Cultural Autobiography 1

CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY FOR CHRISTIAN

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATORS:

A Way of Understanding Self and Others

By Heewon Chang, Ph. D.

hchang@eastern.edu

610-341-1597 (U. S. office)

610-964-8811 (U. S. home)

(Under consideration by Journal of Education and Christian Belief)

Abstract: As cultural diversity increases in classrooms, it becomes imperative for

teachers to gain multicultural competency so that they can provide effective instruction to
diverse students. This paper argues that the development of multicultural competency
should be solidly grounded on reflective, empathic, and critical understanding of one’s
own culture as well as others. This cultural understanding, particularly from a Christian
perspective, recognizes the connectivity of self and others in God. To enhance the
cultural understanding, the author recommends studying self-narratives written by others
and writing one’s own cultural autobiography.
Keywords: cultural autobiography, self-narratives, self-reflection, Christian multicultural
education, discourse of others

Abstract: 100 words

Manuscript: 5,647 words
Cultural Autobiography 2

CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY FOR CHRISTIAN

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATORS:

A Way of Understanding Self and Others

Abstract: As cultural diversity increases in classrooms, it becomes imperative for

teachers to gain multicultural competency so that they can provide effective instruction to
diverse students. This paper argues that the development of multicultural competency
should be solidly grounded on reflective, empathic, and critical understanding of one’s
own culture as well as others. This cultural understanding, particularly from a Christian
perspective, recognizes the connectivity of self and others in God. To enhance the
cultural understanding, the author recommends studying self-narratives written by others
and writing one’s own cultural autobiography.
Keywords: cultural autobiography, self-narratives, self-reflection, Christian multicultural
education, discourse of others

‘Who is my neighbor’? Jesus answered this simple question with the compelling
parable of ‘the good Samaritan’ (Lk. 10:30-37). In this story the meaning of neighbor is
intriguingly embedded in the complex multicultural reality of his time. The victim of the
crime is a Jew, an insider of the biblical tradition. One who kindly responds to his
suffering is a Samaritan, an outsider whose community has been historically shunned by
Jews for ethnic, cultural and religious reasons. At the conclusion of the story Jesus urges
his Jewish questioner to ‘go and do’ like the Samaritan who transcended his socio-
cultural predicament, imposed by history, to show mercy to the Jewish victim. This story
teaches us that the neighbor is ‘anyone in need’, even those whom we do not like or are
not like us.
Jesus’ calling, then and now, to reach out to our neighbors across differences does
not make Christian living simple or easy, especially when the neighbors refer to enemies 1
(Mt. 5:43-48). Adhering to Jesus’ radical command poses even a greater challenge to
Christian educators because they cannot remain in the protective enclave of Christian
fellowship. Instead they need to go out to the world, where different values often
compete and collide with their own. They are expected to work with children of all kinds
entrusted to them. The question that Christian teacher educators must ask themselves is
how to prepare these future teachers to be ‘as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves’
(Mt. 10:16) in the multicultural world. In this paper I intend to share a way of helping
Christian teachers understand self and others in relation to God so that they can affirm
their Christian identity while carrying out passionately Jesus’ calling of love and mercy
to others in this culturally diverse world.

1
Pohl, C. D., Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999).
Cultural Autobiography 3

Understanding Self
Let our understanding of self, others, and God begin with the discussion of self.
The motive of beginning with self is not based on ‘selfism’ 2 , but on the simple fact that
an individual (self) is a basic unit of a community. Although the connectivity between
self and others is commonly acknowledged, self is viewed differently in relation to others
at different times in the Western history and by non-Western societies. Christian
theology yet adds God to the dyadic relationship of self and others.
Gergen notes that the Western concept of self has changed from the romantic
perspective of the 19th century, to the modern of the 20th century, to the postmodern of
the contemporary era 3 . He characterizes the nineteenth-century romantic view of self as
‘one that attributes to each person characteristics of personal depth: passion, soul,
creativity, and moral fiber’. From this perspective, a person’s emotion, feeling, and
intuition are considered integral to selfhood. In contrast to the romantic view, modernists
de-emphasize the affective and intuitive attributes of self; instead they highlight the
ability of the self to reason. With the scientific advancement during the 20th century, a
person’s reason and objectivity are far more valued. However, contemporary
postmodernists are skeptics of this modernist’s sense of a rational, orderly self. They
replace the modern belief in ‘moral imperatives’ and autonomous self with the disturbing
recognition of a fragmented self ‘saturated’ with over-commitment to often divergently
pulling forces and demands of surroundings 4 .
The concept of self is varied not only historically but also cross-culturally. Lee
and Geertz remind us that not every society views self as a unique, separate, and
autonomous being to be distinguished from others and to be elevated to the center of the
universe above a community 5 . For example, Wintu and Oglala, Native American tribes,
do not see self and others to be separate and mutually contradictory, but to be inclusive
and complementary. Collectivism 6 , illustrated by Wintu and Oglala cultures, also
characterizes the first-century Mediterranean culture that permeates the New Testament
writings. Malina uses the term ‘dyadism’, in lieu of collectivism, to describe the ‘strong
group orientation’, manifested in the New Testament culture, in which ‘persons always
considered themselves as inextricably embedded…conceive[d] of themselves as always
interrelated with other persons while occupying a distinct social position both
2
‘Selfism’ refers to relentless and single-minded self-searching where self is glorified. Vitz argues that
selfism is “at cross-purposes with the Christian injunction to lose the self” (Vitz, P. C., Psychology as
Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977)
p. 126).
3
Gergen, K. J., The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life (New York: Basic Books,
1991) p. 6.
4
Gergen (1991) p.7; Grenz, S. J., A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1996); Taylor, C., Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1989).
5
Lee, D., Freedom and Culture (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1959); Lee, D., Valuing the Self:
What We Can Learn from Other Cultures (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1986); Geertz, C., ‘“From the
native’s point of view”: On the nature of anthropological understanding’ in Shweder, R. A. and Levine, R.
A. (ed.), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University,
1984) pp. 123-136.
6
Triandis, H. Individualism and Collectivism (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1995) p. 2.
Cultural Autobiography 4

horizontally…and vertically’ and ‘live[d] out the expectations of others’ 7 . In such a

culture, selfhood is understood only in relation to others within a community.
Christian theology presents another view of self. Charry observes the difference
between the Christian self and the secular one: ‘the secular self is grounded in itself,
while the Christian self is grounded in God’ 8 . The Christian view affirms that a person
is created by God and called to be in relationship with Him. The relationship between the
self and God is also expressed in the interconnectedness of the self with others 9 . In this
view a self is no longer considered self-sufficient, capable of taking total control of its
existence, but sinful and frail, needing to be ‘reconciled’ to God (2Co. 5:17-20). Thus
self-preoccupation, self-fulfillment, self-absorption, self-gain, and self-autonomy are
inconsistent with the Christian view of self 10 . A Christian self can neither be strictly self-
sufficient, independent, and autonomous, as modernists view, nor be aimless, fragmented,
and pessimistic, as postmodernists argue. Instead, it acknowledges a need of dependence
on its Creator and interdependence with others by voluntarily repositioning itself in
relation to God and His creation.

Understanding Others
Understanding of self then compels us to understand others. ‘Others’ here refer to
all other human beings beside self, including three types of others: (1) those who share
similar values and worldviews with a self (others of similarity); (2) those who belong to
different communities and do not share many values and worldviews with the self (others
of difference); and (3) those who are in a hostile relationship with the self (others of
opposition).
The concept of others is important in Christian theology because a self’s
relationship to God is intertwined with its relationship to others and Christians are called
to respond to the needs of others. Discussing Christian hospitality, Pohl argues that
God’s people are expected to show, and have actually provided, hospitality through
meals, lodging, and companionship to others of all kinds throughout the biblical and
church history 11 . She continues that Jesus provides a model for hospitality toward others
by intermingling both guest and host roles during his ministry.
To respond to the needs of others effectively, one may first pursue genuine
understanding of others—whether others of similarity, difference, or opposition.
Understanding of others takes two steps: (1) having genuine encounters with them and
(2) gaining insiders’ perspectives by viewing their experiences from their eyes. A
genuine relationship develops from an ‘I-Thou’ encounter, as opposed to an ‘I-It’

7
Malina, B. J., The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology (Louiville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox, 1993) p. 67.
8
Charry, E. T., ‘The crisis of modernity and the Christian self’ in Volf, M. (ed), A Passion for God’s
Reign: Theology, Christian Learning, and the Christian Self (Grand Rapids, NJ: William B. Eerdmans,
1990) p. 95.
9
Thieselton, A. C., Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self: On Meaning, Manipulation and Promise
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995).
10
Farnsworth, K. F., ‘Furthering the kingdom in psychology’ in Holmes, A. (ed.), The Making of a
Christian Mind: A Christian Worldview and the Academic Enterprise (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity
Press 1985).
11
Pohl (1999).
Cultural Autobiography 5

encounter, according to Martin Buber 12 . In this I-Thou encounter, people acknowledge

human dignity in each other and are engaged in genuine dialogue as a person to a person,
not as a subject to an object. Neither pretense nor insincerity has a place in this
relationship. In addition to genuine encounters, a true understanding of others also
requires one to make attempts to understand others’ experiences from their perspectives.
This empathic understanding (verstehen in German) is an act of putting aside one’s own
framework and ‘seeing [others’] experiences within the framework of their own’ 13 .
Although perfect verstehen is impossible within our human capacity, attempts to do so
can reduce incorrect judgments of others and enhance rich understanding of strangers.
While these steps are equally helpful in understanding others of any kind, it may
take a different course of action in understanding others of similarity than those of
difference. To continue the discussion, we need to comprehend how the sense of self
develops in the context of community. As one participates in a primary community (e.g.,
family or religious community) or a secondary community (e.g., professional or interest
organization), a self learns acceptable values, norms, and customs from others in the
community. This socialization-enculturation process continues from generation to
generation, contributing to the continuity of the community. In this give-and-take
process a self is invariably bound with others within its cultural group. Consequently, a
self becomes mirrored in others and others become an extension of self in a cultural
sense. Cultural presuppositions shared by the self and others in this context are the
foundation of homogeneity, unity, and congruity within the community. In such a
culturally ‘congruent’ society, relating to others may not be such a daunting task because
understanding others begins with affirming the self.
When dealing with others of difference, understanding others does not come
automatically by knowing and affirming self because others would represent different
ethnic, racial, religious, gender, ability, age, socio-economic, professional, political, or
interest communities. How can a self then relate to others in such a context? The first
task is to understand, but not to ‘exaggerate’, otherness—differences between self and
others. A search for commonality could be legitimated by the theological claim that ‘the
stranger was created in the image of God and was made of the same human flesh’ 14 .
External differences, therefore, should not keep Christians from embracing others of
difference, even others of opposition, as Jesus commended to ‘love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you’ (Mt. 5:43). Anchored firmly on this Christian
perspectives of self and others, one then can temporarily put his/her cultural standards on
hold, boldly cross cultural boundaries, and experience ‘immersion’ into others’
cultures 15 . Totally breaking away from one’s own culture is almost impossible and not
even advisable if understanding self and others is to be achieved in a healthy balance
between affirmation of the self and respectful acknowledgment of others. Yet, leaving
one’s cultural standards momentarily and seeing others from the perspectives of the
others are helpful and also needed. By distancing from self one will be able to analyze

12
Panko, S. M., Martin Buber (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1976).
13
Greertz (1984) p. 126.
14
Pohl (1999) p. 97.
15
Lingenfelder, J. ‘Training Education Students for Multicultural Classrooms’ in Christian Scholar’s
Review25:4 (1996) pp. 491-507.
Cultural Autobiography 6

similarities and differences between self and others more objectively. In this process a
self may learn from others and take in a part of others.
Genuine and thoughtful cultural crossing may result in ‘edgewalkers’. They have
developed solid cross-cultural competence through extensive ‘lived’ experiences with
different cultural communities and simultaneously maintain a healthy understanding of
self. They exhibit the following qualities:

‘1) comfort, if not identification, with a particular ethnic, spiritual or cultural

group, 2) competence thriving in mainstream culture, 3) the capacity to move
between cultures in a way that an individual can discuss with some clarity, 4) the
ability to generalize from personal experience to that of people from other groups
without being trapped in the uniqueness of a particular culture….’ 16

Edgewalkers turn their former others of difference into others of similarity as they reduce
strangeness in others and expand their cultural boundaries. While changing themselves,
they also engage others in the changing process, for the others can hardly remain the
same in the genuine cross-cultural pollination. Both self and others would end up
expanding their cultural boundaries to include each other.
The same principle of cultural expansion can be applied at the society level. In
the process a community can expand its boundaries to include communities of difference
and becomes an ‘extended community.’ This community is characterized as ‘attentive to
difference, open to the idea of plurality’ and grounded on ‘the desire to extend the
reference of “us” as far as we can’ 17 . The extended community redefines the division of
‘us and them’ and expands the boundaries to include former others of difference into the
realm of the community. Based on Jesus’ calling for love, peace, and justice for all
people, Pohl’s theology of hospitality and Mouw’s theology of ‘Common Grace’
supports the notion of the extended community 18 .
How should then Christian multicultural educators respond to God’s relational
calling in their classrooms and schools where others of all kinds—of similarity,
difference, and opposition—are mixed? Cerebral commitment to respecting and
acknowledging the human dignity of others may not be easy but doable, even when
strangeness of others is obvious. Yet, realistic balance between honoring the cultural
particularities of their students and affirming the Christian ontological orientation toward
the universal truth can be much more challenging to Christian teachers. In the web of
multiple perspectives the challenge can be quite demanding. Here they need to affirm the
essence of their faith, grounded on the non-negotiable truth, while differentiating the
essence from the negotiable cultural influences of the world. While honoring and
adopting some cultural differences, they need to be reminded that ‘loyalty to difference,

16
Kreb, N. B., Edgewalkers: Defusing Cultural Boundaries on the New Global Front (Far Hills, NJ: New
Horizon, 1999) p.1.
17
Greene, M., ‘The passions of pluralism: Multiculturalism and the expanding community’ in Noel, J.
(ed.), Sources: Notable Selection in Multicultural Education (Guilford, CT: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 2000)
pp. 44, 45.
18
Pohl (1999); Mouw, R. J., He Shines in All That’s Fair (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2001).
Cultural Autobiography 7

[plurality per se] is not the highest good’ 19 . Only through tamed multiplicity of
perspectives, Christian multicultural educators would be able to glean valuable
particularities while maintaining commitments to their faith and profession.
The concept of edgewalking may be useful in discovering a workable strategy for
Christian multicultural teachers. Jesus’ life provides a great example of edgewalking.
First of all, there is no other greater example of voluntary border-crossing than his
incarnation into humanity. Then, on the earth he boldly crossed familiar cultural
boundaries of orthodox Judaism to reach others. His encounters with sinners and social
outcasts were nothing but genuine as is illustrated particularly in his interaction with a
Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well (Jn. 4:1-26). Jesus never lost sight of his identity as
Son of God, but exhibited comfort in the company of a variety of people, including this
woman. As he instructed, he preserved integrity in him but was at peace with others. He
dealt effectively and openly with differences between himself (an ethnic and religious
Jew from Galilee who was a male and respectful rabbi) and this woman (an ethnic and
religious Samaritan from Samaria who was a female with a questionable past). By
crossing many ‘uncrossable’ borders voluntarily, Jesus reached out to this woman. He
showed her compassion, taught the truth, and ultimately transformed her soul. As
disciples of Christ, Christian teachers can emulate his approach to people with open-
mindedness, humbleness, and a profound understanding of the notion of ‘Common
Grace’.

Cultural Self-Narratives
One of the practical ways of understanding self and others is studying self-
narratives written by others. Self-narratives are stories of self, written or orated by the
persons who experienced the events. Due to the relational nature of self, stories of self
invariably intertwine stories of others who are intimately or remotely connected to the
self such as family, friends, acquaintances, and even passing strangers. Self-stories also
reflect socio-cultural assumptions and practices of the authors’ communities, as Joannou
points out:

‘The autobiography constructs a picture of autobiographical self in relation to

society which, if it does not strictly mirror the thinking of the social and political
establishment of the time, it is still a picture that the establishment did not find
uncongenial.’ 20

Studying self-narratives of others thus provides a window through which

narrators’ life experiences and the embedded social contexts can be looked at. Since self-
narratives manifest the narrators’ cultural assumptions and practices, closely examining
them will provide readers with opportunities to learn about them. Florio-Ruane discusses
the particular value of using autobiographies, specifically written by writers of color, in

19
Lewis, P., ‘Can Christianity Be Multicultural and Still Be Christian’? in Christian Scholar’s Review 25:4
(1996) p. 458.
20
See Bloom, H., Women Memoirists: Volume One (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998) p. 23.
Cultural Autobiography 8

multicultural education 21 . She argues that reading these self-narratives for group
discussion helped her education students, predominantly White middle-class females,
learn about different cultures presented by the autobiographers of Asian, Hispanic,
African-American, and Native American cultural backgrounds.
Reading and studying others’ self-narratives is hardly a one-sided activity that
results in understanding only others. Studying of others invariably invites readers to
compare and contrast themselves with the cultural texts they read and study, in turn
resulting in understanding self. In her pedagogical strategy of using autobiography
discussion groups, Florio-Ruane discovered that learning about one’s own culture
through self-reflection is another benefit of studying others’ self-narratives 22 . Self-
reflection is a foundation of self-discovery; self-discovery in a cultural sense is intimately
related to understanding others. If the ‘others’ refer to members of one’s own community
(others of similarity), a self is reflected in others. Therefore, understanding others
smoothly transitions to understanding self. If the ‘others’ refer to members of other
communities (others of difference), highlighting differences between self and others
invokes understanding of self.
Self-narratives are found in multiple forms such as journals, diaries, memoirs,
autobiographies, life histories, and auto-ethnographies. Journals and diaries are widely
employed by ordinary and professional writers to record their thoughts and experiences
chronologically; memoirs, autobiographies, and life histories often present stories of
authors in a more organized—often thematically—narrative format; and auto-
ethnographies, defined as ‘a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social
context’ 23 , focus more on the cultural analysis of stories than narration per se. Despite the
differences in formality, extensiveness of coverage, and format, all self-narratives share
the common activities of self-revelation, digging into memories, incorporating personal
stories, and employing self-reflection in the process.
The literature of self-narratives is extensive. Lavery’s on-line list of
‘autobiographies’ 24 contains 236 entries of various forms of self-narratives written in the
English language and, as he claims, is a work in progress. Although mentioning a few
here will not do justice to the extensive body of this literary genre, I will cite only some
of them to illustrate different types and writing styles of self-narratives. Some self-
narratives are thematic or topical. For example, writer Richard Rodriguez’ memoir
focuses on the self-narrator’s educational development as a son of a Mexican
immigrant 25 . The autobiography of Nelson Mandela, former South African President, is
a typical example of a political self-narrative revealing the author’s political activities and
convictions interspersed with personal stories 26 . Some self-narratives center on the

21
Florio-Ruane, S., Teacher Education and the Cultural Imagination (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum,
2001).
22
Florio-Ruane (2001).
23
Reed-Danahay, D. E. (ed.), Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social (New York: Oxford,
1997) p. 9.
24
Lavery, D., Autobiographies: A checklist. [on-line]. Available: http://www.mtsu.edu/~dlavery/abchk.htm
[accessed on April 9, 1999]
25
Rodriguez, R., The Hunger of Memory: Educational Memoir of Richard Rodriguez (New York: Bantam
Books, 1982).
26
Mandela, N., Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (London, UK: Little,
Brown and Company, 1994).
Cultural Autobiography 9

narrators’ spiritual lives. This type of self-narrative includes the conversion story of
Apostle Paul (Gal. 1:11-17 and Ac. 9: 4-5), Confessions by Saint Augustine 27 , Christian
spiritual journals by 17th-century Puritan New Englanders 28 , and contemporary spiritual
autobiographies by Lamott 29 .
Self-narratives are generally penned by the ‘owners’ of the stories, but not always.
In some cases more proficient writers aid in the actual writing or extensive editing of
others’ self-narratives, although the authority of the stories is reserved for the narrators of
the stories. The Autobiography of Malcolm X 30 and Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a
Hopi Indian 31 are products of such collaborative endeavors. Authorship of self-
narratives has become noticeably diversified during the last three decades, including
historically underrepresented populations, such as people of color, women, gays and
lesbians, and people with disabilities 32 .
In self-narratives memories are expressed in various writing styles such as
descriptive/self-affirmative, analytical/interpretive, and confessional/self-critical/self-
evaluative. Although the styles may be enmeshed within a particular self-narrative, one
style may be pronounced in the narrative depending on the intent of the narrator. The
descriptive style of writing is more prominent in literary memoirs, in which stories
themselves are of high value, whereas the analytical and interpretive style dominates
anthropological and sociological writings that utilize autobiographical stories as materials
to analyze rather than as the centerpiece to appreciate. In spiritual self-narratives, such as
aforementioned Christian spiritual autobiographies, story-telling serves as a way of
confessing the authors’ iniquities against God and their neighbors and His merciful
salvation in spite of the narrators’ imperfection. Since God’s forgiving mercy is the
climax of the story, spiritual self-narratives are not, in a sense, stories of self, but of God.
Examining a variety of self-narratives is very useful in understanding the cultures
of narrators. Whether predominantly descriptive, analytical, or confessional, readers
could look into the intersection of self and others embedded in the socio-cultural context
of self-narratives. While an exposure to a variety of self-narratives is beneficial to any

27
Saint Augustine (translated by E. B. Pusey), The Confessions of St. Augustine (New York: Barns and
Noble Books, 1999).
28
The church later published spiritual journals written by Sarah Osborn, Susanna Anthony, Harriett
Newell, Fanny Woodbury, and Abigail Bailey (Taves, A. K., ‘Self and god in the early published memoirs
of New England women’ in Culley, M. (ed.), American Women’s Autobiography: Fea(s)ts of Memory
(Madison, WI: The University of Madison, 1992) pp. 57-74) and Daniel Shea (Mason, M., ‘Dorothy Day
and women’s spiritual autobiography’ in Culley, M. (ed.), American Women’s Autobiography: Fea(s)ts of
Memory (Madison, WI: The University of Madison Press, 1992) pp. 185-217).
29
Lamott, A., Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (New York: Anchor Books, 2000).
30
Haley, A. and Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Chelsea House Publishers,
1996).
31
Simmons, L. W. (ed.), Sun Chief: An Autobiography of a Hopi Indian (New Haven, CT: Yale University,
1942).
32
Angelou, M., I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (New York: Random House, 1969); Bepko, C., The
Heart’s Progress: A Memoir (New York: Penguin Books, 1997); Fries, K. (ed.), Staring Back: The
Disability Experience from the Inside Out (New York: A Plum Book 1997); McKay, N. Y., “The narrative
self: Race, politics, and culture in black American women’s autobiography’ in Smith, S. and Watson, J.
(eds.), Women, Autobiography, Theory (Madison, WI: The University of Madison Press, 1998) pp. 96-207;
Sands, K. M., ‘Indian women’s personal narrative: Voices past and present’ in Culley, M. (ed.), American
Women’s Autobiography (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1992) pp.268-294.
Cultural Autobiography 10

one, self-narratives written by authors of multicultural backgrounds who are Christian

would be particularly beneficial to Christian multicultural educators. Through the
cultural analysis and interpretation of the texts, education students will be able to
discover the interplay of multicultural contexts and narrators’ Christian faith and to
reflect on its implication for their profession in a multicultural world.

Cultural Autobiography for Multicultural Educators

Studying self-narratives, as I argued in the previous section, is a useful exercise in
increasing cultural understanding of self and others. Yet, understanding self vis-à-vis the
stories of others can be limiting because others’ stories, set in the boundaries of strangers,
can narrow the window of self-exploration. Writing one’s own self-narrative opens up
another possibility, in which the experiences of the self are the sole framework for self-
reflection and analysis. I promote ‘cultural autobiography’ as a format for this purpose.
Cultural autobiography is self-narrative as it contains stories of self, but it is
distinguishable from other self-narratives. Instead of emphasizing mere description and
story-telling, cultural autobiographers pay attention to the cultural meanings of events
through intense analysis and interpretation.
I require my graduate and undergraduate students to write a cultural
autobiography in my multicultural education courses 33 . Upon assigning this project I
carefully instruct them not only to narrate their stories of the past, but also to use their
stories as cultural texts to analyze and interpret. For example, students could describe
with interesting details their family dinners at Grandmother’s house on every Sunday
afternoons while growing up; they could include details about who attended, what was
served, and how they spent time together. To be able to analyze and interpret this
memory, however, students need to go beyond these fragmented memories of the family
dinners. With the emphasis on the cognitive and affective aspect of culture—defined as
standards for perceiving, evaluating, believing, and doing 34 —new questions emerge: how
these experiences have shaped the sense of self and community, why the family dinners
were done regularly, and which role Grandmother played in the community.
To aid in the self-reflective process, I engage students in a variety of pre-writing
activities, which I have written about elsewhere 35 . One of the activities is
‘culturegramming’, in which students visually place their multiple identities on a web-
like chart. I encourage students to write down types of communities they are part of, feel
comfortable with, and know a lot of in terms of religion, ethnicity, race, language,
gender, education, vocation, socio-economic status, political orientation, hobby, and
other self-selected categories. A sample culturegram of a student may describe her as a
White, German-descent, Mennonite, republican, English-speaking, female who grew up
in a large farming family of six children with horseback riding as a hobby. At this point,
33
A more detailed description of the assignment is published elsewhere (Chang, H. Cultural autobiography:
A tool to multicultural discovery of self. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education, 1:2 (1999),
Available: http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/1999spring/chang.html).
34
Goodenough, W. H., Culture, Language, and Society (Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings, 1981, 2nd
Ed.) p. 98.
35
Chang, H. ‘Cultural autobiography: Self-reflective practices for multicultural educators’ Paper Presented
at the CCTE Education 2002 Conference (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Calvin College, 2002).
Cultural Autobiography 11

students see themselves as persons with multiple fragmented identities. Then students are
asked to select one-to-three primary identities that would represent them best and
subsequently identify overarching values embracing their fragmented identities. At this
stage of reflection, students need to negotiate between their fragmented self-identities and
a wholesome self. It is common that Christian faith surfaces as one of the primary
identities for my students. The result of the pre-writing activity enters their cultural
autobiography.
While narrating memories, dissecting experiences, and interpreting cultural
meanings, students are engaged in reflection of their past and present. The activity of
narration requires an act of engagement with self. In order to select culturally meaningful
stories, students need to travel back to their past and sort out stored memories, often
fragmented and sometimes buried in the hidden closet. The present perspectives of the
narrators could easily censor the past. Digging into sometimes painful memories could
also strain the process, but somehow most of my students reach a satisfactory level by the
end of the arduous and demanding process. The memory of self is ultimately
acknowledged and affirmed in its own merit.
Differing from narration, the act of cultural analysis and interpretation proves to
be more difficult to my students because the intentional act of distancing from self is
often an unfamiliar exercise, especially to those who had little lived experiences with
others of difference. The activity of analysis and interpretation demands disengagement
from their own stories so that students can gain a contextual understanding of their
experiences to be ultimately evaluated. This meta-cognitive task forces them to assess
their intimate and distanced experiences with their own communities and the larger
society, which have been very integral to their very existence. For my Christian students,
the challenge at this stage is how to bridge their safe, intimate Gemeinschaft with the
larger secular society that is often construed as something different or hostile at worst.
When they survive this more demanding level of self-reflection, they are likely to come
out with an understanding of their own cultural assumptions underlying their behaviors
and the values of their relationship with others of similarity and difference.
Despite the difficulty this self-reflective and self-evaluative assignment is
particularly beneficial to my Christian education students because it helps them to
become cognizant of what is culturally comfortable and strange to them. Whereas mere
narration of their experiences tend to leave their experiences unexamined and could lead
to self-indulgence, cultural self-analysis and interpretation would afford an opportunity to
evaluate self and others critically. Through the opportunity students are encouraged to
tease out their cultural assumptions and practices so that they can shift the focus of their
Christian identity from their cultural influences to the core of the Christian faith—Love
God and your neighbors as yourself.
Self-knowledge gained through cultural autobiography then becomes a foundation
of self-adjustment or self-transformation. Self-adjustment refers to a minor change to
self and self-transformation to a significant change. Self-transformation occurs when self
seeks intentional contacts with unfamiliar others, develops positive attitudes toward them,
and gains new knowledge of their cultures so that the others become no longer strangers
but members of their extended communities. However significant the change to self is, it
is a necessary step in understanding others. At the same, the balance between self-
affirmation and self-transformation is also desired in multicultural education on which
Cultural Autobiography 12

the assignment of writing a cultural autobiography is grounded. Once their spiritual

guidepost is set and their vocational calling is clearly defined, they can venture out into
unknown territories of their students with God-given confidence and Christ-like
openness.

Conclusion
Multicultural education does not, cannot, and should not promote absolute
differences, unexamined cultural relativism, a moral vacuum, and balkanization of
different cultural communities because it needs to operate within the educational mandate
of a society. Multicultural scholars argue that the educational mandate is founded on the
democratic principle of the country—namely, to provide equal educational opportunities
to all students regardless of their backgrounds 36 . In this educational philosophy,
consideration for cultural diversity comes as a means to an end, rather than as an ultimate
goal of absolutizing differences. Yet, balancing between diversity—understanding and
appreciating cultural differences—and unity—fulfilling the universal educational goal of
providing coherent and equal education to all students—is not an easy task in the daily
practices of teachers. For example, imagine a high school teacher who has a female
student from a traditional Punjabi family 37 . Due to the student’s family belief that girls
should not advance to colleges so that they can keep their chastity intact and remain
desirable for an early marriage, the student with an excellent academic ability is kept
from further education and distressed by the conflicting standards between home and
school. How should a multiculturally sensitive teacher act upon this case? Should the
teacher accept the student’s home culture and deprive her of educational opportunities or
ignore the cultural importance to the girl and the family while insisting on the American
vision and her educational values? The answer is never simple, especially provided that
the girl may never be perfectly comfortable with abandoning either side. I do not intend
to provide a black-and-white solution to the case. Yet, I must argue that multicultural
educators need to come up with an answer that would satisfy their conscience,
educational demands, and cultural sensitivity.
Christian multicultural educators have yet another aspect to consider: their
Christian calling. How may their faith affect their decision in such a case? Lewis 38
supports Christian multiculturalism on the grounds of Christology, creation theology, and
ecclesiology. First, he argues that Jesus is a product of a particular culture of his time
and thus we need to honor cultural particularities. Second, God’s creation attests to the
goodness of diversity. Lastly, diverse, yet catholic (universal) church has existed for
many centuries for His people of the world to worship the same God. While
acknowledging the theological foundation of Christian multiculturalism, Christian
multicultural educators need to hear Lewis’ caution that honoring the particularity of

36
Nieto, S., Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (New York:
Longman, 2000, 3rd Ed.).
37
Gibson’s ethnography discusses in detail the bicultural conflict that Punjabi female students experience
as immigrants in the U. S. context (Gibson, M. A., Accommodation without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants
in an American High School (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1988) pp. 111-112).
38
Lewis, P., ‘Can Christianity Be Multicultural and Still Be Christian’? in Christian Scholar’s Review 25:4
(1996) pp. 449-458.
Cultural Autobiography 13

Jesus, diversity of creatures, and denominational differences should be submitted to the

universality of God that created, yet binds, all differences. They may ‘acknowledge and
preserve differences’ but do not absolutize the differences 39 . They may ‘acknowledge
and preserve’ individual rights but do not lose sight of God’s greater command of love,
peace, and justice toward all students 40 . God is our measuring stick, confidant, and guide.
Christian principles do not have to compete with the multicultural educational
commitment; rather they can be driving forces in bringing about the best result. In doing
so Christian multicultural educators need to affirm their Christian self; simultaneously,
they need to examine the meaning of self in relation to others and God. By expanding the
boundaries of their community, to include not only others of similarity but also others of
difference, Christian multicultural educators will be able to follow Jesus, the bold
edgewalker, as his disciples and make a difference in the lives of their students.

39
Lewis (1996) p. 458
40
Wolterstorff, N., Until Justice and Peace Embrace (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1983).
Cultural Autobiography 14

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