Self: The Influence of Culture on Education
As an education major I have put a lot of thought into student motivation, behavior, and achievement. I have come to the conclusion that much of a student's performance in school can be attributed to a child's family, community and culture. In Psychology and Culture, Vaughn affirms my thoughts as she states, "educational systems are strong socializing agents and there is an intimate link between culture and education across many areas: language, school systems, parental and familial values, teaching styles and student-teacher relationships, different ways of learning, attitudes and appraisals of students" (166). The picture above is from my high school graduation (sorry for the quality of the picture...I had a terrible camera at the time!). All of the girls in the picture are from the same community, all of us had parents who were either highly education or wished that they had had the opportunity for further education. Above all, all five of us were socialized to value education. Graduation and a college education were expected in our families. What I did not realize at the time was that my achievement was influenced by my family and friends, but culturally I was taught what an education should look like--what I should be learning in school and how I am taught. Next year I will be teaching in a community in which I know my educational experiences will be vastly different then the people of the community. I am interested to see how my views and ideas will blend with the cultural practices of where I am going.
Other: Keeping Culture Alive
I find the traditions, celebrations, and customs of different cultures fascinating. Last week my mentee and I talked a little bit about how she celebrated Easter. As her family seems to be very westernized, I was not surprised to hear that she celebrated with her family, an easter basket, and an egg hunt. It seems that her family has taken to a very American way of celebrating the holidays. So what does this have to do with the picture below?
One of my favorite holidays is Halloween. Halloween is a celebration that is celebrated in many cultures around the world, but in many different ways and with many different customs. The only reason I thought to ask my mentee about how she celebrated the holiday was because of an experience that I had with one of my internship students. This student moved here from Germany about 2 years ago. He has assimilated into American culture very well--which I believe has a lot to do with the fact that his mother is a Cincinnati native (his dad is a German citizen). Both he and his parents are bi-lingual and this student is very excited to share his German culture with the students in our classroom. Many of the readings dealt with how immigrant children often have conflicting views with different cultural practices and how parents often try to keep their home culture alive for their children. The student I have told you about experienced this as well. His mother, an American immigrant in Germany, used to try to keep many of her cultural practices alive in her family. One example of this was during holidays. Her favorite holiday was Halloween and even though people in the part of Germany in which they lived did not celebrate Halloween, my student was dressed up every year and his family trick or treated throughout each room in their home!
I am curious to know about what holidays my mentee celebrates...This will be a fun conversation next week when I see her again!
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