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SELF-STUDY UNIQUE TO AN ASIAN AMERICAN

Linda K. Oda

Weber State University

1304 University Circle, Ogden, Utah 84408-1304 USA

Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices Conference

Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, England

August 4-8, 1996

The purpose of this study was to share an example of a self-study of a teacher educator with cultural roots of an Asian American. The self-study centered on analyzing key experiences in my personal and professional history that are unique to my Asian American culture in an effort to determine how my culture has affected my role as a teacher educator. Subsequently I hoped to translate what I learned to assist my preservice students with some of the multicultural issues they will be dealing with as they attempt to teach all children.

Self-study using a life history framework made sense to me as a teacher educator. The life history method lent itself to giving perspective to one’s experiences as it influenced and informed one’s professional practices. Plummer (1983) was adamant that life history research promoted the important of life experiences as people interpret their own lives and the lives of others. Life history approaches have gained credence in psychology (White, 1963), sociology (Denzin, 1989; Plummer, 1983) and anthropology (Langness, 1965; Watson and Watson-Franke, 1985). Goodson (1992) believed that studying teachers’ lives will provide valuable insights and will assist educational reform and restructuring. Cole and Knowles (1995) maintained, "that the exploration of our own lives and the lives of other around us, in the context of institutional and societal influences, will provide important insights into elements of professional socialization and career development in academe" (p.142)

METHOD

Subject and Setting

Using myself as an Asian American and a teacher educator at Weber State University (WSU), I collected data to complete my self-study. Weber State University had a student body of approximately 15,000 draw primarily from Utah’s Wasatch front, but also including students from 38 states and 41 foreign countries.

The Dept. of Teacher Education’s major goal is to prepare candidates for teaching in early childhood, and in elementary and secondary schools. The Department has designated its organizing theme as "Teacher as Reflective Practitioner" and designed a model that explicates the program’s purposes, outcomes, and evaluation. The model is represented by the acronym TREC: Teachers Reflecting, Engaging and Collaborating. The goal of this self-study is aligned with the department’s spirit of reflecting on practice for program development and improvement.

The courses that I am responsible for organizing, developing and teaching are as follows: reading methods, language arts methods, multicultural and bilingual education, diagnosis and remediation of reading difficulties, and primary reading methods.

Procedures

The purpose of this study was to discover, using qualitative methodology, if my Asian American background influences my role as a teacher educator.

In order for me to self-study through a life history approach I voice-taped teaching sessions in my undergraduate and graduate language arts and multicultural and bilingual education courses throughout the last two quarters (winter and spring). I specifically selected to voice-tape the class periods that I would be addressing multicultural issues, as well as randomly selected ones for data. I also distributed a questionnaire for all of my spring quarter students (28 questionnaires returned out of a potential of 23 - 100% return) as well as many of my former winter quarter students (14 questionnaires returned out of a potential of 63 students - 22% return). The questionnaire was not planned at the beginning of my study but I decided that written responses on a questionnaire would enhance my study.

In addition, I examined my personal and professional growth during my younger years and 25 years in the educational profession. As a youngster, growing up as an ethnic minority from an at-risk neighborhood created some challenges for me. Completing my undergraduate education given the cultural influences was not unusual, but completing my masters and doctorate was. Achieving milestones in the educational profession as the first minority woman not affiliated with the dominant religion and lifestyle made me unique. I have been a teacher, elementary principal, supervisor of teachers, and district administrator. Becoming a teacher educator added other dimensions and challenges.

Analysis

As I conducted the study, categories emerged as information from the voice tapes and questionnaires appeared. Two main categories of data analysis and various sub-categories have evolved in consideration of how my personal and professional history have informed my teaching:

1. A quest for acquiring and disseminating knowledge about the Japanese American heritage to promoted understanding

A. Knowledge of multicultural Asian literature

B. Knowledge of the Japanese internment during WWII

C. Knowledge of the history of the Japanese immigrants

2. The influences of my Japanese American upbringing

A. Promotion of harmony and avoidance of conflict

B. Japanese family

C. Respect for education

D. Language and culture

For the Conference Proceedings publication I have excerpted findings from a sub-category from each of the two main categories. The two sub-categories were: 1.B. Knowledge of the Japanese internment during WWII (under Quest for Acquiring and Disseminating Knowledge) and 2.A. Promotion of harmony and avoidance of conflict (under Japanese American Upbringing). A synopsis of the findings of all the categories and sub-categories can be requested from the author.

 

Quest for Acquiring and Disseminating Knowledge
about the Japanese American Heritage

In the following account, I used excerpts from voice-taped accounts and questionnaire responses to give a sense of how my quest for acquiring and disseminating knowledge about my Japanese American/Asian heritage (namely, the Japanese internment experience) influenced my instruction.

1.B. Knowledge of the Japanese Internment during WWII

The Japanese/Japanese American (JA) internment experience was prominently mentioned (as evidenced in the following transcriptions) to discuss its historical significance and effects of its occurrence.

An idea for a primary activity for your thematic unit would be to have the students research and report on a historical event. Example: How did those expected behaviors and values manifest themselves when 110,000 Japanese/JA’s were interned in relocation camps? What were the thoughts about that? It has been documented that the Japanese/JA’s did not put up a fight. They moved on to the relocation camps. There were very few incidents of resistance. There are reasons for those things. It may have something to do with the values that they brought with them in the 1880s when the bulk of the Japanese immigrants came to America. There are reasons why they stayed in the camps without questioning. (Transcription: Education 307 - Multicultural and bilingual Education, January 10, 1996)

Elementary and secondary lessons were cited from the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), explained and demonstrated based on the internment experience. The materials used were The Bracelet by Yoshiki Uchida, Bill of Rights, and the restrictions for Japanese/JA’s during the interment. (Transcriptions: Education 307 - Multicultural and Bilingual Education, January 10, 1996 and January 17, 1996; and Education 685 - Improving Language Arts, May 22, 1996). Using The Bracelet as the literature selection I taught the JACL lesson plan as follows:

1. Read the book, The Bracelet, to the class.

2. Divided the group into small groups of 4 students. Distributed a question to teach group to discuss and answer together. The questions were as follows:

a. Emi’s house was empty. As she looked around one last time, what were some of the things that she remembered being there? In addition, make a list of things you would miss most from your house if you had to do what Emi did. List at least 10 items.

b. In what ways were Emi and her family like other Americans in her neighborhood? Also explain why Emi was taken away. Do you think this was fair or unfair? Explain your answer.

c. List the ways that told Emi and her family that they were prisoners and not just as summer camp.

d. If you could only take what you could carry in two suitcases, what would you take?

e. What did Emi treasure about her friendship with Laurie? Also list those people you would miss if you had to go to prison camp and what you would miss most about them.

3. Provided the groups with chart paper and marker. Told them to designate a recorder and a presented. They were given 15 minutes to write up their responses to the questions.

4. Reconvened the class. Each group presenter gave their answers. A discussion ensued about the responses.

Two poems were cited in Believers of America: Poems About Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander Descent (1954) about the internment of the Japanese/JA and about the 442 Regiment, which was made up of Japanese Americans and was the most decorated in WWII. (Transcription, Education 307 - Multicultural and Bilingual Education, January 17, 1996) The internment experience was mentioned five times in four different questionnaires. An example of a written response stated, "During discussion of demographics and minority populations we talked about Japanese/American internment during WWII."

 

Japanese American Upbringing

My Japanese upbringing held insights to the rationale and understanding of how I teach. Exploring how my Japanese upbringing influenced my role as a teacher educator was intended to raise my awareness and my reflection about my own teaching, but also the teaching of the future teachers whom I will assist.

Harry Kitano (1969), a Japanese American anthropologist who has studied the Japanese immigrants and the Japanese Americans, highlighted the following values traced to Japanese upbringing:

a. Promote harmony among others. Avoid conflict. These values stemmed from the Confucians and Tao view of a hero. The hero was the gentle person. He is a figure in the background--unnoticed--suffering for virtue’s sake and leading without others knowing. He gives recognition to others, not himself. Propriety is observed. Consideration and appreciation in expressed in verbal and non-verbal manners. Words that you choose to say reflect what you really feel. (The outer self reflects the inner self)

b. The Japanese family is characterized by strong solidarity, mutual helpfulness and a patriarchal structure. Cohesion and harmony were valued above individual achievement. Hard work, duty, obligation and responsibility were emphasized. Desirable behavior was strongly reinforced both within the family and by the community as a whole.

c. A respect for education was stressed by the Japanese immigrants (Issei - 1st generation) and their offspring (Nisei - 2nd generation). The Isseis had an understanding of, familiarity with, and respect for the educational process even before they arrived on American soil. The perfect student was passive, accommodating, conforming, unquestioning but competitive. The Japanese child must be a model student. Every element of the Japanese American students’ society sanctioned conforming behavior and school success.

d. Language and culture are important differences. Any foreigner can be spotted as soon as he opens his mouth and speaks. Sometimes his cultural actions point out differences. A Japanese had these and appearance against him if he wanted to integrate and assimilate in the mainstream of society. The Isseis and Niseis stressed the importance of learning the dominant language and culture as quickly and expediently as possible. But also the Isseis and Niseis promoted the continuance of the Japanese language and culture by having their children attend Japanese language schools and religious services at the Buddhist Church on Saturdays and Sundays.

The following excerpts from tapes and questionnaires reflected how my teaching was affected by my Japanese upbringing in the sub-category, Promotion of harmony and avoidance of conflict:

 

2.A. Promotion of Harmony and Avoidance of Conflict

Consideration and appreciation is expressed - We have a famous person here in our midst - Dr. Forrest Crawford - who has been awarded the National Martin Luther King Recognition for his outstanding work to promote understanding of the causes of equality. (Read newspaper article about the award given to Dr. Crawford.) (Transcription, Education 418 - Language Arts Methods, January 12, 1996)

Promote harmony - Comment from a student: "Even though some of our students will not be exposed to a diverse population, they need to broaden their horizons and see how other people view things." You are absolutely right. For example, a Jr. High principal said that the school doesn’t need to discuss Martin Luther King because they don’t have any Blacks in the school. Comment: "That doesn’t mean that we don’t need to try to understand others." We live in such a global world. (Transcription , Education 418 - Language Arts Methods, January 12, 1996)

Avoid conflict - Comment from a student: "Chapter 2 in the book disagreed with breaking things apart and keeping things as a whole. If the child understood the ideas then the parts are not as important." I don’t disagree with that, but you need to examine the child and his needs. In some cases you may want to tell the child the word and move on, but if the student has not stopped in the past when he obviously made an error and continuously makes the same mistakes then we need to stop him and help him learn to problem solve immediately and on the spot. (Transcription, Education 465 - Diagnosis and Remediation of Reading Difficulties, January 16, 1996)

Promote understanding and harmony - I read a passage where Shirley Temple Wong (from In the Year of the Board and Jackie Robinson to Bette Bao Lord, 1984) humiliates herself in front of the class. I read this passage to illustrate to you possibly as real live child who might be feeling the humiliation and responsibility of an immigrant, ESL child. A child like Shirley may be in your class. How should we teach to help this child? (Transcription, Education 307 - Multicultural and Bilingual Education, February 21, 1996)

Promote understanding and avoid conflict - Comment from a student: "there is also something about letting go of these historical wrong doings like the internment of the JA. As an American, I am appalled at what had happened. But at the same time I am tired of being punished for what happened. The people must let go of the past. I think the JA are doing better at that." There are individual reasons why people hold on to the past. It takes empathy and understanding for all of us. Some of you have had hardships. You may have had reasons that you feel you have been wrong. When the Japanese were interned you heard very little about resistance. The culture says that if in fact you are being punished, there is a reason why you are being punished. So therefore, you must be patient and withstand your punishment. You must be tolerant and be that much better. It is like a victim of rape. For some reason a victim of rape says that I must have done something wrong to have created this circumstance to be punished. I will not do anything about it and tolerate the punishment. Women are saying this is totally wrong. Also, it is totally wrong for the JA to feel this way. They will never be able to face this if they don’t face the fact that they did not do anything wrong. (Transcription, Education 685 - Improving Language Arts, May 22, 1996)

Promote harmony - (Question 3: In your perspective, did Dr. Oda exhibit any traits/behaviors/actions that seem to correlate with your perception about an Asian American?) Yes. Getting along well with others. Communication skills are in place. English is better than most I’ve encountered. (Questionnaire)

Avoid conflict - (Question 5: Did Dr. Oda tell/relate/share stories about her Asian upbringing/experiences?) Herself as guest speaker to (a) group of adults that disagreed with her feelings (about the gentle nature of the Japanese as they related to the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers in WWII) and how she responded to them with a statement: "No one has a corner on all good and no one has a corner on all bad!" (Questionnaire)

 

RESULTS

Categories emerged as information from the voice tapes and questionnaires were analyzed. Two main categories and seven sub-categories were addressed. The two main categories were: "Quest for Acquiring and Disseminating Knowledge about the Asian American Heritage" and "Japanese American Upbringing."

Under the first category of "Quest for Acquiring and Disseminating Knowledge about the Asian American Heritage," three sub-categories were discussed: a. Multicultural Asian Literature; b. Japanese Internment; and c. the History of the Japanese immigrants.

Experiences leading to discussions and understanding of the Japanese internment experience were evident in 5 different transcriptions and 5 different questionnaire responses. An expression of the necessity of sharing this experience with students was reflected in the following questionnaire response: "I feel she shared some very important feelings that need(ed) to be addressed such as WWII and the internment camps."

The next category entitled, "Japanese American Upbringing," had four sub-categories: a. Promotion of harmony and avoidance of conflict, b. Japanese family, c. Respect for education, and d. Language and culture.

Disagreement is a natural occurrence in interaction among people, yet Kitano’s (1969) research showed that the Japanese/JA avoid conflict and promote harmony. As shown in transcriptions from Education 465 and 685 and a comment from question 5, I used techniques to avoid conflict. Primarily it illustrated that I used agreement with and also disagreement paired with reasoning targeted to other ways of looking at the problem.

 

DISCUSSION

The findings indicated that my Asian American background truly does influence my role as a teacher educator. The importance of acquiring and disseminating knowledge about the Asian American heritage was evident in the sharing of Asian American children’s literature, discussion of experiences, demonstrating example lessons, and sharing information from books. More importantly was the fact that I was adamant that these resources be shared and disseminated to promote understanding of other cultures and languages. Whether centered on the discussion about multicultural children’s literature, the Japanese internment or the history of the Japanese immigrant, encouragement to seek more knowledge and teach this knowledge was promoted throughout.

The evidences of the influences of my Japanese American upbringing were more subtle because the transcriptions and questionnaire responses alluded to certain behaviors, values and beliefs of mine through discussions, assignments and examples given in class. The findings were inherent in action, intent and purpose which are more difficult to pinpoint than acquiring or disseminating knowledge. I would like to cite a statement by a student, Karnie Fortie, who responded to a take-home examination from Education 462 and chose to discuss her transfer of learning in a joint class taught by a colleague and myself:

Dr. Graciela Italiano-Thomas and Dr. Linda Oda taught a multiculturalism class I had Winter quarter. For me, this class invoked a desire to teach to and for all children who may enter the classroom. It was also a chance to open myself to several cultures with whom I am not very familiar.

The reason why these two instructors benefitted my transfer learning stems from their personal connection to the class. Both of these ladies have a strong tie to cultures I have no real knowledge about. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn from them and be able to experience from them those things which cannot be captured in books or from mere instruction.

....I find it interesting that both of them taught me so much in such different ways. Dr. Italiano-Thomas is a very strong individual who showed to me a sense of pride for who she was the culture from which she came. It is obvious in her attitude and behaviors that she is proud of her heritage and feels it to be a strength in her overall character. As a student in her class, I couldn’t help but appreciate this confidence and respect her for it.

Dr. Oda taught with a quiet assurance that made you trust her words and respect her message. She is an example of an individual who seeks to honor her heritage and appreciates the several cultures that surround her. It was fascinating to watch her speak of her Japanese-American heritage and appreciate both her sincere desire to reflect her culture and her feelings of respect for her family."

However subtle or direct the evidence of how my Asian American background influences my teaching, understanding and examining important experiences in my life history has provided insight into my current practices. This self-study can facilitate the next steps to my professional development and, in the process, facilitate my students’ own journeys toward becoming professional teachers.

 

References

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Denzin, N. (1989). Interpretive biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Goodson, I.F. (1992). Studying teachers; lives. London: Routledge.

Izuki, S. (1954) Believers of America: Poems about Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Chicago: Children’s Press

Kitano, H. H. (1969). Japanese Americans: The evolution of a subculture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Langness, L. L. (1965). The Life History in Anthropological Science. London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Lord, B. B. (1984.) In the year of the board and Jackie Robinson. New York: Harper Trophy.

Plummer, K. (1983). Documents of life: An introduction to the problems and literature of a humanistic method. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Uchida, Y. (111. Yardley, J.) (1993). The Bracelet. New York: Philomel.

Watson, L. C. and Watson-Franke, M. (1985). Interpreting Life Histories: An Anthropological Inquiry. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers

White, R. W. (Ed.) (1963). The study of lives. New York: Atherton Press.