Cultural Autobiography
15
Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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two. Okay, so here's my presentation for my cultural autobiography
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uh in this model, I I used at least in
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a an overall theme, the ecological systems theory, which it's
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quite, quite relevant and and was chosen mainly because it's
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what what we'll be using or at least seems to
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be what we'll be using in the program.
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Um it generally works pretty well.
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I certainly like the idea of modeling different cultural influences
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in terms of layers.
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I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the concentric
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circles, but I think that's just perhaps my my background
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with with understanding set theory in some of the ways
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it doesn't quite quite work for me, which is one
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of the reasons why I decided to present it in
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this format here, um using the same same layers, just
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not not presented in in concentric circles.
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So, so my name is Robert.
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I'm 39 years old and a male relatively in good
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health, both both physically as well as mentally.
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Which at first when when I thought about including health
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and and seeing that in one of the, the presentations
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of this, this model, I was a little little confused,
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but then when I thought about it, a little bit,
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certainly an important component of who we are is tied
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to to our health as an individual.
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I think that that plays an enormous role in our,
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our view of the world.
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So my immediate layer, uh, the individuals that that I
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have direct contact with and and the systems that I
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have direct contact with that would play the, you know,
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what we would think of as the most influential role
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in who I am and what we would consider to
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be, my culture, the micro system here is what we
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can see uh in front of you.
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So I'm a father of three boys, certainly an important
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part of who I am and my, my view of
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the world husband, I am a teacher as well at
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a number of different places as you can see here,
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which is a huge part of who I am and
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plays plays an enormous role in how I see and
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approach the world around me.
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Um I uh you know that regularly attend the gym
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and in that community plays a role as well um
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in in in taking a serious approach to health and
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fitness uh as well as volunteer work, uh you know,
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altruistic initiatives and and just helping helping those in need.
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I included some artifacts here in light of the assignment
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description just present a little bit more than just the,
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the information in Denver bitch.
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So here here are my three boys.
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So Calvin who is nine Nic Nicholas who is six
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and Noah who is to absolutely being a father is,
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is a huge part of who I am and, and
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you know what I would consider is my perspective on
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the world.
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It's directly through the lens of a, of a father.
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It's also, um, the other artifact elected to include here,
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what was this?
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The number of places that I teach?
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Clearly, I teach it many different locations.
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And being a teacher is also a very important lens
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that, that I use to view the world around me.
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And it is a huge cultural, um, you know, factor
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in terms of, you know, defining my, my person.
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So I, I currently teach apart from high school, which
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is actually the same school that I, I went to.
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So it has some, some seriously deep, deep rooted ties
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and in me, um, in the coming fall will be
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teaching at a private institution, Mcdonald's school.
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Um, but I, I teach undergraduate classes at towson University,
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um graduate courses in education at umBc, and also teach
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courses in at the local community college or CCBC, which
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is actually where I intend to do my dissertation research.
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Um so anyway, being a teacher very, very important part
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and the interactions I have with these, you know, the
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direct interactions I have with these institutions, um you know,
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certainly helps helps frame who I am as, as just
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an individual and and the lens that I use to
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view the world around me.
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All right, so the next layer would be the, the
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exorcist. Um so these are entities that, that I may
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not directly interact with, but that have um certainly an
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impact on on myself as well as my, my microsystems.
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So I included Baltimore here, which is an incredibly important
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part of, of really my, my culture, I guess.
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I grew up in east Baltimore um and my my
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family's heritage, we've been in Baltimore for for many, many
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generations, so very deeply deeply rooted in in the culture
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of of who I am, even if it's not something
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that I think of, you know, directly interacting with, I've
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moved outside of the city.
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Um at this point in my life, it's still something
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that very much is ingrained in the culture of of
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myself as well as my my family.
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Um I would consider my family middle class.
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So obviously that that is a part of our culture
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as well, the various school systems that I work with,
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even though I may not directly interact with the system
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itself, you know, administration system or the administrative system.
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Uh the they definitely play a huge role in my
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culture and and how I look at had approaches to
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education and approaches to just, you know, the world in
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general, mass media in particular social media.
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While I don't I don't participate very much in social
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media, my might, certainly my family and many members of
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the micro system do, and it plays an enormous role
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in all of our lives actually, even if we don't
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necessarily think it does and and changes um changes our
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culture for for better and worse.
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Um and then altruistic initiatives, so organizations that I may
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not directly interact with, but that established certain certain initiatives
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and um and and goals that that do make an
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impact in my, my micro system and and who I
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am. So the artifacts I included here.
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So Baltimore very important, as I, as I mentioned before,
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the, you know, very much rooted in in and who
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I am.
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You know, I my uh you know, whether whether I
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hear something good or something bad about Baltimore, I definitely
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react uh with with some great deal of emotion still
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very meaningful to me.
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Um, and I just include some altruistic organizations, um that
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that again, I may only interact with on the periphery,
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but their initiatives and what they're doing certainly plays a
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role in in in my culture, in my view of
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the world outside of that system is the macro system.
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So certain ideals that that that that I hold and
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beliefs that I have, I guess we could consider them
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cultural beliefs.
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Um, if we kind of picture this whole whole model
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as basically a uh, an idea of of my individual
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culture clearly has a lot to do with with education.
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Education, I believe is the key to success.
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I think us, as, you know, as a group, as
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educators, I think we all probably believe that I also
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believe that that education is the key to equality.
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I feel like I've always really believe that at least
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for for quite some time, but, but has really been
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highlighted by some of these recent readings in the orientation.
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Um, and, and it's just kind of uh, reconfirmed as
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well as inspired.
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Um, you know, more of a thought of, you know,
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that, that, you know, through, through proper education, we can
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we can begin to achieve equality.
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So it's definitely something I believe in and, and hold
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hold dear dear, I think also in the same light,
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leave the world better than you found it.
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Um, we need to be able to help people that
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are in need, um, in any any level.
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I think that if we have the capability of helping
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people than we should, and I think that's a, um,
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you know, that's a foundation in terms of, of probably
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what we all think of as educators, but certainly how
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I, I want to not only teach my students but
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teach my Children.
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Um, and I included my artifact here, just that, you
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know, something that I truly believe in in light of
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all of that and kind of, you know, umbrella idea
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that education is empowerment or it should be.
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And if it's done correctly, we can empower individuals to
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be the best that they can and empower a greater
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sense society to, uh, to, to be what we probably
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all want it to be.
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And the last system is the, the chrono system, you
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know, just this idea of historical implications, timeline of where
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my culture sits in in different events and obviously probably
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doesn't even be written here, We're all experiencing the same
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thing. So, you know, the Social justice movement, particularly the
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Black Lives Matter movement, um, has has played a significant
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role in in are probably all of our view of
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ourselves as well as, you know, what we do day
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to day and as educators, what we can do to
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make a difference.
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Um, and then clearly Covid 19 has played a large
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role as well.
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So, anyway, that's my presentation for my cultural autobiography.
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Thank you.