Introduction
In life, it is important to examine one’s own experience to get a clear idea of how to move forward and improve. My education journey has been one of discovering myself and overcoming challenges. Currently, I am a 21-year-old Chinese international student from a middle-to-high-income family. My educational story has evolved in the context of a multicultural environment. I studied in an international middle school where I gained much of my K-12 experience. In this reflective essay, I aim to show how I figured out my identity as an individual and a learner through two significant school-based experiences.
Part 1: K-12 Experience In Relation to Theoretical Frameworks
I grew up as the only child in a Chinese family with a good income. We mostly spoke Mandarin at home. I went to an international school before college. It gave me a glance at global ideas and made me see things differently. My school mixed local and international stuff, which made learning enjoyable. Throughout my K-12 education, we were taught in English, the international school’s official language for teaching all the subjects. While it was difficult for me to get used to this new change at first, I gradually learned how to speak in English, and with time, understanding concepts from all subjects and units got easier. I am sure my positive change happened because everyone around me spoke in English with me and amongst themselves. However, the change process was difficult because before joining the international school, I was used to doing school activities, including basic mathematics in the Chinese language. Today, I am happy that I learned to understand and do all my assignments, classwork, and exams in a language that my teachers and classmates can comfortably understand, grade me, and help me with practical ways to learn and improve. Simply put, my international school background has made me come in contact with more cultures throughout my academic journey. I have had the chance to learn about different cultures and languages besides Chinese culture and languages.
Reflecting on this experience, I realized that my K-12 experience was made possible by the Funds of Knowledge model at the international school. The Funds of Knowledge is a teaching model whereby the teachers examine the student to see how the student’s background is an asset. The teacher reviews the student’s cultural, academic, and other qualities and knowledge. The teacher then finds a way to help the student use their background as a useful resource for moving forward and improving. Also, the teacher asks for help from the student’s community and family, helping the student get the best education benefits (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005). My teachers helped me familiarize myself with the international school’s curriculum and teaching language. A teacher who understood Mandarin interviewed me on language and various subjects. He learned that I knew important concepts in all subjects, but my only challenge was that speaking or doing school work in English was my challenge.
After I was admitted, the teacher taught me how to use Google Translate to translate English and Chinese concepts. The teachers also signed me to a special program to help students like me learn English. These made me feel good that I was not alone, thereby motivating me to do my best. I was happy that interacting with the rest of the students allowed me to learn quickly. The translation tool allowed me to read and learn in English, and soon, I got better, though not perfect. My transition happened because of the help I got from my teachers, schoolmates, and parents, as supported by the Funds of Knowledge model.
On the other hand, the experience I got caused me a lot of negative outcomes. The international school environment was the biggest reason why I felt so stressed, especially because all the courses were in English. This proved to be tricky because both my teachers and my family had high expectations of me at the early stages. Knowing that my language background did not match the common language for speaking and learning (English), I felt pressured, and I doubted myself a lot. In those early stages before learning to study and do schoolwork in English, the stress took away the fun of learning. Also, it made me worry about how the stress affected me overall. I had to think a lot about how to balance school demands and have a good mental health condition. I explained my situation to a friend who then advised me to see the school counselor. The counselor’s advice helped me cope and do my best at school without feeling mentally tired. With time, my previous situation compared to how the counseling sessions helped me and other students. It made me feel curious about the psychological side of school life and got me interested in learning more about educational psychology.
The stressful experience I went through and how I was helped and inspired also relate to the Funds of Knowledge framework. As encouraged by the framework, my counselor calmly talked to me to understand my source of stress and my poor coping ability. The counselor reminded me that if I managed to learn Mandarin and study Chinese earlier, then I could easily learn English too. She reminded me to see my different language background as a resource that I could enrich by learning English. She encouraged me to change my viewpoint. Because of her validation and motivation, I therefore saw that studying in English was a chance for me to learn a new valuable skill. This made me feel motivated to learn English because my mind now saw the experience as something that could benefit me and not as a punishment. Also, because the counselor talked to my parents, convincing them to give me social and emotional support, the collaboration made me feel valued by both the school and my parents. These are the reasons why I have never given up on learning English. I no longer feel pressured. Instead, I put in effort to become better day by day because I feel it is for my own academic success. Just like I have been receiving help from my counselor, I would like to help others.
Part 2: College experience
After k-12, I joined college a place where I experienced culturally-sensitive education. This is because cultural diversity is not only recognized at UC Davis but also promoted through practical in-class and extra-curricular activities. After orientation, our lecturers encouraged us to embrace diversity in everything we do at school. I remember the first time my class was put in small groups of four members each to brainstorm and discuss marketing ideas. Although I worried that people would mock me or ignore me for the way I speak, the group session was beneficial. Beside me, the other three groupmates were white, a person of color, and an Indian, and two of them had good oral skills. At first, I stayed quiet but the more my colleagues confidently shared their thoughts, the more I felt at ease. I realized that some were not perfect in their speech and opinions but were confident enough to share. The lecturer encouraged us to tolerate every opinion from everyone and said that everybody’s contribution was important. This gave me the courage to speak up. I am glad we discussed every suggestion made by everybody without making anyone feel small or inadequate. Since that day, I have been in many group activities and until now, I always contribute in class and group work even though I know am still not perfect in how I speak English or in expressing my thoughts.
Generally, I feel that my experience with group work in college connects to the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Framework. The culturally Responsive Pedagogy model requires educators to be aware of the importance of cultural diversity. This way, the lecturer or teacher makes the school environment conducive for students with different ethnic, racial, disability, social and economic, religious, and other cultural backgrounds. When students notice that the teacher knows that they are diverse, they feel valued and perform better (Sleeter, 2012). Since the group was made to be culturally diverse by the lecturers, it proves that the teacher knew all of her students’ cultural backgrounds and how valuable we could be to each other. This made me feel valued and motivated to learn.
Culturally responsive teaching also requires teachers to adapt teaching strategies to achieve diverse learning needs. Because of this, teachers are supposed to make learning procedures comfortable and beneficial to students who have different language abilities and cultural viewpoints. This way, students would be able to connect education programs to lived experiences and therefore gain more educational benefits (Sleeter, 2012). When I think back, I notice that the lecturer knew that we were different and had different qualities and needs that could best be addressed using more than one method like lecturing. I think this is why she decided to put students in groups of four members. Specifically, putting me alongside classmates who can speak good English and with a few weaknesses that I was better at, allowed me to teach them as they also helped me improve my speaking skills and English vocabulary. As Sleeter (2012) explains, culturally responsive learning is more effective in teaching because teachers know that by allowing students to engage, the more they learn from each other and the curriculum. As we engaged in the group my strengths in arithmetic and analytics benefitted others as I learned to be confident and vocal like my peers.
Part 3: THE FUTURE
Throughout the EDU 110 coursework, I have learned that to thrive I must have a vision and goals to guide me as I learn to become better. My vision is to become a successful entrepreneur who uses my technical skills and innovativeness to create positive effects on the society and people around me. To make this vision come true, I would need to achieve my short-term goal, which is to improve my communication skills. in the next year, I plan to do communication role-playing activities and rehearse my English in front of the mirror to improve my speaking skills. I plan to join online communication workshops where I can practice and get feedback from peers and mentors on communication skills. in the long-term (3 years), my goal is to become a better people manager. To achieve this, I plan to become a manager who communicates clearly and culturally sensitive manner. I will practice giving regular feedback and recognizing the achievements of my teams.
My negative experience was troubling but I plan to heal from it and use the experience to better myself moving forward. The stress I suffered which made me feel like I was going crazy happened because I lacked self-care practices. I plan to use my knowledge of meditation as a practice for healing from stressful situations. As a Chinese, meditation skills are used to calm the mind and mindfully cope with challenges. Before getting help, I realized that I was misled by the pressure from parents and teachers who never cared for me. However, the support I got reminds me that asking for help from my support network would help me find unique ways to solve my stress. In the same way that I was able to get better from my mental struggle with learning a new language, I plan to use adaptive methods to overcome stress. This will involve reframing stressful situations as just opportunities to develop into a better version of myself. Also, I will create boundaries by respectfully saying no to anything that I find bad for my mental health.
As I continue on my growth journey, I will use the project-based learning approach. EDU 110 taught me that the best way to learn something is for the learner to practically be part of the action as the leader only facilitates. Project-based learning requires the learner to know the main objective, take the actual steps needed to learn, cooperate with others, and use necessary technologies to achieve the desired goal (Guo et al., 2020). I will use the project-based model to form goals and use the necessary tools and methods to personally practice and improve my skills in written and oral communication. My project and people management skills are other areas I plan to use the project-based learning model to practically grow.
References
Gonzales, N., Moll, L.C., & Amanti, K. (2005). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing practices in households and classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc.
Guo, P., Saab, N., Post, L. S., & Admiraal, W. (2020). A review of project-based learning in higher education: Student outcomes and measures. International journal of educational research, 102, 101586.
Sleeter, C. E. (2012). Confronting the marginalization of culturally responsive pedagogy. Urban Education, 47(3), 562-584.
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