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Week 05: Cultural Paradigms

I think something that I will struggle with when I am teaching students from another country is seeing things from their perspective. I have experienced other cultures only through media. Never having visited a foreign country, I don't think that I can accurately imagine what it would be like to have lived like them without having experienced that. I know that as their teacher I would need to be a safe place where they could ask questions and learn without feeling judged. I am not worried about that. I think that I am very empathetic and would be able to make my classroom somewhere they could bring their troubles too, but as far as understanding their life and how they grew up--I'm not sure they would have the vocabulary or I would have to life experience.

As far as recognizing when my brain is using paradigms to judge a situation or something--I think that will take some training. In the classroom, it will be my to teach and help the students connect to our culture without losing theirs. Something that will help will be learning about their culture and what school is like for them. I also believe that teaching them our cultural paradigms and how they will be perceived in life is very important to their success in America.

A student would maybe say that they want more safe opportunities to try to speak the language without being judged. I think that their parents would have many feelings about living in a new place that interprets them differently than they are used to. To go from being seen as A, B, and C to X, Y, and Z would be so disconcerting that I can't imagine a student or parent aware of that change would be comfortable.

I think that anytime you let your paradigm decide the way you see things without opening yourself up to new paradigms then you are limiting yourself, your knowledge, and your ability to teach. There are things that teachers look for that indicate to them if they have a good student or a bad student they are teaching. Deciding that limits their student to whatever role they are placed in. My daughter has ADHD and doesn't sit still very well. She is a handful at school--talking out of turn and not following along. These are all signs of a bad student to a teacher, but then they could treat her like she's not as smart too. When in reality she's very clever, has an excellent vocabulary, and learns more than it appears.

I want to be a teacher who can avoid judging my students and can help them understand the way culture makes up peoples perceptions. I really want to be a person that can be someone people can ask questions too.

Comments

  1. Grisel YamMay 22, 2019 at 9:31 AM

    I love this part of your blog: "A student would maybe say that they want more safe opportunities to try to speak the language without being judged".
    I think that an important part for the student to learn is confidence and self-esteem. We do not know the situation that each student goes through in his life or what paradigms stop him, maybe our mission is to make him feel trust in himself and get to know his situation without judging him.

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  2. helenMay 24, 2019 at 2:14 PM

    As teahers, I think we have the respobsability to know our students situations, and look for ways to adapt our message to them. Today we have many tools to do it, but we will only help them, if we know whats going on. I have 4 nephews/nices that have TGD, or other learning disorders. Some are seen by their teachers as "problematic kids" and sepate them from the rest of the group, but others look for new strategies to help and encourage them. As an aunt, it hurts my heart when I heard about the first cases. I can't imagine how my sisters and sister in law feels. We must be very careful about that!
    Thank you for your post!!

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