Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 1

“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”

I believe that the quotation from Socrates is a good representation of my condition last year.

Literally there was only thing that I knew was the fact that there were so much I did not know.

Introduced to me were a number of abstract and dynamic or new concepts: identity/transitional

identity, social justice, education inequality, capitalism and education system, cultures/cultural

capital, teaching/language teaching, teachers/teacher educators, power dynamic, global

Englishes, linguistic imperialism, critical inquiry, and lastly statistical literacy. When I immersed

deeply myself in study those ideologies, I who was pressed for time could not help but to

commit to the discrete knowledge. However, in the process of preparing my second portfolio, I

revisited the courses articles and my reflections and expanded my knowledge by reviewing

literature with regard to the key ideas. As a result, I could synthesize what I had learned and

became to know that all the concepts contributed to my academic philosophy which was to

practice humanity through education as essential components. I illustrated the connections

between the topic of research interests and methodologies as below;

Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 2

English languag
Teacher Education Research
Methodology
-Global Englishes
-Quantitative method:
-Post-colonial SPSS
perspective on
language -Qualitative method:

ONTO
Critical perspective,
- Intercultural data analysis skills
Competence
EPISTE MOLOGY

LOGY
Teacher Educator
Social Justice
- Identity formation
-Inequality in Educaiton
- Challenges
-Power Dynamic in
- Professional Education
Development

Research Methodology

While taking EDUC 811, I have been able to develop my understanding of statistical

concepts and procedures for conducting statistical analyses. I had learned how apply quantitative

methods in the practice of educational research through a lot of hand-on experiences by using a

computer program, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). To be specific, by the end

of the course I could understand ANOVA techniques, select appropriate test statistic for a

particular hypothesis, build SPSS computer skills, produce reports of statistical analyses using

APA format. Although I have no plan to employ quantitative research methods during my

doctoral programs yet, I am glad that I could cultivate my statistical literacy, increasing the

accessibility to numerical data.

EDUC 822 Advanced Applications of Qualitative Methods, introduced advanced

philosophical underpinnings of design and application of qualitative methodologies as well as

various analytical skills. While taking this course, I reflected several important questions for my

research inquiry. Why should I choose qualitative inquiry? What do others say about what I
Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 3

should be doing through/with/in my inquiry? On the way to find the answers, I was introduced to

a critical approach which involved intervention or confrontational engagement (Kuntz, 2016)

was connected to an attempt to confront injustice (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2002) and freeing the

world from oppression, making the world a better place (Carspecken, 1996). The philosophy of

critical inquiry set a fire under me to delve into social justice in education. In addition, I could

acquire useful analytical skills such as interactive sequence analysis, power analysis, and care

analysis, and role analysis other than the horizon analysis under my belt.

Teacher Educator

Even though there are a lot of studies on being an effective teacher, we have only few

studies on teacher educators. EDUC 803 and EDUC 851 develop my capacities to be an effective

teacher educator by exploring the identities and roles of teacher educators and addressing recent

and field-based issues in school reform, educational policy, and teacher/teaching quality. To

become successful teacher educators, they are required to develop their competencies

professionally by means of conceptualizing and enacting their own professional learning in ways

that require careful learning and thoughtful actions. Professional development entails deep

understanding of what it means to teach about teaching and actively engaging in teacher

education research about directed towards educating teachers. It is important to remember that

the pedagogy of teacher educating differs from the pedagogy of teaching itself (Goodwin et at.,

2014). Moreover, one of the research inquiries, self-study stood out from the EDUC 851 course.

According to Samaras (2002), self-study research contributes to “critical examination of one’s

actions and the context of those actions in order to achieve a more conscious mode of

professional activity” (p. 13). Hence, now I understand that self-study could be desirable for
Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 4

“the teacher educator to teach in ways commensurate with the hopes for their student teachers’

teaching” (Loughran, 2004, p.10).

English Language Teacher Education

In post-colonial era, English as a lingua franca is closely related to the issues of equity

and power. Due to the colonial legacy, many indigenous languages were/are subject to becoming

extinct. Macedo (2000) said “By leaving our colonial legacy unexamined, the choice to choose

an effective methodology where students are denied the choice to study their language and

culture is, for all practical purposes, a choiceless choice” (p. 17). I agree with Macedo, so I

believe that students need to develop their own identities in their languages and cultures and

then, based on the strong and solid identities, they can successfully achieve the cultural

integration by means of valuing not only hosting culture but also their indigenous cultures.

Teachers who are working with students from non-dominant cultures should take into account

that the ‘old’ students who acquired the dominant culture and ‘new’ students who do not are not

same. Furthermore, in terms of EL teachers, they should let students know that AE is not the

only one correct dialect among a variety of Englishes, so that students can raise their awareness

of the diversity of cultures including languages.

Social Justice: Discrimination and IC

Along the course EDUC 893, I delved into the ways that norms and values of societies

had been affecting human beings. I kept trying to analyze the educational status quo such as

diverse learners and power dynamics in schooling through critical race and feminist, and post-

colonial/structural lenses, considering social justice. According to Bell (1997), social justice is an

awareness of the myriad manifestations of privilege and oppression in our society. Dyches and

Boyd (2017) said that social justice involves recognizing how institutions, such as government
Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 5

offices, perpetuate societal inequity through the disproportionate distribution of material and

symbolic resources among social groups. Given that schools are sites that perpetuate and

reproduce social inequality, those are not fulfilling their roles as institutions for social justice.

Schools should envisage squarely the social injustice such as heteronormativity, xenophobia,

racism, classism, ableism, and sexism, and teachers should not only recognize inequities but also

address those discriminations within their classrooms (Dyches & Boyd, 2017). Hence, social

justice in education “encourages students to take an active role in their own education and

supports teachers in creating empowering, democratic, and critical educational environments”

(Hackman, 2005, p. 103).

I believed that educating IC at schools could be one of the good ways to envisage social

justice. According to M. Bennett’s (1993) DMIC (Developmental Model of Intercultural

Competence), those who are oriented to ethnorelativism are inclined to understand their own

culture as it relates to other cultures and their behaviors are context-bound. On the other hand,

people who are dominated by ethnocentrism consider their own cultures as a center, so they tend

to interpret phenomena based on their own cultures. In short, cultural racism results from

ethnocentrism tendency; members of society treat the cultural norms, beliefs, and values of the

dominant group favorably and underestimate the cultures of minority populations. Jones (1997)

mentioned that the culturally subordinated groups were perceived as inferior, which contributes

to the oppression of these populations. Hence, teachers should strenuously attempt to raise

students’ awareness of how different we are, so that they could appreciate the cultural diversity.

Students easily group with others who have similar cultures such as skin colors, socio-economic

status, and languages. Being with people who came from different cultures might not be a

comfortable and pleasant experience for them at first. However, if teachers who are culturally
Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 6

competent support students to come out from their comfort zone, students could recognize that

Not only should it be stressful, but it should also be worthy of their attention. At the higher

education level, teacher educators need to prepare prospective teachers to impart their

intercultural competence to stimulate students to move along the cultural sensitivity continuum

toward the ethnorelativism side.

Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 7

References

Bell, L. A. (1997). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell

& P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice (pp. 1-15). New York, NY:

Routledge.

Bennett, M. J. (1993). Towards ethnorelativism: A developmental model of intercultural

sensitivity. In R. M. Piage (Ed.), Education for the intercultural experience (pp. 21-71).

Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Carspecken, F. P. (2013). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and

practical guide. New York. NY: Routledge.

Dyches, J., & Boyd, A. (2017). Foregrounding equity in teacher education: Toward a model of

social justice pedagogical and content knowledge. Journal of Teacher Education, 68(5),

476-490.

Goodwin, A. L., Smith, L., Souto-Manning, M., Cheruvu, R., Tan, M. Y., Reed, R., & Taveras,

L. (2014). What should teacher educators know and be able to do? Perspectives from

practicing teacher educators. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4), 284-302.

Hackman, H. W. (2005). Five essential components for social justice education. Equity &

Excellence in Education, 38(2), 103-109.

Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and Racism. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. (2002). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative

research. Ethnography and schools: Qualitative approaches to the study of education, 87-

138.
Portfolio II—Knowledge Representation Essay, Hyejin Yoon 8

Kuntz A. M. (2016). The responsible Methodologist: Inquiry, truth-telling, and social justice.

CA: Left Coast Press.

Loughran, J. J. (2004). A history and context of self-study of teaching and teacher education

practices. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell

(Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education

practices (pp. 7-39). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

Samaras, A. P. (2002). Self-study for teacher educators: Crafting a pedagogy for educational

change. New York, NY: Peter Lang.