W07 Feb, 19, 2022: Culture and Psychology

 W07 Feb 19, 2022: Response to Culture and Psychology.

  I remember one morning, in our mid-adolescence, me and two classmates and friends, walking and talked very enthusiastically about the final year grades. Suddenly one of the students made a comment that silenced me and the other. He said that this year he intended to study, but early he noticed that even though he didn't do anything, he would be among the best. What did this 14-year-old boy mean? We knew, we 2 were part of those who studied and struggled to achieved goals, and collect fruits at the end of the year. Unfortunately, the culture prevailing at that time was to benefit children from well-known families, with status, and so on.

 I didn't know what could have been the worst. The behavior of the teacher, and I don't know the teachers in the past or the future, or the acceptance of that student. I could never see him with the same eyes, since that time. Personally, I did my best, knowing that my job depended only on my own efforts. And I succeeded!

 But, irrationally, this behavior had been continued haunting people. even has evolved in the last 35 years. Teachers do the assignments for the students. Assignments mysteriously disappear from the personal cases, nobody cares.  Feeling discouraged, most of the students give up.

 I can assure my future TESOL students the principle of equality, integrity, and justice because I live these values and try to apply them as much as possible in my daily life. I had passed through many circumstances to succeed, so I believe I can bring encouragement to my students when they need it. I want them to feel confident and prepared to collect what the future has reserved for them.

W07 Feb, 17, 2022, Response to: Differences in Manners

W07  Feb, 17, 2022, Response to: Differences in Manners

  One of the phrases that impacted me, told by brother Ivers in the context when an object is requested in countries in Asia if the student feels socially inferior from you can adopt a certain position, extending the hands and inclining the body. Perhaps this action cannot intimidate anybody in a place with a tradition of genuflections. But the idea of a student feeling inferior, and showing it by an accepted cultural expression bothered me. Now I understand from where it comes. Nevertheless, each student needs to experiment with feelings of equality in the classroom.

Around the world, we can find many ways to show respect to one another.   Reducing the volume of the voice can be considered polite. Paying attention to the interlocutor, raising the hand to ask a question, asking permission to borrow something from a colleague, etc. In a multicultural classroom, these attitudes can arise from a cultural moment with families and teachers, where everyone can have a voice to express, ask, comment, and be guided.

Another phrase of impact to me is to do what everyone is doing around. In the last case. I would do it only in the last case. I considered it a tremendous risk because anything can be misunderstood. In my case, living in Brazil, the phrase needs to be respectfully corrected. DON'T EVER do what everyone is doing. look at the few students sitting at the front of the class, 2 or 3, at times 1. Sorry. The ashaming reality in public schools. They shout, they are rude, they don't want to be there, and the teacher hardly can teach. Last year I observed an English class with less than 10 students working, from a total of30. in the two periods of class two activities were performed, and the second they decided to do in Portuguese (But was an English class!!!) I helped in finishing a fight (literally) between a girl and a boy (12 years) This narration is not an isolated episode, these kids are good, was a good class, considered by the teacher. This is happening in the whole country. I would like to know where the bad education, the loss of values, perhaps, became so vastly expanded and tolerated that also became a culture here. My kids always came with stories from school. today Jordan told me Rafael came for a short talk to him, Rafael has autism. After he left, someone hit Rafael in the chest and a professor run to help, and that was all. I felt sick. What kind of manners, a culture of respect, love of your neighbor, is this? Then, his colleague , at classroom, ask for help, he wanted Jordan to spell the word from the board, so he could write. Jordan didn't understand. The boy confessed. "I don't know to read". Jordan stayed the rest of the period spelling for him. 13 years, teachers have been passing through grades this child. Why wasn't offered to this child the especial attention he deserved since the beggining?Inclusion, where? 

 Today, my son Jordan is turning 14 years. Y would like to see every student, as he sees them

W07 Feb, 15, 2022 Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom

 W07 Feb, 15, 2022 Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom

  Rigoberta Menchú Tum, indigenous from Guatemala and 1992 Nobel Price winner, once stated that culture is like a garden, where each one of us contributes with a flower. Following the analogy, we can compare the garden also to our classroom where the flowers are our students. A good gardener will learn and understand how to keep each flower growing together, to blossom in the proper season, 

  It was an empowering experience to learn about  Cross-cultural students in the classroom. With the global movement, we are living it will not be a surprise to have students from different cultures in my place. So culture can model from self-esteem, passing through the way the student will look and talk to the teacher, to the way the student will recognize the success or failure in his, her life, and others.

The experience I a going to narrate now is from teacher Mirtha Hamlet Tejeira Pintos, MDE, former Principal with 44 years of experience in the rural area of Uruguay, where she received many immigrants from Brazil. The Uruguayan students were in the rate of mid tolerance expressivity, Brazilians studetns are high tolerants. Manners, since urugayans at that time found fine take some bones with the hand, Brazilians used utensils.Uruguayans were very formal calling the teacher by the appropriate Maestra, while brazilians were informal caling aunty, aunty Maestra and finally , to show respect: Ma'am aunty Maestra. What united them all was the union of love, and the love of someone to teach them.

 Since I am living in São Paulo, stage for several cultures.Africans are very united, Haitians also. I used to say hello and some compliments in french  to some people from these places till we became acquaintances. Always smiling. They come from countries where the culture is comunitivism, meaning, they search the good for all .Japanese are more quiet, they walk as they are not seen you. Unless they are members of the church,, This is another scenario. Politness, education, serenity and service.

From America the concept of having a bubble of private space. Sounds weird for a Latin American, but always must be respected. and thinking carefully, is appropriate. This is a concept that must be taken, debated, princially here in Brazil. I don't know if everybody will accept, but I conclude everybody must know and respect. Europeans, Scandinavians also adhere this concept These areas are more like individualism, their focus is to individual, instead of group.

"Education, as the light of the Sun, can and might, get to all" -Jos'e Pedro Varela

My question is, How would you investigate about your student culture , without being so invasive?

Regards, Claudia

 W06 Feb, 12, 2022 Attributional Tendencies

"Attributions are inferences that people make about the causes of events and behavior"

The analysis of this item is such important that I've started by myself, reflecting on the kind of student I am and how I Have been conducting my life, and further actions I've taken upon these thoughts.

As a teacher, I can't think of something more relevant than the understanding of the delicate processes the students attribute their successes or losses to. It will demand from me a careful analysis and further studies to better comprehend and apply it in the classroom.

Here I hyperlink from Spark notes some material about it.

W06 Feb, 12, 2022 Personal Space Differences

 W06 Feb 12, 2022, Personal Space Differences

 I can vividly remember the school that housed me from 1st  to 6th grade. It's was called "Spain", majestically raised with arches, columns, and a front tower. There were 3 yards, 2 grades sharing each. It was determined that nobody from a different grade can cross without authorization the area that was indicated for him, her, during recreation time. I believe it kept the organization of the local and makes things easier for the teacher to control us. We used to respect the boundaries, it was our space together, outside, but it was funny to see those rebellious from other grades invading. they were immediately noticed since they were bigger. Those were the times nobody was sitting at recreation time. We were running a lot, playing a lot of funny games, especially La Mancha, (the stain) where you need to touch to extend an imaginary stain to the other player. Nobody ever told us of personal space. Do not touch someone because it's the personal space of the person. I would like to know in the places it works like this when it starts to be taught.

In the classroom we had that sits, for two occupants, but in the Lyceum ( 12 years to 17) will be one occupant per unit. That's a different thing. As a student, the place I sat was always my extension, my thing, with all my objects there, and no one can touch or serve them without my permission. And this was the law. Of course, there is always someone indifferent to the law, everywhere. these were my days.

 If I work in São Paulo, Brazil, I will be teaching children who come to school taking several buses or crowded subways before sun raising, facing possible harm in this way to school. This will less motivate them, as I have already seen in the observation class. Classrooms are crowded many times, so it's very difficult to keep the sense of personal space, even if they want to have one.

  In the classroom

 

W06: Individualism vs. Collectivism

Feb, 10.2022

  More than what is acceptable or not in a society, \Individualism or Collectivism are positions the person performs and stands for in the society, she, he, belongs. They are formed maybe from ancestral cultures which oriented to the group preservation nor the self one. Even more, influences can be attached. The point is when the person starts behaving like the individual of the group he, she fits. Both groups will watch each other with suspicious eyes since their attitudes many times are contradictory, or more.

  In the class with the same name, Brother Ivers commented that in some places of Latin America changing the political party can be considered a betrayal, which in the USA, is naturally taken as an individual choice. Let me say I have seen in my youth the courage of my mother to vote in a different party of her own parents, and their deception and bad feelings, especially because it was a Left-handed candidate. And some years later, this same candidate changed from the party. Many denied supporting him considering it a betrayal. But I saw my mother realized it was a necessary movement in politics and voted in him again, his name was Hugo Batalla. They won the elections and he was the Vice \president of Uruguay from 1995 to 1998. It wasn't easy!

 Another topic talked was about the American children, who are known as having the benefits of expression, and making their own choices than many others.

  Anthropologist Empada Uhedra, from the Philippines, said: "For instance, For instance, in the Philippines, as well as in many other Asian countries, children are rarely allowed, if at all, to their own thing without the consent of their parents"

 The Midiatic resources have had been shown to us a progressist youth with uncommon benefits like "privacy", "car", "computers, "campus" etc. With the advance of technology throughout the globe many of these items have changed, even "campus" since, at this moment, we are students online. In my opinion, independence is teachable. There must be a balance in what you allow your little person to do by himself, herself, when, and how, and what is under your command.

Even individualism must be taught with security

In my opinion, are two ways to seek the same, without 

a balance.

W06 Blog: Differences in Emotional Expressivity

FEB, 08, 2022

 I always felt emotive by the capacity of humans to express more than simple emotions. They are a way to communicate among us, in my opinion. So, it was always a little bit difficult for me to understand why some societies in the globe culturally will converge in reducing their expressions in the public. I understand each culture adopts postures that consider appropriate to preserve themselves. 

 In his brilliant work, Differences in Emotional Expressiveness, Teacher John Ivers explains to us how not only from different areas from the globe. but from diverse areas in a simple country, we can find this phenomenon.

 I will use 2 examples. 

First, Paraguay and Uruguay, being Hispanic, are considered high tolerance. Uruguay is a little less. Imagine Uruguayans living in Paraguay, They are the image of sobriety. Unless, when they met another Uruguayan. In the middle of the street, the square, whatever, they run to each other, jump to each other, and the words they shout to each other cannot be written. It's an spectacle all the passersby stop in amazement to see, misunderstanding is a fight. 

My second example approaches my husband's country, Nigeria, known for the friendship of the people, communication, and happiness.  But something I have noticed not only in my husband's sympathetic attributes, but his family at all, and friends, men are introspective, have fewer words at times, and women seem so shy. But this is only my vision, this is the way they conduct themselves in public.

So, in conclusion, I consider it another milestone that has come to the teacher to get involved with the students. A dedicated analysis of the biography of the learner and understanding his, her, positions and expressions

 

w05 Feb 05, 2022. Response to culture differences concerning Time

 So we have monochronic and polychronic people, and people-filled countries. Even though this nomenclature has been hidden from me till now, the concept and characteristics that differentiate each other are vastly known to me.  

 I am convinced in my country, Uruguay, we can find both participants. I am a member of the first one. I was arose by good grandparents and a mother who cared about duty, due times, schedules, and my happiness, one of my best gifts received for birthdays was always a new digital watch. The watch never allowed me to get late, in fact, I used to get 5 minutes early, always to my appointments. I practice this till today. Recently I needed to learn to slow down and be patient because I am ill and there's nothing else I can do about it. It has been a great lesson I am living now.

The contact with polychronic people came when I served a mission in Paraguay. They are exactly the sensitive, loved, worried people brother Ivers described. They prefer to lie, but they will never hurt you with a no right in your face. Relationships are very important,  the most important for this kind of people.

It is a good topic to see in my future classrooms and imagine what will happen. how the students will act, If there is any challenges with the due date and persist I know I will ask for advice first because i will don't want to be unfair. . first of all, dialogue and understanding. Thank you.

W05 Response to Culture Paradigms Feb 05 , 2022

 Merrian Webster Dictionary clarify to us the meaning of Paradigm, saying itt's a model or pattern of something that may be copied. Also expresses

Paradigm traces to a Greek verb meaning "to show," and has been used in English to mean "example" or "pattern" since the 15th century. Some debate exists, however, about what kind of example qualifies as a paradigm. Some people say it's a typical example, while others insist it must be an outstanding or perfect example. The scientific community has added to the confusion by using it to mean "a theoretical framework," a sense popularized by American scientist Thomas S. Kuhn in the second edition of his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1970. In that work, Kuhn admitted that he had used paradigm in 22 different ways. Some usage commentators now advise avoiding the term entirely on the grounds that it is overused.

 I am enriched by the definitions and explanations from Merrian-Webster Dictionary, but we have Brother John Ivers also to help us brilliantly to reach the concept of paradigm

  Paradigms are learned concepts of things that help us in the movement of understanding life. Can be simple, such as the recognition of what is a rock, an aunt, water, ice, and so on. Or complex like recodification what is loyalty, nature responsibility, human rights, pride. These kinds of items compose societies. We can find a conflict in the case individuals of different cultures, different paradigms, testify the same event. What is happening in their brain,? their references arise at this moment. As Brother Ivers quoted Mexican intellectual Carlos Fuentes, the great answer is in "how our paradigms cause to  interpret the world around us"

 I decided to do an interview to Mrs Mirtha Hamlet Tejeira , former rural Principal. In the early seventies, Teacher Mirtha Hamlet worked in a position of principal at Colonia Viñar School, Artigas State, What's called my attention in the information is about the paradigms existent in the community, as they called themselves Russians. Even though the members of the community were the third generation to be born in the country, they acted and lived as Russian, preserving all as possible from the native culture. It means practically that they have chosen to speak Russian instead of Spanish, even, knowing it. so it was a great milestone to convince the children to start speaking Spanish at school. They didn't sing the National Anthem or participate at solemnities, considering insulting to their nation. another issue was the difference between boys' and girls' chores. In school everybody was equal, but the boys didn't want to collaborate in chores they consider "women work" like to carry their lunch dishes to the kitchen. Finally, was about the teacher, she was a woman. Women don't suppose to wear any kind of trousers, social, jeans or whatever. Or smoke, Or sing(even to teach the children) So the teacher was considered very insultingly. 

  I know what she did to overcome those paradigms more than 40 years ago. 

Supposing it was today, what suggestions you may have to her?

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