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Tuan Hophan

Ed405B- Darlene Lee

3/4/17

My Positionality Narrative

Introductory Statements

Growing up through the urban public education system in Los Angeles, the parts of me

that I was most conscientious about were my race, immigrant status, and socioeconomic

background. Not surprisingly, these same identities are the ones that are most salient to me now

as an educator working in urban neighborhoods and in the current political climate of the United

States. During my time working with middle and high school students this year, I am learning to

be more open and forward about who I am and what background I come from in order to

promote a sense of empowerment in my own students cultures.

In order to become a more effective social justice educator and engage in culturally

responsive practices, I have tried to become more involved in my students communities and

integrate as a community teacher (Murrell, 2000). As both an immigrant and person of color who

is entering this profession, I feel that my cultural background provides somewhat more of an

insight into the intersectional lives of the student body that Los Angeles offers. Due to the

increasing globalization, the youth of today are learning about multiculturalism and

intersectionality more than ever, and this is especially true for those living in LA, a world-city

with deep and rich histories of the intersections of various cultures (Kurashige, 2007).

I feel that I have somewhat of an insider status on some levels like being a person of

color who is an immigrant and comes from an underserved socioeconomic background (Merriam

et al., 2001). The benefits of being partly an insider allow me to create deeper connections to the
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students and engage them in more critical dialogue about various social issues. However, there

remain differences that may create rifts between us as well and sets me apart as an outsider,

such as being a person who is not of Latino heritage.

Immigrant Status

One emerging identity through my student teaching journey so far that I am becoming

more cognizant of is my status as an immigrant and having moved to this country at a young age;

however, at the same time, I am also mindful of my American citizenship and the privilege that

gives me. I recognize that I am a descendant of refugee immigrants who fled their homeland in

search of a better life on foreign soil for their children. While I am able to connect more with

students who are immigrants as well, I have difficulties understanding the positionality of some

of my students who are undocumented. When my students found out that I was not born in this

country, a few of them exclaimed loudly to me that they were also not native-born Americans.

They exclaimed to me, You werent born in this country Mister? Me too! Reflecting on this

moment, I was taken aback by the fact that they seemed to hold a momentary sense of pride or

solidarity with me in that aspect of our identities. Perhaps it was because they noticed someone

in a place of authority, power, and privilege on the educational level who is also an immigrant

like them and so holding onto that knowledge may have brought them some hope or inspiration.

Race, Ethnicity, and Language

Growing up in Los Angeles, I have been asked on several different occasions if I was

Chinese, Filipino, Korean, or even Mexican at times (because my name phonetically sounds like

Juan). Many of my students were always curious as to what race and ethnicity I belong to and so

some have made assumptions based on my physical appearance as an Asian male. They would

approach me with questions such as Mister where are you from? and I have told some of them
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in the past that I was Vietnamese but it seems they are still confused as to what or where that

country is. Fortunately, through the geography segment during our China unit, I was able to point

out on a globe which country I was born in and where it was located. The students were

genuinely curious about my cultural background and I was grateful for that. During our unit on

China, some students asked me if I could teach them a few words in Chinese and asked me if I

could read some words for them as they pointed to some Chinese block letters. Another similar

incident was when they asked me to read some Korean words and although I do know how to

read it, I was surprised by their lack of cultural knowledge of the most popularized Asian

cultures. Being from an Asian country that has not been talked about or portrayed as much in the

media and not as prominently popularized as other cultures like China or Korea or Japan, most

people just associate Vietnam with ph and the Vietnam War. What they are not discussing

however, are the rich cultural aspects of my homeland. Furthermore, I often get questions about

Asian cultures and although I have some answers that pertain to my own life, I do not want to

appropriate Asian cultures through just my experiences.

With regards to cultural differences, my students and I share the similarity that we both

come from a collectivist culture where we feel responsible for the well-being of others, versus

the more Americanized (Eurocentric) ideology of individualism that is perpetuated by schools.

As a person of color teaching within a classroom with my guiding teacher and partner teacher

who are both WhiteI have noticed that some of the students have approached me more on

topics relevant to their cultures even though I am not Latino. They have also asked me about

matters that relate to being a person of color and they sometimes express sentiments of animosity

against White educators when talking to me. Even at such a young age, these students recognize
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critical social issues about race and are already learning to navigate a system that is inequitable

for people like them.

Much like my own bilingual students that I teach, I grew up as a language broker for

my family because I was an emergent bilingual student myself. It is a very heavy burden and

responsibility for those who have to engage in this constant code-switching process to help their

families navigate American society. I witnessed this language brokering take form during my

schools parent-teacher conference that I attended, this time as a teacher. I saw myself in my

students and in them translating our conversation into their native tongues for their guardians to

understand.

Another aspect of my identity related to my race that is quite evident to me in the recent

weeks has been how students address me and the tension I still get when I am asked about my

name. Specifically, I have gotten used to students referring to me as simply Mister H. or

Mister but when asked by students as to whats [my] real name or how do you say it, I

seem to hesitate in order to answer the question about my last name. The peculiar situation in

which I feel I am placed in has to do with the way my surname was created (my history and

experiences with my first name is another story in of itself). My parents were against the

adoption of only the fathers side last name and so they chose to combine theirs for my brother

and me. Throughout my K-12 experience, I used to not like my [whole] name because of the

embarrassment it brought to me whenever anyone mispronounced any parts of it. As a young

boy, I once asked my father why he did not give me an American name when we came over to

the United States. He simply responded to me with Son, you have a good name, be proud of

your heritage. Looking back, I still hold mixed feelings about my name now because of my

scarred history in school and the healing I am still undergoing. However, as I became more
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aware of the importance of my cultural identity and heritage, I have become more proud of my

Vietnamese name and the cultural empowerment that it holds. In thinking about the question that

my students asked me, I initially thought about how I should receive it. It could have been posed

as either a microagression or simply a curious question about my background and culture from a

well-intentioned place. I hope perhaps some of that curiosity came from trying to relate to me on

the basis of being another person of color and in trying to understand both of our positionalities

within the broader scope of society.

Socioeconomic Status

Lastly, because of the intersectionality of our identities, I am also very cognizant of my

socioeconomic status as a part of who I am and how I grew up. Learning to navigate the world

from an underprivileged perspective definitely affected my development as a person and the

values that I hold now as an educator. Having experienced some of the inequities and disparities

in our educational system growing up, my experiences influenced me to participate more in my

community by volunteering to tutor and mentor young students from disadvantaged schools and

neighborhoods. However, growing up living beneath the federal poverty line and coming from a

family with no college experience, I was always anxious whenever the topic of class came up in

conversation.

My family of four lived in a one-bedroom apartment and although we wished for more

living space, it became a cozy abode for us. We did not have much but that did not matter

because we were all together and we were happy. In one instance during the last few weeks, one

of my students commented (with a look of disappointment) on how his family lives in an

apartment and I shared with him that I also live in an apartment with my family. After hearing

that fact, he had puzzled look on his face and proceeded to ask me more about my living
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conditions. Very oddly enough, many of my students are also still surprised by the fact that I

drive a car. Perhaps it is in part because they know many family members who take the bus to

work every day. After our conversation, I felt that he gained a more positive view of not owning

a home and that it was not detrimental to his sense of self since he knew someone else in a

position of power who also did not own a home. In her work, Yosso (2005) discusses the idea of

community cultural wealth and the various forms of capital that students bring with them to

school. Through my dialogue with the student about my own living conditions, I hope that it

brought some form of aspirational capital to him.

Concluding Remarks

In terms of my positionality, I understand that certain statuses provide me with an insider

status with my students on some level but other parts of my identity limit connections to them on

different levels. Taken together, these statuses offer the opportunity to gain new insights and

perspectives into the lives of students, as well as be able to relate to some of the difficulties they

face. I would consider myself an indigenous outsider (Merriam et al., 2001) because although I

have a high level of cultural assimilation into the outsider community (academic assimilation by

being in a Masters program at a prestigious university), I remain connected to my underserved

community where I grew up in. I have come to acknowledge some of the privileges that I have

such as educational level, now that I have reached this academic pinnacle in my life. I was able

to navigate the public education system and traverse its inequitable paths to be where I am today.

Furthermore, I had the privilege of being taught by several social justice educators when I was in

high school and they inspired me to pursue a path in social justice education, to become a

catalyst to bridge some of the inequities in an unjust system. Stepping into the role of a teacher

this year, I was able to teach students about the dangerous nature of assumptions and
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generalizations. I did not reprimand them for their curiosity; rather, I took those moments as

opportunities to teach.

In my family, my parents instilled a strong sense of importance for education in our

household and that it was the key to being successful enough to eventually reach the "American

Dream," which for them meant being able to purchase a home in this country. Even now, I hold a

high regard for the value of education as a pathway to succeed in the world and bridge some

inequities in the system. At the same time, I have realized that schools are both sites of

oppression and liberation and that I have to be aware of where I stand if I want to help my

students become critically conscious individuals.

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References

Kurashige, S. (2007) The shifting grounds of race: Black & Japanese Americans in the making

of multiethnic Los Angeles. Chapter 11, pp. 259-285

Peter C. Murrell, Jr. (2000). The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 69, No. 4, The School Reform

Movement and the Education of African American Youth: A Retrospective Update (Autumn,

2000), pp. 338-348

Sharan B. Merriam, Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Ming-Yeh Lee, Youngwha Kee, Gabo Ntseane &

Mazanah Muhamad (2001). Power and positionality: negotiating insider/ outsider status

within and across cultures, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20:5, 405-416

Yosso, Tara J.(2005) 'Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community

cultural wealth', Race Ethnicity and Education, 8: 1, 69 91