Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education

1407 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Managing diversity in the classroom

Teaching is a very rewarding career if you learn and understand how to work with the diversity of the classrooms we teach in. As teachers, we need to be more vigilant of where are students come from. Before we can teach we need to know who we are teaching and what background, knowledge, and customs they bring with them to the classroom. We must also be aware of the factors that are relevant to the academic achievement of the students we currently teach. There are many of these factors, but I want to focus on two; teacher quality and low teacher expectations.
According to Bennett and colleagues, “There is extensive evidence suggesting that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience poorer education outcomes than their peers.” (Bennet et all, 2004). One of the biggest factors that relates to their performance can be associated with teacher quality. We know that in order for students to succeed, they have to have adults that care about them. However, it is not enough to have adults that care, they must also have experience and knowledge in the content they are teaching. There are cases of teachers who teach straight from the book and curriculum they are given to and do little to check student understanding or relate the material to the students. We also have the case of first year teachers like myself who are not always given enough training before they start in their own classroom and become overwhelmed with all the demands from this career. There are many teachers who have great intentions, but they need more relevant professional development and assistance in their first years of their career so that they can feel successful to teach their students. This can also be related to teacher expectation...

... middle of paper ...

...eventing her from focusing solely on her education.
I would recommend Carlos to the ESL program to help him with his language acquisition and I would recommend Kimesha to counseling services. With Rafael I would meet with the parents and see if they are aware of his reading and hard time focusing and see how they can help at home before referring him to special education services.

Works Cited

Bennett, A., Bridglall, B.L,. Cauce, A.M., Everson, H.T., Gordon, E.W., and Lee, C.D., Mendoza-Denton, R., Renzulli, J.S., & Stewart, J.K. (2004). All students reaching the top: Strategies for closing academic achievement gap. Naperville, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Irving, Miles and Terry. “Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education.” Special Education for All Teachers 5th Edition. Kendell Hunt Publishing Co., 2010. 110-124. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Closing the Achievement Gap

    2009 Words  | 5 Pages

    The first issue that has been identified as a significant problem involved in the Achievement gap, is that it is partially the fault of America's educational system. Because of the suffering economy that has spurred the increasing lack of basic necessities in schools across America, there are an increasing number of children who are not being properly educated. Whether it is a deficiency in supplies, poor teacher selection, or administration and staff who are indifferent to the students at their sch...

    Read More

  • Early Literacy in ESL Students

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    The purpose of this study is to figure out which ways experienced teachers work best with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study illustrates which strategies experienced teachers have found to work best. The diversity in school in the United States has increased each year. This means that there are an increasing amount of students who are learning English, English language learners (ELLs). This article comes from the perspective that each child should be taught to their specific needs. All students deserve a fair chance to learn. Fair means that every student is treated differently, not equally. Every student learns differently. In order to give every student a fair chance at learning, you must teach them according to their needs. An experienced teacher, Tiffany, describes her experiences working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study watches her methods and discusses what works based on data analysis of the success of her students.

    Read More

  • Educational Inequality

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Peske, Heather G., and Kati Haycock. "Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality: A Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust." Education Trust. N.p., June 2006. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Desegregating The Obsolete Busing System at Rio Bueno High School

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ugbu, J., U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. EDUC 160 Urban Education (Spring 2014, pp. 213-228)

    Read More

  • English Language Learners

    1899 Words  | 4 Pages

    Echevarria, J. Teaching language minority students in elementary schools (Research Brief No. 1). Santa Cruz, CA, and Washington, DC: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. (2003)

    Read More

  • Cultural Diversity Challenges in American Classrooms

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Cultural Diversity In American Education Essay

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    The modern education system in America is building up a nation of racist within our children. Educations promotion of cultural diversity and awareness is actually creating a segregated, inconsiderate, racist culture that prides itself on being racially and ethnically diverse. This emphasis on cultural awareness is built on the idea that the only way for America to reach true diversity is if Americans understand what makes other nations and cultures different. By definition however, cultural awareness is the understanding of the differences between oneself and the people from other countries/backgrounds focusing on the difference in attitude and values. What modern education and culture promotes in cultural awareness stays from this definition

    Read More

  • Role of a Counselor in Closing the Achievement Gap

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    Achievement gaps in schools across America impinge on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic status groups. For generations school systems focus on improving the achievement gaps for low-income and minority students. Statistics have provided evidenced that the school systems made enormous progress between 1970 and 1988, but came to a halt thereafter. Presently in the 20th century the gap has widened and the need for improvement is challenging for the school administr...

    Read More

  • Culturally Responsive Teaching Challenges

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many challenges that teachers encounter when teaching children with learning disabilities, learners that are English language learners, or learners who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As a nation we are faced with the challenged that our schools are becoming more diverse. The majority of our schoolteachers are still predominately white females, but our student population is slowly changing. We are seeing more minority groups in our schools that are facing different challenges. The scary part of it all is that our teachers do not have the skills to accommodate those differences. “The nation’s changing school demographics are creating a demand for new teaching skills” (Utley, Obiakor, & Bakken 2011, pg. 5). Our student population

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Diversity In Education

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    There has been a major change in the past thirty years regarding the amount of immigrants coming to the United States. The impact the immigrants have had on education and diversity is unbelievable. There are many factors which contribute to the element of diversity in education, such as each student 's culture, the different languages each student speaks, promoting gender equality amongst students, and working with students who have exceptionalities. As today 's educators, teachers must understand diversity from an omniscient perspective and the influence it has on students, making the process of getting an education as equal and pleasant as possible for all students.

    Read More

  • Diversity in the Classroom

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Diversity In Education

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is very important for teacher educators to develop self-awareness of cultural biases and discriminatory practices as well as to exam the effects of their beliefs, their attitudes, and expectations for teacher

    Read More

  • Diversity and Multicultural Education in the Classroom

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Language and Ethnicity

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Language and ethnicity are known to be closely intertwined (Giles & Coupland 1991). However, prior to analyzing interrelation between language and ethnicity I faced the problem of identifying the concept of ‘ethnicity’ itself. Thus, Fishman (1997: 327) points out that ‘ethnicity’ like other notions it is in a close association with, i.e. ‘race’, ‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘nationality’, is not “an exact scientific term”. Therefore it is not clearly defined and thus is open to interpretations (Ibid). In my search I came across a number of rather vogue explanations, and the most common aggregated dictionary definition of ‘ethnicity’ is ‘a belonging to a particular social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’ (MacMillan Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, etc.). Dictionary of Cultural Literacy does single out and include language into the ethnicity definition saying that it is an “identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language”. However, is language always an inevitable part of one’s ethnicity or the ethnicity of a group? Definitely, the most understandable case of interrelation between language and ethnicity is the one when a person is born and lives on a specific territory which historically had one dominant ethnos and one dominant language, so ethnicity is predetermined by close bound between language and territory (Fishman 1997). Thus, Tabouret-Keller (1997) gives an example of a school boy from Belize who identifies himself as Belizean because he was born in that country, he lives there and also is a native speaker of its Creole language. But there are two more cases when interrelation of ethnicity and...

    Read More

  • Diversity and Curriculum Development

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Issues in Education

Open Document