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Commitment to Diversity
An essential characteristic of a good teacher is that which also makes for a good artist, craftsperson or researcher: an acknowledgment that for all the knowledge and skills they possess, they will always have so much more to learn. This awareness of all that I do not know is part of the reason why a commitment to diversity has always been a central tenet of my teaching: I value the diverse experiences that my students bring to the classroom and encourage them to explore their own experiences and those of others in order to acquire the skills necessary to bridge some of the chasms in U.S. society. However this commitment to diversity is not simply a choice I've made, but a product of my own cultural situation, my work experience outside the classroom, and an integral part of my teaching responsibilities here at UCI.
My life has involved a sometimes uncomfortable straddling of a cultural divide. By the time I reached grade school in the United States, being the child of American and New Zealand parents had already marked me out as something vaguely exotic. When our family then moved back to New Zealand it was at a time when there existed a decided ambivalence toward Americans. And after living most of my life in New Zealand, moving back to the United States to pursue a graduate education once again marked me out as a foreigner. While I hasten to add that I would not put my experience on a par with, say, that of someone recently arrived in the United States from Vietnam, I feel that my cultural perspective is nevertheless valuable: precisely because my experience has involved an awareness of the huge differences that lie between two apparently similar cultures—both English-speaking and majority-white—it has given me insight into the vastly greater potential for misunderstanding between those from very different cultures.
I have had extensive administrative experience working in academia, but particularly important to me was the time I spent as an administrative assistant at the Department of Maori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In a department representing the linguistic, cultural and political heritage of Aotearoa-New Zealand's indigenous people I found myself in the minority position; not only did I realize how little I knew about the whole of the cultural heritage of my country, but I also learned a great deal about how difficult it is to win the respect and trust of other people who have many good reasons to be suspicious of your intentions. Once I had been accepted as part of the department however I found that my administrative duties took on a different cast, dictated by the centrality of the spiritual and ceremonial life of the department; it was not unusual to have to put aside writing an official document, or fixing the software on someone's computer to go down and peel potatoes for a large gathering at the meeting house. From this experience I not only learned a great deal about the importance of ethnic and cultural diversity, but also saw firsthand many of the problems resulting from the attempts by a large institution to accommodate different minority cultural viewpoints.
My background and work experience has stood me in good stead teaching at UCI which has the largest Asian American student population in the United States, in addition to significant numbers of Persian and Latino students. Out of consideration for my students I have honed my skills in dealing with the interpretative, analytical and communications difficulties often experienced by students whose first language is not English. While responding sympathetically to the unique challenges faced by many of my students at university as the result of their ethnic background, I also encourage them to draw on their individual perspective to provide innovative commentary on our work in the class and to foster a sense of community.