Professional Documents
Culture Documents
“I think the teachers should be very important I believe that the most challenging job for
because in class they could talk about racism, teachers is raising students’ awareness of how
to teach their students not to discriminate different we are and who we are. Students are
[against] or segregate with other races.” (p. easily grouping with others who have similar
50) cultures such as skin colors, socio-economic
status, and languages. Being with people who
How can teachers invite students to the place came from different cultures might not be a
for discussion with regards to the diversity? comfortable and pleasant experience for them
at first. Therefore, teachers should strive to
How can teachers develop the intercultural guide students to come out from their comfort
sensitivity of students? zone. Not only should it be stressful, but it
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 3
Caring “for” vs. Caring “about” Gay (2010) emphasized on the difference
between caring “for” and caring “about”.
Gay (2010) explained those two concepts
separately, saying “while caring about
conveys feelings of concern for one’s state of
being, caring for is active engagement in
doing something positively to affect it” (p.
48). If a teacher fails to connect their
knowledge regarding cultural disparities
between theirs and pupils’ to their classroom
practices, a teacher is caring “about” and
does not move to the place of caring “for”.
In other words, educators should think
“about” the cultural background which
students bring into the classrooms and also
deeply care “for” how to apply their
knowledge to their teaching performance,
responding to the students’ cultures.
I think that the real example of caring
‘for’ and ‘about’ such as Mr. Sosa is telling us
a lot. When he met the Latino students at
Seguin school, the first impression was that
students did not respect teachers and they
were unmanageable. However, the most
interesting part for me was Mr. Sosa’s
positive interpretation and attitude toward
the somewhat gloomy status quo. He said
that they “just didn’t know”. He saw
possibilities and hopes that students could
change, and I could notice Mr. Sosa’ self-
confidence in human relationships. I
assumed that he had a solid belief on
creating quality connection with students
who were from different culture. In addition,
the self-confidence/self-efficacy of Mr. Sosa
might be predicated upon his strong cultural
identity.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 5
“To my surprise, some Anglo teachers who Foley observed that some Anglo teachers
privately expressed racist views were not expressed their racist views in a private
perceived as “red necks”” (Foley, 1990, p. manner. They seemed to treat equally Anglo
104). and Mexicano students in the practical
section which was the lowest ability group in
“Many teachers felt like they were “walking the school. Latino kids also did not think that
on eggshells” to avoid racial issues” (Foley, their Anglo teachers discriminated against
1990, p. 102). them and in favor of Anglo students.
However, Foley knew that the teachers’
expectation for Mexicano youth was much
lower.
When I read this part, I was able to realize
again how challenging but important it was
to increase the awareness of not only
teachers but also students on discrimination.
Although the Anglo teachers might argue
that they had never enacted racism in their
classrooms, but if they had a different level
of expectations about students’ academic
performance, classroom participants, and
school behaviors, they had already
discriminated against Latino students based
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 6
home, but about using students’ knowledge into my mind. I remember one English
and prior experiences as a scaffold for new literature teacher, Lillian Edwards’ story from
learning … academically valid (Amanti, 2009, the book Made in America.
p. 135-138) The teacher added The Joy Luck Club to
the list of texts in her class, because she felt
it was relevant and meaningful for her
immigrant students who would bridge two
nations—the United States and their parents’
countries (Olson, 1997). Through the story, I
could understand that social justice is not the
abstract and ideological concept. Social
justice only becomes truly valuable when it is
practiced and realized in our lives, and it does
not seek innovative changes in our society
but minor perturbations in our minds.
Teachers can practice the Funds of
knowledge projects by making some small
changes in their curriculum in order to
embrace issues of immigration.
“Who you are is just as important as who you Even though I advocate this statement, I still
teach” Foester Luu reminds us that every doubt how teacher educators can explain this
facet of our identities is present as we teach. idea to pre-/in-teachers and motivate them
(Motha, 2014, p98) to explore their identities.
In a discussion of English language teaching, Due to globalization, the English language
it would be inadequate to attend to teachers’ craze in Korea makes people obsessed with
racial identities without addressing their English. From kindergateners to college
linguistic identities. On a superficial level, students, even to office workers, all are busy
these two may appear to be distinct, if learning and maintaining their English
loosely related, dimensions of difference, but proficiency. On the purpose of learning
a careful deconstruction of Whiteness helps “Native-like” pronunciation, schools in South
us to see that they are actually inextricable, Kores often hired white Americans as English
one from the other. Just as a certain degree language teachers. American college
of unquestioned legitimacy is attributed to graduates flocked to Korea to find teaching
White teachers, teachers who speak jobs. There was no specific requirement for
mainstream English—a variety that is silently their qualities; many of them did not have
but enduringly coupled with Whiteness—are any teaching experience or even did not
perceived to be more legitimate than know how to speak Korean. They were just
speakers of English that is not mainstream, needed to be white native English speakers.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 10
shift our attention from a focus on place to suggestion, because the reframing identities
one of flows (Motha, 2014, p. 114). of English learners opens my eyes to the new
perspective with regard to ways to serve
these learners without segmenting their
English-speaking identity from their L1-
speaking identity.
What responsibility do a teacher have for First and foremost, teachers should be
noticing and addressing the effects of race, equipped with intercultural competence
empire, and language ideologies? rooted in identity inclusivity which is
recognizing the differences self and others,
but embracing the differences and identity
security which is having understanding of the
self with respect to others (Kim, 2009).
Through Gorter and Cenoz’s (2011) article,
we can recognize that teachers who
possessed strong identity coming from their
first language could teach a second language
successfully. Hence, English language
teachers should encourage students to have
solid cultural identity so as not to be submit
to the neocolonialism of English. Taking one
step further, EL teachers should be experts in
teaching student to “engage in critical
dialogue about conflicts among cultures and
to analyze inconsistencies between
mainstream cultural ideals/realities and
those of different cultural systems” (Gay,
2000, p. 43) based on deep understanding
“how culture operates in daily classroom
dynamics, create learning atmospheres that
radiate cultural and ethnic diversity, and
facilitate high academic achievement for all
students” (Gay, 2000, p. 42). I would like to
close my writing with the culturally
responsive pedagogy’s five indicators which
Gay (2000) presented. The teachers who
perform culturally responsive teaching in
classrooms have
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 15
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