How My Positionality Encourages My Practice

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How My Positionality Encourages My Practice


Jason Kawana
UCLA
Professor Grenada Brazzeller
3/21/2014
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Jason Kawana
ED405B
3/14/2014

Positionality Paper

I am a fourth generation Japanese American male student studying to become a social
justice educator with an emphasis in Elementary Education. The experiences that I have gone
through up until the moment I am writing this essay have shaped the educator that I will become
in the future, as will any other experiences that will come my way. The people I have met, the
people I meet, the books I have read and will read and so much more will continually shape my
positionality in the world. Therefore, my positionality is constantly changing as new information
is being processed and reflected on.
The past quarter has been an eye-opening experience that has brought both an
understanding of my current self and the parts of my history that has come to shape this. One
aspect of my positionality that I have been reflecting on recently has been that I am a man
entering the part of a profession that has predominantly been dominated by women. I view this
aspect of my positionality in different ways: some approach the situation with the mindset of
surprise. Youre a kindergarten teacher? is the most common response when people find out
about my class. Others tell me that I am lucky because students respond better to a male
authority figure in the classroom. Regardless of the different positions, as a male in the
classroom I know that there are often taboo thoughts that accompany this. There are taboos
revolving around male teachers because of recent stories involving male teachers in the news.
There will be some people that will be weary of my presence in the classroom for fears that male
teachers arent as nurturing but I want to break stereotypes in my classroom and show that men
can be affectionate as well if not in different ways than women. I chose to enter elementary
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school because of the lack of male presence in this field. I strongly believe that the youths in
urban schools deserve to have male teachers that can serve as positive role models. Even though
I might be looked at as lacking affection based on my appearance I know that my students will
feel loved and cared for by me in my own unique way.
Yet another aspect of being a male teacher in early elementary grades is the no touching
students policy. In my opinion female teachers can get away with bending this rule as opposed to
their male counterparts. I need to make sure that my students feel accepted and cared for in a
different way than allowing for hugging. When students initiate I would allow them to hug but
my hands would still be in the air as an appropriate sign of the school policy. Although I think
this double standard is grossly unfair to male teachers I have to learn to accept that society looks
at male teachers very differently than female teachers and challenge this notion through different
actions and interactions with my students.
Another aspect of my identity that I often reflect on is being a fourth generation
Japanese-American. My Great-grandparents immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s.
My grandparents along with my great-grandparents entered the interment camps in Arizona and
Arkansas during World War II. Being Japanese-American during this time was seen as a
negative thing and because of this, my grandparents didnt pass on the Japanese culture and
language to their children, my parents. My grandparents were fearful of spreading the language
and culture because they didnt want their children to face the same persecution that they had
experienced in the time of war. My parents grew up with culture residing within their parents but
were not immersed in it enough to pass it down to their children. I grew up in a household that
ate spaghetti and hamburgers. I never heard my grandparents speak Japanese although I did see
papers that they wrote it on. Growing up I never really thought about how the culture I grew up
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in was American but in college I had a collection of experiences that left me longing to know my
familys history and to feel a connection to the culture that my grandparents and great-
grandparents knew so well. I often envied friends who spoke second and even third languages
who had a deep sense of connection to their roots and where they are from. Over the years I have
come to see the importance of language and culture from my personal experience in my own
family. My goal is for my students to not be ashamed of where they come from or the language
they speak at home, rather I want them to be proud and use this as a stepping-stone to help them
achieve great things in and out of education. As Freire writes, students engage their cultural
identity and understanding themselves as political beings of history, they begin to discover that
through their individual and collective intervention in their world, they can and will change the
course of history (p. 119). Students should see themselves as being cultural beings and should
engage and take pride in their culture and history in order to help shape the history and the
society they live in. The goal is not to have students attempt to rewrite history rather it is to have
them reinterpret the present and their positions in it in order to equip them with tools necessary
to facilitate change (Sleeter, 2008).
Takacs (2003) writing influenced my thoughts on another part of my identity when he
wrote that, if youre heterosexual, youre not obliged to think about the norms and how theyre
shaped because the norms work for you, and nearly every signal you receive reinforces those
norms (p. 36). If one identifies as heterosexual, then that person doesnt always understand the
privilege their sexual orientation carries for them. The words a person chooses regarding
relationships can often allow for conversation or inhibit it. If someone who identified as male
who also identifies as LGBTQ was asked if they had a girlfriend, then conversation about the
boy he was dating would be cut off. Therefore, word choice is an important aspect of the
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classroom so that everyone feels included. Words such as partner instead of boyfriend/girlfriend
or you all instead of you guys can allow for the inclusion of all people. If teachers use language
that incorporates all orientations and genders, students can then in turn use this same language so
that society can be inclusive and accepting to all people. In regards to LGBTQ issues, I want my
students to learn not only to tolerate differences but also to accept them. LGBTQ issues are part
of this acceptance of difference that is important for me to instill into my students. Through
books, discussions, and lessons, students will be exposed to students and people that may be
different from themselves. My end goal is for my students to become accepting of those that are
not the same or do not fit into the idea of normal.
A struggle that I might have when teaching and incorporating LGBTQ issues and
material into my classroom is the backlash I might receive from the parents and community. I
have had several talks with professors and my advisor and I think that the best approach is to
read your current situation. Find out if the principal will stand behind your lessons as well as
other teachers that might have already included this into their classrooms as well. Finding grade
appropriate materials will be a big part of making sure that the lessons will be fitting for my
students. I am fearful of the backlash that might result because of the content of these lessons,
but at the same time I am a social justice educator and I dont want to just teach materials that
parents and the community want them to learn. I want to expand the minds of my students
beyond what they might regularly be exposed to in order to teach them not only that 2+2=4 but
that its important to treat people with respect and the importance of accepting those who are
different or seem to be different.
The importance of recognizing our students and bringing their home culture and language
into the classroom is something that I am still working on at the moment. Developing culturally
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relevant curriculum is an aspect of education that is important so that students can feel engaged
and validated in seeing things that are important and familiar to them. In order for this to happen
I need to see my students as culturally rich by acknowledge the different cultures that are present
in the classroom. Milner (2007) quoted James Banks when he stated that, a statement such as I
dont see color reveals a privileged position that refuses to legitimize racial identifications that
are very important to people of color and that are often used to justify inaction and perpetuation
of the status quo (p.392). If we say that we dont see color than we fail to acknowledge all of
the past experiences, prior knowledge, as well as the connections that students have made prior
to entering school for the first time. Students gain a deeper understanding of education and
material when they can personally relate or when the material matches their interests. Therefore,
in the classroom I want to make sure that students are exposed to culturally relevant material that
matches their interests in order for them to gain a deeper understanding of the information.
As much as I want my students to be exposed to curriculum that is relevant to their
history and their background I want to also expose my students to other cultures as well. Takacs
(2003) wrote about how our views may be constrained by the limits of our own experiences
(p.29). My experiences in life have been shaped by the experiences that I have had the privilege
of going through. Part of this positionality paper was to examine the privilege we carry with us
and how it will affect our teaching practices. A goal of mine is also to incorporate many different
cultures into my classroom in order for students to gain a worldly experience that transcends the
walls of our classroom. I want students to be able to learn about places that theyve heard of in
order to gain an understanding of similarities and differences in the lives that they live. Through
this experience I hope that my students will be able to know that no matter whom they will
encounter in this life, no matter how different they appear or seem, there will still be a thread that
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connects their two souls. In my classroom I introduced students to an abacus, which has been
used for many years around the world for mathematics. My class ended up using a very similar
tool that I made which tied their learning experience to students around the world.
My positionality stems from the 26 years that I have lived on this Earth. It is a collection
of all the thoughts, experiences, sights, books, personalities, trials and tribulations that I have
seen or been a part of. This collection of events has helped me to understand the world a little
better in order to incorporate these things into culturally relevant curriculum for my classes. In an
ongoing effort to reflect on my practice and my students experiences, my positionality will
continue to change. Not only will I experience more cultures but also I will have conversations
and share common experiences with people that will change my thought process and challenge
me to become a better teacher. My students will be an important part of this process of defining
my positionality as well.
Barbara Rogoff (1994) writes that:
In a community of learners, both mature members of the community and less mature
members are conceived as active; no role has all the responsibility for knowing or
directing, and no role is by definition passive. Children and adults together are active in
structuring shared endeavors, with adults responsible for guiding the overall process and
children learning to participate in the management of their own learning and
involvement. (p. 213)
I think its very important as educators to know that we are not the only sources of information.
Students come from their own experiences and contain prior knowledge that needs to be
acknowledged in the classroom. As a teacher I want to establish a community of learners so that
my students learn from me but I also have an open mind to learn many new things from them as
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well. With this said, my positionality will be constantly changing and evolving but always
striving in the direction that will lead to a social justice themed curriculum in the classroom
where all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in the world.


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References
Darder, A. (2002). Teaching As An Act of Love: The Classroom and Critical Praxis. Reinventing Paulo
Freire,: A Pedagogy of Love (pp. 91-149).

Milner IV, R. H. (2007). Race, Culture, and Researcher Positionality: Working Through Dangers
Seen, Unseen, and Unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36, 388-400.

Rogoff, Barbara. (1994). Developing Understanding of the Idea of Communities of Learners. Mind,
Culture, and Activity, 1:4, 209-229.

Sleeter, Christine. (2008). Critical Family History, Identity and Historical Memory. Educational
Studies: A Journal of the American Educational studies Association, 43:2, 114-124.

Takacs, David. (2003). How Does Your Positionality Bias Your Epistemology?.The NEA Higher
Education Journal. (pp. 27-38).