Wednesday, July 20, 2018
Today we visited Atmajaya University as a comparative lens on education in Indonesia and The United States. We were given a tour of the University, sat in on a lecture, and engaged in a dialogue with the staff of the Language Department. These are teachers of English in Indonesia, who also teach students to become teachers. We were joined by some students who just graduated from the program, as well. An amazing school with an impressive staff!
We met an educator, Dr. Yanti, Ph.D., who researches languages that are in danger of becoming extinct in Indonesia. She shared her book with us, which offers her studied text with translations in Bahasa Indonesian and English.
Next, we were given the opportunity to sit in on a seminar, facilitated by Dr. Cynthia Douglas, on cultural identity. She began the discussion by asking all the student teachers to state their names and where they are from. Most student teachers are from Jakarta, and of the 40 members only four were men. She used this brief exercise as an icebreaker, but then asked her students, “What does it mean to be Indonesian.” I have been on both sides of this exercise many times. The idea of culture is a tricky one. Unfortunately, we had a tight schedule and did not get to hear the rest, but it did get me thinking about the idea of culture, since that is what we are studying on this trip.
One thing I always think about when we discuss “culture” is how broad and loaded the term can be. A professor of mine from Salem State College, Dr. Jaime Wurtzel, Ph.D. taught us the difference between what he coined “Big C Culture" and “little c culture." The latter deals with artifacts, food, dress, and the like, while the former comprises the values or intangible aspects of culture. Sadly, many people spend too much time focusing on little c culture, when they are really trying to understand someone’s Big C Culture, ie cultural identity. Of course, we also spend too much time using location to define self.
This may be why in The United States, people spend so much time asking, “where are you from” not realizing how alienating this seemingly innocent question can be for some people. It is also an incomplete way of defining identity.
What prompts you to ask someone that question? What kind of answer are you expecting? This question connects to our shared sense of identity. Taiye Selasi explores the concept of "home" in an important TED Talk, titled "Don't ask me where I'm from, ask we where I'm local." She offers us alternative ways of seeing that open our minds to the importance of becoming more locally and globally mined (See the link on my homepage).
We also engaged in a wonderful discussion, beginning with a representative from the staff of Atmajaya University sharing the structure of Indonesian education with their program of studies. I found most of the content similar to ours. One of the key differences, however, is that Indonesian education is uniform for all 34 provinces in the country.
Their presentation, as a result, was informative and tight. When Linda Tanini shared education in The United States, she needed to pause often for fellows representing other states to chime in with the differences. We appeared to be a mess, as each state, of course, has its own set of standards. Linda gave an amazing presentation, as it isn't easy to capture the essence of American education with so many differences across the 50 states, yet she truly focused on what matters to all teachers in America.
The staff also shared their vision as a department teaching young people to be teachers. The head of the department stated that she felt the most difficult thing to determine is this: "Does this student have the heart to be a teacher." Having been a cooperating teacher for student teachers in the past, I knew exactly what she meant. You can have the credentials, but teaching is a calling. Spiritual in nature. I found her words to be inspiring.
What ensued was a wonderful discussion about what we have in place, what we wish to accomplish, and what we can learn from one another. We have, in place, certain U.S. freedoms that the Atmajaya staff wished to have, yet we in the U.S. still seem to have the same issues, or new ones pop up. For example, the universal system does not work well for each province in Indonesia. The most successful students come from the capital of Jarkata. In the U.S., each state has the freedom to create its own curricular identity, yet does that really ensure equality? At the end of the day, no matter what is on the page, we seem to have the same struggles and successes. With each one of these visits I am learning more and more.
What I truly love, is that the people of Indonesia have been welcoming and open. By the end of the session, my heart was open and I felt so connected to everyone in the room.
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