Multicultural Reflection

Multicultural education is the key to incorporating ethnic and racial identities in the classroom. I believe implementing a culturally responsive curriculum would work best for the students. I would like to be a future educator who acknowledges and welcome my students’ diversity in the classroom. It is important to bring cultural awareness to the classroom and school environment. I want my students to know that I respect, acknowledge and care about their differences. I would model this behavior because I want the students to do the same for each other. The steps I would take incorporate a positive, trusting and healthy learning environment are:

Before I began this class I thought I was well versed in terms, of race, ethnicity, and nationality. However, I may have been partially wrong. I always considered my race to be Mexican and my ethnicity to be Hispanic while my nationality is American. However, according to the definitions I don’t have a race. On forms, I usually check the block for other and identify by ethnicity. I consider myself of Hispanic ethnicity from Mexican descent. However, to Mexicans from Mexico, I am not considered Mexican. I am a white Mexican, Mexican American or Chicana; both of my parents are born in Mexico of Mexican parents. I am most certainly proud of my roots as well as being an American. In the world we live in today it’s difficult to neglect the fact that I stand out for obvious reasons. That at times I am treated differently. That because of my roots I am told to go back to my country. That I shed a tear as I write this because I live with an inner struggle of who I am.

This first chapter has quick insights of how Cultural Competence could be so effectively with children. What this chapter made me recognized is that it’s essential to building a relationship with students. As the text points that students may be more comfortable with a teacher of their own background, regardless of the teachers background the true success of having a learning environment is based on a sensitive, caring and committed teacher. Having teachers getting to know their students would be encouraging for a teacher-student relationship student might discovery acceptance and comfort in having someone who provides stability and structure by getting to know them. Additionally, teachers should not be scared to permit themselves to be taught

In order to implement this into my future class I first need to recognize the variety of individual culture, gender, background, socioeconomic status, learning style, developmental stage and other factors of students, families and colleagues. Establishing that my classroom is a safe zone and a place where differences are celebrated and embraced will help me create an environment where everyone’s diversities are respected.

Classrooms will be filled with a variety of students coming from many different cultures and backgrounds. Teachers need to acknowledge each student will be different in this aspect and will have had different experiences in their lives. As the class moves forward, the goal is to provide students with the same experiences, just with through different lenses. To do this, the classroom must have a strong sense of community and a

As a future teacher, one of the ways I can accomplish and promote inclusion is to develop lesson plans which positively promote multicultural diversity. By including cultural differences and similarities, I will be helping my students understand and appreciate how to be respectful of others culture as well as supporting and demonstrating an equitable learning environment for all students learning experiences. Promoting equity and diversity in the classroom are essential in ensuring my students will be able to thrive and develop values and attitudes to survive in a multicultural society. They learn to celebrate their uniqueness in ways that foster harmony and

Moreover, teaching multicultural diversity in preschool ages increase children’s awareness, appreciation and inclusion of diverse beliefs and cultures. It means that children with different needs are giving opportunities to participate in the general education curriculum based on their ages and grades. Those children are not separated by classrooms, but rather the curriculum and the rooms are conformed to meet their needs. Research shows that children are capable of understanding differences and abilities of surrounding people at the very early ages (Perlman, Kankesan, & Zhang, 2010). Therefore, a program, which fully regards to multiculturalism, allows children to explore varying cultures and create opportunities for them to recognise that even when people have various customs and traditions, they often share some similar characteristics as well. The ability to function compatibly and efficiently in a multicultural society is also promoted throughout a multicultural program. It is obvious that children are able

And, although preschool administrators have a desire to begin increasing the amount of multicultural materials in the center as well as train the staff on ways to incorporate a child’s culture into the learning environment, it has been found that teaching practices are notoriously slow to change (Hooven & et al., 2018). By conducting literature research, examining the current practices at Kiddie Academy, and meeting with the center’s staff, it is hoped that new and innovative ways to celebrate diversity will be found and agreed upon by staff members. Since collaboration is crucial to the implementation of anti-bias curriculum in order for students to learn about their own culture and those of people who are different from them, communicating the results of the study will increase the chances of finding additional ways to up productivity, provides access to new sources of information, present opportunities to learn and go beyond traditional ways of thinking, problem solving, and forming partnerships as teachers and administrators begin to see positive results from the trainings, acknowledgement and celebration of diversity, and anti-bias curriculum being put into action. It is critical for early childhood teachers to promote culturally inclusive classrooms and experiences and provide learning materials and other resources that help children develop a greater appreciation of

There are all kind of feeling that are transpiring throughout my mind when think of the term cultural analysis. In executing the communication concepts of African American cultural, I found that the Chinese and African American cultural are strongly tied to their beliefs and family concepts. I define myself through my culture as being an African American male, thought out religions, education, and family is very essential in my culture. Also, being limited to making lifestyle changes, and the different ways we communicated with each other are how I define myself through my culture. Being African American my perception of my culture is that we as a community are high in health, crime, education, and public housing, which implies welfare, government assists, black on black crime, and drug abuse. Being an African American, other cultures have a better chance at getting better jobs, education, and opportunities in life.

As a new teacher, I want to be sure that my classroom is a welcoming place for all students and is diverse so all feel welcome. Diversity is multi-faceted and includes teaching and curriculum, classroom materials, classroom climate and management, personal professional development, family outreach and home-school communication. The following is my action plan for those areas.

When you walk into Amy Zache’s warm and inviting first grade classroom at Beiger Elementary School, you are greeted by twenty three of the most beautiful smiling faces. These thirteen boys and ten girls have a passion for learning that is clearly fueled by the positive energy of Mrs. Zache. Although all of the students are Caucasian, with the exception of one Caucasian and African American boy, she does an excellent job of integrating other cultures into her lessons. Along with worrying about the integration of different cultures, Mrs. Zache must worry about how to make accommodations for the four students with speech IEP’s, one student with a sever cognitive disorder who has an IEP, four boys on ADHD medication, and multiple other students

Today’s classroom is very diverse and the activities should represent the classroom culture. The development of children is centered on what is taught in the classroom. Therefore, the language, intellectual, personality, social and moral, and aesthetic and creative development of preschool age children should be enhanced through multicultural activities and lessons.

There were a few things that I had experienced throughout the semester that I had not put a lot thought into until I was asked to reflect on them. In the beginning of the semester, the class observed experiences with talking to people about race in our first reflection. I remember discussing that it is easier to talk about race and ethnicity with people who have a different ethnic background than mine. After learning a lot about other races, I realize that I was only scratching the surface in these past conversations. There are a lot of hardships that people of color face and I understand now that it is important for all races to be aware of this. On that note, it is more difficult talking about discriminations and adversities with different racial groups, but it is important for majority groups to be able to understand what minority groups have to say.

As a student ambassador for Loyola during my undergraduate years, I was always told to mention the social justice mission of Loyola to prospect students. However, as I graduated from college, I realized that the term had been thrown around so much, I did not completely understand what a social justice education meant. Yes, I had learned about privilege and underprivileged identities in a few courses, but I thought, what else is there to the topic? When I was accepted into Loyola for graduate school, I was beyond excited. Upon learning I had to take a multiculturalism class, I assumed this course would be a review of information I learned at Loyola, and at Loyola’s Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs seminars. However, I was surprised and pleased to learn how this course changed my thinking with regards to social justice education. After completing this course, the term “social justice” no longer feels like a distant, philosophical way of viewing inequity in the world. Diversity and multiculturalism as related to social justice is seen everywhere, and is influenced by all sorts of identities. Through my classmates’ personal stories, class activities, reflections, and discussions, I feel as though I have a better grasp on how to view, and have effective conversations on social justice in the educational environment.

In June of 2017, my family and I went to Kenscoff, Haiti on a missions team. The team consisted of my dad, mom, two sisters, two brothers, my aunt and uncle, their two kids, my aunt’s dad and his sister, and two of her friends and her friend’s daughter. My aunt and uncle were in the process of adopting a five year old boy, from there and wanted to visit him and take some family members and friends along to meet him. This was also their two oldest kids’ first time meeting their younger brother, Jorgenson. Although, the men did most of the labor such as making concrete steps, the girls and I played with the kids from the créche. The place where my aunt and uncle’s son was living. Overall, I had a really great experience that sparked a period of personal growth and helped me to gain a new understanding of different cultures and the reasons why situations are the way they are.