Out of Water
I created this critical commentary for my graduate theories of human development class at the University of Rochester. The professor asked us to read "Funds of knowledge for the poor and forms of capital for the rich?" by Rios-Aguilar, Kiyama, Gravitt, and Moll (2011). We were then asked to describe a situation where we felt out of water. My critical commentary is below.
Out of Water
A situation that felt completely new to me was when I decided to go back to college to study psychology as a non-matriculated undergraduate student at City College New York. I had not been in school since my last masters over 10 years ago. Back in school, I was in classes with students who were probably 18 or 19, with me as a 40-something year old man. Sitting in the lecture hall I felt completely out of water. I felt the other students were scared of me and didn't want to interact. What compounded this was that I was also in a situation where I was required to get a B or more in order to transition directly to become a matriculated masters student, so I felt a lot of pressure.
The uncertainty and inconsistency in instruction was of most concern. I found discrepancies between the provided communications and materials and what lecturers and TAs said and did. Coming from the corporate world, I found the quality of the academic experience to be less than what I was accustomed to. People would take a long time to respond to queries and their responses would be unclear and incomplete. There was no guide for me on how to act.
If I were to revisit the situation now, I would probably go in expecting a more chaotic experience. To cater to this, I would have allowed even more time for organization upfront myself. I probably would have asked to meet with my lecturers and TAs sooner to explain my unique situation and build relationships to recruit their assistance.
The script I developed now reads to expect more chaos and take on more proactive organization and relationship building myself. The script also embodies culture, as I was studying at City College New York, many of my fellow students were minorities. The techniques they used to achieve that I perceived were to collaborate closely with each other and share resources and materials, I saw many of them sharing notes and using unofficial social channels.
This makes me think about the concept of “Funds of Knowledge”. At City College I was very impressed by how students were able to work together to pass a course.
When I think about communities of practice. My experience was that I didn’t really feel included at City College, I felt out of place, despite some great individual relationships with instructors. This has been a common theme for me throughout my life. As a nerd I was rejected from many social groups and if it were up to inclusion in a community of practice to succeed I would have failed in a big way. The only saving grace for me was that if I could get the course materials and study, then I would ace the objective tests. So for me, inclusion in a community of practice is a scary concept as I’ve often not felt it.
What this example means for me is that some people naturally possess social skills and fit in easily, while others may never feel that they belong. In my practice, I aim to accommodate both types of individuals, ensuring no bias towards one or the other.
