Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education

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Recommended: Managing diversity in the classroom

Teaching is a very rewarding career if you learn and understand how to work with the diversity of the classrooms we teach in. As teachers, we need to be more vigilant of where are students come from. Before we can teach we need to know who we are teaching and what background, knowledge, and customs they bring with them to the classroom. We must also be aware of the factors that are relevant to the academic achievement of the students we currently teach. There are many of these factors, but I want to focus on two; teacher quality and low teacher expectations.
According to Bennett and colleagues, “There is extensive evidence suggesting that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience poorer education outcomes than their peers.” (Bennet et all, 2004). One of the biggest factors that relates to their performance can be associated with teacher quality. We know that in order for students to succeed, they have to have adults that care about them. However, it is not enough to have adults that care, they must also have experience and knowledge in the content they are teaching. There are cases of teachers who teach straight from the book and curriculum they are given to and do little to check student understanding or relate the material to the students. We also have the case of first year teachers like myself who are not always given enough training before they start in their own classroom and become overwhelmed with all the demands from this career. There are many teachers who have great intentions, but they need more relevant professional development and assistance in their first years of their career so that they can feel successful to teach their students. This can also be related to teacher expectation...

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...eventing her from focusing solely on her education.
I would recommend Carlos to the ESL program to help him with his language acquisition and I would recommend Kimesha to counseling services. With Rafael I would meet with the parents and see if they are aware of his reading and hard time focusing and see how they can help at home before referring him to special education services.

Works Cited

Bennett, A., Bridglall, B.L,. Cauce, A.M., Everson, H.T., Gordon, E.W., and Lee, C.D., Mendoza-Denton, R., Renzulli, J.S., & Stewart, J.K. (2004). All students reaching the top: Strategies for closing academic achievement gap. Naperville, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Irving, Miles and Terry. “Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education.” Special Education for All Teachers 5th Edition. Kendell Hunt Publishing Co., 2010. 110-124. Print.

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