Teaching in a Diverse Classroom
As an educator one must understand that the children you will be teaching will all come from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different homes with different values. No one student will be the same, and no one student will learn the same. The role of a modern educator is to harness this idea of diversity and channel it into a positive learning atmosphere for children of all backgrounds. “I define culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2013, p.50.). The hope for all teachers is to capture the minds of their children, as educators we must learn how our students learn, adapt to their skill set and channel our curriculum to their strength.
Students from a different culture may learn differently than other students, and it is up to us as educators to discover this and learn with them. Some might argue that students should be the ones who adapt to school and should just learn what they are given. I would argue that students who come from a different background or different culture might have different behavioral or learning patters that I would need to acknowledge in order to teach them effectively. As teachers we must be willing to reach out and learn from our students rather than have them learn from us. Communication is key in education and learning about your student’s background and culture will provide a huge benefit into figuring out how to help culturally diverse students learn effectively. I believe that the more open we are as educators to diverse students, the more they will open up to u...
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...r to help parents feel welcome within the school and community. Reaching out to parents and helping them get in contact with people that would help them and their child deal with the disability is an important role that a teacher must take part in. By inviting the parents to help come up with a plan to help their child, we are allowing the parents to still play a role in their child’s life. As educators we can meet with parents and ask them for help to gain knowledge about their child and what their needs are in order to learn about not only the child, but the child’s background. I believe that communication is key when it comes to collaboration with parents, if you aren’t open with them, they won’t be open with you. As educators we must keep an open communication window to parents and students in order to gain their trust and create a positive learning environment.
It is also important to understand “The Assimilation-Pluralism-Suppression Continuum” because how we educate our students’ will affect their path along the continuum. According to Bennett (2014), “informed and caring teachers will play an important role in the future of new second and third generations children, their classroom peers, and our increasingly diverse society as a whole” (Bennett, 2014, p. 165). This is a huge responsibility teachers’ need to understand and not take lightly. As a teacher, we will play a role in the continuation of classic assimilation or creating a culturally pluralist society.
Culturally responsive teaching is very important in today’s day and age. Classrooms are filled with students from different backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Teachers need to put into consideration those differences when building curriculum and creating a classroom atmosphere. Subcultures might also need to be considered when teaching, such as the culture of the disabled. The culture of students with disabilities is one that may appear within many classrooms due to the increase of students with disabilities. Teachers who are able to maintain a culturally responsive classroom and curriculum will provide ideal learning opportunities for all students and encourage them to succeed. (Darrow, 2013)
Richards, H., V., Brown, A., F., Forde, T., B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: culturally responsive pedagogy. Retreived March 30th 2014from http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf
When the majority of teachers in America are White, middle class women who only speak English in a country were students are starting to come from a multitude of backgrounds it is no wonder problems are arising. As more people from different cultures and religions immigrate to the United States the average classroom is losing the cultural uniformity it had in the past. Though the faces in classrooms are steadily changing many teachers have not been able to adjust as quickly to the ever growing diversity taking place. One would expect for teachers to still be able to teach students effectively whether they share a similar background or not, but in actuality cultural conflicts between teachers and students are only getting worse. Especially when
It is important that they close the cultural student-to-teacher gap in schools and recognize that “cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of living” that are not necessarily our own...we can build bridges to trust, respect and understanding across cultures” (Belfield, Lisa). Billie, a Lakota teen says “a bunch of teachers here think they know what’s wrong with us... If people want to help us, they have to see what we’ve been through, not what their own experiences tell them” (“Culture in the Classroom”). This demonstrates that to truly engage students, educators have to reach out to students in ways that are culturally responsive and appropriate. On top of this, teachers are often an adolescent's first regular, “ongoing contact with someone outside their home community and culture” (“Culture in the Classroom”).
Teachers with an awareness of cultural diversity are better equipped to adopt culturally responsive teaching practices to meet the needs of diverse students. Furthermore, culturally responsive teachers support learning for all students regardless of race, socioeconomic status, disability, or gender. More students in all walks of life and all ages are into online learning. Cultural competence is critical in both online and classroom environments. Without cultural competence, teachers cannot teach the diverse students effectively.
“The need to create a teaching force that is culturally sensitive is undeniable. According to The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education teacher candidates must develop proficiencies for working with students from diverse backgrounds; dispositions that respect and value differences, and skills for working in diverse settings.[…] As teacher educators, we hope that cultural diversity classes will help out students become aware of their own beliefs and become more culturally diverse.” (The Ethnography Project p1)
While not all teachers are at the last level of the continuum, cultural proficiency, they should try to reach this goal. Educators need to understand the worldviews around them (Lindsey & Lindsey, 2016). Advocating for lifelong learning and creating a socially diverse classroom will allow all children to learn fairly (Lindsey & Lindsey,
There are many challenges that teachers encounter when teaching children with learning disabilities, learners that are English language learners, or learners who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As a nation we are faced with the challenged that our schools are becoming more diverse. The majority of our schoolteachers are still predominately white females, but our student population is slowly changing. We are seeing more minority groups in our schools that are facing different challenges. The scary part of it all is that our teachers do not have the skills to accommodate those differences. “The nation’s changing school demographics are creating a demand for new teaching skills” (Utley, Obiakor, & Bakken 2011, pg. 5). Our student population
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students gaining a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably than a judgmental and prejudiced view.
The world is currently undergoing a cultural change, and we live in an increasingly diverse society. This change is not only affect the people in the community but also affect the way education is viewed. Teaching diversity in the classroom and focusing multicultural activities in the programs can help improve positive social behavior in children. There is no question that the education must be prepared to embrace the diversity and to teach an increasingly diverse population of young children.
Whether a student is black, white, emotionally disturbed or gifted and talented they all have individual wants and needs. It is the teacher’s responsibility to develop connections and build relationships with each of their students, regardless of any “labels”. In other words, truly knowing your student is the most relevant pedagogy for promoting a culturally competent classroom.
We need to be aware of the diversity in the classroom. Cultural diversity includes: bi-racial, adoptive, immigrant, gay, and step-families. It is a large majority of the students today even in my generation. Focusing on making a balanced curriculum that exposes the students to all of these different backgrounds is very important. I know that it is likely that a teacher will not be able to cater to every student, but it is important to involve each of them. There is a large percentage of students that have dropped out due to the lack of having a connection with the curriculum. It is frustrating that we are lacking progress in our schools to help these children connect when studies show that each cultural group will soon be equal in numbers. We need to form a better
As the diversity in classroom progresses, there are always tensions between students, which reflect on teachers. Educating students from different cultures puts teacher in a position where it is essential to perceive ways in order to make a classroom safe and strip away all of the stereotypes students deal on daily basis. Teachers have to recognize those stereotypes, and overcome them between students, “by examining their own roles in the perpetuation of institutional racism” (Kendall, 1996, p.4). Once succeeded, with the result of harmonized classroom, teacher and students will explore a new space full of fun activities and learnings.
According to David O. McKay (2013), multicultural education is constructed to prepare pupils for citizenship in a democratic society by facilitating them to take into account the needs of all individuals; it shed light on how issues of language, ethnicity, culture, religion race, abilities/disabilities, and gender are entwined with educational content and processes. A multicultural curriculum is needed to accommodate for diverse learning and teaching styles of facilitators and pupils and to expose biases, stereotypes, and policies that can restrict achievement. What is more, a multicultural curriculum is also needed to help pupils, faculty, and staff become advocates for multicultural awareness, to ensure that content is fair, accurate, and inclusive, and to prepare pupils for diverse workplaces and multicultural environments. In writing this paper, the author will describe key issues of culturally diverse students, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In addition, she will describe three key issues of male and female students recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In closing, she will describe three key issues of students with disabilities, who are mainstreamed, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected.