Recent comments: Understanding the Influence of Race Discussion Area
| Comment | Recent activity | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Response- | 15 weeks 2 days ago | Access to the best education possible |
| By nature, I do believe we | 17 weeks 12 hours ago | Race |
| Reflections on the Influence of Race | 1 year 18 weeks ago | Understanding the Influence of Race |
| Realities of Race | 1 year 18 weeks ago | Understanding the Influence of Race |
| Thanks for the reply. I | 1 year 44 weeks ago | Teaching Diverse Students in a Predominately White Community |
Comments
Finding Common Ground
As a white female from a predominately white, middle class suburban neighborhood, I found it incredibly hard to relate to anyone else at first. In my first year of working in a preschool, I was in a low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood. I initially found it very intimidating to be there because I was scared I'd never find common ground with the families in this neighborhood. I think it is also difficult to enter that kind of setting without feeling a little out of place. I wanted to embrace the culture of all the people I met, and was nervous to come off seeming as though I did not belong.
Setbacks from being white and American
(This response might seem not to apply to education but I want to teach abroad so that is why I resonded in this way.)
In america the setbacks I have had were when working with students at a headstart center the teachers and parents expected me to either be condescending or not understand the culture of the neighborhood (West Town and Uptown) before I even set foot in the classroom. I had to have a lot of conversations and interactions with the parents of my parent child before we both felt comfortable around each other. Communication was very difficult because we both spoke different languages and I was afraid that my partner child's mother wouldn't see my contributions as valid because she was her mother and I was just a Jumpstart corps member and I think she was nervous that I wouldn't see her contributions as valid because she didn't go to college. After the awkward initial couple weeks though we had pretty good conversations through a translator and the little girl really benefited from it.
In other countries I have had huge assumptions made about me because I am white and am American. In Tanzania a little girl started crying when she saw me because she had never seen a white person and I scared her. There was also an assumption in Tanzania that everything the volunteers did was better because we spoke English. This was frustrating because the teacher refused to tell me any of her teaching practices for me to employ. She only wanted me to use what I knew from America. She also didn't want me communicating with the children at all in Kiswahili and only wanted me to speak English. This was also frustrating because I couldn't fully explain the activities to the children and had to use the simplest words possible and lots of miming.
Also, in most countries it was assumed that I was arrogant, had lots of money to spend, and wasn't as intelligent as the people from that country.