Why anthropology is important in your profession as a future educator?
Before I had taken this class, I could have never guessed that anthropology was the study of humans. During the first week when I sat through this class, I thought this class would be useless, since in my head, anthropology was all about finding lost things, kind of like Tinkerbell but with the science aspect. But since now we are at the end of the semester, I realized that anthropology has much more value. Since I am pursuing my career in the education department, after taking this class, I feel like anthropology would definitely help me out as a teacher. The different categories of anthropology that I feel is going to help me out in the education department are cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics, and human variation.
Why Is Anthropology Important?
1.Language Links
Anthropology is made up of several branches of study. Linguistic anthropology studies languages and how they have developed and evolved over time. This is important in helping to understand how one language relates to another and how humans have communicated with one another over time. Through the study of linguistic anthropology, anthropologists are able to explain the links between languages and the differences in the ways that various human cultures use and manipulate words and language.
2.Cultural Connections
The people of one culture might have regular practices that the people of another culture would find distasteful or strange. For instance, in some cultures the people eat meat from animals that are considered pets in other cultures. In order to bridge the gap between varying cultures, anthropologists study and explain cultural practices for similarities and differences.
3.Economic Benefits
In today’s world, people of varying cultures communicate and do business with one another on a regular basis. Anthropology’s existence is vital to the business world for this reason. Through the study of anthropology, a business executive in the United States can learn about the traditions and values of the Japanese culture before he visits Japan for a business trip. In learning about the culture, he can then better prepare himself for a visit that results in successful business dealings while he is there.
4.Cross-Disciplinary Significance
There are other disciplines that study humanity. Biology studies the human body, history studies the actions of past human cultures and literature studies the writings of various people. However, each of these disciplines provides only a small window of understanding into the world of humanity. Anthropology combines these disciplines in a holistic study of humans and the place of humans in the world. In this sense, anthropology is important because of its ability to synthesize the learning of other disciplines into one comprehensive picture of what it means to be human.
5.Curiosity
Humans are innately curious creatures that seek to find out their origin point, evolution as a species and future patterns in their lives. A big part of human nature is also wanting to know how other people are similar to and different from the community around them. Anthropology helps to answers those queries for humanity as it gives a solid picture of human origins and blends together the various human cultures into one large journey of connected humanity. In doing so, it can also help in finding an understanding about where cultures might go future with future trend predictions based on past growth and progress.
In achieving your dream profession you have to meet the requirements and standards that are needed for you to be qualified. For example, to become a doctor, you have to complete an undergraduate education, pass different examinations, complete the trainings at medical schools, graduate from medical schools and start residency etc. Another one when you are goint to be a Lawyer. You have to read many different books, memorize different laws etc. See? You have pass and get all that requirements for you to be qualified for that profession. You have to read many books, memorize many different terminologies, attend different seminars and go to school for how many years. You have to meet all of that for you to become successful. Those professions are very important for every community to secure the health of people and defend what is true. Yes it is hard to achieve it but it will be worth it when you succeed. Aside from being a Doctor and a Lawyer, there is a profession that is very important and a very undemand profession that must not be missing in a single community.
An Educator or a Teacher
A teacher is a person who teaches knowledge and values that the learners must acquire. To become a teacher you just have to finish your 4 years course and take a licensure exam to be able to teach. But you can also teach without a license but you can only teach in a private schools. As you can see it is easy to become a teacher just like from what I have mentioned. But that 4 years is your stepping stone for you to prepare your self. Because being a teacher is not just you teach lessons, give activities and assignments. Being a teacher is like being a mother. Why? Because you are like holding a precious baby who doesn’t know anything and all you have to do is to feed him a knowledge and values that he needed. You must have a heart for your students. You have to make them feel the love and care like mother’s do. It is because according to Mr. John C. Maxwell “students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. I remember my elementary days…When I was in Elementary Grade 2, I used to do cutting classes with my friends. We are not going outside the school but we are just hiding behind our room or on the next building on the left side our room. Every time that our math teacher enters our room, before she enter or when we already see her going to our room, me and my friends and even our other classmates are immediately going outside the room and hide behind the posts and wall of the school’s building.
We did not do it just because we don’t like her or her subject, we cut classes because we don’t have an answer to our assignments from her. Because she has a rule that every time that you don’t have an assignment she will hit you on your hands. And we don’t want to get hit by the stick that’s why we skip our classes. But one day when we skip classes to her, she saw us and talked to us after our class. She already knew that we are skipping her classes every time that we don’t have an assignment to her but she’s still talking us calmly and patiently. We explained ourselves why we did that and she said that she understands our side. It is because we’re having a hard time solving those math problems. She said that she’s willing to help us if we are having a hard time getting that math problems, we just have to promise that we won’t skip her classes again. By that moment I understand and I realized that I don’t have to escape every time I failed, but instead, I have to face the consequences to learn on that mistake. And until now, I am still and always carrying that lesson. Why did I mention that? Because despite of what we have done to her she remains calm and patient. I thought she was going to scold us that day but she didn’t. And also that incident wakes me up to salute all the teachers and become one of my inspiration to pursue this profession.
My first year as an Education student was really fun. I met new friends, new environment, and a great experience of learning. But not every time is fun, I also experienced downfall and distress when I received failing grades. But I didn’t mind that in a long time. I just take that as a motivation. Learn to accept your failure and make it as your motivation. By that, you will become more confident and strong to face any obstacles that are coming. A future educator must have that attitude. The meaning of failure is motivation for you. Do not let that change. And my second year as an education student is full of challenges. Because today we are experiencing a pandemic. Not just me but all the students. Difficulties are everywhere. Other students give up but many are still fighting. And on my part, I take this as a challenge. Wake up every morning to attend meetings while baby sitting to my cousins. Sometimes I can’t attend meetings because of the internet connections. I’ll just ask my classmates to inform me anyway. And I know it is hard but life must go on. I have continue my journey whatever happens. Because I promise to my self that I have to survive in this journey. I have to reach my goals, to become an educator, change the life of my family and live the live that I am dreaming of.As of now, I am still enjoying the life of being a future educator. In my 1 and a half years I have already experiencing hardship which is really normal if you are determined on achieving your dreams. I know that there are still many that are coming and I am ready to face that. To become a future educator you must have a good heart for every students. Willing to experience downfall and distress and accept failure and take it as your motivation.
I am not finish to my journey yet. I am still in the process of learning and achieving it. I hope you all achieve your dreams and goals in life. Wait for me because I am almost there.
How Teachers Can Use Anthropology in Classrooms
From my experience as a teacher in Jordan, my home country, I have come to see how education can bring out the strength that young people have within them. As a teacher in a small Jordanian town and later in the capital, Amman, I taught students from a variety of backgrounds—among them rural and town-settled Bedouin, Syrians, Palestinians and Iraqis. I came to see the need for education to make students feel confident and capable, whatever their background.
To achieve this, ideas taken from the social sciences in general, and from anthropology in particular, can be useful. I believe that these ideas can be adapted and put into practice to meet the educational needs of youth in the Arab region.
I see the teacher acting as a kind of ethnographic researcher, leading primary and secondary school students in the investigation of social issues that affect their lives using methods such as participant observation and interviews. Involvement of this kind would strengthen the teacher’s role in the school and in society, and introduce students and teachers to first-hand local knowledge. It would boost the role of teachers as agents of social change in their communities (and might even improve their chronically poor social status.)
For example, teachers could lead students in researching the history of their city or town, the tangible and intangible heritage and local customs. These results could then be built into the subject matter of English and Arabic language classes, or into relevant parts of history courses. Students in social-science courses might conduct investigations into the changing ways of life, economic activities and spending patterns of their own families, to examine them in relation to the environment and society as a whole, eventually linking all of these to questions of globalization and rapid technological change.
The Arab region has experienced tremendous social upheaval in recent years. Mass movements of refugees and migrant workers, population growth, the intermingling of previously disconnected communities, chaotic urbanization and a dramatic rise in class inequality have all caused disruptive change in Arab societies.
I believe more needs to be done to respond to these changes, in the reform of education and especially in how teachers are trained. In our region, little effort has been made to engage with changing social conditions in the classroom.
Since the 1950s, anthropology has raised awareness of overlooked communities, and education professionals have responded to this in their work by promoting social diversity and equity. In many countries, movements for civil rights, decolonization, the recognition of indigenous peoples and immigrant rights have contributed to a continuing discussion about inclusivity in education.
I would like to see a model of education in our region which combines and puts into practice two complementary ideas from anthropology. The two ideas are known to theorists as, respectively, “cultural continuity” and “cultural discontinuity.”
First, in her article “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” published in 1995, the American pedagogical theorist and educator Gloria Ladson Billings argued that diversity of languages and cultural ways among students can be used to help rather than to hinder their education. Writing in the American context, she advocated making schooling culturally relevant for students from minority groups, especially African-American students. In the same way, Luis Moll and others described the “funds of knowledge” they encountered in teaching the children of Mexican migrant workers in California schools. The term refers to the knowledge and skills that these children learned outside the classroom, at home and at work.
The second idea is to recognize the rapidly changing social realities of today’s students. Many individuals today find themselves disconnected from their native, home or national culture, heritage and language. Cultures and identities have become hybrid and fluid. By recognizing this, the teacher can help students find their way actively and consciously in the multitude of choices available to them.
Teachers can use these approaches to help students explore the social, cultural and political circumstances that shape their lives. They can lead them in understanding issues such as social, economic, environmental and historical changes and developments, as well as gender roles and languages and dialects, including those learned from local heritage and folklore.
Finally, using anthropological understandings of race, gender and class can give room for a more inclusive education that avoids cultural determinism and gives more attention to culture as a set of inquiries, skills and language. With this idea, teachers can consider ways to encourage students to be individually active and informed in response to social change and to crises such as wars, forced migrations and their long-lasting effects.
One could argue that this is particularly difficult due to the troubled history of education policy and the political climate in most Arab states. Education policy has been in the hands of elite groups that view education as a tool for achieving economic modernization. And governments have used education policy to force minority cultures and people on the economic periphery to assimilate with the culture of the majority. In the street and in social media we hear voices calling urgently for change.