Final Reflection - Connection to Future
As I begin to prepare myself for my road in HGSE and thinking more about my future career, I know that I have always hoped to create equitable solutions in educational technology that have scalable impact. My experience in this gender and sexuality course has informed me more on the nuances of equity. The queer framework in queer theory, especially, has me thinking a lot about how I can create these equitable solutions. Should my solutions attempt to break down existing structures in hopes of reform that is built on equity rather than injustice, or should I stick to the human rights framework on helping those without a voice gain their voice?
In thinking about all of these questions, I am unsure which path I would want to take at the moment. I want to learn more about critical theory and queer theory because I haven’t really learned much about it before this class, and I feel like we merely brushed the surface of it. In my time at HGSE, I hope to take a critical theory class to better understand the concepts and theories behind it and hopefully be able to take what I learn from these courses and apply them to my future work in some form or another. Rather than feeling down from learning about the systems of oppression and the perpetual cycle of oppression, I am invigorated and motivated to do something to change the status quo of oppression for equity. The report “Audacity in Adversity” published on the Humans Rights Watch was especially inspiring. Reading about LGBT activists in the Middle East and the amount of violence and institutional structures that are against them makes me think a lot about what I can do in my home that is also relatively conservative structurally.
As an aspiring future learning and user experience designer, I hope to keep these frameworks in mind as I develop my projects in the edTech world. I want to delve more into how I can use technology and to create sustainable impact in creating equity. This class inspires me to stay connected and constantly re-educate myself to learn and unlearn things that are helpful and harmful.