A reflection of your own experiences of culture and identity in relation to education

‘I’ve been everywhere man’ private and public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM0osV0LE1k  (reference towards advantages of laptops)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddGcDwft8Ds

This blog is a reflection of my experiences of culture and identity in relation to education. I found that students were advantageous of the laptop initiative and attending a private school. To my knowledge students out ‘west’ didn’t receive laptops.  Cultural differences and the issue of ‘white privilege’ arise. Having a laptop meant that school notes and assignments were much easier to do. Wireless Internet at school may have been a distraction however much was blocked; only allowing certain websites to be available. Technology certainly influenced my identity. It was a curse sometime but overall boosted my ability to become part of a smarter identity, not a dumbing down of my culture.

Going to both a public and private school during education was an experience in itself. Many different cultures and identities. I went to a public school for primary education and private for secondary. The difference I found was multiculturalism was greater in primary, there were indigenous students in primary and one teacher knew everything. My private school experience was one of a white nature.  My culture and identity seemed to be symbolised in a certain way. This may be a representation of multicultural discourse and interaction.

“The title Nike, the three stripes of Adidas or even the crest of a private school present us with particular symbolic ‘currency’, which we exchange for social stability and personal identity. They give us status and recognition ‘we’re cool’” (p.g. 9 pudsy) I do wear Nike and Addidas, and I’m not sure if ill change that. Wadham portrays this theory as essentialism “ the idea that someone has an unchangeable quality about them, an essence which will always define their behaviour and thinking” (Wadham 2007:13). This may be attributed to my ‘white privilege’.

“Persons identify and empathize more easily with those with whom they have more in common that with those with whom they have less. They rally around their fellow religionists; they seek the familiar comforts of native speakers of their native languages; they support those they see as kin against those they see as strangers. They seek places that feel like home, and seek to protect those places; they are raised in particular cultures, with particular sets of knowledge, norms and traditions, which come to seem normal and enduring” (Phillips 2006:3) My identity wouldn’t be the same without sport. I live, breath and eat soccer. Perhaps sport makes me ‘cool’, not sure about that, all I know is that during my experience playing sport and being good at it automatically meant that you would have friends. Both public and private schools that I went to had this sport however; academic results were seen to be greater than sporting achievements.  

REFERENCES:

-       Phillips, A. (2006). What is culture? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (eds.) Sexual justice / cultural justice. London, UK : Routledge, 2006, pp. 15-29.

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

BY MANUEL ANGELOPOULOS