More handpicked essays just for you.
Multicultural education in the classroom
The effects of multiculturalism in education
The effects of multiculturalism in education
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Multicultural education in the classroom
During this semester, I had the opportunity of working with a class of 2nd Graders in the Long Beach area. Even though in my last two serve rotations I was exposed to students from different linguistically and cultural backgrounds, this year I had the opportunity of truly experiencing multicultural diversity in the classroom. Since Jane Addams is located in the ghetto area of Long beach, the majority of the students are the so called minorities. Mrs. Chavarria classroom represented pluralism and world cultures; in her classroom there were Filipinos Samoans, African Americans, Latinos a couple of white kids, and a Hispanic/Chinese boy. This last serve rotation gave me the opportunity to experience my mentor teacher's pedagogical approaches which engage cultural multiplicity in many effective ways. My mentor teacher as expressed earlier in my journals has been teaching for the last thirteen years and has been open to learn about new concepts and ideas central to addressing cultural pluralism in the core curriculum and have tested some practices that have proved to be useful. Some of th...
As stated in my Week 3 Journal Entry, at one point I was helping in a classroom with a child who speaks Spanish. Instead of trying to force the child to speak English, I tried to use some basic Spanish when I worked with them in order to make the child feel more comfortable. I believe by making this small effort to speak the child’s native language that the child was more willing to participate in class and try to learn English. An additional example of making a relation from the text to a personal experience is when I was in elementary through high school. I did not realize until reading Spring’s book how little cultural diversity was taught in my elementary, middle, and high school. I went to school in a very Scandinavian county, and we did not have a lot of diversity. There were several students in the district who came from Hispanic, Asian, or African decent—but they were very few. I cannot recall a day when a teacher spent time to discuss a one of these student’s cultures, which is utterly ridiculous. With the amount of time spent in school and the amount of diversity in the world, it seems illogical to barely speak of ethnic and cultural diversity. Even though there were only a handful of students in the district from different cultures, it would have been beneficial to learn more about the rest of the world because when high school is done we all go out into that diverse world. I know I will take the time and make the effort to teach my future students about the beauty of diversity and
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
Convertino, C., Levinson, B. A., & González, N. (2013). Culture, teaching, and learning. In J. A. Banks & C. M. McGee Banks (Eds.). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (pp. 25-41). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
The purpose of this essay is to familiarize the reader with some of the cultural values of two prevalent minority cultures in the Western Washington area classrooms in order to create a positive learning environ resulting in higher academic achievement for these students. The two cultures discussed in this essay are Mexican Americans and Filipino Americans. Although the Sumner School District, where I work, is not highly diverse, these two minorities are represented to some degree in most of the schools. Among the important factors that influence one’s cultural identity and are discussed in this essay are: language, socioeconomics, traditions, immigration, religion, and the family organization.
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 who are enrolled in elementary schools with a diverse population usually develop an understanding of insights and perspectives of children from different backgrounds and learn to function in a multiethnic, multicultural environment (Morrissey, 2014). Therefore, students need to learn how to interact in diverse environments. Teachers face challenges of making lessons and instructions “culturally responsive” for all students to avoid favoritism (Griner, 2012). Some students’ cultural backgrounds may have a negative impact on them in a modern classroom (Burt, 2013). It is imperative for elementary school teachers to be knowledgeable of different cultural beliefs and practices to help students adjust to traditional classrooms (Nigma, 2015). Defining the
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
With the concept of multicultural education programs becoming more popular, educators are seeking new ways to present diversity into their school community, classrooms, and lesson plans. According to Birkel (2000), multicultural education is, first of all, education concerned with the teaching/learning processes and the acceptance and appreciation of diversity. Culturally relevant teaching practices give students the opportunity to learn in ways that are affirming, validating, and connected to their interests and backgrounds (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Effective lesson plans need to be designed objectively with consideration to all learners and their various differences.
Ramsey, P. G. (2004). Teaching and learning in a diverse world: Multicultural education for young children (3rd ed., pp. 104-106). New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press.
Our schools today contains a diverse population of students from different ethnic backgrounds. As educators we need to make sure we are applying culturally responsive teaching. Katie Toppel describes “applying culturally responsive teaching practices in a classroom benefits students along with having a positive effect on students coming from a diverse background. “Gay (2 010) defines culturally responsive instruction as “using 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” (p. 31). Toppel explains there are three different themes which pertains to culturally responsive teaching method. Those three themes are “culturally appropriate texts, (2) engaging students’ voices, and (3) incorporating students’ funds of knowledge (Bell & Clark, 1 998; Hefflin, 002; Howard, 2 001; Ladson-Billings, 1 992; Morrison, Robinson, & Gregory Rose, 2008 ; Powell, 1997 ; Toppel, 2013 ). According to (Toppel), As educators teaching students who come from a culturally and linguistically diverse background we as educators need to remember to care for the students along with building some form of relationship. Other
The earth is one big physical realm with a growing number of populations in every single second that passes by. The enormous numbers of people that surpass the seven billion mark are different individual each with unique characteristics. This uniqueness creates a certain form of segregation, which commonly falls on the count of culture. The difference in culture, which is also known as cultural diversity, affects everyday lives of any human. The effects of such are divergent and the quest for knowledge also faces the same challenges posed by diversity (White, 361). The quest for knowledge has led to students travelling and living in foreign countries in the mean time pursuing their educational aspirations.
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.
“Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness” (Joseph). The most important part to a school is amount of diversity that is within the classrooms. By having community that is compiled of several different races, cultures, genders, languages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and individuals with special needs all contribute to what diversity is composed of. With having a wide range of diversity in the classroom, it is prominent to make sure that each family is part of their child’s learning and that you take into consideration each and every students culture. As a teacher that may experience diversity within the classroom, it is also prominent to make sure that you have good communication skills with
No school can hope prosperously to edify today's children without acknowledging and embracing the cultural pluralism of our diverse society. To this end, independent school educators must work to engender learning communities that embolden and support a diversity of membership and multicultural curricula. Such communities understand that one's individual perspective depends, in part, upon one's location in society. Prevalent understandings are multifaceted; they grow in communities that in spirit people to bring their stories to the table. A monoculture view of the world is a distortion of authenticity.
In conducting her research, the author understood that she needed to describe key issues of culturally diverse students, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In reading Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education (2010), s...