Telling my Story: Classroom Practice for Personal Self-Realization and Interactive Cross-Cultural Practices

By Professor Serena Gould

The primary objectives of our class visit to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) were: (i) to adhere to the integrated skills requirements of the ELAI990 syllabus while providing dynamic and relevant coursework around my four modular themes: Immigration; Language; Culture; and Identity; (ii) to engage students in personal self-reflective practices using narrative inquiry, which I am proposing will enable constructive interactive cross-cultural dialogic across multiple points of view and experiences. In addition, I wished to use this opportunity confirm my research proposal for using personal narrative to embrace diversity and counteract prejudice.

Our Fellows visited the NPG in April, which began a valuable connection for my work in tandem with the excellent cache of resources provided by Briana and the education department. After a four-day summer training workshop at the NPG, the staff were enormously helpful as I began to develop materials for my research.  The culmination of this project provided our class with a personal tour on Sunday afternoon, the 10^th November, given by Nicole Vance, our guide from the NPG. I had prepared them before the visit with multiple videos, articles, discussion groups, writing assignments, a questionnaire and vocabulary pertaining to our themes. In addition, they had already been familiarized with the layout and contents of the museum and the Smithsonian Learning Lab by using the virtual online resources; only one of the students had visited the NPG prior to this, and only two had ever experienced a museum visit.

https://npg.si.edu/sites/default/files/npg_pre-visit_lesson_0.pdf .

The museum trip, entitled: “Finding Identity Through Portraiture,” meshed perfectly with the themes for our coursework.

https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/exploring-identity-through-portraiture/AfsekHKtni1NAfE6

Doing this field trip in week 10 of the Fall semester was not deliberate, but the several postponements turned out to be fortuitous in terms of the the enhanced new skills they were developing during coursework in critical thinking, analysis and interpretation. The NPG created a gateway through which students could use this knowledge to explore, confront and recognize the elements of identity; they were engaged in making meaning while thinking about their own individual, familial and collective identities while  responding to the portraits to develop their personal narrative.

We all travelled together from the Silver Spring Metro Station, which was a first trip for several students. Arriving early in case of any delays, we formed an animated group chatting and laughing in an informal setting as we walked towards the Mall; even that was a new experience for most students. I used this opportunity to point out the historical buildings from different periods of the history of DC (and the history of the USA) among the modern ones. They became experts at spotting and identifying these as we went along.

Nicole met us at the entrance and our 17 minute tour took us through a variety of portraits that she used to analyze in terms of nine categories: medium, scale, setting, objects, facial expression, pose, clothing, hairstyle, color, artistic style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xU8wC7sQl8

My second activity was to take students into the Presidents’ Gallery. To prepare for our compare and contrast essay, I asked them, in pairs, to select two different presidential portraits to compare. They presented their findings the following week.

My third activity was to use our remaining 15 minutes to each choose a particular portrait that resonated with them personally. They would have to research this in the NPG website and present individually, showing their analysis of the portrait in terms of its descriptive parameters and extrapolating why they found the portraits meaningful. Object-based learning at its most successful, in this case! The beautiful building was another awesome add-on:

It was so rewarding to see their rapt attention:

Our return home lead to a slew of projects for the following week. Most uplifting were their comments, which demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of the project. These show two important outcomes which support my research proposal and showed up in almost all their comments: firstly, the developing bonds within the class that supercede any differences; and secondly the process of self-realization and cross-cultural understandings they had experienced together as a result of the verbalization process. The Smithsonian Fellowship proved itself to be a lifechanging experience for all of us.