51社区黑料

From adolescence to adulthood, Harshaan Randhawa has navigated the challenges of understanding his identity as a second-generation Sikh Punjabi Canadian. Working as a teacher in Surrey brought these questions to the forefront, leading him to pursue a Master of Arts in Curriculum & Instruction: Equity Studies in Education. His M.A. journey led to an exploration of his own 鈥渄isquietude鈥� as a guiding inquiry: Navigating identity while supporting minoritized students.  

Background & Heritage

Born and raised in South Vancouver, Harshaan often spent his weekends with his maternal grandparents in the Fleetwood area of Surrey. He was raised by a close-knit family that valued education for its intrinsic value and as a way to contribute to the South Asian community. During his high school years was when Harshaan was first introduced to the complexity of navigating his identity.  

鈥淟ocal media narratives of rampant 鈥淚ndo-Canadian鈥� gang activity as well as the achievements of prominent South Asian politicians in the early 2000鈥檚 combined to create a context of nebulous racialization that would be the backdrop of my adolescence and adulthood. This racialization coupled with the success of my own family within Canadian institutions often left me grappling with the ways in which my racialization seemed to contrast the distinctly Canadian values of multiculturalism, meritocracy and egalitarianism that I was taught to uphold via my own success as a student.鈥�

鈥淭he understanding of my own brownness has been a mystery to me and was the primary reason for my decision to apply to the Master of Arts program at SFU.鈥� 

Line of Inquiry

Harshaan鈥檚 father and Maternal Aunt (Massi) spent most of their teaching careers in the Surrey School District. They both consciously chose to work in schools with significant South Asian student populations. Harshaan would spend summers and spring breaks helping them setup their classrooms. He witnessed firsthand their impact upon their students and the close bonds they had formed with their South Asian colleagues.  

鈥淲hen I began my teaching career, the role modelling of my father and aunt along with my angst regarding my own brownness began to meaningfully intersect as I began working in Brown majority Surrey schools ... My only solace was often my Brown and racialized colleagues who did their utmost to inform their students and to engage with me in conversations ... of the South Asian diasporic community.鈥�

鈥淚 continued to feel adrift as a Brown teacher in Surrey. Once I began the Master鈥檚 program in Equity Studies in Education at SFU, Dr. Kumari Beck and Dr. 脰zlem Sensoy provided me with the language to inform my disquietude and the inspiration to inquire about the source of my angst: Brown teachers teaching in the microclimate of Surrey.鈥� 

Work in Schools

鈥淎fter a decade and a half in the Surrey School District, I have had the opportunity to coach multiple sports teams (basketball, soccer, volleyball, ball hockey, cross country) at multiple schools, organize and sponsor multiple clubs and student councils, taught courses at every grade level that ranged from Economics 12 to English Language Learner and mentored a wide range of students seeking everything from academic guidance to conversations about their racialized identity.鈥� 

鈥淎s a colleague, I have attempted to collaborate with teachers who are oriented towards social justice and anti-oppressive pedagogy. As a teacher, I try to help my minoritized students make sense of curriculum and their lived experiences via critical lenses that I hope will help them better comprehend their own identities and orientations, whatever they may be. Ultimately, my goal as a teacher is to help my students feel the same emancipation that I once felt as the member of a Brown family that desired for my education to be of service to others in the form of seva.鈥�

Disclaimer: This story has been shortened for length.