Cultural diversity has been a major issue of concern for several decades, and it has affected institutions of learning, where facilitators have to balance the family and school involvement in enhancing learning. Establishing a meaningful environment for students with diverse backgrounds enhances positive performance in their academic, personal, and professional objectives. A healthy relationship with family members involves identifying the needs of each family’s cultural stand; this is because a culture may play a major role in defining a family’s responsiveness to a school’s involvement. The globalization aspect has facilitated the creation of a multicultural society, and hence the need for an education system that addresses the need to foster a conducive environment for learning. It is imperative to define the essence of family involvement and collaboration in schools’ activities, especially where cultural diversity is concerned. The rapid growth in culture, linguistic, and ethnic diversity require family involvement in the modern education system. According to Turner-Vorbeck (2013), initiating a multicultural education system allows the inclusion of each family’s needs in the school setting, which contributes to a heightened sensitivity to cultural issues among teachers. The multicultural education system provides guidelines that teachers should follow to satisfy the diverse student population (Morrel & Duncan-Andrade, 2008). Generalization is a major challenge facing students with diverse cultures, as teachers fail to treat each of them as an individual and instead characterize them under the same cultural class. Chinese families entrust their lives with their children’s education because they believe that success in people’s... ... middle of paper ... ...the most beneficial strategies to increase efficiency in learning. The research educators should analyze the perception of such pedagogy on family members with diverse cultural backgrounds. Some parents may feel that they are being forced into adopting other cultures, which may create a negative attitude towards the school administration. This may also affect the children’s academic performance if they feel left out. It is essential to establish measures that ensure all cultures are equally considered in fostering effective learning. Researchers should seek further information on the effective strategies that can help students remain interested in learning about different cultures. Students should involve their parents in the learning process; therefore, it is vital to examine the home-school culture and determine the impact of each aspect in the learning process.
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
Throughout history, the family has been the primary source for learning. Before the advent of schools, children were taught at home by their parents, older siblings, grandparents, and/or other relatives. With the introduction of formal schooling, the teaching of values, cultural practices, and skills such as cooking, sewing, farming, and trapping continued to originate in the home. Today, in spite of the vast public and private educational systems, some parents are choosing to teach their children at home, confident in their belief that teaching in the context of family is the best way to ensure the learning the desire.
The purpose of this essay is to familiarize the reader with some of the cultural values of two prevalent minority cultures in the Western Washington area classrooms in order to create a positive learning environ resulting in higher academic achievement for these students. The two cultures discussed in this essay are Mexican Americans and Filipino Americans. Although the Sumner School District, where I work, is not highly diverse, these two minorities are represented to some degree in most of the schools. Among the important factors that influence one’s cultural identity and are discussed in this essay are: language, socioeconomics, traditions, immigration, religion, and the family organization.
...heir families at home. Lessons in the classroom would relate to daily activities and skills, and wherever possible personalized to family’s culture and interests. From my experience working in a public elementary school in Virginia, I have met a number of teachers who use the interactive homework strategy to promote learning at home. It results in families being more aware of their child’s activities and progress in school and increases their communication level with the teachers.
The world is made up of many different types of people, each one having his or her cultural background. Over the years, the United States has become increasingly populated with cultural diversity. This influx has prompted school administrators to recognize the need to incorporate multicultural programs into their school environment including classroom settings, school wide activities, and curriculum as it becomes more evident that the benefits of teaching cultural diversity within the school setting will positively influence our communities, and ultimately the entire nation’s future. The purpose of this paper is to share the pros and cons of multicultural education in the classroom. Additionally, I will express my views compared to those in the reading requirements for this assignment, as well as, new knowledge obtained through the research. Finally, I will share situations where I was challenged introducing a multicultural issue during a class.
Chinese education has stunned the educators when the students from Shanghai have achieved the highest score in PISA during 2011. Western parents wonder how Chinese parents raise such successful kids. Also, they assert Chinese parents are being strict to their children. The articles “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, and “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua describe the experience of how the Chinese mother educate their daughters. The mothers are in the control of their daughter’s lives. However, if we want to know more about the education of Chinese traditional, we need to look into “Chinese family”. We will discover that Chinese education is not horrible as we thought, and it would not affect the development of the students. On the other hand, it is considered as a kind of love from parents because every parent wants the best for their kids. They will definitely assist us through the pathway to success.
Sensitivity to family diversity within the field of education is integral for schools and teachers to better support the identity formation and needs of their students. Much of the literature that exists on this topic tends to focus on becoming aware of issues related to language, culture, gender and socioeconomic status and often how these can intersect with each other to create varied and unique situations. While topics of partner violence and substance abuse may be intertwined with these themes, they are not always the focal point of discussing family diversity.
One hundred years ago, people did not leave their hometown, much less move their families into multicultural neighborhoods filled with diverse children from all over the planet. However, that is changing. With a more globalized world, minorities are finally represented throughout the country, and diversity is becoming more important than ever. In schools, some has been done to address this drastic reduction in prejudice and increase in opportunities. While completely integrating diversity into classrooms is a challenge due to differences in cultural behavior, and misconceived notions of diversity education, there are many studies which are benefiting multiculturalism and strategies created by these programs to create a truly globalized and united world.
Children are unique individuals with different desires and needs. They provide challenges for teachers to meet and conquer. Some of these many differences stem from the diversity of the students in the classroom. Ultimately, much of this diversity comes from the many special family situations in which students live. Cultural factors, prior experience with education, family structure, and socioeconomic factors all have effects on children’s education.
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.
The cultural diversity in society, which is reflected in schools, is forcing schools not to solely rely on content-centered curriculum, but to also incorporate student-centered lesson plans based on critique and inquiry. This requires multicultural education to a dominant part of the school system, not just an extra course or unit. Further, it demands that learning itself no longer be seen as obtaining knowledge but rather, education be seen as creating knowledge. Multicultural education should be seen as affirming the diversity of students and communities, promoting the multicultural ideas of the United States, and building the knowledge and behaviors needed for students to be a positive and contributing member of society and the global community as a whole.
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 main thing is trying to get everyone on the right page. Academic success is one of the big things that we need to work with. This allows us to involve parents and families in the classroom. “Teachers can find out the talents and gifts of parents and invite them into the classroom as “in-residence” experts in areas in which teachers may not be that skilled or knowledgeable” (Coffey, p.15). Heather Coffey continues to explain, “using the skill provided by the parent or community members volunteering in the classroom, the teacher can create research opportunities for students to learn more about the topics that are familiar and important to their culture.” This can involve non-mainstream culture students too. Having academic success as a method is a great idea. This can allow the teachers, parents and students to move forward successfully and the students to gain knowledge rapidly. Also, no student is left behind. All students will be recognized with their unique learning strategies and character. This also allows the parents and families to get an intake on what goes on in the
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.
The cultural gap could be narrowed by professional training. The basis is being aware of these cultural gaps and getting familiar with the existence and forms of cultural differences that might be encountered in the elementary classroom. It can be promoted by adding cultural differences training into the learning schedule of Chinese teacher candidates. Zhou and Li (2014) urged that cultural differences “must be addressed in Chinese language teachers' preparation programs as well as their continued professional development in the U.S. and similar contexts” (p. 17). The demanding number of TCFL teachers in the western coast of America is rising year by year. therefore, more and more teacher candidates and volunteers who would like to teach Chinese in America. To avoid cultural misunderstandings in elementary classroom mentioned above, the training institutions, especially colleges and universities which are operating programs to cultivate Chinese language teachers for foreign students, should lay emphasize on cultural differences. Growing up in China, many teaching candidates still cannot predict the unknowing difficulties they might meet in the future career even though they could know basic information about foreign educational systems. These implicit cultural mismatches are most possible to be neglected, while are most possible for Chinese teachers to encounter in the daily life. Effective approaches should be listed out to solve detailed problems. Systematical training can help TCFL teachers, candidates and volunteers to know more about the daily life and prepare well for the possible obstacles.