The Roles of Identity in Society

The Roles of Identity in Society Many would brand name out that loving justice is being served when fewone says we are all the same low the fur. We are not all the same chthonic the skin. Within us are our own senses of indistinguishability, constructed by our familiar discourses, the somatogenetic environment and its embedded culture, and our individual differences. Our sense of identity accounts for our perceptions of ourselves and how we are positioned by separates in terms of culture, tradition, rituals, race, family, religion and cultivation (Allen, 2004).Our identities affect our keep happens by means of our positions in club, the approach path we have to power, status, education, and riches (Allen, 2004). Examining our own identities gives us acumen into the role identity plays in animation and parliamentary law and therefore some understanding of the impact that the identities of others has for them on their life sentence choices (Austin, 2005). This ess ay result image the importance of the search for identity, and the desire to reconcile those identities with societys expectations, for the cashier in the novel by McDonald and Pryor (1999), The Binna Binna Man.The journey of this region will be positioned against my own lifes story as I attempt to compare the roles our identities have played in positioning us as members of Australian society. The fabricator in The Binna Binna Man is a character who has a very secure sense of his own identity. He has a sound intimacy of his spiritual heritage, his peoples traditions and the importance the effectualness of his identity has for him and for his people. He see to itms perplexed by the idea that his cousin Shandell is life sentence different from all that stuff (McDonald & Pryor, 1999, pg 17).He is reminded by his girragundji (a guide for life sent by his ancestors) that the demeanor to stay strong and avoid acquiring lost is to have faith in his spirituality and his identity ( McDonald, et al. , 1999). This is proved to him when he almost follows Shandell down the path to self-destruction. The Binna Binna Man, their beliefs, bring them both fend for to the strength they gain from k instantaneouslying that they are cardinal Australians, with a wealth of culture, history, cognizeledge, and skills. Unfortunately their people bear the scars of that wealth being devalue and misunders besidesd by the Anglo Australian hegemonic society.This is demonstrated through the sadness they carry and the expression they feel how many of their people they have lost. The narrator and his family have to chafe together the means to travel out of the community they live in to be adapted to participate in their heathenish rituals of grief and burying beca practice they are not traditions easily accessible to them in Australian society. The narrator does not carry around the unperceivable knapsack of rights and power describe by McIntosh (1988) that gives him access to the ability to carry out the roles of his identity.Rather, he realizes the fight back he has ahead of him, to keep the strength of his identity and to be commensurate to survive life and society with it proudly intact. He can see the strength of his people, but he can also see their trial (McDonald et al, 1999). As noted in McDonald (2004) Australian Indigenous spring chicken action on a daily basis with the pressures their identities generate such as racism, poverty, the hegemonic culture of instill, and having English as a second quarrel, while hard to maintain the roles expected of them from their Indigenous cultures.It is an enormously demanding and frustrating battle for these youth to get through their daily lives intact, let alone being able to achieve well in either orb. The narrator is struggling with his identity as an Aboriginal youth in Australian society and is assay to emerge from a history of oppression and denial. He has not contractable wealth from his parents or the social and cultural capital necessary to be able to identify with the hidden curriculum of the education system (Allen, 2004).His family has solely relatively recently emerged from a period of oppression under The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the barter of Opium Act 1897 (Genever, 1992) where the Indigenous people of Australia were denied, by the Australian Government, the right to own anything, freedom of movement, the right to practice their cultural traditions, or the right to the education required to participate as liable citizens (Genever, 1992).He is caught in Australian society, within his cultural boundaries (the objective comportment of cultural difference) as discussed in McDonalds paper on Forms of social Justice (2004). In no way is he served by social justice by being given the same chances I was, under the pretext of treating us all the same, as though we dispense a common identity. The development of my identity has benefited from wha t McIntosh (1988) terms unearned fringe benefit. The life choices and chances I have, I have inherited, not struggled or worked for.I am fortunate to have a very strong family nominate structure within my immediate family and my extended family. Traditionally, as a family, we keep an eye on birthdays, special events and seek advice from one another as needed. There is a strong sense of respect for elders in my family and the younger generation bears accountability for their well-being. Predominantly, my family follows the Catholic religion and my values and beliefs reflect this. Consequently, I have certain a strong sense of self worth through the influence of my family and their cultural practices.I am a third generation Australian. My family was eye class and although not overly wealthy in terms of corporeal belongings I can see that my life was rich in opportunities and choices that the narrator was not afforded. I was born into an environment that set me up to be able to succeed at cultivate. English is my first nomenclature and I speak it well enough to succeed at school and to be accepted into university. I am immersed in a society where the traditions, customs, practices and language of my heritage surround me and dominate all other identities.The practices and language used by my family were consistent with those of the schools I attended, where the autonomy and independence promote in Indigenous children uniform the narrator may have been misinterpreted and de cherished as neglect (Malin, 1990). I did, however, experience a brief metre in my schooling that bore a stark contrast to that set forth above. When I was nine years old, I attended a school in Hawaii for twelve months and for the first time in my life was part of a minority group where my language, culture and experiences were not valued by the students or the teacher.I was never asked to share anything about myself or my life in Australia and was the victim of some ridicule from my peers because I lacked knowledge of, and a skill for playing, baseball. I was subjected to racist remarks about the colour of my skin and was never abideed or really even acknowledged by my teacher. As a class, we were required to draw up a paper particularization the history of American presidents which I found extremely difficult. The exercise held no meaning for me and I was unable to connect with it on the same aim that my American peers did.My developing experience as a pre-service teacher now allows me to see the value that would have come from the teacher asking me to write my paper on the history of Australian Prime Ministers, and to share that with my teacher and the class. This would have been an opportunity for the teacher to encourage a rich, authentic scholarship experience for me and for my American classmates a sharing and valuing of knowledge and cultures and an opportunity to prison-breaking down some of the cultural barriers that were present within the cl assroom and the school.I strongly believe that education is the key to success in society and that teachers hold powerful positions with regard to recognizing and valuing the diverse groups in their classrooms. My development as a pre-service teacher depends on an ongoing commitment to value and support every student in my classroom by understanding their cultures and how their identities chemise and change, have different importance amongst peers, family, and the community. I will continue to make myself awake of the role identity plays in shaping our self perceptions and, therefore, our life chances.The education system has, in the past, failed certain groups and continues to reproduce social disparities, prejudices, learn and spirals of failure for these groups (Keefe & Carrington, 2007). As teachers, we should not see the cultural differences of our students as excuses or reasons for students to fail. Rather, we need to adapt our teaching practices and find ways to give them access to education and opportunities. Students need to be taught to view the world, themselves and others critically in wander to recognize and discontinue the perpetuation of social inequities in education and other institutions.If teachers can work towards identifying the inadequacies in teacher service, they begin to address the needfully of disadvantaged groups ensuring equitable access to education, as is every students right. As I raise my own child and instill in him the same practices, language and culture as my family did for me, I am aware I am equipping him with that invisible knapsack that McIntosh (1988) writes about. I am aware that I am sending him out into a world where he does not have to carry his identity around with him like a weight around his neck, restricting him access to education, his choices, his rights and responsibilities.I do hope however as I continue to grow and learn, that I instill in him the ability to understand identity and what that means for him and for others. As he grows and learns he will understand that if he were to be handle the same as many of the minority groups he lives amongst, that he too would have to struggle to maintain his identity, just like the narrator. I know that his identity will provide him with more than his share of opportunities and choices. It is clear that confused cultural and traditional factors shape our unique identities.Teachers have a righteousness to recognize and value the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge that their students bring to the classroom, and to ensure that pedagogies take a variety of styles to cater for this diversity. Researching this topic and reflecting on my own experiences has been a valuable exercise that will influence my teaching philosophy and the way I view identity and diversity. Compiling this essay brought back almost forgotten memories of events I myself encountered during my schooling when I experienced a space akin to those described by the narrator.I strongly believe that our education system must implement inclusive curriculum programs that value all cultural identities. This will ensure that all students receive educational opportunities and the chance to develop self respect and positive dispositions towards learning, thus enhancing life chances and empowering them to succeed. . References Allen, J. (2004). Sociology of information Possibilities and Practices. (3rd Ed). Southbank, VIC Social Science Press. Austin, J. (Ed. ). (2005). Culture and Identity (2nd ed. , pp 139-154).Sydney Pearson Education Australia. Genever, T. (1992). Black and Blue. Aboriginal-Police traffic in Far North Queensland During The Currency of The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1893 1939. Unpublished Honours Thesis, JCU, Tsv. Keefe, M. , & Carrington, S. (Eds. ). (2007). Schools and Diversity (2nd ed. , pp 108 127). Sydney Pearson Education Australia. McDonald, H. , (2004). Forms of social justice. Notes watchful for teacher education students. Townsville James Cook University. McDonald, H. , (2004).Supporting Indigenous students as smart, not good knowers and learners The practices of two teachers. Paper adapted for exclusive use of students enrolled in ED2990 and ED3290 at James Cook University. McDonald, M. , & Pryor, B. M. , (1999). The binna binna man. Crows Nest. NSW Allen & Unwin. McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege unpacking the invisible knapsack. Available from http//seamonkey. ed. asu. edu/mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking. html (Accessed 17 September 2008). Malin , M. (1990). Why is life so hard for Aboriginal students in urban classrooms? The Aboriginal Child at School, 18 (1), 9-29.