My name is Thomas Undy, and I am a New Zealander. I am the eldest son in a family of four, which moved to Dunedin, from Wellington, when I was three. I attended Arthur Street School, where I was a member of the Montessori classroom. During my time at Arthur Street School, I developed a passion for sport, mainly hockey. This passion followed me to Bayfield High School, where I played for the 1st XI team, as well as the Otago under 15 and under 18 age group teams. After finishing high school I worked for a year in retail before enrolling at the Otago University College of Education, where I am now a final year student. Collectively, these educational, life, and sporting experiences make me who I am today, but how have they done so? And, what does it really mean to be a New Zealander?
For me, being a New Zealander means holding and upholding a set of values that have been shaped by my experiences. Through being educated in environments that promote the values of diversity, excellence, honesty, integrity, self-discipline, and an individual's agency, I have come to hold these as my own. Playing hockey has enabled me to strengthen and uphold these values, especially excellence and self-discipline, as has my work experience in retail. Holding and upholding a set of values is, however, not the only defining feature of what I believe a New Zealander to be. It is also the characteristics we display that make us who we are.
There are a range of characteristics that New Zealanders exhibit. These include modesty, fairness, informality, practicality, and ingenuity (McCrone, 2008). The two I most identify with are modesty and fairness. I do so because my experiences have shaped me into a modest and fair person. For instance, through being chosen to represent Otago over some of my friends, I learnt to play down my achievements to them while at the same time holding onto my own sense of achievement. It is because of such experiences that I believe modesty and fairness to be among the defining features of me as a New Zealander, and what I believe it means to be a New Zealander
According to McCrone (2008), "authenticity matters" (p. 10). He may be writing about branding, but I believe some interesting parallels can be drawn between the way New Zealand markets itself to the world and the way I market myself as a teacher to children. For instance, Tourism New Zealand markets our country as "100% Pure" (p. 9), when a World Health Organisation shows Auckland to be dirtier than New York (Yahoo New Zealand, 2011). If i were to market myself to my students as a 'know it all brain box' would that be beneficial to their learning? No, probably not. As teachers we need to be honest about who we are. For me, that means being modest about my own achievements whilst celebrating theirs, being firm but fair and following through with appropriate consequences, and letting them know that I too am still learning.
Generally I would have made some teaching tips, but in a moment of self-proclaimed brilliance, I have briefly discussed some implications the issue of authenticity will have on my teaching practice in the above paragraph.
Read this brief news report and you
be the judge.
