Boya Di, ASA002 A03, Week 8

Boya Di
Section: A03
Week 8 Blog

This week's reading material, "Mothering Is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy (Pedagogy of Care)" by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, claims that mothering is liberation and introduces Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales's Alsgaan Pedagogy. Meanwhile, the article describes how Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales uses Alsgaan Pedagogy to help Filipino students.

Allyson thinks mother plays a vital role in family and school. Therefore, Allyson creates Alsgaan Pedagogy that talks about mothers in three parts - home, school, and critical community - to display mothering's functions better. Her main purpose is to teach teenagers how to protect themselves when racist, sexist, and classist try to hurt them. At home, she taught her daughter Mahalaya that everyone is equal in the world, and Mahalaya should love her brown skin and love herself. At school, she helped students to write a recommendation letter and taught students how to improve their writing one-on-one. Moreover, she established Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) community to help Filipino students who were undergoing inter-ethnic violence. However, when she did these works, other professors always cannot understand her. 

I believe that the education of teachers is equally important as that of parents. If parents are viewed as the enlightenment teachers of children, teachers are the guiders in the process of children's growth. Their role is always similar to that of mothers. Moreover, they are more delicate emotionally so that they can better guide the students. In fact, the mental health of students is a topic that has long been overlooked. In school, not only should students complete their onerous courses but also take into account the interpersonal communication among schoolmates. Nevertheless, once they encounter racial discrimination while engaging in exchanges, they cannot solve such problems. Of course, there are more problems not just about racial discrimination but also concerned with emotions and studies. Thus, all students need one person to confide in, and then tell them how to solve such problems. In the article, the author is not merely a mother but also a teacher, whose dual roles have enabled her to give students enough cares and offer them excellent suggestions. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales makes full use of her resources to help students as much as possible. I wish that schools and teachers could catch more sights on students' mental health and that there will be more and more teachers like Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales.

Question: Why other professors cannot understand Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales when she did community works?

Reference:

Brown, M., & Brown, M. (2019, September 30). Professors Holding Students' Babies Are Taking the Childcare Crisis into Their Own Hands. Retrieved from https://www.parents.com/news/professors-are-holding-babies/

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.