New Cultural Knowledge And Understandings

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.

As a teacher, it is important to know and understand the racial and cultural identities of both yourself, and your students. Knowing about your students’ backgrounds is a great way to make the classroom a safe and welcoming environment. Not all educational settings emit a feeling of safety to its students, and that needs to be changed. In this paper, I will discuss how my racial and cultural identity may be the same and may differ from my students, as well as some ways in which the institution of education can be changed to be more racially and culturally inclusive.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

Burger Middle School is a growing ethnically diverse school, it’s sixty percent Caucasian with a fast growing black and Asian population. One of the examples of multicultural education was in one of the history classes I was in. In a 7th grade history class the students were covering a reading about the lifestyle of the Iroquois, a Native American tribe. They learned how this tribe interacted with the Europeans and how they sought peace. Here I saw evidence of history not only being taught from a Eurocentric perspective but from the view of other race and cultures like the Native Americans. While I did see some positive example of multicultural education like this in Burger Middle School I also saw some examples where they could work on. For examples, there was no gender neutral restrooms. The absence of gender neutral bathrooms is inconsiderate toward transsexual students. Another disturbing thing of I noticed was a poster in the hallway that labeled Abraham Lincoln a Civil Rights Leader. This is historically inaccurate, Lincoln may have freed the slaves but he was not necessarily a fighter for black rights. There is no evidence that Lincoln wanted equality of the races and its likely he himself was a prejudice due to being a victim of his time. Historically inaccurate posters like this is insensitive to

According to my class presentation about racism, teachers play a big role in how race is seen and handled in schools. It’s important that, in their classrooms especially, teachers allow all races of students feel included, and that they teach students about the world beyond their classroom. One way to do this is by making sure that their posters, pictures, books, and dolls are made up of different races. Also, everyone knows that children are curious. When a child asks a question related to racism or differences in a race, their teacher should answer the question directly and honestly, instead of pushing it the side or changing the

While completing coursework at CSUMB for the Liberal Studies program, the researcher was inspired by its classes to be a Diversity and Multicultural Scholar and a Social Justice Collaborator. By evaluating their own and others’ experiences as influenced by social identities, socialization practices, and societal institutions from both historical and contemporary perspectives it helped the researcher open their eyes in how they want to be in their classroom as an educator. In the researchers LS 380: Teaching for Social Change, LS 394: Multicultural literature , and LS 398: Social Foundations of Multicultural Education classes, the researcher critically examined the value of diversity and multiculturalism which interested her in the teaching

Since I started this class, I have a learned a great deal about cultural diversity in the classroom and abroad. My perspective has changed slightly but my knowledge of this subject has improved. In my family, my father taught me about the civil rights movement and the evils of segregation in the U.S. My parents taught me to be tolerant of all humans, no matter what they look like, how they dress, or their sexual orientation. My family has always been liberal thinkers who taught me the dark history of racism and bigotry in this country. As an educator I would be accepting to all race, creeds, and religious peoples.

With the shifting cultural texture and demographics of the United States (Banks, 2006b; Irvine, 2003), redefining multicultural education has become imperative. There are many views on the benefits and/or shortcomings of the multiculturalization of education. The question is not whether a multicultural education should be adopted but it is rather what we understand from multicultural education and how we are going to initiate such a reform within an educational system when we cannot even define ‘multicultural.’ “The awareness of one’s own assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes is a first step to be able to positively interact and learn from others. In this process

During the late 1960’s, America had entered into a period of cultural definition especially with the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. Although the term “multicultural education” had not come into play yet, the idea that the U.S needed to reexamine their efforts of educating diverse groups was emerging. During this time inequality especially among minority groups in comparison to the white dominant culture became a social issue (Banks 1999). Before the arrival of this reform multicultural education was displayed in the classroom as having minorities adapt to the predominant culture. Teachers during this time felt it would be more beneficial for minorities to adapt. However, many parents of these minorities begin to argue that the

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).

Institutional Racism in the education system can be combated by teachers and administration working together. Schools must take the initiative of incorporating different cultural perspectives in the curriculum. Only addressing the basic characteristics of culture such as dance, food, and religion is not enough. Racism affects people on many levels, and it's essential to acknowledge the history and culture of a society in all aspects. Cultural characteristics influenced by the political, social, and economic climate. To have an accurate grasp of the values that shaped the culture one must break down and analyze the bias and discrimination of the society.

Multicultural Education in the United States made its debut beginning with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. Its intent was to become part of the cultural mainstream. The Civil Rights Movement brought to light the apparent concerns of discrimination, intimidation and inequality. During this period, pressure was placed on the Federal Government to examine their roles in the perseverance of inequalities when it came to Multicultural Education (Russell, Robert, The History of Multicultural Education, 2011). It can be compared to “Affirmative Action” where whites were asked to leave behind their own point of view and gain knowledge of the traditions of Multicultural groups (Taylor, Samuel. The Challenge of 'Multiculturalism'

Learning about a new culture is very common now days. Most people immigrate to other countries looking for different goals in life. Some people immigrate for safety purposes; some people are looking for better opportunities and different quality of life. For some people adjust themselves to a new culture is easy; the younger they are the easiest is to adjust to a new different culture and a different way to live. However, there are many people who struggle every day trying to learn about a different culture.

There is so much we as humans do not know about the universe let alone our world. There are new things being discovered every day. There are still many cultures that have been yet to be discovered. There has been a new group of foragers that have been recently discovered located in a very small island which is part of the Tahiti Islands. There are about 118 islands that make up all of the Tahiti Islands (Tahiti Culture). This culture is known as Coco. Coco is very small culture which is one of the reasons why it took a while for it to be discovered. This culture was found on a island, in which make a part of the Tahiti Islands, who has 80 degree weather all year around so it stays pretty warm all year around. It is also very humid. Because it is in a area surrounded by water, they are around fish, sea turtles, manta rays, tiger sharks, dolphins and barracudas. On land they are surrounded by many different varieties of birds. There are snakes and monkeys on the island. The plants on the Coco island are very beautiful and tropical. The beaches on the are filled with beautiful white sand. There are many variety types of flowers such as bougainvillea, frangipani, heliconias, porcelain roses, orchids, camellias, poinsettias and hibiscus. There are many fruit trees including coconut trees, cocoa trees, and banana trees. This island is filled with a variety of fruits. There are oranges, papayas, mapes, pineapples, passion fruit, guavas, carambola,