Assignment Cultural Experience Paper

Cultural Experience Ideological Deconstruction Assignment

Presentation and Interpretation of Two Different School Experiences Based on Culture

How would anyone feel if he or she was culturally different from everyone else in school and felt even the teachers did not know how to relate? Personally, I think I would not enjoy entering an environment that made me feel like I did not belong. After interviewing my friend, who we’ll call “Bob,” I learned that is how he felt when he attended school. My friend and I discussed school related experiences during kindergarten to high school education. We are very culturally different, and the main focus of our discussion was how being from different races affected our experiences. He discussed his feelings about being an African American in the school system while I discussed what it was like to be Caucasian. The reflection of our experiences in school, a direct result of our cultures, will showcase how our home cultures and values, curriculum and textbooks, teachers’ approaches, and relationships with other students affected our attitudes about school. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Excellent job illuminating the cultural differences here.

First to understand our school experiences, an explanation of the schools and the racial makeup of the schools we attended should be introduced. Bob told me in kindergarten and first grade that he went to a school close to his home on the east side of Indianapolis. Along with explaining the location of his school, he explained its great diversity of African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, and Asians. In second grade, he changed schools because his academic performance far exceeded his classmates. He went to an excel learning school located further south in Indianapolis. The racial makeup of his new school presented a major change for him. He stated that most students were Caucasian, and that he was one of the few African Americans. He also mentioned only white teachers being in his school. As for the school I attended, I went to the same small school my whole life, had a graduating class of forty-three students, and I still have most of my friends from kindergarten and 1st grade. I think this made it hard for any new student to join our school family because we had very tight groups of friends. In addition, my school was almost all white, and I could count the number of racially different students on my hands. Also, all of my teachers were white. I think my school was mainly white because of de facto segregation which is the separation of groups as people choose where to live (Gollnick & C., 2009). Most of the people who chose to live in my community were white farming or working class families.

An understanding of our school’s differences is important, as well as knowing how our parents’ cultures and values related to our school experiences. My friend discussed how his mother was always more strict than his school. She displayed the engagement conflict style which was more emotionally vocal. Hammer’s description of emotional expressiveness component of the engagement style, in his guide to Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory, would be best to explain his mother’s cultural conflict style. Hammer states, “Emotionally expressive cultures value discussion of disagreements with full and overt displays of emotion. Feelings of frustration, anger and other emotions are comfortably expressed to the other party (Hammer, 2003).” Bob’s teachers had a different conflict style which did not match his mothers. He said that he would feel more remorse if his mom was upset with him rather than his teachers because she became more emotional. This shows that the way the schools approach discipline is different to the home culture and may not be as effective. In Bob’s view, showing emotion means that a person is so passionate and really cares, but he would feel as if the teachers did not care because of their lack of emotion with discipline, when it really may be because of differing conflict styles. Also, he told me how much his family valued his education. At a very young age, his grandmother taught him how to read. She wanted him to be ahead, and the family was also worried that he might have to go to the more “ghetto” school closest to them because they could not afford to send him to the other school. My family also valued my education. For instance, I remember that at a young age my mom would make me practice writing the alphabet. Both of our families were invested in our education before it formally started in school which predicted how much they would care about our academic progress.

When interviewing Bob about the curriculum and textbooks, I learned about how difficult it must be to be from a different culture in a school that tried to assimilate all its students to the majority culture. Bob was able to give me a few examples of how his culture was not represented in the second school he attended. Bob declared that slavery was never really discussed. By not discussing slavery, the teachers in his school should be considered color-blind. They were not bringing up racial issues because their focus was not on diversity. This omission sustained white privilege in the classroom because it overlooks racial equalities (Gollnick & C., 2009). He also says that he remembered only one chapter in his AP U.S. History book about black people. Bob explained to me, “When black people were mentioned, it was the typical famous ones who seemed to always get repeated like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. Why did the list include maybe only 10 famous blacks but then list multiple white people? It’s because they don’t talk about the black people.” When thinking about what he said, it is true. When the majority of students are white, black people are underrepresented in textbooks and in teachers’ lesson plans.

Thinking about my school experience, my culture was very well represented in the curriculum and textbooks. Peggy McIntosh, writer of the article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, would have predicted my race to be represented in my textbooks because the privilege of being widely represented in textbooks, television, and newspapers is a privilege that white people have without realizing it. She stated that she knew her children would be “given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race (McIntosh, 1990).” Her belief proved true in my schooling experience. Most books we read in school were about white children. We only had one chapter in our English book my junior year that featured black writers. I remember when we covered that chapter that our teacher had a hard time explaining what the literature meant. Therefore, we did not cover the chapter for more than a week. When looking through my textbooks, most of them had drawings or pictures of white children. I remember my high school Spanish book tried to feature as many different types of cultures and people with disabilities as possible. On one page a child had a hook for a hand. I remember laughing and thinking, “Wow, I feel like this book is trying to include too many different groups of people.” Now looking back, I think my other books did not include enough of other groups of people, and I should not have found the pictures in my Spanish book so amusing. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Excellent examples of white privilege and very well written.

Our teachers’ approaches were also another differing part of our school experiences. Bob felt as if his teachers did not know what to do with him. When he was at his culturally diverse school, his first grade teacher had difficulty because he was advanced further than the other children in her class. Since he already knew how to read, she felt as if she had nothing to teach him, yet he was not allowed the opportunity to advance a grade. Bob recalls, “She would pick out a book for me, have me sit in the corner, and read to myself while she taught the rest of the class.” Another time he felt the teacher did not know what to do with him because of his race was in third grade for a genealogy assignment. He was supposed to find out where his ancestors were from; however, as a result of slavery, it is hard to find out where ancestors were from because they were taken from their homes and their names were changed to make them sound more American. When Bob could not trace his ancestry, his teacher told him if he could not take the time to find out where his ancestors were from, then he should just pick somewhere in Africa and write about it. She was insensitive to the difficulties that prevented him from completing his original assignment. On the other hand, my teachers were all very supportive. They would take extra time to help me when I was sick and had to miss school. I felt like they genuinely care about me. Even now, I still have contact with some of them. I do understand why Bob felt like his teachers could not relate to him based of his race because I think a few of my teachers had problems relating to the handful of students at our school who were culturally different. I remember one teacher in particular who made a few racist slurs in class. My friends and I saw how badly it hurt our friends his comments targeted, and we went to the principal to explain the situation. We thought the teacher should have to apologize and learn how to be more culturally sensitive. The only result that came from that meeting was our teacher was mad that we told the principal and gave us more homework. As far as I know, this teacher did not get in trouble. After interviewing my friend and relating my own experiences, I realize that both our teachers were unsure how to handle culturally different students, which is very disappointing. This teaches me that there are most likely many schools that are assimilating in their approaches to their students. They do not take the extra time to learn and integrate different cultures into their teaching. Also when teachers do not learn the values of the students, they will not be able to precisely determine the students’ learning styles and what teaching style would be most effective for them (Gollnick & C., 2009). Comment by Terrence Harewood: Or, more importantly to reflect the names of their slave masters since they were considered property.

Lastly, I questioned Bob if he felt a part of his school, in particular with his relationships to his classmates. Bob says he had many friends, but at times, he did feel somewhat separated. He was never physically bullied, but there were occasions when other students would make hurtful comments or jokes. When the jokes were the most hurtful and everyone would be laughing at him, he felt like he had to laugh along. If the comments were intentionally mean, other people would realize that and would comfort him. I found one of Bob’s examples of a comment to be shocking because the teacher heard it, and did not punish the other kid, or at least explain why the comment was wrong to say. During a discussion of segregation in 2nd grade, Bob said a child in his class told him that he would have to be the only one to leave the class if it was the 1930’s. These are the types of ignorant comments that went uncorrected that Bob remembers. Conversely, I never heard racist remarks aimed at me from my peers at school because almost everyone was white and had similar backgrounds. The few peers in my school of another race were liked by everyone, but a majority of students thought it was funny acting like they fit some of the typical stereotypes of their race. As an example, a Mexican classmate of mine was voted hardest worker because of the stereotype that Mexicans work really hard. It was intended as a joke and was not a reflection of his academic or athletic performances. From all these examples, I realize that being culturally different in a school is made even harder by the relationships with classmates. Comment by Terrence Harewood: This calls to mind the old adage that “sometimes Black people have to laugh to keep from crying!”

Overall, I learned that both our schools lacked multiethnic curriculum and positive relationships as a result of race (Gollnick & C., 2009). The school failed to learn about Bob’s culture; therefore, they were assimilating him into the school and ignoring differences in learning style and discipline approaches. His culture was also not reflected in the textbooks and curriculum, and it was not always respected or understood by other students. Our schools were very similar when dealing with students based on race, but our experiences and perceptions of our schools were quite different because we are different races. Overall, I have positive comments to say about my schooling, and Bob has negative comments when thinking about how he was treated because of his race. Even though I am not planning to become a teacher, I believe that I could help in creating a more culturally competent world by informing my children later in life. When I have a child, I plan on informing him or her of differences in the world and celebrating and teaching about different traditions. I will also want to become an active parent volunteer in the classroom and stress the importance of activities that help the children learn about people who are culturally different. This may seem like a small step for schools, but for me, it will be a part of my cultural competency journey. Comment by Terrence Harewood: On a personal note, education is in your bones---you are a natural and would make a phenomenal culturally competent teacher. Our schools need people like you who get the importance of these issues.

Works Cited Gollnick, D. M., & C., C. P. (2009). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Hammer, M. R. (2003). Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory. Ocean Pines: Hammer Consulting LLC. McIntosh, P. (1990). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

CATEGORY	18—20 Points	16—17 Points	11—15 Points	1—10 Points	SCORE
INTERVIEWEE	Paper clearly identifies the cultural difference. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Excellent job explicitly highlighting the cultural difference.	Paper identifies the cultural difference fairly well	Paper vaguely identifies the cultural difference experience	Paper does not identify the cultural difference.	20
EXAMPLES	Paper provides at least four (4) or more examples of how cultural difference was experienced during schooling experience. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Great job using lots of examples and giving voice to them with quotes.	Paper provides three (3) examples of how cultural difference was experienced during schooling experience.	Paper provides one or two (2) e xamples of how cultural difference was experienced during schooling experience	Paper does not provide examples of how the cultural difference was experienced during schooling experience	20
CONTENT	Information included in the paper stems from at least four (4) aspects of schooling (eg. Curriculum, instruction, social setting, texts, assessment, etc. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Your paper includes examples from a wide spectrum of schooling experiences. Great job here as well!	Information included in the paper stem from three (3) aspects of schooling (eg. Curriculum, instruction, social setting, texts, assessment, etc).	Information included in the paper stem from one (1) or two (2) aspects of schooling (eg. Curriculum, instruction, social setting, texts, assessment, etc).	Paper does not include content addressing any of the areas of schooling (eg. Curriculum, instruction, social setting, texts, assessment, etc).	20
YOURSELF	Paper clearly identifies the cultural difference and provides four (4) or more examples of how it impacted schooling experience. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Your use of course concepts here to explain how you were empowered by your schooling was very powerful. I enjoyed this section.	Paper identifies the cultural difference and provides three (3) examples of how it impacted schooling experience	Paper vaguely identifies the cultural difference and provides one or two (2) e xamples of how it impacted schooling experience	Paper either does not identify the cultural difference or does not provide examples of how the difference impacted schooling experience.	20
CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING	Paper provides an excellent analysis of how culture was addressed by providing at least four (4) course concepts to explain similarities or differences. Comment by Terrence Harewood: Comment by Terrence Harewood: I was very tickled by the variety and appropriate use of course concepts to make sense from your interview. Other course concepts to consider for future might include “anglo-conformity,” “ethnocentrism,” cultural congruity, etc.	Paper provides a good analysis of how culture was addressed by providing three (3) concepts to explain similarities or differences.	Paper provides a fair analysis of how culture was addressed by providing one or two (2) course concepts to explain similarities or differences.	Does not include course concepts	20