My Culture, My Pedagogy

When I begin to think about my culture I start by breaking down my heritage and family values. I come from a large, Catholic, Irish-American, English speaking family with six people in my immediate family including myself, my mom and dad, two sisters, and brother. My mom is the oldest of six, my dad is one of eight, and we are very close to all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins. Family is a huge part of my culture because they are my foundation, my rock, and for my entire life both immediate and extended family gatherings and parties have been a top priority. My family and childhood is the largest part of my culture, which will affect my methods and beliefs of teaching.

For the past twenty years I have grown up in a suburban town that consists of mostly white, middle-upper class, Catholic people. I had everything as a child; many toys, TVs, video games, computers, plenty of art-making supplies, a nice yard with a swing set and a pool, a dog and a cat, and two-week summer vacations. Life was good. I grew up watching and owning many Disney movies, where there is always a happy ending. My plentiful supply of luxuries and optimistic outlook on life was not much different than the majority of the children my age growing up in Flemington, NJ.

In pre-school through kindergarten I loved to wear all my beautiful dresses, but when I reached the first grade I was “one of the boys.” I wore jeans and over-sized t-shirts and was very active. I loved to play sports, and was one of the few girls who would play kickball at recess instead of chatting with the girls on the playground. I grew out of that phase when I reached middle school as I became more interested in boys, but I continued to be actively involved in sports playing on the school’s competitive sports teams through high school.

Fortunately, the public school system in Flemington was strong, had many great teachers, a lot of school funding, and a positive learning environment. Because of my strong public school system I have received a great education, have always been successful in school, and have gone onto college to get a higher education. However, my “perfect” childhood and predominately white-peer education background left me accustomed to little diversity. Socially, this resulted in having mostly white friends, and rarely coming into contact with peers from a different culture and religion. My suburban, sheltered life has given me a blind eye to surrounding Americans and their ways of life. For example, I never thought about how the ESL students must feel growing up in Flemington full of rich, white kids. I did not consider the challenges students coming from poverty must face every day, and I could not imagine struggling schools with under funded programs, bad teachers, and students who come from poor families. My life has always been fairly easy when I compare it to some lives others have.

My parents always said that I could be anything that I wanted to be. I have always held high expectations for myself, especially in school, because I come from a highly educated family. I was taught to never be racist towards people of different cultures, but, to be honest, I have held stereotypes towards the uneducated. I believed that education holds power and a higher-class statue, and, in the past, I have viewed others who are not educated as unequal. While I still believe people with an education have a leg up on others who do not, I believe that the uneducated can still do well if given a chance. My partner of six years, Carl, did not attend college similar to his parents. Despite not having an education, he and his parents lead happy lives and hold steady jobs. Carl is in a local trade program to become an electrician, which is the best road for him to travel because he is following his passions and talents of working with his hands and with people. With the help of a positive role model, I believe that regardless of class, race, religion, and gender one can find a positive direction in life and succeed.

I am fortunate to have had positive role models to guide me through my life thus far. I am unsure where religion fits into my life as far as its influences on me. As a child, my family attended mass most Sunday’s, my siblings and I went to CCD after school, and we have all been baptized, received our first communion, and have been confirmed. I would not consider myself to be a religious person, and in fact the only time I attend church is during some holidays with my family. However, I do appreciate faith and the people who regularly attend mass. My grandmother, Nanny, went to church every day after my grandfather passed away and while she was fighting cancer. When I spent weekends with Nanny I looked forward to going to mass with her because I felt that I was a part of her life that gave her hope and made her strong enough to fight the evil disease. Nanny was a hero in my life who encouraged my artistic talents and inspired me to be a kind person like she was. Currently, religion is not a large part of my life, but I appreciate and accept people who make it part of theirs. I am open-minded to many different kinds of beliefs and faiths, and I do not judge people with religions different than the one I was raised in.

I plan to connect with my students by sharing my culture and personal experiences with them, and asking them to use their culture and interests to create meaningful art. For example, I would share with my students that a big part of my culture and my artwork is music. Since I can remember, all family parties had music playing in the background, and on many occasions we had sing-alongs, karaoke, and instrument playing. Into my college years I became more fascinated with music; I attended many music concerts and road tripped to festivals with cousins, family members, and Carl, and I brought the positive feeling of music into my art. The body of work that I produced over my senior year of undergraduate school was the theme of “painting the music.” I believe that my students will find something positive that they can connect to in their lives and bring it into their art.

From my learning experience, I understand that the process is as important if not more important than the final product in all subjects, but especially in art. For example, as a student, play and experimentation combined with teacher guidance helped me learn the different consistencies of clay, how to manipulate it, and what to do so that my piece would survive the kiln. I was fortunate to attend elementary and secondary schools that had the equipment to make clay art and fire them in a kiln. Teachers from other cultures may use different strategies to motivate students in the art room. For example, an African American teacher who grew up in the same urban community as she/he is teaching will use his/her personal experiences of growing up in the city to relate to the students. This teacher will make immediate connections with the students because she/he understands what it is like to be in the students’ shoes. Perhaps the African American teacher would use examples of artwork and history from the city that both the urban students and teacher are familiar with. It is important to keep in mind that one’s own culture will affect their teaching and students differently, but teachers with different backgrounds can achieve the same common goal.

My existing beliefs of open-mindedness and individuality will carry into my art classroom. Because I grew up with people from similar cultures, I am interested in learning about the different cultures in an urban classroom and gearing my lessons toward my students’ variety of backgrounds and beliefs. Art is a language where my students will be free to express and explore their culture, identity, beliefs, and emotions.