Clarissa M.

Darnell
Shanan Fitts, Instructor
CI 5045: Advanced Topics in Diversity

Initial Reflection- My Cultural Identity

To begin a reflection analysis of my cultural identity, I start by acknowledging that I have
not previously taken a large amount of time prior to this assignment to consider my own cultural
identity and how informed I am, in general, of the extent of cultural diversity that surrounds me
on a daily basis. I appreciate this opportunity to recognize and reflect on the diversity present in
my community as well as the various elements of my life that have impacted my personal culture
and how I then can impact or influence my students. Throughout this reflection essay, I will
closely examine three specific aspects of my life, my personal history, my teaching history, and
personal biased, to best evaluate my personal identity.
Beginning by sharing a basic introduction of myself, I can state that I am a twenty-four
year old, Caucasian female from Wilkes County, North Carolina. My husband, Cody, and I were
married six years ago and we have one daughter, Ava, who is five years old. We also have a
daughter on the way, which is expected to be born in June 2013. I currently work as a Pre-K
teacher and my husband is employed by a local furniture company. Within our home, we
equally share roles and responsibilities for caring for our daughter and our household. I would
consider us to fit comfortably in the categorization of working, middle class American citizens.
Although my husband and I grew up in the same small town and attended the same church
throughout our lives and much of our cultural identity was very similar, our age difference
presented one cultural difference as we dated and became married. Over the years, we have had

to learn how to integrate, modify and cooperate with one another to establish and develop our
own family culture, meshing practices and traditions from our childhood within our families.
Our time is consumed by life as working parents, so I do not remain current on issues and topics
occurring on a national and international level. I feel that this places several limitations on my
understanding of cultural diversity, so I rely heavily on being educated by my students and their
families.
In alluding to how my childhood molded the foundation of my cultural identity, I look at
the importance of the construction of my family, my childhood residence, and the important
practices and traditions within our livelihood. I grew up in a small rural town in Wilkes County.
Until the age of seventeen, I lived with my mother, father and two younger sisters. I grew up in
a working, lower class family. Holding full time jobs, my mother put in long, strenuous hours as
a nurse and my father as a mill hand in a milling factory. Although my mother and father both
contributed to the family income with reasonable salaries, I learned quickly that our family lived
on the verge of situational poverty. My mother always ensured that my sisters and I had what
was needed, and even some extras, but leisure and entertainment definitely came from sacrifice
and hardship. High expectations were set in regards to contributing to our household. A great
deal of responsibility was given to me and my younger sisters to assist with caring for household
work as gender roles were obvious. Each afternoon my sisters and I would have a list of daily
chores to complete, followed by completing our homework before any leisure time could be
spent on an activity of choice. My mother cooked dinner and cleaned the house each afternoon
following her work day while my father rested in his recliner watching television. His
expectations of my sisters and I were to answer to his needs and requests with no questioning or
argument.

As my sisters and I began to participate in sports and extracurricular activities for

entertainment and leisure, we found enjoyment in afternoon and summer sporting organizations.
My father became very interested in furthering my sports opportunities when I was in middle
school, particularly fast-pitch softball. I began playing in weekend softball tournament games
and taking lessons. I witnessed the financial burden become increasingly hard on my parents. I
remember specifically attending a tournament one weekend only entering the gates with my
father while my mother and sisters waited outside the field gates for the day because we did not
have enough money for them to pay the entrance fee to enter the tournament to watch the game.
Although the burden and concern for money was evident, I was able to see the joy on my
mothers face during this time as she was content with my pleasure and enjoyment of pursuing
an activity that I enjoyed. My father and I continued to spend a great deal of time together on
throughout my adolescent and teenage years as I persistently participated in fast-pitch softball of
several levels. Competitiveness and striving for perfection became characteristics my father
stressed as high priority. These characteristics have definitely remained part of my cultural
identity, as throughout my life I continuously strive for perfection in most activities in which I
participate.
Exemplifying other aspects of my childhood that have shaped my cultural identity, it is
important to look at the demographics of the town in which I grew up. As I mentioned earlier,
the town was rural with a great deal of land devoted to farming and livestock. There was
minimal racial diversity present in the area. I do recall Hispanic laborers working in the fields,
but do not recall children attending school with me. From the time of attending elementary
school through the end of high school, the only racial diversity I recall being present was
African- American peers, and that number was very small. Still today, with my youngest sister

attending the school, she reports that the racial diversity is still very low in that there are
approximately less than ten African-American students and equal approximation of Hispanic
students.
Within the large population of White residents in the town, the dominant religious
affiliation was assumed to be Baptist as a Baptist church adorns each street corner. My family
was included in this statistic, as we attended the Southern Baptist church one mile down the
street from our home. The religious philosophy of the church where I was raised has played a
large factor in shaping my cultural identity. As a Southern Baptist, I strongly feel that my
religious beliefs have caused me to have several discomforts and biased toward other cultures
and groupings of people, which will be discussed in greater depth at a later point in this essay.
As much of this reflection has been devoted to examining my childhood and the
foundational aspects of my cultural identity, it is also imperative to look at how my education
and profession has also impacted who I am. At the age of 18, my husband and I married and
moved approximately fifteen miles outside the town in which we grew up. One year after
moving, I began working for the elementary school where I still currently work. I began
working as a teacher assistant in a Pre-K classroom as I pursued my education through an online
bachelors degree program. Two years later, I began my current job as a Pre-K lead teacher.
Upon first moving to the area, I immediately identified that the cultural diversity was more
prevalent in this school than I have been previously acquainted. To provide specific examples of
the more diverse populations of people I became aware with, the variety of religious affiliations
expanded in that churches present in the area included Baptist, Methodist, and Jehovah Witness,
as well as a more dense population of racial diversity was also more prevalent in that a greater

population of Hispanic families live in the area. A third cultural group that I began to gain more
information about was the economically disadvantaged or families below the poverty line.
The school by which I am employed is considered a Title I school due to the high number
of students that are from families of low income. At least half of the students in our school
receive free or reduced lunch due to these income qualifications. Working within the Pre-K
program in Wilkes County and being required to conduct home visits with the families of our
students, the cultures of these families became more concrete to me. Housing conditions of
families in my community, more often than not, seem to be below standard and the children are
often lacking their basic needs being met within the home. Speaking specifically to this topic, I
attended a very influential and eye-opening workshop about families living in poverty. During
this meeting, the presenter discussed factors and causes of poverty, being generational or
situational. Real video documentaries and testimonies were shared from people living in
impoverished situations. Ending the workshop, the facilitator prompted a scenario role play in
which all participants had to act as a member of a family living in poverty. Specific situations
were presented to the family and the group had to make decisions based on what the family
was facing. This activity allowed me to experience firsthand the type of hardships and
circumstances these families face from day to day.
Combining my personal history and most resent teaching experience, I had previously
found myself falling victim to judgment or assumption when questioning reasoning and ideology
of how family whose culture is different from my own. I have found that I can personally relate
to some families while I have formed biases or a prejudice to certain families due to lifestyle and
personal choices. As mentioned previously, I feel that my religious affiliation and simplistic lack
of knowledge has shaped a great deal of the biases that I have. Speaking specifically, I am

uncomfortable with the lifestyle choices of families outside of heterosexual, monogamous

relationships. Also having experienced the belief difference of persons of the Jehovah Witness
faith, I often find myself questioning their philosophies rather than attempting to learn more in
order to develop an understanding and appreciation for the differences. Other cultural
differences that I am have limited background experience and knowledge about include wealthy
families, military families, and families of a different linguistic background. Within my
classroom, the population of Hispanic families is growing, so I would like to become more
culturally aware of their lifestyle in order to make them feel more welcome and a valued part of
our classroom community and part of their childs educational experience.
With now completing this reflective essay and the Cultural Awareness Profile, I feel that
I becoming more aware of my own cultural identity. My goal is that these tools, as well as
completing this class will help me to be more cultural sensitive and overcome bias and prejudges
in order to better serve my students and their families. The majority of the Pre-K curriculum I
use is based around the interests of the children, so I want to be able to incorporate all culturally
based interests in order to educate myself as well as the other children in the class. My
professional goal as a teacher is to establish a positive relationship with my students and their
families in order to make their first school experience positive. I do not want to allow my own
cultural identity and biased to interfere or impact an effective outcome.