We teach who we are

I am glad I dragged myself out of bed early this morning to attend the lecture at 8:00am. Since I told Clare that I would be there, I told myself not to create excuses. And so there I was at the lecture theatre with the other tutors and some fifty-odd students.

This morning, the lecture was presented by a guest lecturer, Dr. William De Jean. And it was one heck of a lecture! If every lecture was as interactive and hyped up as his was, I would attend every single one of them!

The lecture reminded me of some of the lectures that were conducted last year for the same unit. The first questions he asked us to answer were why we were going into teaching and our intentions for doing so. My reply was a slightly selfish one. I am going into teaching (I am teaching) because these is a special feeling of achievement and pride when someone I have taught comes back to say ‘thank you’. I find that such appreciation actually motivates me to be better. So, indirectly, teaching helps me better myself because like what Dr. De Jean kept emphasising throughout his lecture, we teach who we are.

He asked us to read aloud the following questions, which he took out of The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life by Parker J. Palmer, an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change:

The question we most commonly as is the “what” question – what subjects shall we teach?

When the conversation goes a bit deeper, we ask the “how” question – what methods and techniques are required to teach well?

Occasionally, when it goes deeper still, we ask the “why” question – for what purpose and to what ends do we teach?

But seldom, if ever, do we ask the “who” question – who is the self that teaches?

He related that back to how we are educated (as opposed to trained) as teachers. We almost always justify our teaching with what is in the best interest of the children. It always is for the children. We almost always not talk about ourselves. What about us? We teach who we are so how can we not place some amount of significance on ourselves?

I liked how he metaphorically referred to our teaching as roadmaps. We have all these directions to follow. We use compasses because we are going places we do not even know. How do we know where we are going with our teaching? Do we know what the creative superminds we are teaching today will create for tomorrow? I think we can only assume that we are laying a foundation for the younger generation. What kind of a foundation will depend on who we are.

Like it or not, our identity is made up not only of who we think we are but also who we think we are not. Dr. De Jean likened it to a beach ball that is being held forcefully underwater. Yes, the beach ball is our shadow and what we suppress will always surface when we are unable to take the pressure any longer. So, what do we truly believe about difference? Do we really treat everyone equally? Do we really know what it feels like to be wearing glasses or to walk with a plastered foot?

What do we truly believe about success? If people work hard, will they really succeed? Does that mean that people who do not succeed are people who are not trying?

What do we truly believe about intelligence? Who do we believe is “smart” and who do we think is not? Who do we believe seems “motivated and who is not? Who do we believe should and should not go to university?

What do we believe about language? What do we laugh at? Why do we say “Hey, guys” when half the crowd is made up of females?

What do we truly believe about gender? How do we believe boys should act? How do we believe girls should act? We get concerned when they do not act the way we think they should.

What do we truly believe or feel when we hear an accent? What are our emotional responses? How is it different if it is French, American, Aboriginal or Spanish? Why do we think that when someone speaks English in a French or Scottish accent sounds beautiful or sexy while a person who speaks English in an Asian accent needs to attend an English speaking course?

How often do we think about our race, gender, sexual orientation, “accent”, nationality, class and language?

How well do we know our selves? Our light, brilliance, gifts, talents, compassion, intuition and healthy boundaries. Our fears, shadows, judgements, hidden belief systems, agendas and grief.

What do we think? What do we feel? To me, I think that there are many challenges in being the teacher we think we can be and I feel that there is a heavy sense of responsibility that comes with it.

Quoting Margaret J. Wheatley (commonly known as Meg Wheatley), a writer and management consultant who studies organisational behaviour with approaches including systems thinking, theories of change, chaos theory, leadership and the learning organisation (particularly its capacity to self-organise),

“The leaders we need are already here.”

If they are already here, our jobs as teachers are to make sure that we make them absolutely fantabulous leaders. Get out our compasses (GPSes?)!

*Unless otherwise hyperlinked, much detail included here were from the lecture slides provided this morning.

Cultural dimensions of effective learning

How many times have we heard the importance of knowing your own self? ‘To know others is to know one self first’, or something along that line. Indeed, the subject that I am teaching at uni brings to light the importance of knowing yourself first before knowing your students. This notion of self-concept is much discussed in the arena of identity and it is not hard to see why.

Personally, I feel that a concept of self helps to define a person. Many of us go through life without realizing that we carry with us various identities while maintaining one main identity. Does that make sense? We will always have an inner self, this core identity, which will mould our thoughts in life. However, at the same time, we juggle many other minor identities, which we switch on and off according to situation and need. As my housemate put it over dinner earlier, we are like rubber bands, which I think she meant malleable.

Knowing the identity or identities you carry determines or at least, influences the way you decide your life. Without this knowledge of self, I find that it is that slightly harder to define who you want to be as a teacher. This would in effect make your teaching less ‘you’. But in our day and age, how hard or how easy is it to maintain this uniqueness?

I would say, it is extremely hard but it is up to us to make it easy. Take us Malaysians, for example. I feel that there is a certain degree of ‘Asian’ in our thoughts despite being trained in a fairly ‘Western’ environment. Our schooling system is British, our mass media is mainly from America, Britain or Australia and most favoured education philosophies are from Europe. I mean, every teacher (from preschool up to high school teachers) would have been drilled with the theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Montessori and Bronfenbrenner to name a few. Tell me which one of those names sound Asian to you.

Whilst I agree that the knowledge of the theories by these famous Western people come in handy, I feel that we as the users of such powerful information need to know how to apply them in real life. Do we follow word for word? For example, we know that the Reggio Emilia approach is fantastic but do we merely transport all that they do to a kindergarten somewhere in Kuala Lumpur and expect to see the same things happen to our children? Have we thought of how meaningful it would be to our kids? It may mean naught, for all we know. Would our society be able to understand and accept the concept behind the Reggio approach? We need to look at the people we are serving – every society has their own needs and a unique future that they are working towards.

I do, however, acknowledge the superiority of the Western style of education, especially as an immigrant in Australia where learning is more active and more intrinsically driven. But I find that teachers in the West are less ‘holistic’ – they tend not to know the ‘outside of the classroom’ child. It could be due to several reasons, one being respecting the privacy of the families. Another could be due to maintaining a professional relationship. Back home, we know the whole of their families and it is more personal.

I am not saying that learning back home is not active and is externally driven but comparatively, there is a difference. However, there are schools and kindergartens back home that run their programs in a less teacher-directed manner and I salute them for stepping out of the box. In addition to meeting the academic expectations of families, they also provide other experiences that are enjoyable, stimulating and relevant to the children’s learning.

But being an Asian studying (and now teaching) in a foreign country, I feel that few locals appreciate us immigrants. No, they are not racist but perhaps there is that underlying notion of us not being able to contribute due to maybe a communication handicap. But, education is not just about academic skills and information. It is about life chances.

Think: why do multilingual people like us work better in groups? I feel that it is because of our ability to be rubber bands, as I mentioned above. As we are able to talk in many languages, we are able to think in many languages, which varies the way we view things. We are more able to have multiple perspectives and are more adaptive to changing situations. I sound like I am praising myself, gosh. Please feel free to correct me if you do not agree to my thoughts…

Research also points out how Asian students in a Western environment have been found to have low self-esteem. Recent studies, or a handful of studies, have shown that this is not the actual case, as self-esteem is assigned different meanings by different cultures. To us Asians, especially the Chinese, we term it humility, or qian xu. From young, we are taught to have respect for others and always maintain humble. We, or at least I was constantly reminded not to flaunt my good grades or a new dress. Some of you might feel that this is in disregard for my right to freedom of speech or freedom of self-expression but I feel that this is good discipline. To put it simply, nobody likes a show-off.

So really, it is up for interpretation – the way we define the world around us and the way we make the world work for us and vice versa. Education, and especially early childhood education is serious business. It is plenty of work and it sometimes requires you to redefine yourself before you could even start your journey. What have you packed to bring on this journey? Have you decided where to go?

Are you ready to embark on this adventure as a person who could be the most influential to another young soul out there?