This short story creates a picture of who I am on an extremely surface level. Whilst aspects such as identity, mobility and place do help describe who I am in some ways, I do not believe it is representative of whom I truly am. I realised how easy to perpetuate your own ‘single story’ (Adichie 2009). I believe summarising who you are in this way feels incredibly impersonal. Adichie (2009) states that if you ‘show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become’. If I were to repeat this paragraph as the complete product of my being and who I am to my core enough, it's exactly who I would be. I believe if you were to ask who I am to various people in my life, it is possibly you may hear varying ‘stories’. This is not because I’m a different person all the time, but because we are all products of environment and context. These words create a story about who I am in one way, however there is much that is left out about my life experience. Truthfully, stories can be defining. Adichie (2009) further contends how ‘power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person’. This is something that resonates with me. If someone only knows you through one ‘story’ or experience, his or her image of you may completely differ from every single person who knows you. It's important to reflect on the effect the ‘single story’ may have on my own teaching. Griffiths & Allbutt (2011, p. 17) contend that ‘as teachers it is important to recognise how our own perceptions impact on what we might do in our classrooms’. Over this placement, one of my main goals is to be aware of any assumptions I may have, and actively work to recognise the single stories I may be unfairly harbouring so that I can teach to my best ability.

 

Picower (2009, p. 199) asks ‘how do white, middle class, prospective teachers make the transition from being unaware of their culture to a critical understanding of the role of culture, power and oppression’? I believe that as teachers and human beings, it is helpful to consider racism as ‘a system that is fused across the world’ Ask Dr Whiteness 2017, and that to become globally competent citizens, we should consistently ask ourselves ‘how does [racism] manifest here’? (Ask Dr Whiteness 2017) and actively work to bridge whichever gaps we may find. Moreover, Cheetham (2015) contends that ‘as an Australian with a strong desire to deepen our nation’s understanding of identity and our place in the world, I believe we can and must do better’. He asserts this in terms of how much of Australia’s Indigenous cultures ‘remain unwrapped, unacknowledged and unexplored’ (Cheetham 2015). As a white Australian who will be teaching the generations to come, it is imperative that indigenous history and culture is something I am comfortable to acknowledge and explore. Without this willingness, how would I educate?

 

I have attached this document as a PDF (Norwegian Students’ and Academics International Assistance Fund 2015) due to what I can’t help but think of every time ‘whiteness’ is brought up; the white saviour trope in one of its many hegemonic forms. The document is a social media guide for travellers and to me, may help some minimise the perpetuation of ‘whiteness’. Picower (2009, p. 202) explains hegemony as the ‘internalized ways of making meaning about how society is organised’. Media such as this promotes the idea of white man at the apex, supporting the notion that ‘‘Those poor people over there needed our generous help’ (Griffiths & Allbutt 2011, p. 16). In our own professional practice, it is vital that we question our surroundings, media portrayals in particular. It may be helpful to consistently ask and consider ‘who is represented, by whom and for what purpose(s)? And what world views and assumptions are these based on’? (Griffiths & Allbutt 2011, p. 16). Being critically aware and conscious of my ‘whiteness’ may truly alter how I conduct myself in the classroom, and my relationships with students.

Vanuatu (initially named New Hebrides) homes various waves of colonisers, and is subsequently a country of rich linguistic diversity. There are more than 100 local languages as well as the country’s official Pidgin English language of Bislama. Many British and French settled which means French and English are also spoken amongst the Ni-Vanuatu people. New Hebrides became Vanuatu in 1980 as the islands gained independence; with Vanua meaning ‘land’ and tu meaning ‘stand’ (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). Cricket, football (soccer), rugby and volleyball are Vanuatu’s most popular sports. However, cricket, football and rugby is for males and volleyball is for females (Topend Sports 2018, para. 1). According to 2009 data 70% majority of the Ni-Vanuatu people align themselves with Protestant religion, with a smaller percentage following customary believes or other unspecified belief systems (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). Vanuatu is a parliamentary republic with 6 administrative divisions. Their constitution was finalised in a conference on the 19^th September 1979 with much of their law derived from English common law, French law and customary law. Their current chief of state is President Tallis Obed MOSES (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). Vanuatu is located in Oceania and is a group of over eighty islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The weather is tropical and is also subject to natural disasters such as cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis. Natural disasters also explain Vanuatu’s terrain, which encompasses volcanic mountainous islands (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). Women have a lot less power and mobility than men. Marriage is extremely common practice and the nuclear family unit is prominent. When a baby is born, both the mother and father will take care of the child whilst the eldest female sibling will also do much of the looking after. Homes are often made using “bush” materials, as well as cement as bricks and aluminium for roofs (World Culture Encyclopaedia 2018). The expected years of schooling in Vanuatu is 10.9 years with the mean years of schooling standing at 6.8. The primary school dropout rate is 28.5% and the percentage of teachers who have been trained to teach is 28% (United Nations 2018). Moreover, the Central Intelligence Agency (2016) reports that 85.2% of people over the age of 15 in 2015 could read and write. Vanuatu’s average household monthly income was recorded in 2010 to be 83,800 Vatu (Vanuatu National Statistics Office 2010, p.6), which is roughly equivalent to 1022.36 Australian dollars.

Honestly, the vast majority of what I have learned has been really surprising! I have never known much about Vanuatu (hence the intrigue to go there). However, I will admit that my knowledge of Vanuatu didn’t go far past knowing it’s a region of tropical islands. This is an aspect Martin (2012, p. 3) may consider ‘object-based’ as I am creating binaries between Australia and Vanuatu and aligning my idea of Vanuatu with ‘stereotypes’ (Martin 2012, p. 3). After researching Vanuatu’s culture and history, I concur with Martin (2012, p. 3) that when considering things in a relational sense, we see culture as something that ‘changes, evolves and modifies itself as it is challenged by people from other cultural backgrounds’. Vanuatu is so much more than tropical islands and I am beyond excited to immerse myself in Vanuatu’s culture. 

I believe it’s important in my teaching and becoming a globally competent citizen, to consider how these aspects of my being are in fact socially constructed norms that I may unconsciously bring into the classroom. As well as my own, each and every student will be bringing his or her own culture into the classroom. I strongly concur with the practice of cultural relativism, the ‘culturally empathetic and tolerant position that all cultures can be seen as equally legitimate and ethically justified in terms of their own historical evolution’ (Muller 2006, p. 14). In a global perspective, I need to analyse my own culture ‘in a way that provides some level of objectivity’ (Muller 2006, p. 13), and realise the ‘strengths, weaknesses and paradoxes’ (Muller 2006, p. 14) that make up all cultures. A paradox I’m aware of in my culture is the importance of marriage amongst the high rate and normality of divorce. It’s a given that I will come across cultural aspects that surprise me during my 3 week placement, however it will help significantly to harness critical awareness of my own culture. 

I believe I need to work on becoming more culturally competent. Whilst Australia is a culturally diverse country, I believe my lack of life experience regarding cultures has rendered me with the desire and need to culturally adjust. I say this because to my surprise, I caught myself perpetuating ethnocentric viewpoints over the course of my trip on more than one occasion. Much like the pre-service teaching in the study Campbell & Walta (2013, p. 12) discuss, I also found that I was ‘not as comfortable with the situation as was first thought’, with small moments of culture shock. However, I believe immersing myself in this experience to the highest degree I could allowed me to make my way from moments of ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. Below are some moments from my experience which helped me to culturally adjust and broaden my intercultural understanding.

 

Ask Dr Whiteness 2017, podcast, ABC, 22 June, retrieved 29 June 2018, < https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/itsnotarace/ask-dr-whiteness/8613954>. 

  

Campbell, C & Walta, C 2015, ‘Maximising intercultural learning in short term international placements: finding associated with orientation programs, guided reflection and immersion’, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 40, no. 10, pp. 1-13.

 

Central Intelligence Agency 2016, The world factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, retrieved 13 June 2018, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nh.html. 

 

Cheetham, D  2015, ‘Young and free? Why I declined to sing the national anthem at the 2015 AFL Grand Final’, The Conversation, 20 October, retrieved 20 May 2018, < https://theconversation.com/young-and-free-why-i-declined-to-sing-the-national-anthem-at-the-2015-afl-grand-final-49234> 

Griffiths, H & Allbutt, G 2011, ‘The danger of the single image’, Primary Geography, vol. 75, pp. 16-17.

 

Martin, F 2012, ‘Thinking Differently about Difference’, Think Global Thinkpiece 2012 series, retrieved 19 May 2018, < https://think-global.org.uk/resource-category/thinkpieces/>. 

 

Muller, W 2006, ‘The contribution of ‘Cultural literacy’ to the ‘Globally Engaged Curriculum’ and the ‘Globally Engaged Citizen’, The Social Educator, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 13-15.

 

Norwegian Students’ and Academics International Assistance Fund 2015, How to communicate the world, Radi-Aid, retrieved 25 June 2018, https://saih.no/english/ 

 

Penstone, J 2014, ‘Interculturalism matters’, The iceberg model of culture, weblog post, 23 April, retrieved 17 May 2018, http://interculturalism.blogspot.com/2011/03/iceberg-model-of-culture.html. 

 

Picower, B 2009, ‘The unexamined Whiteness of teaching: how White teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies’, Race Ethnicity and Education, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 197-215.

 

Topend Sports 2018, Sport in Vanuatu, Topend Sports, retrieved 17 June 2018, < https://www.topendsports.com/world/countries/vanuatu.htm>. 

 

United Nations 2018, Vanuatu human development indicators, United Nations Development Programme, retrieved 20 May 2018, <http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/VUT> 

 

World Culture Encyclopaedia 2018, Culture of Vanuatu, retrieved 28 May 2018, Advameg Incorporated, <https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Vanuatu.html>. 

 

Vanuatu National Statistics Office 2010, Vanuatu income and expenditure survey, VSNO, retrieved 5 June 2018, <https://mjcs.gov.vu/images/research_database/2010_HIES_REPORT.pdf>.