Andrew Moulton

Cultural Foundations in Education

Eileen Heddy

Cultural Concept Autobiography Assignment

The Reconstruction of Tradition

In constructing my Cultural Concept Map I most resonated with how Erikson chose to define

and illustrate culture, and as I worked with defining my idea of Culture found that I thought of

my map as being defined by major values that stemmed from experiences in four specific periods

of my life. The foundation, of course, I define as the first thirteen years of my life: they form the

basis of much of the values that remain with me today. This is Tradition. However there is a

distinct stepping away from tradition that began after puberty and was transformed through

experiences outside the confines and expectations of home and tradition that evolved into a

philosophy of Global-mindedness that I have now adapted to fit the needs of my own biological

family. In essence, I have stepped away from the traditions of my parents culture and created, as

Erikson defines it, a culture that resides in my own local community of practice- in this case, the

very small community of myself, my wife, and my two-year old son. My wife and I extend this

community through web-based tools such as Skype and Facebook, but this does not affect our

standing on our country of residence. As local-foreigner we are always in a position of being

seen as both within and outside of our place of residence.

With this paper I will answer the first three rubric questions that focus on my early childhood

traditions which established the base of my values, before leaping to the present in which my

wife and I have reconstructed our traditions to exemplify the ideals we now live by.

Cumulatively, the root values in each of the four life periods relate directly to how I choose to

teach in this globalized world.

Question 1.

Books have always been there. Everywhere. Surrounding my world; constructing my world. I

grew up in a single language English household, eldest of four. Mom was our primary care giver

and would read to all of us cuddled up on the orange couch before bedtime. We grew up in slight

poverty and spent all of our free time either outside in the neighborhood or at the library. Where

the Wild Things Are and The Story of Ferdinand are two of the many stories whose values of

adventure and compassion built the framework of my adult life; these two books (the originals

even) have now become a part of my sons library.

I did not have an easy go of it for whatever reason. Born into the Great Blizzard of 78 in the

tiny state of Rhode Island, I refused to open my eyes for three weeks; otherwise I was a healthy

and observant little baby. In retrospect, throughout early childhood I had bad ear infections, as

well as an over accumulation of ear wax, that would effectively make me go deaf for months at a

time. It wouldnt be until a doctor flushed out my ears that I would realize how deaf I had

become. At any rate, I went to speech therapy. I remember flipping through cards and trying to

pronounce sounds in a blue room with a teacher who was sweet and strict and tall. I distinctly

remember that I could not pronounce the sound th. I had also invented my own language that

most likely developed through mis-associations. For example, my mom tells me that my great

aunt had a dog named Fafaloo. This aunt would hold out a dog biscuit and call the dog by name,

Fafaloo... They thought it cute that every time I wanted a cookie (very similar to a dog biscuit)

I would ask for a fafaloo. To compensate for my hearing, I was extremely observant. As such,

my major values are observation-based rather than stemming from experiences with others.

My mother is an English major, as well as a bit of a feminist, and while we were growing up

went back to school and got herself a masters degree. Dad worked screwy hours in working

class professions such as quahogger, firefighter, toxic waste guy, and now as a shift supervisor at

a factory that makes Catholic communion bread. We were definitely encouraged to study hard in

preparation for college.

Question 2.

Our neighborhood in Warwick (I do define it and think in terms of our because it was always

myself and brothers whenever we did anything) was a nice, gentle suburban neighborhood, one

that experienced a lot of growth as I grew up, but still remained relatively white and middle class.

Warwick Neck is a peninsula that steadily progresses from my familys low-middle class

economic status to an elite and independently wealthy status the further a person journeys toward

the lighthouse (2.5 miles distant). The overwhelming religion being practiced in Rhode Island,

and more specifically in Warwick Neck is Catholicism. I grew up in a very dedicated family.

Each and every Sunday we attended mass, and every Tuesday I went to an afterschool program at

Saint Benedicts Church. Saint Benedicts was the church my parents felt connected to having

grown up in it and attended its school; however, in my young opinion, if a person was forced to

go to church, Saint Kevins was the church to go to for the reason that all the wealthy of Warwick

Neck went there. Saint Benedicts community was formed of what was generally considered, a

low-brow, uneducated, rough, second-generation immigrant culture. Unaware of this distinction

at the time, my largest concern was that since we lived too far away to cultivate friendships, I was

always considered the outsider. Regardless, I didnt like the premise of church, the rules, the

incense, or the oppression, and effectively wrote off this huge aspect of my early childhood as

unimportant and irrevelant.

The Moulton Family is a tight-knit and extensive one. Both sets of grandparents lived less than

two miles away and seven out of twelve sets of relatives lived in Warwick Neck, which as you

might conclude, was the aspiration of wealth as my rough and tumble uncles understood it. If

power is distributed in a hierarchy along lines of power in society as Erikson defines it, Warwick

Neck was the place to be and all of my aunts and uncles wanted to be there.

In school, even up through high school, my classes were pretty homogenous and yet I gravitated

toward marginal groups. This might be due in part to my physical stature which had always been

teeny tiny, for example in ninth grade I stood under 5 feet and weighed less than 90 pounds, but I

think it also spoke toward my mothers liberal ideas of inclusion. If I were to consider Phelan et.

al.s Typology of Adaptation in my school setting, I would consider myself a type two

learner/personality, one who found boundaries but managed ways of integrating smoothly across

them. There were Native American Indians, black American, and Asian American populations

that I befriended and confided in at school. I didnt tend to linger in any one clique but instead

chose to drift amongst social groupings because I found the differences interesting.

Within the neighborhood (a slightly different group than the one at school because here all ages

mixed), I was an integral part of the gang. There were twenty of us who played anything from

basketball to street hockey in the streets; there was no distinction of culture, rather inclusion or

exclusion in the group depended upon physical performance. I performed well in all areas of

sport even though I was diminutive in size, and was thus deemed cool. Those who didnt perform

got pushed around and ridiculed. Nothing was static however, and through the years kids would

move from cool to uncool rather fluidly.

And quickly, the activity that shaped my cultural identity as a youth was skateboarding. I began

skating when I was five and its sub culture remains with me today. It was an activity that was

deemed illegal by the state of Rhode Island, thus exposing me to life at the margins, instilling in

me an attitude of taking risks and of standing in opposition to established power hierarchies.

Reflecting upon the root values stemming from my Traditional Culture, I can identify Honesty,

Commitment, Cooperation and most importantly as you will see, Equality as being most pertinent

to my current conception of my Cultural identity.

Question 3.

I left my parents home at eighteen and despite a few reconnections, have largely spent the last

twenty years in places other than my place of tradition. I now live just south of Leeds, UK with

my wife and son in a place more or less equally divided between white English people, who have

been in Birstall for generations, and Pakastani Muslim people who have also been, although

quiet, a part of the community since the 1950s. There is little mingling of cultures. We chose

Birstall last year because Batley Grammar School offered my wife a position teaching Biology

which at the same time would offer her a UK-based teachers certificate. The UK was central to

our birth countries of America and Malta and spoke English, which after previously being in

Swiss German speaking Switzerland was what we desired for the stability of Emmett. We are

moving to the culturally diverse, intellectual community of Leeds in a month to be closer to the

two schools we will teach in this upcoming year. As Ive stated previously, we dont consider,

very deeply at least, culture, language, race, and class in our decisions about place, instead we are

limited to decisions that place our economic stability at the forefront. In the future we will make

our decisions based around access to excellent and international education.

Question 4 and Conclusion.

In my Cultural Concept Map, I define many experiences as Traditional and stemming from

my cultural heritage, but then the categories of Discarding Local and Traditional and

Becoming Globally-minded in Theory are also pivotal to my ideas of Becoming Globally-

minded in Practice, which is where I consider myself as a teacher now. The experiences which

define my current views of education stem not only from my distant past, but also from the

characteristics that Ive developed in sculpting my identity through these experiences. I cannot

think that my identity has nothing to do with: being a minority in Honduras as a Peace Corps

Volunteer, practicing yoga, marrying interculturally, committing to teaching English Literature,

or most influentially, becoming a parent.

In looking at Discarding Local and Family I determined that the root values there were

Adventure, Exploration, and Equality, which considering the theme and age (13-22) is

appropriate. All of the experiences of this period led to seeking out theoretical answers: in a

place that generated critical debate and understanding, one that brought together very different

ideas, customs, and realities in order to build a more equitable planet. I spent four years (ages 22-

26) at College of the Atlantic where I Became Global-minded in Theory and developed the

values of Art, Truth, Equality, and Responsibility and Accountability. Then in Becoming

Global-minded in Practice (ages 26-37), I expressed through action the values that had become

vital to my ideals of being when considering this globalized world. Here the values of

Compassion, Adaptability, Equality, and Economic Stability grew, more than anything, out of

my study and practice of yoga. All of these values combine to now define the Culture I consider

my own.

My reconstructed idea of Culture, and as my Cultural Concept Map attempts to illustrate,

defines that Culture is not wholly unified but instead separate components, each highly

dependent upon the societies in which I have lived. The image I associate with my present idea

of Culture has no borders, and incorporates values that have a thread of tradition but are largely

comprised of my interpretations of life as I have experienced it. I can recognize the effect of my

appearance on my students but refuse to believe that appearance is my cultural identity in its

entirety. I believe in meeting each student where they are, using a constructivist methodology

similar to the one expressed in Villegas and Lucas article Preparing Culturally Responsive

Teachers, one which allows us to construct our identities together in the context of literature.

It has been a very long and complicated road, but summarizing for the sake of the length of this

paper, if I were to define my core mission as a teacher according to Korthagans Onion model, I

would say that I gravitate toward literature because I see words as essential to creating Equality

in this world. Words and books have always been a constant and reliable companion, making the

world accessible on a number of levels for myself. I deeply believe that words can do a lot for

many people who desire to change their life situation. I teach so that I can provide young people,

especially those who are working with disability or who are from disadvantaged upbringings,

with the tools contemporary life demands. I am not at all interested in divisions of power and

wealth, having seen too much of the realities of poverty, especially in Honduras, and avidly work

to promote a flat hierarchy in my teaching. My struggles with reading and writing as a child

inform my understanding of teaching, and having become multilingual as an adult, I deeply

understand the experience of learning language- the inherent confusions and complexities of

thought that potentially distract from meaning. Lastly, I listen very well and at the end of the day,

intend be the person to hold the door open to peoples dreams.

Works Cited

Erickson, F. (2005) Culture in society & in educational practices. In J. Banks & C. Banks (eds).

Multicultural education: issues & perspectives. Wiley.

Korthagan, F.A. J. (2004). In essence of a good teacher. Teaching & teacher education, 20, 77-

97.

Phelan, P., Davidson, A.L., & Yu, H.C. (1993). Students multiple worlds: Navigating the

borders of family, peer and school cultures. In Phelan, P., & Davidson, A.L. (Eds).

Renegotiating cultural diversity in American Schools. Teachers College Press.

Villegas, A.M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the

curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 1, 20-32.