A Reflection of my Own Experiences of Culture and Identity in Relation to Education

Growing up, many things influence your personal identity allowing it to ultimately develop and evolve. Some of these influences include family, peers, religion, media, gender but more relevantly, the society and culture that we are surrounded by.

I grew up living in the Bankstown district where the population is predominantly of Middle-Eastern background, like myself, so a large percentage of the people living there share very similar cultures, traditions and behaviours. Even the local convenient stores, restaurants/cafes and schools around Bankstown suburbs were and are still centered around the Lebanese/Middle Eastern culture.

I attended a primary school that was walking distance from home, so even up until this stage of my life, I had never really socialized outside of these suburbs, and in turn, as I grew older and approached the end of my primary school years, I had strongly adapted to the Middle Eastern culture and their everyday customs, beliefs, traditions and views. 

However, I was educated in a very diverse and multicultural all girls Catholic secondary school, St Ursula’s College, Kingsgrove. So not surprisingly, when I attended high school I experienced a little bit of a culture shock where the students were far more diverse by race, culture, ethnicity and language.

There were times were I felt some of my teachers failed to understand and appreciate my culture and background, as well as the cultural differences between the students in the classroom. This may have been through for example, the selection of books that were chosen to teach certain concepts. I felt like this may have resulted in a poor learning environment for me because not all cultures were addressed, including my own. Then as high school progressed, I remember starting to wonder if maybe it was me who didn’t understand the cultural differences between my peers and myself. Did I belong there? Nevertheless, I became an extremely introverted and reserved schoolgirl and continuously kept my opinions and thoughts to myself whenever I would experience a cultural difference between myself and a peer and even sometimes a teacher during class time. From this moment I began to feel like I had to negotiate between two worlds: home and school.

For example, growing up, my family and I attended weekly Sunday mass and my parents have continuously taught me to do the sign of the cross before I eat a meal. I recall performing the sign of the cross before I ate at every recess and lunch during high school, and peers would constantly question why I do it every time I would eat. I would explain that it was something that I had solely grown up doing and so it had become apart of my everyday routine. But the endless comments and lack of understanding continued and in turn drove me to question myself. Why I am the only person that does it? I believe this demonstrates that sometimes, the way to behave at home or school may conflict so the student or even teacher, must choose which norm or custom to follow. This illustrates the notion of biculturalism.

References

Boyd, R. Pudsey, J. Wadham, B. (2007). Culture and Education. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia. Chapter 1: What is culture?

Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics and everyday multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies.