All posts by Junqi Huang (Kay)

Teacher’s attitude toward students in an intercultural classroom

Creating Classroom Community

Teacher’s attitude toward to students in an intercultural classroom

“Treat students consistently, but also as individuals. Don’t play favorites, alienating some kids to be friendly with others.”

  • Cushman (2003) Classroom Behavior

This passage reminds me that in an intercultural classroom, influence of ethnic, gender and physical appearance are considered as important aspects to measure students’ academic work. As educators we should enforce the mentality of unbiasedness. It might be a myth that treating every student consistently because every teacher creates his or her own action zone in the class. It is fact that teachers always like to interact those students who seem to be brighter and more active in class and those students’ names are easier to be called on; or maybe those has the same cultural background as teachers’. Nevertheless, teachers are trying their best to engage all the students in the class because you can also hear that “I want to see different hands. Or I want to hear different voices.” I mean giving opportunities to every student is a good start to be immune to stereotype in the intercultural classroom.

There is No Free Lunch

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

There is No Free Lunch

“The side effect that most neuroscientists fear is not physical discomfort but subtle mental change. Over time, a memory-enhancing drug might cause people to remember too much detail, cluttering the brain. Similarly, a drug that sharpens attention might cause users to focus too intently on a particular task, failing to shift their attention in response to new developments. In short, someone who notices or remembers everything may end up understanding nothing.”

– Drugs That Enhance Students Achievement: Good Kids Making Bad Decisions

                  The author summarizes this passage in 5 words, “There is no free lunch”. One coin has two sides. Even though the so-call “smart drugs” are able to enhance students’ memory and attention, it causes the side effects as well. For instance, the “smart drugs” will lower oneself adaptive ability. Through this passage, students take “smart drugs” in order to increase their learning ability. This phenomenon reveals a fact that students are stressed because they are doubt at self-ability. They would rather to believe that the “smart drug” will grant them strength which help them to overcome the obstacles. In my opinion, the “smart drug” fails us to  adapt in new environment. But these days, economy is developing, if we are not capable of adapting the change quickly, how we are going to survive in this competitive marketplace. There is no free lunch. As educators, we are responsible to let students understand that the “smart drug” may help them to fix the immediate problem; however, it might leave a unpredictable consequent in the future.

“Everyone is doing it”

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality

“Everyone is doing it”

“In this conversation we heard young men who were worried about HIV/AIDS but who still preferred to have sex ‘raw’.”

-Sexuality Education and Desire: Still Miss after All These Years (Fine, 2006)

             When I read this statement, the first sentence shows in my head is “this is teenagers’ characteristic. This is what they ‘like’ to do.” What do teenagers like to do? They like to take risk. According to the statement, even boys know it is possible to have transmitted diseases, they still like to take the chances for ‘raw’ sex in order to search more pleasure. I think this is irresponsible behavior to self and to the girls. The rate of HIV or teen mom is increasing in these days due to the raw sex. When you ask the reason for the raw sex, it is a tragedy to hear teenagers say, “every body is doing it (raw sex)”. This message put the pressure on those teenagers who feel uncomfortable to do it. It makes them feel it is supposed to have raw sex. It sounds to have more fun. I mean raw sex is a choice. I mean when teenagers do it, they should understand what responsibility behind their decisions.

To be a “Boy” Or “Girl”?

Gender Socialization & Identities, Urban Adolescents

        To be a “Boy” Or “Girl”?

          “This student has demonstrated a consistent, pointed interest in trans issues and has raised unprovoked questions about transsexuals on at least three occasions. He (or she?) is sometimes teased by other students for “acting gay,” wearing sweater-vests, and borrowing pink highlighters from the girls in class to decorate his notebook. Without assuming anything about this student’s identity, it is clear that gender and sexuality are important for the student to think about and work through right now.” (Krywanczyk, 2009)

The last sentence of this passage attracts my attention. It is true. “Gender identity” is a sensitive topic to young students. People differentiate the “sexuality” based on the physical characteristics. Then, when the young children are capable of declaring themselves as boys or girls, this is the confirmation of their “gender identity”. In most of cases, children learn their gender behaviors from some sort of “gender stereotypes” like, “boys should do this” or “girls should do this”. However, when they in high school, they have their small social circle. In that case, I think the friends who they choose to imitate in their lives could be the source of the confusion or the change of their own gender identity. In these days, we do not have as much expectations, like “boys should do this” or “girls should do this”, as before. I mean sometimes, girls can be “masculine”. As educators, we help our students to develop their special potential rather than emphasizing excessively on whether their behaviors are coincided with their gender identity.

The Cruel Reality

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

MVP 8

Junqi Huang (Kay)

“The identity style chosen by a young person has implications for adaptation to the new society, including schooling experiences. In some case, the identity that is forged is highly focused on the culture of origin, with coethnics as the primary point of reference. In some of these cases, an identity that is adversarial to the dominant culture may emerge. Among children of immigrants who gravitate toward adversarial styles embracing aspects of the culture of the dominant group is equated with giving up one’s own ethnic identity. Those who develop adversarial identities tend to encounter problems in school and drop out, and they consequently face unemployment in the formal economy.”

  • Doucet, F., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2006). Ethnic identity and schooling: The experiences of Haitian immigrant youth. In L. Romanucci-Ross, G. DeVos & T. G. Tsuda (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Creation, conflict, and accommodation (4th ed., pp. 163-188). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

The Cruel Reality

                  This passage reminds me of my life in America. I have been New York around five years, and what the passage says is true. People choose their identity style while adapting the new living environment. America is a huge immigrants country. It holds various cultural background people. For those people who are new to America, if they want to “survive”, they have to adapt and fit into the society. According to the passage, “those who develop adversarial identities tend to encounter problems in school and drop out, and they consequently face unemployment in the formal economy”. I remembered that my professor from intercultural class told us that there is a cruel reality in the America educational career. Many “ABC immigrants” are difficult to get jobs for teaching English in America even though they reach the proficiency level of English. I mean most of “ABC immigrants” already thought they are American. It shows they embrace the American culture and “give up” their own ethnic group; however, in some cases, the society might not be ready to accept them yet. We cannot say the low rate of English employment is related to racism because in some other cases, they are treated equally by society. Maybe, the society has its own concern.