Teaching for Social Justice in the Spanish Classroom

I am teaching at Calasancio school in Sevilla, Spain.  It is a private school and is part of the Escolopios school network, with schools all around Spain.  I am working as a “language assistant” in their English class, and go to the school twice per week.  In that, I work with two different fifth grade classes on learning English and culture. 

 

I think that teaching abroad will impact my responsibility of teaching for social justice.  All of the students in my class are coming from a different culture than I am and are learning English as their second language.  I have to understand their linguistic and cultural differences in order to effectively teach them.  I might assume that all kids know something, but in reality it’s an American thing.  I have to be careful about the amount of slang I use when talking to the kids, as they probably have not had too much exposure to it.  I have to be sure, even more than normal, to speak slowly and clearly, so the kids have a chance to understand what I am saying.  I need to experiment with ways to communicate with children with whom all of them are learning English.  In my prac placements at BC, I had never worked with a class fully composed of English Language Learners.  But, here, the whole class speaks a different language at home. 

 

For example, today, I learned that I need to include a visual of the word, rather than just a visual of the meaning.  In my presentation, I included clip art visuals to help the students understand what I was saying.  But, they were also taking notes and didn’t know how to write the word I was discussing.  For Thursday, I will revise my presentation to include the words as well, to aid students as they take notes.  I now see the need to bridge the gap between spoken word and written word, rather than just bridging the gap between words and meaning. 

 

Working with Spanish students makes me realize how much common knowledge I take for granted in the American classroom.  For example, I had to explain that there are 50 states in the United States and I live in one.  I used maps to help the students visualize what part of the country I come from.  In addition, most people don’t leave home to go to university.  They stay living at home, with their family, and commute to school (as is the case that I am experiencing now).  It is common, especially in Andalusia, to live at home until your 30s.  It was a completely new idea to the students that my family lives in Connecticut, but I go to school in Boston.  When telling students in the American classrooms that I’ve worked in that I am from Connecticut, but go to school in Boston, most have an idea of what “going to college” means.  All these little cultural differences require much more explanation here in Spain.  This requires me to think about how I might need to explain these concepts to students in an American classroom who might come from a different cultural background.

 

Overall, just being abroad has made me more aware of different aspects of teaching.  While I’ve been here, I have been reading a book called The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom by Helen Thorpe, which chronicles a year in the life of a classroom in Denver.  This classroom is a newcomer English class, in which all the students are a) brand new to the United States and English and b) refugees.  Throughout reading the book, I was amazed by how much I could relate to the students’ experiences—not because I am a refugee or have experienced anything that they had but because I am half way across the world from everything I once knew.  I fully know the feeling of confusion when someone is rapidly speaking a foreign language to you.  I know the frustration of being able to comprehend everything someone says, but not have the vocabulary to communicate that.  I can sympathize with the feelings of culture shock or homesickness that a new international student in my classroom might feel.  I feel that this experience will give me a new perspective on the struggles of students in my classroom, especially those who are English Language Learners or come from immigrant families. 

 

On the other hand, teaching in Spain simultaneously has less to consider than teaching in the Boston area.  Spain is a very homogenous country, and all the students in my class overall look the same (brown hair, brown eyes, etc.).  They all speak Spanish at home.  It is likely that a good majority (if not all) are Catholic.  Compared to my last pre-prac, at Lincoln School, there is a lot less to consider.  In my class at Lincoln, there were six different home languages and a diverse mix of race, family background, cultural background and religions.  It was much more diverse than the class in Spain.  Many Spaniards have told me that there is no one to practice their English with, besides tourists, because everyone in Sevilla only speaks Spanish.  In other places, like Madrid, more people speak English.  Compare this to Morocco, where I learned that it is common for people to speak three or four languages (Arabic, French, Spanish, English).  Thus, linguistically and culturally, Spain, especially Sevilla, is very homogenous.  This lack of diversity makes me question—what changes about teaching for social justice in this classroom?  Normally, I think of teaching for social justice as building community, valuing differences among students, and being culturally competent in my practice.  This still stays the same in a homogenous classroom.  However, I feel that the role of teaching for social justice expands to include teaching the students about social justice.  Many of the students have not experienced another culture other than Spanish culture.  Is it my job to expand their cultural awareness?  I feel that the role of teaching means that I have to expand their world view, and I will use my differences from them (different culture, different linguistic background) to help them learn more about the world.