Past

1. Briefly describe information you want to share about your family

I was born and raised in the Netherlands, however, it is pretty easy noticeable that I am not a native Dutch person. 

My grandparents came to the Netherlands after the Second World War as guest workers. My father and his younger sister were left behind in Turkey as my grandparents spent all their time working and building on a new life in a completely different country. My grandparents moved to Cuijk and have never left the village to this day.

At the age of 21, my father married my mother who was 19 years of age back in 1991. In 1993 I was born into a home what would eventually be a family of 6 people, consisting of my parents, me and my 3 sisters, now aged 23, 20 and 19.

Lots of “foreigners” have huge families. Since the rest of my family has never had the ambition to move to Europe, most of my family lives in Turkey. Nevertheless, the bond between me and my family in the Netherlands is very tight. Even though my family members are all individuals, we do have some significant characteristics that we all share. Such as our strong facial expressions, the way we express ourselves and our outgoing personalities. I think I am very lucky to have been brought up in a family who tries to find a balance between Western European habits, Asian traditions and Islamic values.

• What can you tell about the international or intercultural background of your parents?

I was not necessarily raised into an extremely religious or traditional family. Of course my entire upbringing was based on Turkish and Islamic standards but at the same time, my parents were (and still are) very much liberal. I think this has to do with the fact that they have had 4 children in 7 years all before they were even 30 years old. 

The international background of my parents contributes to an intercultural upbringing. Even though my parents are both Turkish, they have lived in the Netherlands longer than they have ever lived in Turkey. This means that they took over the Dutch culture a little bit as well.

There are a lot of examples I could give but I will keep it concise. First and foremost, even though we attended a Dutch school, my parents would not let us celebrate Carnaval or Sinterklaas at home. We were allowed to celebrate it at school so we would not feel excluded but it was not an option to expect gifts on December 5th. My mom was very clear about that, she told us that we would get exposed to lots of celebrations such as Christmas but that we only had two occasions to celebrate something and those were Eid-ul Adha and Eid-ul Fitr (suikerfeest and offerfeest). I never understood why, but I did not care enough for it back then to even argue with her about it. 

Furthermore, we were raised to respect older people. Whenever someone enters the room who is older than you we stand up from our seats and welcome them. This is something we still do. We also greet people in the streets and whenever someone comes over, we make sure that people are well fed and feel comfortable in our home. These basic Turkish/Islamic values still play a prominent role in the way I treat people.  On the other hand, my parents are very down to earth and that is a very Dutch characteristic. This is very much in contradiction with the Turkish culture, which is a bit more “hysterical” if I could say so. Having male friends and inviting them to our birthdays have never been an issue for example. My parents also allow me to travel alone with my friends. They trust me and my sisters a lot and this is not something that should be special, but not a lot of foreign parents allow their daughters to be as free as me and my sisters are. 

Lastly, my mother has always taught us to be an independent woman. That is why she encouraged me to go to school and get a degree even though I was 23. 

My parents have really taught us to remain close to the warm aspects of the Turkish and Islamic traditions but also to be down to earth, non-judgemental and free which, in my opinion, are very much aligned with Western aspects.

• Living abroad

In 2018 I lived in Torquay, England for three months. This had to do with my studies. In order to become more fluent in speaking English, all second year students of the Teacher Trainer course had to live in an English speaking country for a minimum of 10 weeks.

• A. what type of secondary school did you go to (f.e tradidional, international, bilingual)?

I went to a Christian secondary school in Cuijk called Merlet College. It was only called a Christian school, we did not pray or do anything else related to Christian values though.

B. Can you remember and describe 1-2 experiences where you learned or experienced something related to world citizenship (f.e a project, a story etc).

I have experienced world citizenship thanks to the exchanges that took place in the 4^th year of my secondary school. Exchange students would come from the Czech Republic, Italy and Hungary and would stay over at our homes. It was a complete different experience for me. Of course I had friends from different nationalities but we were all Dutch on paper. I remember that the exchange student who stayed over at my house was from the Czech Republic. I found out that we had a lot in common culture wise since both Czech people and Turkish people are keen on hospitality but there were some differences I had come across. The Dutch part of me is very direct for instance and I could tell that Czech people are more reserved. So I had to adapt myself a little bit but she did too. She knew we were Muslim so she mentioned that she did not expect me to have alcohol in our home but at the same time alcohol does play a huge role in the Czech culture. I think that was a great moment of awareness, that two people from two different cultures could get along very well as long as the communication was good. 

Furthermore, school did also play a role in my experiences with world citizenship through the course “Maatschappijleer”. We had a project where we had to present different religions and I did not go for Islam but I tried to broaden my horizon by doing a presentation about Christianity. I found out that Islam and Christianity had a lot in common as well but that was the first time that I vividly saw what the differences and similarities were.

•  How would you describe the cultural composition of the neighbourhood(s) or place(s)where you live / have lived?

The cultural composition of the neighbourhood I have lived my whole life could be categorized as “an underdeveloped area” of the village I live in. This has to do with the fact that Cuijk-Noord was the neighbourhood all the guestworkers lived and as their families continued growing, they (we) all stayed in the same neighbourhood. 

It is a very multicultural area. There are Dutch families as well, but mainly from the lower class or the middle class. It is definitely not a ghetto, but there are significant differences between the centre and other neighbourhoods.

• How would you describe the socio-cultural composition of your circle of friends? (f.e. a specific cultural background, subculture etc)

My circle of friends is very diverse. We all have different cultural backgrounds. My group of best friends consists of an Carla, Angolan girl, Suzana, a Serbian girl and Hanae, a Moroccan girl. We are all from middle class families and even though our religions and cultures are very different, we do have the exact same values. Because of our differences we get along so well. My friendship with them really helped me becoming an open minded and tolerant person with huge interest in other people’s cultures. I would not know what to do without them.

• Draw a lifeline in a document on your computer.
• Select events from the lifeline.

Highlight key experiences you think are important for (I) being a world citizen and (II) your personal-professional development

Reflect on why you selected those experiences and write down your explanation

When I take a look back at my life, I realise how blessed I have always been. But there have been some critical events which have shaped me to become who I am. In 2003 I met my best friend. She is black and I am white. She was my first friend with a different skin tone. This has never been a problem to me or my family. We have been best friends ever since, so that is for 18 years now. We were 10 when we met in group 7 of primary school. We were pre-pubescent and we just started encountering with other people. Also people who weren’t really keen on black people. My best friend and I are two complete opposites. She thinks before she acts whereas I am very impulsive. She is very sweet and kind and I am a bit more harsh and realistic. Hanging out with her made me aware of racism the very first time in my life. I had never encountered with racism, I just was not aware of the concept. I grew up in a multicultural environment so to me we were all the same. But people called her Black Pete or called her names just for being black. I remember fighting with people just because they bullied her while she was too kind to even speak up for herself. Seeing her cry because of other people made me so mad, that I decided to never remain quite when people were treated badly. 

When I was 17. I had dropped out of havo, I had a vmbo diploma so I could go to mbo and that was not an issue. I did not care for school so I chose to study Marketing and Communication because I thought that I really wanted to study Communication in college. When I did my internship at the municipality office of Cuijk, I came to the conclusion that studying Communication on a higher level was just not for me. Basically, I did not know what to do after mbo. I did not know what to do with my life in general. I started to grow out of puberty and I really faced myself. Between the ages of 13 to 18 I made my mom’s life a living hell. I had a big mouth, I was rebellious and I didn’t care what people thought of me. At the age of 18 I saw my people around me making moves in terms of school. Their care free puberty made place for becoming adults and this made me face the fact that I should get my stuff together as well. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself but I didn’t know how to handle things as well. It is safe to say I started to have my first existential crisis. This may sound very funny but I wouldn’t know what to call it otherwise. There was a huge shift in my character. I started to value things more and not take things for granted. I made the effort to show more empathy and get rid of my selfish and rebellious ways. 

I had never been a practising or devout Muslim. But I fasted during Ramadan and I didn’t eat any pork just because my parents taught us so. As I mentioned before, we were not raised very strictly religious. That is also why I mentioned that our upbringing has been based a bit more on Turkish traditions (which are based on Islam a little as well). People started asking me questions about why I was Muslim and why I chose Islam as a religion. I was quite embarrassed but I just did not know the answer. That is when I started to do some research for myself. I came across essential information about that everything that happens to us as people, was already pre-determined and written for us. This gave me so much ease. I felt like I found peace and that is why I decided to change my ways. One way in which I tried to make a distinction between my old self and new self was by wearing the hijab (headscarf). Before wearing the hijab, I told my friends about my plans. I was so scared that they wouldn’t want to be my friends anymore since I would not go out or drink anymore. I took them out for drinks (soft drinks) and I told them about my plans and how I came to this idea of wearing a headscarf and why it would be for the better. My friends supported me so much and told me that they would stand by my through all the changes. In 2013, when I was 20 years old, I started wearing my hijab. It is safe to say that this was a great turning point in my life. On June 5^th 2013, I travelled to Rotterdam to buy some headscarves and skirts and dresses. I was planning on wearing my hijab from the 10^th of June on. I would turn 20 on that day so I thought it would be nice. On June 5^th I sent my friends a picture of me wearing a headscarf and the new clothes I had just bought. My friend Suzana asked me the following questions: “Did you manage to buy all the clothes?” I said that I did. She said “are you sure you want to wear your headscarf?” I said I was sure. She said: “If you are so sure, why would you wait another 5 days? Do what makes you happy right now”.  That is how my Orthodox Christian friend encouraged me to wear my headscarf. I think that was God working through someone. 

These events helped me become a world citizen just because they have opened my eyes. There is a greater world than our surroundings. Trying to see from a different perspective made me more open minded, more eager to learn from other people. A world citizen accepts and tolerates differences and tries to learn from differences. A world citizen does not accept exclusion or intolerance in any way. These examples are definitely a highlight in my personal development, but also in my professional development. Remaining distant from judgement and having empathy helps me become a better teacher. Same goes for having an open mind. Being Muslim and a teacher means that I will encounter with different kinds of students throughout my career. Not necessarily from different cultural backgrounds only, but also gay and transgender people. It is self-explanatory in what way these events and being a world citizens helps me do my job better.

• What is your personal high purpose in life (what you would like to achieve in life in general)?

My high purpose in life is to be a conscious and aware person who is content with everything in life and I would love to explore the world and gain lots of experiences.

1. 10.       A. Is there a connection between your personal high purpose and world citizenship?

There is a connection between my high purpose and world citizenship, since being conscious also has to do with my ecological habits. The fact that I want to gain experiences is in order to be able to pass them on to my students and to my future children. I would like to make people aware of their role in the world.