Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 36

Educators who create content
HOPE TEAGUE-BOWLING
I
am a National Board certified
English teacher from Tacoma,
Washington. This is my fourteenth
year in the classroom and also my
first year teaching abroad. I currently
teach AP Literature, IB Language
and Literature and Sophomore
English at the American School
of Abu Dhabi. When my husband
and I decided to move overseas, we
were looking for an opportunity to
teach and travel. As someone who
grew up as a third culture kid, I was
eager to teach in a multicultural,
multilingual community.
Moving to the UAE gave us access
to a part of the world, we h ad
only read about. It also opened the
door to learning about the 200+
nationalities
represented
here.
In just a few short months, we’ve
grown to love Abu Dhabi and the
UAE.
36
Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
After writing about the intersection
of education, gender and race on
my personal blog, I decided to
try my hand at a new medium-
-podcasting. The premise of
the podcast was based on a
tongue-in-cheek
commentary
I’d written, about the number of
white women in the American
public education system teaching
children and young people of
color. In July 2017, my co-host
and I launched our first episode
of the Interchangeable White
Ladies podcast. As teacher-nerds
our bi-weekly show uses essential
questions to drive each episode
and we are constantly trying to
answer our overarching question:
“How can white women use their
privilege to deconstruct white
culture, confront their own biases,
be better allies and be less basic?”
I was met with both shock and
interest. At one point, I gave an
interview on a local radio station
explaining that we weren’t
attacking white teachers, just
pointing out that since we play
a vital role in educating the next
generation, teachers need to
recognize our own privilege and
positionality. Since then, we’ve
Class Time
interviewed a range of guests-
-fellow
educators,
bloggers,
activists, athletes and even
academic Robin DiAngelo. We
intentionally seek out female
guests who will speak their
truth with candor and offer an
intersectional critique of the
world. We’ve only interviewed two
men in 64 episodes. Through the
podcast, I hope to continue to
deconstruct power and privilege,
confront biases, and ---as we say
on the show--“be less basic.”
It’s critical that educators create
content to share their experiences
in the classroom. Too often
the loudest voices are furthest
removed from teaching and
learning. Blogging and podcasting
are two ways I can give others a
glimpse into what it means to be
a teacher in the 21st century. More
importantly, creating my own
content gives me an opportunity
to share my students’ stories.
Interchangeable White Ladies
podcast can be found on Twitter
@IWL_Podcast or on Facebook.
Our show is on Spotify, iTunes, and
all the usual places.
Twitter: @Espionfire
Podcast & Blog:
www.hopeteague.com