Where is home?

-

I met a veteran IB teacher at a get-together once in the IB school that I used to teach in. He had been a travelling teacher for 30 years with his wife. Originally from the USA, he and his wife had decided finally to settle in Bangladesh, and he called it ‘home’. “There is emerging literature on modes of belonging that focuses on migrants’ constructions of their own identities in relation to different places, groups and countries”, (Bauböck, 2006, pp.6).

Home, today, is where you feel a ‘connection’.  “What you realize is that connection is why we're here. It's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives”, (Brown, 2010, 3.01). un-conditioning yourself from the system you were born into, one can choose consciously the home by staying attentive to what feels as home.

It can’t be easy though to be able to feel the connection to a place far away from one’s ethnography. It requires a set of skills, attitudes and values that can be consolidated in the term ‘global mind-set’. “The biggest challenge is to change our mind-set regarding migration, to change how we represent migrants. Our most common assumptions regarding migration are too often based on stereotypes, myths and fantasies regarding the “radical difference” of the migrants”, (Crépeau, 2018, para. 3).

If we approach others with the intention of understanding them and finding commonalities than feel fearful of the differences, then we are onto the track of developing a global mind-set. Perhaps we can stop seeing ourselves and others as migrants but approach as a prospective friend.

I don’t think that any of my own education ever touched upon the global mind-set. My education was in India in the space of maths and we followed the national curriculum. The set-up was traditional, the focus on exams and marks with no other purpose expected. However, where subconsciously the global mind-set seeped in was in the cosmopolitan set up of the city I studied in, New Delhi, the capital of India. Being the capital, it has no main cultural anchor as we have individuals from all possible states and some countries who reside here and mingle with each other.

My parents were first generation migrants from the village where they belonged to and worked hard to find a footing in the city life. For two decades we lived in harmony with our neighbours as individuals from three different cultures in our country. So, the culture of hard work, open mindedness, acceptance and tolerance was set in us right from childhood.

My father was in a government job that required a transfer every 3 years and hence we moved from Nepal to some cities in India. This movement brought about a natural affinity with other cultures. Since the schools I studied in were central government schools, my classroom was filled with similar students with migrant parents. Hence, I learn to see myself not as part of a particular culture with its set rituals, but a citizen of the world.

Perhaps that is why when I consciously moved to work and study with an international group of individuals, I found it easy to adapt, accommodate and adjust, the 3 AAA’s of teaching life!

 

References

1.      Bauböck, R. (2006). Citizenship and migration – concepts and controversies. In Bauböck R. (Ed.), Migration and Citizenship: Legal Status, Rights and Political Participation (pp. 15-32). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mvkf.6

2.      Brown, B. (2010). The power of vulnerability. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability#t-5885

3.      Crépeau, F. (2018, August 27). Diversity Statement: Changing our Mindset and Understanding the Complexity of Migration. Retrieved from https://francoiscrepeau.com/diversity-statement-changing-our-mindset-and-understanding-the-complexity-of-migration-2/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judge a man by the questions he asks!

-
Image
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. (Voltaire) All our lives, we have been told that our smartness is measured by the answers that we have. And here comes Voltaire who says the opposite! My initial reaction is, ‘What does this mean?’ However, since it is Voltaire that says it, I think it must have some meaning and I dig deeper! As a listener, I may learn more by the questions I ask instead of by the quiet judgments I make. As a reader I may gain more by my questioning the text instead of believing what I read blindly. As a human being, I may contribute more to society by questioning the traditions than blindly following them. “The questions do mean a lot in life, not just for the sake of saying it, but for the sake that they define where your life is headed and how you are going to shape your life”, (Inspire99, 2019, para. 5) . As I read this blog piece, I felt pieces dropping in my mind and a change in the way I approached questions. Questions as a way to
Read more

Discipline models in classroom

-
Image
There are several models of discipline by different theorists. However, they can be broadly categorized  as (a) low approach, with low degree of teacher control and high degree of student control; (b) medium approach, with medium degree of approach for both; and (c) high, with high degree of teacher control and low degree of student control. Fay and Funk/ Low-control/Guiding model Jim Fay and David Funk focus to “create a classroom environment in which students can develop their own self-discipline and independent problem-solving skills” ( Models of Discipline Low Approach,n.d. ). The objective is for teachers to learn “ techniques to avoid arguments and power struggles”, ( Delosio, 2008 ). These are based on 9 essential skills for teachers which are, “(a) Neutralizing student arguing, (b) Delaying consequence, (c) Empathy, (d) The recovery process, (e) Developing positive teacher-student relationships, (f) Setting limits with enforceable statements, (g) Using choices to prevent po
Read more

Building school communities

-
Image
How do we build school communities that develop the knowledge and competencies that are essential for living and learning in a globally connected world? “With increasing diversity and difference in today’s education, schools now more than ever constitute a microcosm of our larger society”. (Evans, Montemurro, Gambhir) . Hence responsibility of a school community towards development of global mind-set. A globally connected world requires a mind that is progressively moving towards a global mind-set. Global Mind-set Ranker (2018) “It is the ability to step outside one’s base culture and to understand there is no universally correct way to do things”. In others words, everyone is right. Keeping this at the heart, how do we them function as a community in a school, where everyone opines differently? It would require effort to cultivate some values and systems for the same. When I say values, I am taking it as a sum total of attitudes, skills and approaches to be developed. I a
Read more