Educational
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Which is the true purpose of education?
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This journey made me realise that educating is not made for everyone. Being a teacher requires more than just delivering content, it demands an awareness of the deep impact that they make in students’ identities. They do have a huge responsibility and a shaping role. Teaching students to memorise and spit content blindly to get a 10 misses the true purpose of education, it reduces learning to a mechanical process. Educating is about nurturing students’ abilities rather than focusing on their shortcomings; it is about presenting and learning from the diversity that organically configures our world and encourage students to contribute to an environment where everyone can feel safe and free to be who they want to be.To achieve it, I find fostering multiliteracies through multimodal activities (combining cultural, linguistic, digital, and textual forms of learning) a key aspect to implement in schools and high schools. I don’t want my students to feel that their identity is less important than others, I don’t want them to leave their culture behind; I want them to find in education an integrating and enriching experience where they can use their voice and include new ones to their repertoire. As a future teacher and, especially, as an educator, I aim to create spaces where individuality is celebrated, every student feels part of their education process and learning becomes a growing experience rather than an unmotivating routine task.
Luckily, my parents realised that this place was not good at all for my brother and me (it was not because of the ideological approach given to the education but as a result of the bad grades of my brother) and put our education in the hands of a public school. Here, the situation was not very different. There was an obvious hierarchy between students, where those who got higher grades were always prized and the ones with lower numbers were punished. As to the importance given to diversity, although the school was colourful, the bullying scenarios were part of my daily routine and teachers did not make out of their classes a third space; inclusion was not included in their learning situations.
This deficit perspective started to change in the high school, where each teacher had their unique approach. Most of them still contributed to seeing life through monochromatic lenses, even art subjects adopted a theorical and task-based approach instead of promoting self-expression. Nevertheless, there were exceptions who used the world of diversity within the classroom (different cultural and linguistic backgrounds) and the real-world issues beyond its walls, such as inequality, gender-based violence, racism, and homophobia, to create a safe place full of opportunities. In these classes, students’ funds of identity were acknowledged; turning our cultural experiences into learning resources became part of our lessons. These teachers enhanced our differences instead of punishing them, and raised awareness through activities based on controversial, meaningful and relatable aspects of students’ life. In other words, they transformed the grey classes into colourful third spaces that acted as a bridge between students’ cultural identities (and the social problems rooted to them) and the curriculum. One such teacher approaching this asset pedagogies perspective was my English teacher in the last years of secondary school. She presented to me English as a gateway to an immense world of diversity, where every identity is unique and special and can be used as a source of knowledge and awareness.
One activity I really enjoyed and learned from consisted in filming us at home making a typical recipe attached to our roots (funds of identity) and bringing the dish to class, so everyone could taste it while watching the different videos. After this lesson, the teacher asked us to create a "cultural recipe book" in which we mixed all the recipes with reflections on why they were significant for the culture or family and, for example, if there were any stories behind the recipes that justified their preparation for a specific date or purpose. This multimodal kind of activity contributed to both creating a safe space where different funds of identity were used to enrich each one’s individual culture and linguistic competence, and, also to giving to every student the opportunity of expressing themselves in the way that they found more comfortable and, therefore, more enriching for themselves and the rest. I also remember the teacher photocopying the resulting book so students could bring it to home and keep contributing to the spread of social diversity out of the class.
I really do not recall how English was taught in the first school that I attended, but, generally, when a person cannot bring to their mind a memory is because of its neutralism. Really bad and, in contrast, really good experiences, are always kept in our memory chest. So, in this sense, I’m assuming that going to class was not motivating at all in these first stages of my education and life. However, I do remember how teachers did not get involved in bullying scenarios and raised awareness in class about gender equality, multiculturalism, sexual orientation and, in general, about tolerance and respect towards identity diversity. I do remember dancing in the school yard with the girls and being called mariquita by the boys and laughs being the only reaction. I do remember all the girls wearing short skirts and all the boys in pants as this was stablished as the uniform of the school. The only images and sounds that I can bring to my mind are the clear reflection of a school that aimed to hide and punish diversity. Maybe this monochromatic culture that was being created in that school was a result of the hidden curriculum. Maybe if I add the adjectives “private” and “Catholic” to the description of this place, my believes are reaffirmed. I’m aware that this is a prejudice, and I try not to generalise, but experience hit me hard. At least, thanks to the lack of responsibility tinging this school, I know how I want my English classes to be approached in the future.
MY EDUCATIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mario Hernández
Created on November 23, 2024
Hi! Here you have a deep reflexion about my experience in primery and secondary school and how it has shaped my understanding of education. I hope you enjoy this interactive and dynamic way of presenting my thoughts :)
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Transcript
Educational
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Which is the true purpose of education?
Search
Images
Search
Third space
Deficit perspective
Hidden curriculum
Showing results of... Which is the true purpose of education?
Home page
This journey made me realise that educating is not made for everyone. Being a teacher requires more than just delivering content, it demands an awareness of the deep impact that they make in students’ identities. They do have a huge responsibility and a shaping role. Teaching students to memorise and spit content blindly to get a 10 misses the true purpose of education, it reduces learning to a mechanical process. Educating is about nurturing students’ abilities rather than focusing on their shortcomings; it is about presenting and learning from the diversity that organically configures our world and encourage students to contribute to an environment where everyone can feel safe and free to be who they want to be.To achieve it, I find fostering multiliteracies through multimodal activities (combining cultural, linguistic, digital, and textual forms of learning) a key aspect to implement in schools and high schools. I don’t want my students to feel that their identity is less important than others, I don’t want them to leave their culture behind; I want them to find in education an integrating and enriching experience where they can use their voice and include new ones to their repertoire. As a future teacher and, especially, as an educator, I aim to create spaces where individuality is celebrated, every student feels part of their education process and learning becomes a growing experience rather than an unmotivating routine task.
Luckily, my parents realised that this place was not good at all for my brother and me (it was not because of the ideological approach given to the education but as a result of the bad grades of my brother) and put our education in the hands of a public school. Here, the situation was not very different. There was an obvious hierarchy between students, where those who got higher grades were always prized and the ones with lower numbers were punished. As to the importance given to diversity, although the school was colourful, the bullying scenarios were part of my daily routine and teachers did not make out of their classes a third space; inclusion was not included in their learning situations.
This deficit perspective started to change in the high school, where each teacher had their unique approach. Most of them still contributed to seeing life through monochromatic lenses, even art subjects adopted a theorical and task-based approach instead of promoting self-expression. Nevertheless, there were exceptions who used the world of diversity within the classroom (different cultural and linguistic backgrounds) and the real-world issues beyond its walls, such as inequality, gender-based violence, racism, and homophobia, to create a safe place full of opportunities. In these classes, students’ funds of identity were acknowledged; turning our cultural experiences into learning resources became part of our lessons. These teachers enhanced our differences instead of punishing them, and raised awareness through activities based on controversial, meaningful and relatable aspects of students’ life. In other words, they transformed the grey classes into colourful third spaces that acted as a bridge between students’ cultural identities (and the social problems rooted to them) and the curriculum. One such teacher approaching this asset pedagogies perspective was my English teacher in the last years of secondary school. She presented to me English as a gateway to an immense world of diversity, where every identity is unique and special and can be used as a source of knowledge and awareness.
One activity I really enjoyed and learned from consisted in filming us at home making a typical recipe attached to our roots (funds of identity) and bringing the dish to class, so everyone could taste it while watching the different videos. After this lesson, the teacher asked us to create a "cultural recipe book" in which we mixed all the recipes with reflections on why they were significant for the culture or family and, for example, if there were any stories behind the recipes that justified their preparation for a specific date or purpose. This multimodal kind of activity contributed to both creating a safe space where different funds of identity were used to enrich each one’s individual culture and linguistic competence, and, also to giving to every student the opportunity of expressing themselves in the way that they found more comfortable and, therefore, more enriching for themselves and the rest. I also remember the teacher photocopying the resulting book so students could bring it to home and keep contributing to the spread of social diversity out of the class.
I really do not recall how English was taught in the first school that I attended, but, generally, when a person cannot bring to their mind a memory is because of its neutralism. Really bad and, in contrast, really good experiences, are always kept in our memory chest. So, in this sense, I’m assuming that going to class was not motivating at all in these first stages of my education and life. However, I do remember how teachers did not get involved in bullying scenarios and raised awareness in class about gender equality, multiculturalism, sexual orientation and, in general, about tolerance and respect towards identity diversity. I do remember dancing in the school yard with the girls and being called mariquita by the boys and laughs being the only reaction. I do remember all the girls wearing short skirts and all the boys in pants as this was stablished as the uniform of the school. The only images and sounds that I can bring to my mind are the clear reflection of a school that aimed to hide and punish diversity. Maybe this monochromatic culture that was being created in that school was a result of the hidden curriculum. Maybe if I add the adjectives “private” and “Catholic” to the description of this place, my believes are reaffirmed. I’m aware that this is a prejudice, and I try not to generalise, but experience hit me hard. At least, thanks to the lack of responsibility tinging this school, I know how I want my English classes to be approached in the future.