Lessons Learned: One teachers's experience working with Karen students in the US (original) (raw)

Culturally Responsive Teaching to Support Karen Newcomers

2016

The purpose of this study was to provide information about the Karen culture and Karen newcomers to the United States. Emphasis is placed on Karen students who brought their culture into the classrooms or the schools. The study discussed culturally responsive teaching to support Karen newcomers. The literature review provided a foundation for the study by including research on effective culturally responsive teaching that will help eliminate cultural barriers between students and teachers and research on how to teach culturally responsive strategies to help Karen students to understand the content. A qualitative approach was used, including interviews and surveys with four regular classroom teachers, two current ESL staff members, and one educational assistant. The data showed most of the classroom teachers plan their lessons to capitalize on their students’ cultures and experiences in order to help students succeed in learning. In addition, teachers have applied culturally responsi...

Schooling, Identity, and Nationhood: Karen Mother-Tongue-Based Education in the Thai–Burmese Border Region

Social Sciences

Modern Karen education began in the early 1800s when introduced by British and American missionaries at roughly the time the British colonial powers arrived from India. After independence from Great Britain in 1948, Burma faced revolt from ethnic groups including the Karen, in large part, over issues of language and cultural self-rule. This led to the forcible closing of Karen-language schools by the military junta beginning in the 1960s and the re-establishment of Karen schooling by the Karen National Union (KNU) in independent self-rule territories, often near the Thai border. In this context, beginning in the 1980s, Karen-medium language spread into the highlands of Burma and into Thai refugee camps where Karen had been living for nearly four decades. Karen medium education is an important element establishing what Benedict Anderson called the “imagined community”. With mass Karen literacy, a national consciousness emerged, particularly in areas where schools were sustained. This...

The Karen resettlement story: A participatory action research project on refugee educational experiences in the United States

This study discusses Karen refugees and their education experiences in the United States via a participatory action research. A White male American English tutor and three adolescent Karen brothers took a road trip and visited with the Karen diaspora communities throughout the United States. Researchers in collaboration designed the study, collected qualitative data (interviews, participant observations, artifacts), and analyzed the data and identified five challenges facing Karen youth in- and out-of school: English language divide, parental involvement in their children’s schooling, bully- ing, gangs, and gender. We discuss how involvement in such a participatory action research can promote new awareness and agency for minority youth. Furthermore, we suggest ways for teachers, school administrators, and community members to help refugee youth better adapt to their communities and schools.

Understanding Culturally Diverse Parents and Teachers : A Case Study of Parent Involvement at a Private International School in Thailand

2019

Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Master of Business Administration Educational Leadership BARBARA TAJTI: Understanding Culturally Diverse Parents and Teachers A Case Study of Parent Involvement at a Private International School in Thailand Master's thesis 101 pages, appendices 12 pages December 2019 Saint John Mary International School (SJMIS) in Saraburi, Thailand where the majority of students are Thai has been facing low response from parents, regardless of the ongoing reform efforts initiated by the elementary department to involve parents. Yet, most of the parents are interested and somehow involved at home and/or at school in their child’s education. However, both parents and teachers feel uneasy regarding parental involvement due to several factors such as differing perceptions of the parties, the language barrier, and the unfamiliar school system. The purpose of this case study was to describe, analyse and evaluate the nature of parent ...

Pedagogy of the Karen Indigenous Education as Self-determination

2020

In a context of seven decades of armed conflict since 1949, the Karen have educated their children in and outside of Myanmar in often extremely difficult circumstance. During the decades of civil war between ethnic insurgencies against successive Myanmar government’s regimes, the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) including those of the Karen, developed their own ethnic education regime in response to the uneven access to education services from the State. The Karen have been fulfilling educational provision by the Karen community over several decades. Especially, the Karen National Union/Karen Education and Culture Department provides educational services to its marginalized communities under its territorial control and mixed control areas since the independence of Myanmar. The successive Burmese governing regimes manipulate education as a tool to serve so-called ‘Burmanization/Myanmarfication’ in nation-state building. The pedagogical approaches are also different. Whereas the mainstream system practices a teacher-oriented and banking model of education widely, KECD schools encourage a more student-centered and critical thinking classroom. As such, there is no accreditation of KECD education certificates by the Myanmar Ministry of Education. Despite this lack of recognition that denies KECD high school graduates accessing jobs or furthering their education in the Myanmar mainstream systems, many have found gainful employment in the nongovernment (NGOs) and civil society sectors (CBOs) and some have crossed the border into Thailand to access higher education opportunities provided by NGOs.