My skin & my brain: How does my race/ethnicity affect my learning?
EDI 600 Psychological Foundation of Education
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
September 22, 2008
Long Island University, C. W. Post
September 22, 2008
I consider myself to be a part of the Greek-American culture, born in New York, but having been raised in an American environment while observing cultural traditions and values. My ethnicity has had a substantial impact on my development—being Greek is a big part of who I am. I identify with this culture, even though I live in a different country from where my parents were born and raised. There is an extent to which I identify with my fellow Greeks who live in that country. Living in the United States for the majority of my life, American values and traditions have impacted me to an equal extent as my Greek heritage, except the Greek part becomes a bit more personal, when discussing impact, because it intertwines with my family life.
I feel that my race and ethnicity do not affect my learning. Race/ethnicity and my learning are separate, as I see it. Rather, what affects my learning is how I perceive my experiences, together with my confidence, general outlook and interests. If I am particularly interested in something, I will likely succeed at learning it.
Also, if learning something has some type of value for me, there is a much greater chance I will apply myself to the task. In learning CPR, for example, I knew that the benefit would be that I would be able to potentially save someone’s life, and that, being in a school setting particularly, I would want to be equipped with that knowledge and skill.
In graduate school, my perspective is that if we are told to learn something (a course/subject/exercise, etc.), then we assume that there is a good reason for it – it all would benefit us in the long-run, in our education to become good teachers.
On the other hand, when I studied calculus in undergraduate college, I lacked the motivation to learn it with great enthusiasm because, in my mind, I could not see how calculus would help me perform work tasks in my future career. (Eventually, it was used in my work tasks, although to a limited degree – but it was not perceivable, at the time I was studying it how calculus would ever be useful or applied to everyday life.)
Also, if learning something has some type of value for me, there is a much greater chance I will apply myself to the task. In learning CPR, for example, I knew that the benefit would be that I would be able to potentially save someone’s life, and that, being in a school setting particularly, I would want to be equipped with that knowledge and skill.
In graduate school, my perspective is that if we are told to learn something (a course/subject/exercise, etc.), then we assume that there is a good reason for it – it all would benefit us in the long-run, in our education to become good teachers.
On the other hand, when I studied calculus in undergraduate college, I lacked the motivation to learn it with great enthusiasm because, in my mind, I could not see how calculus would help me perform work tasks in my future career. (Eventually, it was used in my work tasks, although to a limited degree – but it was not perceivable, at the time I was studying it how calculus would ever be useful or applied to everyday life.)
1 comments:
Dear Evdoxia,
I came across this post and I felt I absolutely had to leave a comment, because by a remarkable coincidence I have just published a book on this very subject. It's called
Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece, and it talks about how growing up first-generation American and then moving to Greece affected me in a big way. It's a story mostly of ethnocentricity and xenophobia, told in a loving way, but it's also a strong story of female empowerment. Despite the serious sounding subject matter, it's humorous, too. I think you would like it, and it might even help in your research. Check it out on amazon when you have a moment. I would be very anxious to hear what you think, as I wrote it in great part for people like you and me.
With warm regards,
Patricia Volonakis Davis
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