I created a visual depiction of a system called Systems Mapping. The mapping identifies how I moved through different systems and exist through the different systems.
This assignment provided me the general sense of how I existed through different systems and how those systems created connections to other systems during my entire lifespan. In my most recent memory, working as an assistant teacher at a private school, opened my eyes even further experiencing the importance of relationship exchanges between family and school. Without one side overpowering the other, supported the needs necessary for a child to succeed in their new surroundings. As Keys points out, "the image of a good relationship is an effective separation of roles and functions between home and school, an optimal social distance combined with mutual respect" (p.179). My personal experiences maneuvering through the speed-bumps while positioning myself to exist in a whole new system helped me branch out to other systems that is yet to be explored.
Looking back and visually seeing my life events through the mapping system, I reflect seeing how my life was full of up and downs, which is typical in anyone's lifetime. Losing my freedom of speaking my native language out in public was part of the downfall I experienced in life. My point is further supported by Allen who states, "from then on, I became overly sensitive and self-conscious about myself, even my culture. I even went so far as to not speak my native language out on the streets or at school" (Allen 2007, as cited in Frank 2003, 32). The most important aspect was how I overcame adversity and through the countless racism that I experienced during my life. I hope to connect my finding with my son, as I guide him through life living in America, just how I experienced it when I was his age.
Now that I completed the systems mapping assignment, my thinking has changed a bit on how I would have created additional systems that would interconnect how I overcame the racism, bullying, and adversity of the different periods of my life. I would also add on the genre constructs of extended family and how each and every one has changed me as a person growing up in the United States of America as a Japanese-American citizen.
I can modify this assignment by introducing the drawbacks of racism and the critical outcome of bullying. I would also provide personal experience on how I was able to overcome these adversities and what I can do going forward to help other students fight racism and bullying. Introducing new ways on how to fight bullying from people you have never met, such as through the internet from the likes of social network services.
Key questions can be addressed:
- In what ways can we overcome racism and deconstruct the idea that one person or race is better than the other?
- What are some ways or actions we as teachers can incorporate to sustain teacher-parent partnerships?
- How and what efforts do you incorporate in sustaining other related systems that you exist?
