Written by: Bronwyn Caswell-Riday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over\nthe summer, I had the opportunity to intern with LearningWorks, a non-profit in\nPortland, Maine, dedicated to providing free community-based education programs\nfor children and adults. I was working with their English Language+Literacy\nprogram, which focuses on teaching English language skills to immigrants and\nrefugees in the community through one-on-one tutoring and conversation classes.\nI acted as an assistant teacher for summer conversation classes at the beginner\nand intermediate levels, helping to create a curriculum, write lesson plans,\nand actively teach students in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\ninternship allowed me an opportunity to both demonstrate and practice the\nskills I have acquired through my linguistics and anthropology majors. This\nknowledge was especially helpful when considering how a diverse group of students\nlearn another language, as well as how students may think about language, what\nthey expect from a language-learning classroom, and what factors outside of\nlanguage may influence or impede their ability to learn. Anthropology has\nlargely taught me to think outside of the box, seek creative solutions, and\nlook for answers in places you wouldn\u2019t think to find them. While teaching to a\ndiverse and variable group of students, it was crucial for me to keep a mind so\nopen the breeze could blow through, and be flexible and clever enough to\nformulate last-minute lessons that would be both relevant and beneficial to the\nstudents who happened to be there that day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anthropology\nhas also provided a framework for thought that has helped me to remain\nself-reflexive and critically engaged with how I interact with students and how\nI behave in the classroom more broadly. These qualities are crucial for a\nteacher, especially one who teaches to a diverse body of students. Being able\nto reflect upon and analyze myself, my positionality, and my own biases helped\nme to teach more effectively to students by allowing me to see where I might be hurting or hindering them in their\nlearning and growth. My anthropological training helped me to understand and\naccept cultural differences, but also how to identify them. What some may\nconsider to be rude or tactless may just be a matter of cultural norms, and the\nability to identify these norms and then include them in a lesson proved\nvaluable. For example, in our shopping unit, I discussed haggling with my\nstudents, what the cultural norms around it are in their countries, and where\nand when it is appropriate to haggle when shopping in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discussing these cultural\ndifferences explicitly and encouraging students to share their own language and\nculture in the classroom was one way I tried to combat undertones of\ncolonialism and linguistic imperialism. While I wanted to help students improve\ntheir English, I also wanted to help them preserve their language and culture,\nreinforcing its importance while helping them to navigate and assimilate to\nAmerican culture. Thanks to anthropology, I am very conscious of the power\nEnglish has in the US and in the global sphere, and I wanted to make sure I fought\nagainst the narrative that to be American, they had to abandon all their\nlanguages and practices. Unfortunately, this is a belief that has become\nwidespread, or at least more confidently shared, over the last few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I assumed this internship\nwould be politically involved, it was political in ways I did not fully\nanticipate or expect. There were numerous times we discussed ICE in class or I\nhad to explain infographics or pamphlets given to students about what to do if\nthey were approached by immigration officers. We had many discussions about\nlawyers and presidents and corrupt governments, all of which I expected to be\npar for the course when working with new Mainers. What I didn\u2019t expect was the\nreactions I would get from friends and acquaintances, how eager they were to\nshare uninformed opinions and chuckle over xenophobic remarks. What was missing\nfrom all these discussions was how incredibly kind these students are, how much\nthey value family and faith and community. What is missing in the minds of many\nare the universals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anthropology may tend to look at how\ncultures across the world differ, but I think it\u2019s also pretty good at showing\nus the things that are the same, the things that are important to everyone and\nthe things that don\u2019t change. After just one class with any of my students, it\nwas so blatantly obvious to me how much we had in common, how much we all have\nin common. I would hope these similarities would be obvious to anyone else who\nspent just a little time with them, too. These people value family and love to\nmake new friends, they value their faith and a sense of community. They want to\nlove and be loved, they want to find where they fit in and they want to be\naccepted. This all starts with something I had the privilege of sharing countless\ntimes over the summer, and something I intend to continue to share after I\nleave UVM: a cup of tea, an open mind, and a good conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Written by: Bronwyn Caswell-Riday Over the summer, I had the opportunity to intern with LearningWorks, a non-profit in Portland, Maine, dedicated to providing free community-based education programs for children and adults. I was working with their English Language+Literacy program, which focuses on teaching English language skills to immigrants and refugees in the community through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1700,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42196,42206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology-careers","category-student-recognitionawards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1700"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/anthro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}