The Unraveling the Model Minority book got me thinking about dynamics in the Asian cultures that I had not thought of before. I had honestly never thought that there were such deep and varied separations within the Asian student bodies.
While The idea that Asians would prefer to stick with their own ethnicity, such as was shown to be the case with the Korean students in the book, I never really considered that multiple other groups of "Asian" existed within the broad label. It was interesting to see that there were multiple distinct groups depending on if they identified as Asian, Asian-American, or "new wave."
In terms of teaching, the biggest concern that this book brought up to me is that if Asian students have a stereotype following them that says "you are good at school," I worry that approaching a struggling student may feel as though I think that they can perform better "because I see them as Asian" rather than believe that they as an individual can perform better. Worse, how can I get them to seek out the extra help when some are carrying the perception that needing the help in the first place is something to be ashamed of?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Week 2 - Children of Immigration
Overall, I enjoyed reading the Children of Immigration book this week. The book does an excellent job at bringing up the challenges that immigrant children deal with as they progress through school and life. It gives various perspectives of the children themselves to connect the various statistics to the real world.
The main thing that I found interesting was the statistic that immigrant children and children of immigrants are over represented in both the highest and lowest levels of achievement. It makes me think about the kinds of pressures that those students are put through on a daily basis. Pressures to assimilate compete directly with pressures to maintain the old culture. Combining this with the sometimes dangerous areas that immigrants end up living in, it is amazing that they are able to focus on school work at all.
The book also brought to light the fact that I, as a future teacher, need to be very aware of stereotyping that I may otherwise not notice. Even things that I would not be consciously aware of, can be perceived by the individuals to be negative. Even "good" stereotypes can lead to an overall negative reaction. Not much of the information in the book struck me as counter-intuitive, however I don't think I would otherwise think about the topic as deeply as this book allowed me to, which is extremely important to do from time to time.
The main thing that I found interesting was the statistic that immigrant children and children of immigrants are over represented in both the highest and lowest levels of achievement. It makes me think about the kinds of pressures that those students are put through on a daily basis. Pressures to assimilate compete directly with pressures to maintain the old culture. Combining this with the sometimes dangerous areas that immigrants end up living in, it is amazing that they are able to focus on school work at all.
The book also brought to light the fact that I, as a future teacher, need to be very aware of stereotyping that I may otherwise not notice. Even things that I would not be consciously aware of, can be perceived by the individuals to be negative. Even "good" stereotypes can lead to an overall negative reaction. Not much of the information in the book struck me as counter-intuitive, however I don't think I would otherwise think about the topic as deeply as this book allowed me to, which is extremely important to do from time to time.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Week 1.
The topic of race and racism is a difficult one to tackle. There is so much history and deeply ingrained processes that define racism that we could spend the rest of our lives investigating it. The Racial Formation article got me thinking about some of the ways that I think about racism, and how others might look at it.
I did not fully agree with the white privilege article, however. I understand that the author was trying to bring attention to it in terms of things that we as a majority would not think of, but some of the things that she mentioned aren't really a privilege that I would have for being white compared to just being something that is a fact because a non-white person would be a minority (numerically speaking). For example, number 2 on her list: "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area
which I can afford and in which I would want to live." This really has nothing to do directly to being of any color, and is all about how successful the individual is. Granted, indirectly you could argue that a non-white is at a disadvantage in terms of job acquisition and fair pay, but there are just as many white people who can't afford to buy or rent in an area they would want to live.
I feel as though the "invisible backpack of white privilege" is really a backwards way of approaching the topic. McIntosh argues that these all need to be brought to light in order to "give up" the privileges to others, instead of looking at what other people of color may be missing in order to try to close the rift. Some of the other things that McIntosh mentions in the article don't seem to really help anything even if rectified. For example, she lists many things that involve the lack of strong cultural ties in areas where another race may be a minority, " 1 can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair." I suppose that these could be considered a "privilege," that whites would have, but it isn't a useful point to make an argument on. There's literally nothing that can be done to infuse these things into another part of the world without having a significant population there. This isn't a privilege that I can give up, or spread to others if I lack a full understanding of their culture. In addition, it doesn't solve anything important, such as ending hostilities or distrust for other cultures, which should really have been the focus of the article.
The topic of race and racism is a difficult one to tackle. There is so much history and deeply ingrained processes that define racism that we could spend the rest of our lives investigating it. The Racial Formation article got me thinking about some of the ways that I think about racism, and how others might look at it.
I did not fully agree with the white privilege article, however. I understand that the author was trying to bring attention to it in terms of things that we as a majority would not think of, but some of the things that she mentioned aren't really a privilege that I would have for being white compared to just being something that is a fact because a non-white person would be a minority (numerically speaking). For example, number 2 on her list: "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area
which I can afford and in which I would want to live." This really has nothing to do directly to being of any color, and is all about how successful the individual is. Granted, indirectly you could argue that a non-white is at a disadvantage in terms of job acquisition and fair pay, but there are just as many white people who can't afford to buy or rent in an area they would want to live.
I feel as though the "invisible backpack of white privilege" is really a backwards way of approaching the topic. McIntosh argues that these all need to be brought to light in order to "give up" the privileges to others, instead of looking at what other people of color may be missing in order to try to close the rift. Some of the other things that McIntosh mentions in the article don't seem to really help anything even if rectified. For example, she lists many things that involve the lack of strong cultural ties in areas where another race may be a minority, " 1 can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair." I suppose that these could be considered a "privilege," that whites would have, but it isn't a useful point to make an argument on. There's literally nothing that can be done to infuse these things into another part of the world without having a significant population there. This isn't a privilege that I can give up, or spread to others if I lack a full understanding of their culture. In addition, it doesn't solve anything important, such as ending hostilities or distrust for other cultures, which should really have been the focus of the article.
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