Most Significant Student Diversities In The Classroom

Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from

As Connell, White and Johnston (1990,p.9) state, 'There is not a “culture of poverty”, nor any key “deficit” that makes poor people different from everybody else and therefore and educational problem'. Teachers and Education Assistants need to adapt into the culture of poverty and be sensitive and understandable to the extensive bar of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom and they need to consider the cultural values of these children as they arrange their learning. The basis of Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's opinions in the article is they position readers to view that the teachers dispositions low income students and that rarely the educators offer the same level or enough aid and attention than the other students and they are less likely to succeed in school when compared with the more advantaged children. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's and Geoffrey D. Borman and Laura T. Rachuba they both state that students from lower income families may not have as high expectations from their parents, teachers or their peers within the school. The students may also not be confident in their own abilities and

Culturally Responsive Teaching is an emerging field that focuses on student cultural backgrounds and experiences in the development of pedagogy. According to Kea (2013) cultural difference is the single largest difference in U.S. schools and also the most neglected. The goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn in school, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics (Banks 2005). Ladson-Billings (1994) suggest that the historic failings of educators in educating non-white students is that educators attempt to insert culture into education rather than insert education into the culture. In other words, educators are not providing an equal multi-culturally relevant education by bringing tokens of culture such as food, national flags, or maps from around the world into the classroom alone. Although these actions promote a sense of multiculturalism, an education that is relative to a diversity of cultures is not necessarily being provided. Culturally Responsive Teaching attempts to bring the various experiences of the student’s cultural home life into the classroom. Schmidt (2005) identifies seven characteristics that must be incorporated into curriculum in order to provide culturally responsive instruction. These characteristics are high expectations,

2. “Including ethnic and cultural diversity content in the curriculum” Seek out and use only factually based information on different cultural traits. “This is needed to make schooling more interesting and stimulating for, representative of, and responsive to ethnically diverse students,” and this is a teacher’s ultimate goal in being culturally

Public schools are beginning to see a shift in demographics in the United States. There is now a culturally diverse student population and educators need to respond to this shift in order to ensure an equal education for all students. Culture aids in determining how students learn, and culturally responsive teaching is a way teachers can educate culturally diverse students and provide an equal education for all. Culturally responsive teaching is defined by Geneva Gay as using the various characteristics, perspectives, and experiences of many cultures to effectively teach culturally diverse students (2000). Culturally responsive teaching prepares teachers to work with and teach a culturally diverse classroom of students and allows teachers to create a classroom environment that is similar to their students’ home environments so students do not have to assimilate to the dominant culture or change from their home culture to their school culture depending on their setting (Brown). Multicultural education is not only important for ensuring equal education for all students, but also creates youth who will be able to function and be effective citizens in a pluralistic society (Gay 2003). In order to implement culturally responsive teaching, teachers must acknowledge potential biases and reconstruct their attitudes, create a diverse knowledge base, be caring and empowering, and create a classroom environment that is conducive to a culturally diverse

It might be surprising too many, but reading the class textbooks, and talking about cultural diversity is not enough. Hence, we ought to challenge ourselves to create methods for when we become teachers in order to be able to help our future students be more aware of cultural diversity inside the classrooms. Carrying further, as a future teacher by taking this class is helping me become more aware of students' cultures other than my own.

“Multicultural education is ideal in helping young children understand the lives of people who may look, dress, speak, think or eat differently from the way they do” (Gayle-Evans, 2). If multiculturalism is taught in schools, it would teach tolerance of over cultures and help broaden a child’s mind. With this teaching, it will expose children to different traditions, cultures, and environments. In the educational systems, it is so important that there is a broad variety of diverse groups in the classroom setting. Teachers need to encourage students to come outside their comfort zones and learn something new about a culture they have never been familiar

Nearly all schools in America serve students of different cultures, yet the way that we teach in these schools does not reflect that at all. Schools are struggling to teach in ways that foster the learning of all students, primarily because almost all teachers in American schools are White, middle class females, who have never needed to teach diversely before. With an ever increasing percentage of diverse people in the United States, this White European style of teaching needs to be altered, so that all children are able to learn and feel comfortable in their school environment. The first way that teachers can ensure that they are teaching in a way that encourages children of all cultures to actively learn in to first understand their own culture

In the 21st century American classroom, educators will find students with varying races, cultural backgrounds, economic statuses, and even academic backgrounds (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008). Understanding students’ strengths and weaknesses, along with their individual likes and dislikes, will help educators in reaching their students. De Jesus (2005) points out that many educators treat culturally and diverse students as though they cannot learn or that it is normal for them to suffer academically. Because they are not of the European American culture, they are considered lacking in the ability to learn.

As an educator it is important to be aware of the various learners in the classroom as well as being able to shift lessons accordingly to adapt to a greater number of students. In addition it is essential that culturally responsive practices is adapted in the classroom in order for all students to have a sense of belonging and are able to participate. For this reason, a teacher must actively use culturally responsive practices to engage students and their families because it helps to develop a relationship and maintain a level of communication. Learning “facts” about different cultures is not enough, it is more important that we make

In the 21st century, teachers will be standing in front of many more racially and culturally diverse classrooms than ever before. Teachers now need to be more aware of culture in their classrooms more than teachers before them. In light of this, it is important to be able to be sensitive and aware of the needs of such diverse students. Teachers also have to be sensitive to the social and family issues of their students. In this new age of teaching, educators now have the ability to save children from potentially harmful situations in their home life.

Cultural diversity in our public schools is both exciting and challenging for most classroom teachers. Teachers have the opportunity to involve learners from diverse cultural backgrounds in the learning process thereby making their classrooms into arenas for culturally competent teaching and learning for all of their students. Culturally competent teachers are those who are educated to recognize the impact of culture on their student’s educational needs while implementing the necessary boundaries and rules utilized for teaching culturally diverse learners.

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.

There are many factors that play a role in the learning process for every human being. Race, religion, language, socioeconomics, gender, family structure, and disabilities can all affect the ways in which we learn. Educators must take special measures in the delivery of classroom instruction to celebrate the learning and cultural differences of each of their students. As communities and schools continue to grow in diversity, teachers are searching for effective educational programs to accommodate the various learning styles of each student while promoting acceptance of cultural differences throughout the classroom. It no longer suffices to plan educational experiences only for middle-or upper class white learners and then

Overcoming stereotyping is a challenge educators can encounter when it comes to ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children. Some educators may compare one child to another child that comes from the same cultural background and use the same teaching strategy. One way to overcome this is to make sure that educators know each of the students individually instead of comparing one to another or relying on stereotyping. “To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness.” (Teaching Tolerance, 1991) Once they know more about each of the students then they can avoid stereotyping and adjust their teaching strategy to meet the individual needs of the students in the classroom.