Jill, I smiled when I read your story about the quiet women in the back
row and their active English speaking on the shop floor. My boss Chris,
in a previous job, had the same response when she noticed a Maori woman in
her class who seemed to spend a lot of time staring out the window and not
saying much. She approached the woman quietly later, asking if she
(Chris) was making sense, as she was not getting much feedback from her
student. "Oh yes," said the student. "It's not that I don't understand
you. It's just that I find your ideas so interesting and challenging that
I have to look outside at the trees and the sky to ground myself while I
consider what you're saying." It was a good example of how we educators
can quite misconstrue the body language of those from other cultures,
seeing as lack of understanding or disinterest, what may actually have had
quite a different meaning to the student themselves. It is to Chris'
credit that she shared this learning with us in her team, so we didn't
fall down the same hole ourselves.
I really like the way in action research that people are prepared to share
their failings as well as their strengths, recognising that the greater
good is gained if we know what NOT to do as well as what to do. Susie
Goff, a keynote speaker at the ALARPM World Congress in Ballarat a few
years back, shared an example of getting it wrong, when she was teaching
an Aboriginal group in Australia. It really upset a few people and
occasioned strong discussion. On the one hand were those who felt that by
describing the pain she had inadvertently caused the group, Susie had put
them off ever working with Aboriginal people. On the other, those who
felt glad that she HAD shared, so that they in turn did not make the same
mistake. I'm strongly in the latter group, having fallen down holes I
probably didn't need to fall down if someone had warned me the hole was
there in advance!
Warm regards
Pip
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