I am a Russian person who was born and grew up in a Western Ukrainian village called Busk, in Lvov region. When I turned seven my family moved to Moscow, a huge and vibrant Russian capital. My parents wanted me to become a versatile, well-educated, knowledgeable person and went out of their way to give me the best education possible. As a child, I went to one of the most prestigious Moscow English schools and I realized very quickly that I was a minority in two ways. First, my appearance was different—my parents could not afford to buy me expensive clothes, I was wearing my elder sister's skirts and vests. Second, my heavy Ukrainian accent became a subject of mockery among my peers, who had already attended school preparatory courses and knew how to read and write.
When you are a minority, you know that you are different, and thus, can compensate for it, my mother used to tell me: “Because you come from a small village, you will have to work twice as hard to get the recognition that the other kids will get.” I worked hard and I introduced my friends to Ukrainian customs and traditions and language that I grew up with. However, differences as a result of upbringing and motherland are harder to understand and describe, especially as a child. When I was ten my family had to move to Warsaw, capital of Poland, because of my father's career. I went to a prestigious Polish-English school. In my class I met kids with absolutely various backgrounds, absolutely various fates, but I still felt different.
I watched everything going on around me with curiosity because I wanted to understand why I was different. Looking back, my childhood experiences at school was my first research activity: I was a participant-observer in my own secret ethnographic study. I watched, I listened, and I learned to be accepting of their behavior and language. These early experienced led to me learn how to respect the cultures and values of others. Since that time, I have sought situations that involve people of different characteristics.
After I graduated from High School in Warsaw my family went back to the Russian capital, Moscow and it was then I understood clearly I wanted to become a professor of Foreign Languages and entered Moscow State Linguistic University. During my undergraduate education, I volunteered as a tutor to help first-year foreign students. I worked in diverse labs at the State Linguistic University.
As part of my involvement in the program “ Discovery of new cultures without frontiers”, in the Linguistic University where I volunteered as an English-French-Russian-Ukrainian translator exposed me to a truly diverse group of people from various nations.
After I graduated from the University I applied for a teaching position in the Financial University under the government of the Russian Federation.
I worked as a Senior English and French language professor at the Financial University under the government of Russian Federation from November 2009 to February 2016. My departments included: Finance and Credit, Accounting, Tax and Taxation, State and Municipal control, Sociology and Banking. I was given nine classes (18 hours) per week and I was also responsible for the extracurricular activities of my assigned group of students. My students predominantly came from underrepresented, undeveloped and even poor regions and republics of the Russian Federation, such as Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of northern Ossetia etc. To my regret I could witness how students coming from well-off Russian families treated those from Republics. I could witness that arrogant, superior and high-nosed attitude when Muslim students prayed during breaks, or when they had their own national meals during lunch break. I understood, that as a professor I had to teach them not only the foreign language, but also love and respect to people with different beliefs and backgrounds.
During the classes I incorporated pedagogical techniques that supported underrepresented groups, such as collaborative learning and teamwork. One collaborative learning technique I incorporated and intend to incorporate in future is “turn to a partner”, where students work in pairs to discuss and solve a problem. I requested students to find different partners so they work with as many different people as possible during the course. I handled diverse perspectives and abilities in the classroom by encouraging open dialogue, validating all opinions, developing techniques to sensitively draw out participation from students whose cultural backgrounds encourage passive deference. I am more than convinced that self-confidence of students, especially those from underrepresented groups, improves when they are able to watch and listen to their peers work through the material being taught. At the Financial I headed Russian Republics Food and Culture Club. The Food and Culture Club made its mission to explore the cuisine of one region of the Russian Federation at a time. We accomplished it by bringing different dishes from different regions every club session. I also encouraged students to take part in Dagestan Cultural Club (DCC). This club aimed to promote and spread awareness of Dagestan culture both on and off campus.Overall, my philosophy regarding diversity is two-fold. First, it is important to watch, listen, and learn: these three actions ultimately lead to respect. Listening is especially important because diversity is not always apparent at first glance: it is much deeper than that. Second, it is important to do what you can to support everyone, especially underrepresented groups. If you can help these underrepresented groups, then you can help everyone.