A Personal
Reflection – India 2012.
In July of
this year (2012) I was privileged to be sponsored to attend a Tara.Ed
Pre-service Teacher Tour – to Maharastra India. Tara.Ed is a non-denominational organisation that focuses on creating cross cultural links between Australian
and Indian schools – by providing hands on training programs for Indian
teachers and Australian pre-service teachers by skills exchange. Tara.Ed’s
focus is on the teachers rather than the students – with the philosophy that by
“building star teachers to help students shine” promotes sustainable quality
education.
This was my first exposure to teaching – ever, it was also my first exposure to
a culture so diverse from my own. For three weeks I was based at a privately
funded school – Gyanankur English School. I was teamed with the standards five
to seven science and mathematics teacher and by the end of the first week I was
teaching the standard seven morning mathematics class.
‘My Kids’ (the
standard seven class) – to my surprise were very well respected. They honoured
their teacher, were very obedient and worked diligently throughout the entire
school day (9-3pm) – despite the fact that they were seated on a cold tiled
floor and worked with their books either on their laps or on the floor in front
of them. Sadly however, their classes lacked interaction and discussion –
therefore lacked the environment to gain crucial critical thinking skills.
It was on this
trip – I learnt some very valuable lesson about cultural collaboration and
identity. The student’s worlds were so different to my own. They lived in tiny
houses, huts or even the orphanage. They walked to school on the dirt road; or
were cramped into the limited school buses. They wore their school uniforms on
the weekends – and some of them had to work outside of school hours to help
support their families. But there was one thing – that beyond all the
differences enabled me to connect with the students in an incredibly strong
way. Education – the students and I all shared a burning passion for education.
The students
had dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers,
priests – they all had dreams. They knew education was the way to success – and
hearing my own story you will quickly discover that education is something I
value highly. But how did all those children and I develop a common element in
our identities – belonging from such diverse backgrounds?
Our values –
“values are the criteria and standards we use to differentiate what is good and
bad in the world around us. They are the basis of our moralities and ethics, as
well as shaping what we think is important or unimportant.”[i]
When it comes to education – the children and I share the concept that it is a
pathway to bigger and greater things; it is a means by which to overcome
hardness through the best attainment possible – knowledge.
Identity
can be defined as “a person’s conception and expression of their individuality
or group affiliation (such as national identity and cultural identity).”[ii]
“Our identity is a product of our backgrounds, our social standings, our life
experiences, our religious views, our moral standards, our ethics and our
beliefs – it is our individually written manual for life. By it we define
ourselves as individuals and define ourselves as a part of society. By it we
tell ourselves who we can be and who we cannot be.”[iii]
Our identity here constructs our values.
So the students
and I – shared the same value for education, which reflected a component of our
identities – highly governed by our backgrounds and culture.
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