In the United States today there is a great amount of cultural diversity, but unfortunately the predominant American culture causes other cultures to be overshadowed causing difficulties for students of other cultures to succeed in our school system. This is what we see in the story of the Indian Wind-Wolf as he begins going to kindergarten. For Wind-Wolf, this is his first time outside of the Indian culture and it is very difficult for him to be the only Indian in his classroom. It causes him to feel like an outcast. As teachers we have the responsibility to create an environment in the classroom that makes each student feel that they belong there. For Wind-Wolf, and any other cultural minorities, the typical classroom does not have these …show more content…
This is important because as the teacher in an American culture, she would not be able to have the knowledge of Indian culture that the father would have. To prevent things that could be potentially offensive to Wind-Wolf or his father, talking about the approaches to implementing Indian culture that were to be considered. Also, if there were a certain activity that Wind-Wolf particularly enjoyed, such as learning to count using sticks, that would be an easy way to bring culture into the classroom. A face to face conversation about developing his culture into the classroom will also be able to give Wind-Wolf's father confidence in the teacher's abilities to help his …show more content…
To do this, incorporating natural objects to use for sorting and counting could be beneficial. For example, in the letter it tells us that Wind-Wolf practiced counting with sticks. Instead of only the typical counting objects in a kindergarten classroom, sticks, stones, acorns, or leaves could all be additional methods to learning. Also stones of different shapes and colors could be used to practice sorting. Whether they are bought in certain shapes, painted colorfully, or all natural, it incorporates this culture into the classroom learning. In kindergarten they sing many songs. Wind-Wolf's Indian culture also has music throughout their lives. To incorporate music, songs can be used to learn counting, days of the week, months of the year, appropriate behavior, letter sounds, and many, many other things. This method will help Wind-Wolf's learning process because he has already been accustomed to knowing songs and singing them often. Not only will he be able to enjoy singing, but through it he will learn the American aspects of class that are not in the Indian culture, but necessary for him to thrive in the school
counting them, and shape by moulding different shapes out of it. It also helps children
Gray Wolf Optimization Gray wolf optimization is presented in the following subsections based on the work in [13]. 1) Inspiration: Grey wolves are considered as apex predators, meaning that they are at the top of the food chain. Grey wolves mostly prefer to live in a pack. The group size is 512 on average. They have a very strict social dominant hierarchy.
Family’s beliefs and values may be different for some and in other cultures they may not be accepted. As teachers, we have to learn about different cultures and expand our knowledge so families could feel more accepted. In the book, Anti- Bias Education for young children and ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards, talks about how culture and fairness involves two dimensions, children’s development of a positive culture, identity, and their respectful interactions with other cultures. With these two dimensions, it will help the child to continue to express their home culture at school while learning the different cultures at school with their classmates. They learn about what’s right from wrong, how to dress, and talk
The article talks about how teachers need to have cultural compatibility. While it might be difficult for some teacher to grasp and understand the different cultures behaviors and beliefs. For those teacher that can are more likely to provide a learning environment that is enriching and responsive to the children’s different cultures. Teacher should have “meaningful interactions with members of other cultures and promote cultural disequilibrium (Colombo, 2005, p. 2).” Activities that have this are more likely to increase cultural competence.
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
Colonial educators began many traditions attempting to control Native American education, and these traditions have been passed down and sustained for over five centuries. In chapter two, the authors outline the strengths of Native American education that include “Indigenous theories o...
...Teaching acceptance and diversity of different ethnicity is one of the key components that can be taught in our school systems today. Here in America we have many different ethnic groups and races, we are one big melting pot. During school these differences should be embraced in a positive manner and a proper learning experience. Diversity is often mistaken for the word division, and sometimes people teach that diversity is division. Diversity should be taught in a way that brings people together, not divide people into groups. Like Konig said, “I hadn’t really given much thought to the ethnic and national backgrounds of Sarah’s classmates. I can guarantee that Sarah, being two and a half gave the subject absolutely no thought.” (51) We can take a few lessons from Konigs daughter and learn to not give the subject any thought, and just accept people for who they are.
To be brief, culturally relevant teaching "is a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp. 20)." The emphasis of culturally relevant teaching is to understand that children have different needs and in order to deal with them in the best way possible is equitably. The inability to recognize these differences causes teachers to limit their ability to meet the student's educational needs and prevents them from being culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp.37). Contrary to culturally relevant teaching, assimilationist teaching is a style that disregards a student's particular cultural characteristics. This teaching method follows a hierarchical model. According to the assimilationist perspective, the teacher's role is to ensure that students fit into society (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp. 24). The book is full of amazing teaching strategies, teaching styles, and methods that would help benefit educators working with children of any grade
When the majority of teachers in America are White, middle class women who only speak English in a country were students are starting to come from a multitude of backgrounds it is no wonder problems are arising. As more people from different cultures and religions immigrate to the United States the average classroom is losing the cultural uniformity it had in the past. Though the faces in classrooms are steadily changing many teachers have not been able to adjust as quickly to the ever growing diversity taking place. One would expect for teachers to still be able to teach students effectively whether they share a similar background or not, but in actuality cultural conflicts between teachers and students are only getting worse. Especially when
In 1995, Delpit published Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. Although the excerpt analyzed in this paper is from a larger work, it was written by Delpit (1995) as a self-contained speech. This excerpt includes many of the concepts Delpit believes to be the basic cultural conflicts in the classroom, which are stereotyping, child-deficit assumptions and student isolation and invisibility. Delpit's goal is to "remove the dynamic of oppression that are inherent in any classroom…that come together when (primarily white) teachers spend time with 'other people's children'" (Delpit, 1995, pg.69). Through Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Delpit lays the foundation for multicultural education and details ways teachers can solve the inherent problems that arise as a result of many cultures interacting in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is an analysis of this text through an analytic, interpretive and normative reading.
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 to gain a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably from a judgmental and prejudiced view. Diversity has a broad range of spectrums. Students from all across the continent; students from political refugees, indigenous Americans, and immigrants bring their cultural and linguistic skills to American classrooms. Students not only bring their cultural and linguistic skills, but they bring their ethnicity, talents, and skills.
Culture is a powerful influence plays a big role in our interactions. Culture may also impact parenting style and a developing child. Having a strong sense of their own cultural history and the traditions associated with it helps children build a positive cultural identity for themselves. This also supports children’s sense of belonging and, by extension, their mental health and wellbeing. This class is crucial in understanding and working well parents, staff, and children. An effective educator understands how students’ cultures affect their perceptions, self-esteem, values, classroom behavior, and learning. As director, I need to use that understanding to help my students and staff feel welcomed, affirmed, respected, and valued. One way that I can do this is by using multicultural literature, especially children’s literature, to honor students’ culture and foster cross-cultural understanding. If cultural differences are not understood by teachers and management, it can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings on both sides. It will be my job to do all I can to overcome both language and cultural differences to ensure a positive learning environment for
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.
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
The concepts included in providing a more diverse, multicultural education are requiring teachers to review their own issues and prejudices while expanding their knowledge of the many cultures that make up the classroom. These efforts help the educator recognize the various individual and cultural differences of each student, as well as gain an understanding on how these differences impact the learning process. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon individual and cultural difference research and why diverse students struggle to succeed in school. Furthermore, I will share some instructional approaches I could implement in the classroom to accommodate diverse students. Finally, I will discuss the responsibility of educators in addressing the issue of how our o...