Blog Post 2: Holliday and Paulenko

I found the readings for this week very interesting. I really enjoyed the first piece I read by Paulenko, The Making of an American: Negotiation of identities at the turn of the twentieth century. The paper focused on the narrative identities constructed in first-generation American immigrant autobiographies. We often forget to look at autobiographies which are really powerful sources that provide real-life perspectives from someone’s personal journey. As a learner, hearing other’s experiences helps me make connections and relate to the material.

A large part of the article looked at several memoirs published during the Great Migration by immigrants who had arrived in the United States between the years 187O and 1913. Twenty-four million immigrants uprooted and came to the U.S. during this time. Most of these immigrants came from southern or eastern Europe. However, as more individuals came to the U.S. people began to differentiate between the “old immigrants” and the “new immigrants” who were perceived as different from the population culturally, linguistically and ethnically. People began searching for a ‘national identity’ when the large number of immigrants, different than those before them came into the U.S.  With this array of newcomers with very different backgrounds, “old immigrants” sought the need of a standard, U.S. citizen which eventually led immigrants to ‘Americanization’, the process immigrants undergo to assimilate into American culture. 

The many stories that were in this article were chronicles of the first immigrants to undergo the process of Americanization. Their stories were originally needed to provide hope for other immigrants, help educate mainstream citizens and continue the process of Americanization in the U.S.  As I read this article I asked myself, why does undergoing Americanization require individuals to give up their own personal culture and heritage? Why can someone not belong to more than one culture? I am a student and a daughter. I am also a big sister, a friend and a tutor. I can’t belong to only one cultural identity. Why can’t immigrants keep their culture while assimilating to the American culture? I remember learning about the Great Migration when I was little and hearing the old saying “America is a melting pot”. This statement refers to all the very different immigrants like the men and women from this article that came to America, stepped into its pot and melted beside each other into one thing, a result of Americanization. I always thought this concept of a ‘melting pot’ was sad. When I first heard it I imagined a toy of mine melting out the in the sun after leaving it on the driveway too long. It is no longer the toy I loved, it is barely recognizable. Last year I heard a student refer to the U.S. as a “salad bowl” instead. In this salad bowl, we recognize we are a country made up of immigrants, made from people who are diverse and who came to the United States for a better life. We recognize these people are here, and we appreciate them for their differences. We do not try to melt them down until they are unrecognizable but instead we appreciate each and every one as a whole, contributing to our nation, a nation built by immigration.

I’d also like to mention a quote by Lanunzio in the article recalling his own identity after years of trying to assimilate “I have now been in America for nineteen years; I have grown up here as much as any man can; I have had my education here; I have become a citizen; I have given all I had of youthful zeal and energy in serving my adopted country; I have come to love America as I do my very life- perhaps more arid yet they still call me a 'foreigner.' Though he had gone through the process of Americanization he was still treated like an outsider. Even when a population decides to recognize a group of people, they may never be treated as equals. I hope that in my work with bilingual and multicultural students, I can help these children not only feel like a contributing part of the classroom but a contributing and accepted part of society. I want my students to know that despite what others may tell them, they are Americans.

While the first article discussed how immigrants were expected to reconstruct their identities in order to assimilate into American culture through a process of Americanization, A1.1. looked at how people construct their own identities. Parisa is a woman who struggles with others view of her as an Iranian.  It was interesting to hear how she tried to mold others image of her and her fears of being seen as different or accepted by her colleagues. It was sad to read her story because it seemed like while her colleagues respected her as a person they could not respect her as an Iranian. They seemed to assume she was an exception and not the rule. It was interesting to see how instead of challenging their own conceptions on what an Iranian woman is like, they assumed that because she did not fit their preconception of this role- she was different. A1.2 looked at what people say about their own culture. I thought the story about Janet, Zhang and Ming was actually very interesting. I have heard others discuss this topic before but I never really thought about the reasoning for these students. It discussed how some students may exaggerate their own cultural identity to counter American culture. I think it is important as educators to remember that despite how the student portrays their own cultural identity, it is still meaningful to them. Whether or not their cultural identity is seen as correct or not should not influence how we work with these students. A1.3 claims that when two people converse they send messages about their culture whether it is intentional or not.  The example given was of a group of girls on a school bus whose cultural identity was seen in the way they talked to each other while on their ‘home ground’. Reading this story made me think of the different dialects found across the United States. Dialects are not only variations in pronunciation but they may hold differences in etiquette and mannerisms. For example, If I needed something from someone it would seem normal for me to go to them and simply ask “Hey do you have the math worksheet?” etc. While that is considered normal here it may be thought of as rude to other groups of people, in other areas of the countries. My mother is from the south, what they call the “boot hill” of Missouri. I have noticed how different things are in my mother’s hometown and where I am from up north near Chicago. In that particular part of Missouri if someone needed to borrow something, no one simply asks for it. Instead the person visits the other, sits with them and talks. Students have very different cultural identities whether they relate to situations like Parisa, Zhang or the group of school girls. Despite their differences their cultural identity is valuable and I believe it is important to keep this in mind for instruction to better connect with students.

Cultural identity is key when working with students. We must remember the many factors that go into creating this perception of our cultural identity whether it is our own perceptions or others. We should also remember that we do should never give up our native culture or encourage others to do so to assimilate into American culture. Our native cultures make us who we are and should be embraced by society as contributing members. 

Blog Post 1: TESOL and Culture

Dwight Atkinson’s article discussed the significant relationship between culture and TESOL which many times is misunderstood or ignored. Reading this article was very helpful for me as a future educator. It required me to think and reflect on my own ideas and beliefs about what culture truly is and how to adopt culture into my teaching.

In the reading I began to see culture as a rapidly changing enmity and started thinking about the relationship between different cultures. As the article pointed out there is no such thing as an isolated culture. Cultures are affected by those around them and have continuously evolved. I thought this portion of the article was particularly interesting and reminded me of one of my favorite courses here at Illinois State.  I took Human Geography as a general education requirement my first semester at this university. In that course I remember looking at groups of people around the world and how they have interacted with others around them over time. We also looked at some cultures that have more recently been affected by the introduction of technology. I remember learning about one area of the world where a company had installed computers outside some of the buildings. The community was impoverished and the residents had never seen a computer before. Children surrounded these computers and used them together throughout the day. You can see how much these these few computers on the streets have affected their culture and the children using them since their instillation. One study done by Appadurai found while looking at previously localized groups of individuals that globalization had a substantial effect and made a fundamental change in their culture.  I liked how the article said cultures have never been pure or separate but are always being influenced by what is around them. Culture does not simply exist on its own or remain the same but are in a constant state of development and interaction.

On the first day in this class we wrote down our definition of culture on an index card. The definition I wrote down has already changed.  Specifically after reading this article, I have realized that “culture” does not have a clear definition. The article is filled with scholars trying to define this one term and yet there still is no one agreed upon one concrete definition.  One change I have made to my own definition comes from a realization- that culture can be individualistic. One part of the article states that cultures are not “neatly bound and mutually exclusive bodies of thought and custom” which are shared by each and every member. Cultures are not groups of brainwashed robots who think, feel and act the same way but instead consist of living, breathing, unique individuals.  

In the conclusion of this article there is a reference to the relationship between a forest and its trees. When I read this I saw the overall forest representing a culture but each tree representing a member, unique from the rest. This article helped me see that culture is actually very individualized. As a future teacher it is important to know this because you cannot assume something about an individual, or about your student based on what you believe their culture means. Each person has their very own culture and their own set of beliefs, values and norms. One comment Zamel made which was stated in the article was “teachers and researchers who see students as bound by their cultures may be trapped by their own cultural tendency to reduce, categorize and generalize”. Educators need to be careful not to make assumptions and as one of the six principles in the articles states “All humans are individuals. Teachers and researchers need to view students as individuals, not as members of a cultural group". This statement goes along with the second principle “Knowing students individually also involves knowing them culturally.”  As teachers we need to embrace all students’ individual cultures. We must look past this view of a culture as a forest filled with identical trees but instead look more closely and see the  individual trees, our students, each different from another.

First Post

Here is my very first blog post so my blog is active. Sorry it isn't more interesting.. ta da!