Why do You Want to Be a Teacher?
My Interest in Teaching
Schools are set up for providing young people the opportunity to receive an education (Young people and school, 2013). Teachers are taking an important role in the schooling system, as the decisions that they made regarding their teaching forms can affect different consequences of students’ learning, identity formations, and positionings (Comber, 2006). This essay will describe my three schooling experiences, which happened in the Writing class, Maths class, and Textile class, followed by my feelings and consequences of these experiences. Moreover, I will analyze the reasons that these experiences influenced me to interest in education and teaching.
Schooling Experience One
My most remarkable schooling experience is the third grade’s writing class. I thought I was not talented at writing as I always received low marks before third grade. However, things changed after I met Mrs. An. She noticed my anxiety about writing and talked with me about how she struggled with writing at my age, and it is never too late to improve her writing skills. Mrs. An encouraged me to be confident to include my feelings in writing homework, and she wrote positive feedback for every piece of my writing. Her advice and high expectations of me motivated me and I started to put a lot of effort into writing. Mrs. An was not only teaching me how to write better but also made me enjoy writing and keep it as a habit. Unlike other teachers, she did not only give us topics that we were interested to write, but also shared her own writings in classes. At the end of the year, I became the best writer in the class.
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Instead of blaming my bad performance in writing based on my previous low marks, Mrs. An chose to avoid deficit thinking and repositioned me. According to Comber (2006), from the teacher’s perspective, Mrs. An’s interpretive work brought a powerful improvement in my literacy learning. Based on my participation in writing activities, she chose to talk with me personally and provide useful feedback (Comber, 2006). I felt I’d been cared for by her during the conversation as she shared her personal stories (Noddings, 1995). I changed my attitude toward writing activities because my teacher highly believed in my potential and motivated me with her caring personality (Comber, 2006). Moreover, from the student's perspective, I felt a sense of belonging, while she involved care in the curriculum and this feeling made me trust her, and keen to build my knowledge of writing.
According to Self-determination theory (SDT), students’ level of performance, mental well-being, and self-management can be improved by teachers’ support of their autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). My sense of competence has been built with Mrs. An’s feedback. By reading her feedback, I understand my improvement in writing and the weakness that I can work on in the next step. Her discursive work made my sense of relatedness become stronger, as I felt I can always trust her (Comber, 2006). The improving marks of my writing and positive words from my teacher built up my confidence, as a result, I was interested in writing, and believed in myself that I can write as well as others. In addition, the high ambitions inside me built up my sense of autonomy. Moreover, the balance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness that was supported by Mrs. An highly motivated me and helped me perform better in academics.
Schooling Experience Two
When I was in sixth grade, I always achieved high and gained a lot of certificates of academic. My teachers expected me to become an ‘ideal student’, and I tried to work as hard as possible to become one of them. One day, my Maths teacher asked me to answer one question on the blackboard, but I didn’t know how to solve it, he was really angry and said how disappointed that my Maths grade is worse compared to the last exam. His words straight hurt my self-esteem, and I nearly cried during the class. During the ten minutes break, my friend asked me to draw cartoons with her as she knows this is the way to make me release the pressures. I started drawing and my Maths teacher saw it. He became angrier than before. He told me that he thought I’m better than this, and he cannot believe that I used my time on a useless thing rather than working hard to improve my grades. I felt ashamed of myself and felt scared that I won’t be the ideal student in the classroom. I became less interested in Maths as I was so scared of that teacher, and I never did well on Maths after that day again.
Based on the dominant culture, I believed teachers are always right, and I should always listen to them as they stand for authority. Nonetheless, when I reviewed this experience, I recognise how bad the effect can negative discourse bring on students. According to Comber (2006), children’s literacy learning can become better through teachers’ discursive work. My Maths teacher didn’t pay attention to his words, as he didn’t understand what mattered to me. In the Asian culture, most teachers believe that their strict characteristics can make students achieve better, and I understand that he was trying to use the talk to wake me up as he had high expectations of me. However, as the Maths teacher didn’t think carefully about his word, the way that he showed his caring became pressure on me. Moreover, teachers should care about how “the child” is represented, as if teachers think that children live in an innocent colorful bubble, it allows them to think the decision that they made does not affect students.
My Maths teacher was only focused on the scores that he expected me to get in the exams, the drawing skill that I had wasn’t valued from his perspective. Schools only value particular knowledge (Young people and school, 2013). In the dominant culture, teaching students to produce good exam scores becomes teachers’ central mission (Noddings, 1995). As drawing class wasn't counted for final exams, it became less valued in the curriculum. However, teacher education should not be limited to the transportation of certain knowledge (Comber, 2006).
Schooling Experience Three
I choose to study Textile in the final year of High school. I was studying overseas in a small city. I was nervous to share my thoughts in class because of my limitation in English. I struggled as I found out that designing a garment is not as easy as I thought. In the first two weeks, I isolated myself from others. My textile teacher, Ms. Robson, was patient to show me around the room, explain the class content in detail to me, and encouraged me to talk with peers by setting up share lunch group meetings. During the discussion process, I felt a sense of relatedness, the feeling encouraged me to become more confident. I started to involve the traditional Chinese patterns in the garment as they can represent my identity. On the presentation day, I was worried as I thought Ms. Robson was not interested in these special patterns. However, she told me that she appreciated that I chose to introduce my culture as a part of this design, and this is the best idea that she saw in this assessment. At that moment, I felt my thought and my culture has been valued by her, I started to fearlessly use more cultural elements in my design, and I felt I belong as a part of this class. My garment was chosen for a design competition and I won the second prize in the whole South Island in the end.
My third experience was similar to my writing class experience. Through Ms. Robson’s relational work, I started to feel not only reconnecting with the teacher but also with other students in the class (Comber, 2006). Without her caring and engagement, I will never complete my garment at the end of high school. She put students in the center of study. The way she showed her interest in my knowledge and cultural background made me feel a sense of belonging. Moreover, she not only patiently guide me in access to the dominant culture, but also let me remain my self’s cultural experiences (Comber, 2006).
The sense of relatedness that Ms. Robson created inside the classroom made me surprised. Under the minimum competition and comparisons class, I felt comfortable exchanging my ideas with peers (Katz & Assor, 2007). We all tried our best to make the garment without anxiety and extreme pressure. The warm and supportive atmosphere of the Textile class intrinsically motivated me to achieve higher. Moreover, the open-minded and multi-cultural welcoming class atmosphere made me bravely share my knowledge and links old and new knowledge together (Young people and school, 2013).
My Interests in Education
The three experiences of schooling made me interested in education, as I realise how powerful teachers’ responses can make a difference of children’s lives and chances (Young people and school, 2013). Mrs. An and Ms. Robson showed me how a teacher can design their curriculum to close the achievement gap between different groups in the classroom (Young people and school, 2013). As a student, I significantly understand what teachers do can really affect students’ success, academic achievement, and participation in school (Young people and school, 2013). I was inspired by them and aimed to become a future teacher like them. Moreover, as I benefited from these schooling experiences, I hope I will be able to bring a positive influence on other students, to make young people achieve their goals under the schooling system.
The negative consequences of Maths class experience were also a reason that engaged me to become a teacher in the future. The bad memory of this schooling experience reminds me, that in today’s schooling system, we still have a lot of space to improve the moral decision-making of teaching, as this is the aspect that teachers and schools used to be less concerned about (Comber, 2006). On the other hand, students are not only received certain knowledge from school but also are shaped by schools to become ‘normal’, ‘well-behaved’ citizens of the country. Being a teacher in the future, I can try my best to avoid the hidden curriculum and make more students not only access the dominant culture but make sure their virtual school bags are maximumly valued in my class. Being a part of the educational institution, I will be able to make children understand that it is ok if they are not interested in certain knowledge, but it is important to understand how caring can change our life (Noddings, 1995). Even though I understand that education does not only happen inside educational institutions, we cannot doubt that schools are a tool to lead students to success in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my three significant schooling experiences encouraged me to become interested in education. I am full of ambitions to become a teacher who can bring a positive influence on children by caring for them and putting them in the center of study.
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