written by Jarrett Whipple, SOE Graduate Assistant | Fall 2023 (this article was also featured in the School of Education 2023-24 Newsletter)
Asma Syed lives within two educational worlds. A lecturer the Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department at Buffalo State, she also teaches English as a New Language (ENL) to grades 9 to 12 at Lafayette International Community High School of Buffalo, which is populated solely by English Language Learners.
While working at two schools at once is a large workload, it’s Syed’s ultimate goals and the importance she places on teaching that drive her to do her best in both spaces. Her goals are rooted in a teaching philosophy centered on socio-emotional learning and culturally relevant teaching practices. She is afforded unique and relevant insights from her active teaching at Lafayette, which informs her work as a Buffalo State professor where she is in a special position to foster these principles in teacher education students, granting them access to the day-to-day work of a practicing teacher.
“I use a lot of personal examples and I think that’s why a lot of my EDU 201 students remember the facts. By hearing my strategies, whether classroom management or diversity lesson planning, I provide students with concrete, real examples from my high school classroom. This gives them a true picture of what happens in a classroom daily,” she says. “Buffalo is very diverse and a hub for refugees and immigrants. It doesn’t matter if you teach in a public school or the suburbs, teachers encounter diversity in their classrooms, whether it’s ENL students or those with special needs. By helping new teachers learn about diversity and sharing my own experiences, I show them how to build relationships with their students and how to teach beyond the standard content.”
Asma Syed cares not only about the future of her students, but also about their role in the future of their individual communities and the world. She sees education as not only a career, but a force for meaningful change, and feels successful when able to impart good values and ethics through her teaching.
“There are a lot of refugees and immigrants who come from all walks of life. I don't just teach them English; I teach them about their new country - the values, rules, and regulations of it - because they are the future. It is the ultimate accomplishment to make these students successful and, ultimately, to make our community and our country successful,” said Syed, “Especially when I see my English language learners graduate and become the first in their community or homes to get an education, I feel like I’ve achieved something. The future of this country are these kids. They are the ones who will be running the show so it’s very important for us to teach good values and ethics in addition to content. If I can engrain that into my students, they will go forward to do the same.”
Syed’s philosophy is having a real-life impact on the students that she teaches at Buffalo State, where she has become a figure that students look to for support and inspiration. In preparing the next generation of teachers and citizens alike, she wants to ensure that women are given the agency to live independent and empowered lives.
“I want to empower women of all ethnicities and religions. If the mother is educated to succeed in a career, in society, and able to move about independently, she will teach that to her children and they, in turn, will not be dependent on a spouse or others for financial support. But I don’t feel like it’s just religious barriers that restrain women in the world from achieving their potential. We face many struggles including family barriers, cultural expectations…I feel I’ve become a role model for what a Muslim woman can achieve, especially in Lafayette where 50 percent of the population is Muslim. Even at Buffalo State where many of my students are not Muslim, they still come to me to talk and thank me for what they’ve learned.”
Syed doesn’t see her students as numbers that rotate in and out of her classroom every year, she sees them for the potential in each and wants to prepare all of her students - regardless of gender, ethnicity, or background - to become changemaking, independent teachers and citizens. Students who come from remote areas where they haven’t been exposed to much diversity of race, culture, or thought are given an opportunity to explore how these concepts can unfold in classrooms.
“There was a student from a very small rural town who sent me an email a few months after our semester together. He had gotten a job in a Buffalo public school and was thankful for everything I taught him about inclusiveness and culture, which helped him build a relationship with his students,” she said.
At Lafayette, Syed works to ensure her immigrant and refugee students view the United States as their home and feel compelled to become an active part of it.
“I don’t want kids who come from other countries to still talk about ‘back home’. My parents came to the U.S. from Kashmir when I was young. I don’t have a home there; I can’t go ‘back home’, and neither can these kids. I want them to learn that this is where they are now, that this is OUR country and OUR community, and we need to take care of both. So that is success to me: when they realize these things and become a whole person inside and out - academically, socially, emotionally - and in every way.”
Through her experiences with the students at Lafayette, she has seen a need to provide students with a deeper comprehension of the English language.
“The Regents exams are compulsory but we have students who are at the beginning right now. How are we going to teach them the content that they need to pass the exams when they are just learning English? It's impossible. English Language Learners should first spend a year to completely learn English.”
Syed is pursuing to full-time work at the University, but she also aspires to help fill this gap in the educational sphere. She draws inspiration from her experiences abroad where she has seen how countries such as Saudi Arabia require two semesters of English language instruction before students move on in their studies.
“I’ve been thinking about ways to create such a system here, even if it's a private English Language Center. That’s my ultimate goal. Teaching local language and culture to newly arrived refugees, including our systems of living, how to navigate the schools…it’s so crucial to the success of the students and parents as well as the teachers and schools where they are placed.”
The classroom plays a pivotal role in molding our future leaders and citizens. With increasing teacher shortages, now more than ever we need passionate educators to take up the profession and lead our nation's youth. Good teachers do not simply hold a job, they excel in a vocation that shapes and inspires the next generation to lead our world.
Syed reflects what the best of us can be and what we can strive to achieve as educators. She truly embodies excellence through her continual effort to ensure the best possible future of her students at Lafayette and her work perpetuating that care through her work educating teacher candidates at Buffalo State University.
An advocate for all, Asma Syed is a driving wind behind the future change makers in our communities and the world.
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