Reflection Number Two

Upon completing my reading of this article, I found that my previous conception of multicultural awareness was incorrect. I have always believed multicultural awareness to simply be a state of maturity one reaches when they are able to broaden their horizon on the many cultures of the world. However, through reading this article I learned that though it is a level of maturity, it is one that is constructed from various elements. Most importantly, I came to the realization that this necessary level of maturity is one that occurs as a result of a transformation; a transformation that changes a person’s mental and emotional level.

This passage is one that I find to hold much validity; for its constructed definition for multicultural awareness is one that not only makes sense but it calls for the reader to reflect on their own position of awareness. This passage caused me, as a reader, to reflect and evaluate my thoughts on the term. It, in a sense, forced me to pull from my pass field experience in corporation with my present day life in order to assess my stage of transformation. It was through this analysis that I realized that though I consider myself to be a mature young lady, I have not reached a high level of multicultural awareness. Through my understanding of this passage, I was able to ponder on what past experiences have caused me to transform and what future experiences will allow me to reach a high level of multicultural awareness. Over the past two years I have been fortunate enough to have spent 105 hours in a classroom setting. During my time in these schools I not only worked and taught students, but I was mainly able to observe them and their interaction with the teacher as well as their peers. It was through this observation and interaction with the various students, that I was able to learn aspects of the various cultures residing in South Florida. Though I learned a lot through these interactions, after reading this passage I now realized that I still have must to learn. Though I was a bit disheartened to learn that what I already knew was only the tip of the iceberg, this passage inspired me to continue to learn about the various skills and knowledge bases needed in order to achieve multicultural awareness.

Although after reading the second passage, Transformation: Creating Context, Part 1, and my reaction was similar to that of the first passage, I found one aspect to the reading to stand out on its own. After reading the passage and taking time to reflect on what message it was aiming to convey, I found myself to be quite pleased; pleased because the article reinforced part of my educational philosophy. I have always been one who believed that educators play a vital role in helping students achieve a high level of self-esteem. This belief is one that the passage went to reinforce for it defined and described the various reasons why ones self-esteem is vital to ones transformation; a transformation that these articles allowed me to see is of the essence.