Diversity and Inclusivity in Teaching

Diversity & Exceptionalities

“We are all different, which is great because we are all unique. Without diversity, life would be very dull” (Catherine Pulsifer). Understanding diversity as a teacher is one of the most important concepts to be an effective teacher. It is important for us as teachers to recognize a variety of student needs including those of ethnicity, language socioeconomic class, disabilities, and gender. As teachers and as a school it is important to promote acceptance of cultural and other differences not only in the classroom but also in the community. In many schools, it is a useful idea to incorporate the concept of culture competence. That is, bring together a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies in a system to enable that system to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. In my experiences in education, I come from a school district in which linguistic diversity is present in a significant majority of the students. Linguistic diversity has students who may have a first language other than English. English Language Learners are reasonably fluent in another language but who have not yet achieved

Cultural diversity is the way of life common to a group of people. It consists of values, attitudes, and beliefs that influence their traditions and behavior. From my experiences, I feel that in my community, every family had a similar culture and even if there were differences from family to family, everyone could relate to the made aspects of culture. I understand that culture is more than just ethnicity; however, coming from such a small community from my exposure to culture everyone had similar backgrounds. As a teacher, my goal is to be able to know my learners and fully understand how all my students are diverse, and my ultimate goal is to be able to accommodate all of their