My Center of Gravity

As I read about culturally relevant pedagogy, my mind tried to apply these ideas and concepts to my classroom. That's when I realized that I was skipping many steps to truly understanding this important need for my students. I stopped and decided I needed to look at the bigger pictures. I needed to fully understand this instructional approach as it is used outside my classroom before I can bring it inside my classroom. The piece that really caught my eye, or my center of gravity, was the three criteria that 'culturally relevant pedagogy rests'.

1) Students must experience academic success.
2) Students must maintain cultural competence (integrity)
3) Students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order.

This made my mind float to the other two articles we had to read this week.

Dear White Teacher challenged me to think about how my students see me. Though I am a person of color, I have a very unique situation. Often times, my students don't know what to see me as. Many have asked, "Miss Hum, what are you?" And that is a valid question.
I identify most with my Asian background. However, Asians often times find themselves sitting on the fence, not by choice, but because society places us there. When convenient, our numbers help with the minority count and we have oppression stories of America in our histories too. However, statistically, we often times don't match up with the inequalities our fellow POC have to battle. A perfect example of this was used in Winn and Johnson. When referring to the Achievement Gap, students were clumped in two groups, Whites and Asians vs. African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics. With this grouping, they PROVE that Asians aren't considered white, otherwise they wouldn't have named them separately. However, they are grouped with the whites due to academic achievement. BUT Native Americans and Asians have long claimed to be genetically related, further supporting that Asians are POC. I have had an identity crisis many times due to this confusing nature my own race has attached to it.
Once I name to my students my full ethnicity, they tend to focus on the Latina in me as many of them can relate. This is great that they can relate to me, but I can't relate to that half of my culture as much as they can and do every day as I wasn't raised by my Latino family.
Am I therefore not being culturally competent? Have I lost my cultural integrity? By allowing my own beliefs in the dominant discourse leading to success, am I damaging my students' cultural integrity?
I never 'fear' being labeled as racist, though it has happened to me. I feel as though I am a member of the POC community. But how do parents see me? How do my kids see me? Do they fear me (in a respectful way)? Do I treat them as their parents do? How can I encourage my students to be culturally competent when I am not fully competent myself? So many questions stemmed from this reading.

Student Athletes Kneel to Level the Playing Field was a much easier read for me because it didn't raise as many questions as it made me feel pride in our community despite the current divided America. I feel that this article truly embraced the last component of the criteria mentioned for culturally relevant pedagogy. These students, teachers and reporters honored the POC community by taking a knee. The teachers allowed the students to speak their truth and evaluate what is wrong in our country today. More so, they took action. Many people say that kneeling is disrespectful to the flag and the many men and women who fight for our country every day. However, I come from a military family and my mother, father, sister and brother all fought for the right to PROTEST and freedom of SPEECH, and I don't think any of them would regret their choice. They don't feel disrespected but cheer on these youth who are going to be our future. I secretly like the fact that they think of my students when they see youth out their challenging the way the adults are dealing with the situation. They naturally feel that my students would and are doing the same advocating for the rights of their peers and themselves.

These two articles related back to two of the three criteria. And now that I've read them, all I want to do is read more. I want to ensure my students feel academically successful, culturally competent and socially critical. I want my students to question, wonder and feel pride in themselves. I want them to be the change we need in the world. It is not solely my job to teach. It is my job to empower, and this is one tool I can use to do so. This is my center of gravity.