess the social, economic and cultural currencies to travel the earth knowing my race, religion, sex and
language are dominant throughout most of the world.
11. I possess the symbolic currency of a successful athlete who has won a national championship.
12. I possess the social currency of knowing I will be helped in an emergency situation.
13. I possess the economic and cultural currency to purchase and/or connect to mass media in my country.
14. I possess the economic, social and cultural currency to acquire toys, books, dolls, cards, magazines… that
represent my ethnicity, language, sex, gender…
15. I possess the economic, social and cultural currency to always be in the presence of people of my choosing.

24. References and Sources
1. Gorski, Paul. (2012). Complicating White Privilege: Poverty, Class and the Nature of the Knapsack.
Teachers College Record. Retrieved from www.tcrecord.org, ID #16687
2. McIntosh, P. (1990) Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School. Winter 1990 pp. 31-36.
3. Robinson, Dan. (2016) Powerpoint 3a slide 25.
4. Robinson, Dan. (2016) Powerpoint 4a slide 11.
5. Sensoy, O. & DiAngelo, R. (2012) Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice.
Chapter 3, Prejudice and Discrimination
6. Sensoy, O. & DiAngelo, R. (2012) Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice.
Chapter 4, Oppression and Power
7. Sensoy, O. & DiAngelo, R. (2012) Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice.
Chapter 5, Privilege
8. Sensoy, O. & DiAngelo, R. (2012) Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice.
Chapter 10, Putting it all Together
9. Toll, C. (2010). 6 steps to learning leadership. JSD: The Learning Forward Journal. Vol. 31, #3. Pp. 50-56.