Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
Excerpts from Text
“I don’t like to talk about racism. And I don’t
like that Ms. Stern is making us to find out
about things like races at Madison. … I don’t
like racism but there is nothing I can do, it is
everywhere. We just have to learn to put up
with different skin colors and culture.” (p.69)
Then, how can we say who is a racist or who
is not?
How can I connect the idea of racism to my
interest, intercultural competence?
1
Reflections
This statement came from a white student
named Jeff in Lisa Stern’s social studies class.
Given the definition of “put up with” – to
accept or continue to accept an ‘unpleasant’
situation or experience, or someone who
behaves ‘unpleasantly’, even though he
claimed that he was not a racist, actually he
seemed to be. He probably discriminated
against others relying on differences in a
subtle way. Or the chances were that he said
what he was supposed to say, because he
might be simply taught that racism was a bad
thing.
There are various layers of racism. First of all,
racism is referring a system of dominance and
power. The privilege is oriented in the
perspective of the dominant group that they
considered subordinated groups as interior,
and undesirable in the age of Imperialism.
People who are in the dominant group create
and sustain values in mind and structures in
society so that they can preserve their power
and privilege, excluding subjugated groups
from power, status, and access to resources
(Harrell, 2000). We can tentatively identify
Jeff’s reactions toward “otherness” as
aversive racism. Aversive racists are whites
who endorse egalitarian values, regard
themselves as nonprejudiced, but are actually
discriminating against populations of color in
subtle ways that are rationalized (Gaertner &
Dovidio, 1986; Sears, 1988).
According to the conception of M. Bennett
(1993) – Developmental model of
Intercultural Competence, there are six stages
along the continuum of intercultural
sensitivity. The first three stages, denial,
defense, and minimization, are ethnocentric.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
“I think the teachers should be very important
because in class they could talk about racism,
to teach their students not to discriminate
[against] or segregate with other races.” (p.
50)
How can teachers invite students to the place
for discussion with regards to the diversity?
How can teachers develop the intercultural
sensitivity of students?
2
The rest three stages, acceptance, adaptation,
and integration, are ethnorelative. People who
are oriented to ethnorelativism are inclined to
understand their own culture as it relates to
other cultures and their behaviors are context-
bound. People who are dominated by
ethnocentrism consider their own cultures as a
center, so they tend to interpret phenomena
based on their own cultures. People who are
at the ethnocentrism stages are likely to
present their cultural racism.
Cultural racism results from ethnocentrism
while describing how members of society
treat the cultural norms, beliefs, and values of
the dominant group favorably and
underestimate the cultures of minority
populations. Through the process of cultural
racism, the culturally subordinated groups are
perceived as inferior, which contributes to the
oppression of these populations (Jones, 1997).
Given the meaning of cultural racism, the
multicultural education policies which are
characterized in “Americanization” or
“Koreanization” should be criticized and
transformed to the policy of “being
themselves”.
I believe that the most challenging job for
teachers is raising students’ awareness of how
different we are and who we are. Students are
easily grouping with others who have similar
cultures such as skin colors, socio-economic
status, and languages. Being with people who
came from different cultures might not be a
comfortable and pleasant experience for them
at first. Therefore, teachers should strive to
guide students to come out from their comfort
zone. Not only should it be stressful, but it
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
Excerpts from Text
“In many conversations with teachers, only a
few indicated that they knew many of their
students in a personal way, and very few
students said that they thought that their
teachers knew them or that they would be
willing to go to their teachers for help with a
personal problem. … Despite perceiving of
themselves as caring, many teachers
unconsciously communicate a different
message—to their colleagues as well as to
their students” (Valenzuela,
3
should also be worthy of our attention. At the
higher education level, teacher educators need
to prepare student teacher to impart their
intercultural competence to stimulate students
to move along the cultural sensitivity
continuum toward the ethnorelativism side.
Reflections
In the chapter 3 of Subtractive Schooling,
Valenzuela investigated the relationship
between teachers and students and the
politics of caring. Non-Latino teaching staff
had the view that Latino pupils did not care
about school. The reasons for the assumption
were the ways that students dressed and
talked. The teachers considered those
external elements as context clues which
indicated that Latino students did not have a
high regard for school work. On the other
hand, from the point of view of the students’,
the teachers did not sufficiently care for
students. According to Noddings’ (1998)
concept of authentic caring, which is
sustained by a reciprocal relationship, there
was a significant disconnection between
Non-Latino teachers and Latino learners.
Rapport can be constructed when two
people interact well, and respond to each
other favorably. That is, when two
communicative counterparts are in the
authentic caring relationship, they will
establish and sustain good rapport. Given
that rapport creates the conditions
conducive to learning—such as higher
motivation and enhanced communication,
teachers should not neglect efforts to
establish rapport with students.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
Caring “for” vs. Caring “about”
4
Gay (2010) emphasized on the difference
between caring “for” and caring “about”.
Gay (2010) explained those two concepts
separately, saying “while caring about
conveys feelings of concern for one’s state of
being, caring for is active engagement in
doing something positively to affect it” (p.
48). If a teacher fails to connect their
knowledge regarding cultural disparities
between theirs and pupils’ to their classroom
practices, a teacher is caring “about” and
does not move to the place of caring “for”.
In other words, educators should think
“about” the cultural background which
students bring into the classrooms and also
deeply care “for” how to apply their
knowledge to their teaching performance,
responding to the students’ cultures.
I think that the real example of caring
‘for’ and ‘about’ such as Mr. Sosa is telling us
a lot. When he met the Latino students at
Seguin school, the first impression was that
students did not respect teachers and they
were unmanageable. However, the most
interesting part for me was Mr. Sosa’s
positive interpretation and attitude toward
the somewhat gloomy status quo. He said
that they “just didn’t know”. He saw
possibilities and hopes that students could
change, and I could notice Mr. Sosa’ self-
confidence in human relationships. I
assumed that he had a solid belief on
creating quality connection with students
who were from different culture. In addition,
the self-confidence/self-efficacy of Mr. Sosa
might be predicated upon his strong cultural
identity.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
“To my surprise, some Anglo teachers who
privately expressed racist views were not
perceived as “red necks”” (Foley, 1990, p.
104).
“Many teachers felt like they were “walking
on eggshells” to avoid racial issues” (Foley,
1990, p. 102).
5
As the first step of improving relations,
Mr. Sosa fed Latino students, spending a lot
of time preparing the meals. His hospitality
played a role as the initial impetus for mutual
trusts and strong bond between him and his
students. However, He explained that it
happened slowly. “At first, they were overly
defensive with me. If you tell them
something they don’t like, they are ready to
hit back. Now I can go ahead and tell them to
do things which they don’t understand, but
they will do them anyway. That’s what I’m up
to with them, but it has taken almost two
years” (p. 71). Then, how can we encourage
or help teachers to this work?
Foley observed that some Anglo teachers
expressed their racist views in a private
manner. They seemed to treat equally Anglo
and Mexicano students in the practical
section which was the lowest ability group in
the school. Latino kids also did not think that
their Anglo teachers discriminated against
them and in favor of Anglo students.
However, Foley knew that the teachers’
expectation for Mexicano youth was much
lower.
When I read this part, I was able to realize
again how challenging but important it was
to increase the awareness of not only
teachers but also students on discrimination.
Although the Anglo teachers might argue
that they had never enacted racism in their
classrooms, but if they had a different level
of expectations about students’ academic
performance, classroom participants, and
school behaviors, they had already
discriminated against Latino students based
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
How does Valenzuela’s perspective and
interpretation reflect conflict theory?
6
on specific standards such as IQ score or
race. Because depending on the extent of
expectation for students, teachers would
react in a different way toward the certain
misbehaviors like, “Oh! I can’t believe it” or
“Well, I knew it”. Furthermore, the delivered
messages in either verbal or non-verbal
manner would shape the student’ self-image.
Therefore, teacher education institutions
should let student teachers know that
teachers’ positive expectations have a great
impact on academic performances of
students, especially low-income and young
students.
According to Rosenthal and Jacobson
(1968), students who were designated as late
bloomers who had not shown any academic
success yet actually performed significantly
better than the other classmates. The
phenomenon whereby an increase in
performance is caused by higher
expectations is called as Pygmalion Effect.
Within school contexts, Pygmalion effects are
embodied by the correlation between
teachers’ higher expectations and friendly
climates, quality inputs, more response
opportunities and feedbacks.
People who are in power and authority in a
society or occupy a place of the high level of
a social stratification tend to perpetuate the
currant situations by molding lower and
middle classes into being obedient laborers
without ceasing. Conflict theorists consider
the educational system as a major means by
which the people manipulate so as to
preserve social differences and inequalities.
Schools socialize most students to be good
workers who are punctual, disciplined and
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
How can I define Social justice?
7
loyal so that they can finish tasks on time for
the labor market. The students are prepared
to put up with the boring routine of many
industrial and office work in school systems.
Foley observed that the teachers of North
Town High school led student to march at a
predictable and slow pace according to their
pedagogical formalism. Classes were geared
to the textbooks, which means students
should have dealt with busy works such as
memorizing key terms of content, answering
chapter questions (most of students copied
the answers), and taking practice tests.
Students were deprived of opportunities to
reflect their learning and do independent
works.
According to Bell (1997), social justice is an
awareness of the myriad manifestations of
privilege and oppression in our society.
Dyches and Boyd (2017) said hat social
justice involves recognizing how institutions,
such as government offices, perpetuate
societal inequity through the
disproportionate distribution of material and
symbolic resources among social groups.
Given that schools are sites that perpetuate
and reproduce social inequality, schools are
not fulfilling their role as institutions for
social justice. Schools should envisage
squarely the social injustice such as
heteronormativity, xenophobia, racism,
classism, ableism, and sexism, and teachers
should not only recognize inequities but also
address those discriminations within their
classrooms (Dyches & Boyd, 2017). Hence,
social justice in education “encourages
students to take an active role in their won
education and supports teachers in creating
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
How do Korean people perceive the social
reproduction through schools?
Excerpts from Text
The Funds of knowledge projects is not about When I read this part, one good example of
replicating what students have learned at
8
empowering, democratic, and critical
educational environments” (Hackman, 2005,
p. 103).
In Korea, people had believed that
educational success was closed related to
socioeconomic status. For a long time,
Koreans had considered education as a main
route to achieve an upwardly mobile lifestyle
for themselves and their family. OECD’s
annual educational index shows us about
Koreans’ passion for education; the
percentage of university and graduate school
completion ranks at the top among members
of OECD. By virtue of graduating from a top-
tier university, people thought that they
could reach high status and hand down their
social success to their descendants.
However, the result of a new survey
showed that 59 % of Korean believed that
they cannot move up the social ladder. The
respondents cited that the crucial reason
why they were trapped in the unfair social
structure was the malfunction of Korean
education system. In Korea, the ladder of
hierarchical movement seems to be blocked,
so education on longer remained the single
most important factor affecting social
mobility. Education inequity is getting worse
in Korea society. Although the Korean
Ministry of Education announced a new
policy to overcome education inequality, the
reproduction of social inequality through
educational institutions seems to be getting
worse.
Reflections
using students’ funds of knowledge came
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
home, but about using students’ knowledge
and prior experiences as a scaffold for new
learning … academically valid (Amanti, 2009,
p. 135-138)
“Who you are is just as important as who you
teach” Foester Luu reminds us that every
facet of our identities is present as we teach.
(Motha, 2014, p98)
In a discussion of English language teaching,
it would be inadequate to attend to teachers’
racial identities without addressing their
linguistic identities. On a superficial level,
these two may appear to be distinct, if
loosely related, dimensions of difference, but
a careful deconstruction of Whiteness helps
us to see that they are actually inextricable,
one from the other. Just as a certain degree
of unquestioned legitimacy is attributed to
White teachers, teachers who speak
mainstream English—a variety that is silently
but enduringly coupled with Whiteness—are
perceived to be more legitimate than
speakers of English that is not mainstream,
9
into my mind. I remember one English
literature teacher, Lillian Edwards’ story from
the book Made in America.
The teacher added The Joy Luck Club to
the list of texts in her class, because she felt
it was relevant and meaningful for her
immigrant students who would bridge two
nations—the United States and their parents’
countries (Olson, 1997). Through the story, I
could understand that social justice is not the
abstract and ideological concept. Social
justice only becomes truly valuable when it is
practiced and realized in our lives, and it does
not seek innovative changes in our society
but minor perturbations in our minds.
Teachers can practice the Funds of
knowledge projects by making some small
changes in their curriculum in order to
embrace issues of immigration.
Even though I advocate this statement, I still
doubt how teacher educators can explain this
idea to pre-/in-teachers and motivate them
to explore their identities.
Due to globalization, the English language
craze in Korea makes people obsessed with
English. From kindergateners to college
students, even to office workers, all are busy
learning and maintaining their English
proficiency. On the purpose of learning
“Native-like” pronunciation, schools in South
Kores often hired white Americans as English
language teachers. American college
graduates flocked to Korea to find teaching
jobs. There was no specific requirement for
their qualities; many of them did not have
any teaching experience or even did not
know how to speak Korean. They were just
needed to be white native English speakers.
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
including English spoken by nonnative-
English speakers (Motha, 2014, p. 115).
The ways language varieties are affirmed,
discourage, and language divisions. The ways
language varieties are affirmed, discouraged,
and erased depends on the colonial histories
and racial meanings associated with the
varieties. (Motha, 2014, p. 43)
10
I read a part of the interview between a
reporter, Jason Strother, and an English
language teacher in Korea, Mr. Omar Ray.
The teacher discovered a racial barrier during
his job-seeking activities in Korea.
Mr. Ray: They sent me an email saying they
apologized but their boss would not be able
to hire an African-American, the instructor
saying that parents probably wouldn’t like it.
The parents wouldn’t approve (Strother,
2007).
To the question about how he felt at that
time, the teacher responded that he was not
upset, because he had experienced that kind
of racism in his country—the United States.
The reporter wrote “The only difference was
that people in Korea were more upfront
about it. … Many South Korean recruitment
ads state only two requirements for English
teachers: having a college degree and being a
native English speaker. But because photo
graphs must be attached to applications,
schools are able to quietly screen out people
of color. One posted recently on a popular
message board stated that only those of
Caucasian descent need apply” (Strother,
2007).
Power drives language. In other words,
owing to the power of the culture which
English-speaking people possess, English
could be a major language that all the world
uses in the international communication
contexts such as international business,
international education, and international
convention. The dominance of the language
has been observed in different areas and has
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
The sometimes extreme pursuit of “native-
like” Standard English speech emerges from a have is outstanding. The phenomenon is
belief in the superiority of a colonizing
language, which in the case of English is
associated with Whiteness. (Motha, 2014, p. English language teachers are in enviable
43)
11
been constructed over a long period of time.
To be specific, due to the political and
military power of the British Empire, English
begun to function internationally. A century
later, between the 16th and 17th century, the
power was expanded to the scientific arena.
Splendidly developed science of technology
led the Industrial Revolution. Two thirds of
the people made all the inventions that built
the foundation of modern society through
the medium of the English language, which
contributed to maintain a solid place of
English as a global language. In the 19th
century, America and Britain experienced the
rapid expansion of business, and the growth
of large-scale agriculture so that they
dominated the financial and international
trade markets. By the power and influence
which the US has been exerting on the world
since the beginning of the 20th century,
English is unquestionably perceived as the
main official language of a number of
international organizations. Given this
prominent role of English, it is
understandable and predictable that English
is now taught as a second language in most
countries across the world.
In Korea, the inferiority in English that people
observed prominently among the English
language teacher groups (Lee, 2010). Korean
positions by maintaining higher social status,
but ironically suffer from their negative self-
perception as English language teachers (Lee,
2010). To be specific, on the one hand Non-
Native English Speaking Teachers (NNEST) are
outwardly taking advantages from having the
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
Within the interconnectedness of today’s
networked world, it is not possible for empire globalization and the neocolonialism of
and colonization to evolve in a vacuum in
schools within on nation-state. Rather,
colonial processes are part of a larger web in students to have their second language—
which media and events and consumption
within one site inevitably shape and are
shaped by those in others (Motha, 2014).
Teaching empire or teaching English?
12
language capital. On the other hand, due to
the self-perceived inadequate language
ability, they inwardly experience
psychological burdens and negative emotions
such as frustration and anxiety (Takahashi,
2014). These negative feelings are easily
connected to the sense of inferiority. How
could Korean NNESTs address this
challenging situation? Do they have to
struggle fiercely to overcome the complex?
The challenge for teachers is the
English. Which English should we teach in
our classes? How can teachers guide
English without any feeling of suppression of
English-speaking cultures? In what way
should teachers increase their students’
cultural awareness so as to let them be
effective communicators in
international/intercultural settings? English
language teachers should ponder these
questions and prepare their own answers
rooted in their educational philosophy in
order to guide students to have both rights
and responsibilities as citizens of the world.
If the purpose of English teaching is to
produce students who are able to encounter
the English-speaking world with confidence,
teachers cannot avoid bringing global English
into their classrooms. Between two sides of
language—production and comprehension,
the main impact of global English is in the
teaching of listening and reading
comprehensions. In Korea, English language
(EL) teachers cannot help but to teach
American English (AE) in the center of their
classes in a conservative way, because most
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
Those of us who speak legitimated forms of
English have a responsibility to consider the
implications of privileged-speaker status for
the pursuit of social justice in our practice
(Motha, 2014, p. 115).
Pennycooks’ (2007) ideas about Global
Englishes “locate the spread and use of
English within critical theories of
globalization” (p.5). Pennycook suggests we
13
EL teachers might be taught AE in their
grammar schools and they did not have
enough opportunities to be exposed to other
forms of English such as Indian English and
Jamaican English. However, EL teachers
should let students know that AE is not the
only one correct dialect among a variety of
Englishes. Students who will live on the
world stage should be prepared to encounter
a variety of cultures reflected in the various
forms of English. If they received only
American English as language inputs in the
classrooms, they would be in a shock as they
communicate with ‘unstandardized’ English-
speaking counterparts. Therefore, teachers
should improve students’ listening and
reading comprehension by means of
exposing them to the variation that exists in
English as it is possible. By doing so, students
can raise their awareness of the diversity of
English so that in their future, as they will
meet with Nigerian English speakers, they
could be effective communicators based on
their intercultural competences.
I really appreciate this argument, because
this is what I want to shout out to South
Korean teachers who are working with North
Korean refugee students. Most of NK
refugees are trying to expunge their unique
NK dialect, and acquire SK “standard”
language—Pyojun-eo(표준어) which is based
on the Seoul dialect.
Pushing out Pennycooks’ ideas about Global
Englishes further, Jenkin (2015) suggested
that we reframe English learners as “bilingual
English speakers”, respecting their heritage
languages. I highly value the Jenkins’
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon
shift our attention from a focus on place to
one of flows (Motha, 2014, p. 114).
What responsibility do a teacher have for
noticing and addressing the effects of race,
empire, and language ideologies?
14
suggestion, because the reframing identities
of English learners opens my eyes to the new
perspective with regard to ways to serve
these learners without segmenting their
English-speaking identity from their L1-
speaking identity.
First and foremost, teachers should be
equipped with intercultural competence
rooted in identity inclusivity which is
recognizing the differences self and others,
but embracing the differences and identity
security which is having understanding of the
self with respect to others (Kim, 2009).
Through Gorter and Cenoz’s (2011) article,
we can recognize that teachers who
possessed strong identity coming from their
first language could teach a second language
successfully. Hence, English language
teachers should encourage students to have
solid cultural identity so as not to be submit
to the neocolonialism of English. Taking one
step further, EL teachers should be experts in
teaching student to “engage in critical
dialogue about conflicts among cultures and
to analyze inconsistencies between
mainstream cultural ideals/realities and
those of different cultural systems” (Gay,
2000, p. 43) based on deep understanding
“how culture operates in daily classroom
dynamics, create learning atmospheres that
radiate cultural and ethnic diversity, and
facilitate high academic achievement for all
students” (Gay, 2000, p. 42). I would like to
close my writing with the culturally
responsive pedagogy’s five indicators which
Gay (2000) presented. The teachers who
perform culturally responsive teaching in
classrooms have
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 15

(1) through knowledge about the cultural

values, learning styles, historical legacies,
contributions, and achievements of different
ethnic groups; (2) the courage to stop
blaming the victims of school failure and to
admit that something is seriously wrong
with existing educational systems; (3) the
will to confront prevailing educational
canons and convictions, and to rethink
traditional assumptions of cultural
universality and / or neutrality in teaching
and learning; (4) the skills to act
productively in translating knowledge and
sensitivity about cultural diversity into
pedagogical practices; and (5) the tenacity
to relentlessly pursue comprehensive and
high-level performance for children who are
currently underachieving in schools. (Gay,
2000, p. 44)
Reflective Journal—Hyejin Yoon 16

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