Covering and Passing: Reconciling Differences in Individual and Social Bicultural Identity Development

• In Event: 30.049 - Moving From Knowledge to Action: Using Self-Excavation to Advance Equitable Educational Opportunities

Abstract

Purpose
Many teachers have little experience with diversity and minimal understanding of cultural discontinuity, institutionalized socio-political hegemonic structures, or how personal and institutionalized perceptions and practices perpetuate inequitable access to learning and futures for many students (Gay, 2010; Villegas & Lucas, 2007). To prepare teachers and spur transformative systemic reform toward provision of equitable educational policies and practices, I engaged in a collaborative project with three teacher educators to explore the significant process of critical self-excavation.

Theoretical Framework
The student population is rapidly becoming more diverse while the teacher population is still predominantly representative of the White mainstream population (Crouch, 2012; US Census Bureau, 2010). Teachers acquire cultural perceptions, including deficit beliefs, over their lifetimes. Deficit perceptions, which are very much a part of traditional teaching practices, perpetuate inequitable social structures that limit students’ access to equitable learning opportunities (Bell, 2007; Darling-Hammond, 2010). The meaningful process of critical self-reflection is our reevaluation of “our own orientation to perceiving, knowing, believing, feeling, and acting” (Mezirow, 1990, p. 14). Although necessary to the provision of equitable learning experiences, Howard (2006) contends that this “inner work” remains absent in teacher preparation.

Methods
The research process we use is the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN). SPN researchers connect personal stories and scholarship to emergent universal themes (Nash & Bradley, 2011). I share my process of self-excavation with developing personal and professional insights using my SPN.

Data Sources
I will present my scholarly narrative during the symposium.

Results
My SPN chronicles my experiences in society and learning environments as a Mexican-American female. In my process of critical self-excavation, I document my experiences and struggles with cultural identification development within a society that overwhelmingly demands acculturation to the dominant culture. While growing up, my mother, brother, and I were the only people I knew in my community who were of Mexican heritage. As a child, and into adulthood, I did not understand my frequent feelings of incompatibility, how society builds and maintains inequitable socio-political structures, how my White phenotype and Mexican-American heritage send mixed messages to those around me, and how being a White Mexican-American female influenced my formation of perceptions. I developed covering and passing strategies as means of self-preservation. Years later, I recognized that I was also using these strategies to establish my social positionality and to access privileges.
While teaching in traditional classrooms, I saw how institutionalized hegemonic structures, rooted in the perspectives of larger society, governed my teaching practices. As I strove to overcome social obstacles, I realized that maintainers of hegemonic perspectives work hard to protect the socio-political structures of inequality. Years passed before I began to examine how I develop my beliefs and assumptions and how those perceptions influenced my behavior.

Scholarly Significance
In an increasingly pluralistic society, educators need a guide and resource to the process and benefits of critical self-excavation. Our Framework for Culturally Responsive Self-Excavation is a contribution to educational research, educators, and students.

Author

• Miriam Elizabeth Stroder, Asbury University