Ghazali , K. (2009). Multiculturalism of Identity in Education.

Type: Research Paper

Introduction
Critical analysis of how children are learning is having an effect on research, and one path that is gaining momentum is the integration of technology and education. The text based approach to learning is one option in which a majority of children are open to, but it could be seen to hinder those who are not receptive to that mode of instruction. Researchers have found alternative methods of delivering information to students via a gaming portal that is having some success in creating interest and motivation to learn. The concept here is that the gaming world has no barriers to ethnicity and gender, and creates an asynchronous safe environment for the children to explore options that relate to the real world, thus making education (in theory) fun and releases the need for rote memorisation. Specific focus on the technology of SixthSense (TedTalks, 2009) and its significance to education is introduced.

The cultural bias
Current research from the USA is concerned with the segregation of children from low socio-economic areas and ethnic minorities. It is acknowledged that teachers who have a low proficiency rating are in general sent to schools that have the highest percentages of minority children (Sue, 1999). In the harshest of realities, the state education boards’ unspoken sentiment can be seen as segregating students based on their financial background and ethnicity which gives rise to countless civil action suits. Education committees send more funding only when threatened with desegregation (Alexander, 2002).

As a community, people reflect the sentiments of their habitat and this is due in part to a disparity of lifestyles and cultural heritage. The values of personal tradition may be in direct conflict to the standards upheld by a Western mode of national education, the objective of which is to create an economic workforce to feed a democratic nation. When Leon considers the progression of diaspora and the modern day migrant, she also reflected on the way families retain a sense of identity in relocation - the re-mapping of the home space because the migrating people cannot return to the country of origin and must learn to integrate and adopt a new identity. “Their focus on text making and rhetoric serves to highlight the constructed, artificial nature of cultural accounts”. In accepting a culture that is foreign to them, they lose fragments of their original self. “For the diasporic traveller whose experience of home is always ambiguous, a possible way of retrieving the past and evoking a sense of belonging is, as Chambers suggests, through “seeking to be at home here, in the only time and context we have” (Chambers, 1990:104). “Here” refers to the intersections between past and present, colonial and postcolonial, local and global that constitute today’s temporal and spatial configurations” (Leon, 2003).

Brooks’ (2003) research into multi-culturalism in Australia serves to identify common issues of integrating Asian values within a Western culture. She identifies the colonialist era as an example of layering a distinct type of education on top of existing parables without first examining the possible effects that such a system may have on a country’s beliefs and way of life. With respect to Australia, she states

“[in] the context of multicultural Australia, Ang maintains that being Asian means occupying a position some way between inclusion and exclusion,

in the ambivalent space of what Bhabha describes as

“almost the same [as us] but not quite” (Bhabha, 1994:86).

As Ang observes,

“if the ambivalence, in between sameness and otherness,

then it is a space in which minority subjects are both

discursively confined and symbolically embraced” (Ang, 1996:46).

Further along this outlook, Hill delves into the concept of citizenry whose concern is mainly based on the theory of the New Hierarchical Order (Hill, 2003). His collation of information has led him to outline the way in which the social elite are directing the masses towards leading their lifestyle through education. Indications of outcomes to this objective are touched upon, leading to a belief in the exploration of alternative modes of education. Hill points out that it is a form of exclusion that individuals are judged on the basis of their economic worth and consigned to communities of social worth, and suggests that future research draw data from the technologically feasibility of progression that draws upon the talents and abilities of youth who are currently seen as behaviourally problematic or learning deficient. He describes the job market as one ultimately dedicated to the knowledge worker, who create through technology a standard of intellect not available to those of limited intelligence.

The possibilities of consequential action will be determined by ongoing research into finding a balance described as zhongyang or middle ground described in Cheung’s (2003) work when considering and reflecting on reason and rationale as discussed by Habermas when comparing Eastern and Western schools of thought. He considers that it is possible to create and amicably sustain a balance between extremes, not located through scientific or mechanical distribution to an exact equidistance between poles. By observation of not only expected variable outcomes, we can start to think about unexpected variables that are naturally occurring as a result of implementing new processes. Cheung states that

“[in] deliberating upon the most appropriate course of action possible, the individual with a zhongyang mode of orientation pays special attention to interpersonal dynamics, weighs the possible consequences of different actions, and strives to maintain harmony in the social world. With this holistic perspective in place, the individual is ready to exercise self-discipline even in seeking personal satisfaction (Yang and Chiu, 1997)”.

Behaviour and the pedagogy of education
Research in the domain of psychology reveals aspects of individual behaviour patterns that lead to insights as to how people respond to learning environments. It has been established that each person attains maturity in their own time, but recent research has indicated that there are different areas of maturity that we achieve at different levels in response to activity (Hall & Moss, 1998). A look at Bloom’s Taxonomy allows for reflection upon cognitive behaviour and the steps that can be taken to enhance knowledge until the individual can create.

First, it must be understood that we each arrive at individual conclusions based upon our identity through environment and inherited perceptions. Maslow indicates the hierarchy that is required to self-actualise, but self actualisation does not automatically occur through cognition alone. Ammann’s critical insight into the psyche indicates that it is easier to unlock potential from a very young age than from a position of adult maturity where ‘armouring’ has already taken place.  She states

“[l]et us return to the insight that the urge to self-realisation is the natural law of every being. Many persons, especially many parents, cannot accept this. They cannot admit that from the seed of a sunflower must come a sunflower and not a rose even if they stand in front of the plant every day and beg it to become a rose. The child gains a deep confidence in his own life process only if he is allowed to become a ‘sunflower’ – if there should be one inside him. If the sunflower-child is forced to become a rose, it is the same as if parents or the larger environment cover the child with alien petals or an alien skin under which the original personality atrophies or, worse still, suffocates. This foreign skin consists of projections which the environment has placed on the child, or more aptly put, it consists of projections which bury the real child. There may be some adaptation by the child to this alien skin or even active participation in the production of it; nonetheless, the real individual essence is not perceived under the skin
and stands little chance of development”

(Ammann, 1991:31).

In many ways the move from text only literature to multimodal texts and new literacies is a logical progression from the traditional style of education to one that is more adaptable from a 21st century perspective. In keeping with the technological flow, children are much more adept at acquiring skills of this era because it is all they know and are more open and accepting than adults who were brought into a more austere form of education.

Integrating emerging technology
Bloom’s domain of manual and physical skill, the Psychomotor, was not fully developed when he first presented his idea, yet we inherently know that physical activity is good for us as humans and especially so for children. As the world of virtual reality and gaming is becoming more of an accepted activity, its incorporation in schools as a source of learning has taken place (Squire, 2003). This is where we would like to bring in SixthSense. A technology still in its infancy, the potential for which will encourage students who don’t or can’t learn in the traditional sense, offers new opportunities for knowledge acquisition by marrying the physical realm with the cyber world.

By educating the young with this technology, we are allowing them to create situations that have relevance to their own sense of meaning making. Examples of this might be in the field of science where dissection in biology is becoming less appealing. By developing technology that allows us to dissect a virtual creature, learning can still take place and children who were once turned off by the physical reality of what is expected of them may have opportunities to create a loophole in their personal code of ethics.

Discourse to conduct more meaningful structure to this work is still required, and to that end we propose to collate more information on adaptive and flexible processes of delivering information that enhances sense making and consequent performance output through internalised motivation. By understanding how a cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence affects learning in asynchronous communication, a clearer picture of the direction we need to take will emerge.

Conclusion 
While the concept we have of using SixthSense is still forming, intuitively it feels like a step in the right direction. There is a solution to end the practice of segregation in schools - by acknowledging and accepting individual differences, not only in learning styles and heritage, we create a space where there is no cultural ‘norm’ to be achieved. However, it is normally accepted that there is resistance to the new, not only from the establishment, but from parents alike and it will take time to do research on the programs that can be used to effectively enhance subjects that are taught. Knowing this, it is a given that any contribution that can be made now will be subject to severe scrutiny before any research will be considered valid.

Furthermore the route to implementation must be considered or face making negligible impact on society. Without due thought to process, this idea may turn into a flash in the pan rather than serve as an alternative model for learning.

References:

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Ammann, R. (1991). Healing and Transformation in Sandplay. Illinois: USA

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Cheung, T. S., Chan, H. M., Chan, K. M. & King, A. Y (2003). On Zhongyang Rationality: The Confucian Doctrine of the Mean as a Missing Link between Instrumental Rationality and Communicative Rationality. Asian Journal of Social Science, 31(3) pp. 107-127. Retrieved on January 28, 2010 from http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4D07982CF3DB46F375DA

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Squire, K. and Jenkins, H. (2003). Harnessing the power of games in education. Insight, vol. 3. Retrieved on January 27, 2010 from http://www.edvantia.org/products/pdf/insight_3-1_vision.pdf

Tedtalks (2009). Patti Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense [video]. Retrieved on November 30, 2009 from http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html