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Multiculturalism in schools
The role of multicultural education
Gender issues in school education
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Recommended: Multiculturalism in schools
Contextual Information In this example, I am going to use Evans High School as an example, but this could be almost any school in the United States. Evans High School is 51% male and 49% female. The community is in a suburban setting and it is considered to be a school where it has a perception of being safe and a good school. Only about 6% of students did not meet expectations in mathematics for the graduation test and most of the students, 70%, exceeded the standards. The grade are that I will be focusing on will be 11th grade mathematics, Math III. The classroom is going to be approximately how it is in the school, so I am going to assume half male and half female. The student to teacher ratio is 18:1, so I will be using 18 students as the number in the class. I would be the only teacher in the classroom and I would be teaching based on the Common Core standards from the State of Georgia (USNews: Best Schools, 2011).
Statement of Problem In this example, I am making up a student as an example and I am filling the role as a math teacher in this classroom. Jamie Peterson in my Math III class has been facing a challenge. Jamie Peterson is a junior at Evans High School. The problem is she is feeling discouraged from focusing so hard on mathematics. She wants to go to a really good school and she want to become a mathematician when she grows up. She faces the problem is being a female that wants to be in the mathematics field. Even though most of the math teachers in the school are female, there is still a stereotype that mathematics are for boys. She is picked on for her love of studying mathematics, being called a nerd and told that she needs to do other things to be successful. The challenges of...
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...roblem. An example would be replacing John with Jose in the problem. This would be a small subtle move in incorporating culturally relevant teaching without the students even realizing it. I learned about the culture of power and how as a white American, I have some cultural power, though not as much as others because of my poor upbringing and my current status as a student at this point in time. I do know that being able to teach in a multicultural frame of mind is tough, especially with the demands of teachers increasing due to programs like common core, but I feel like I am better educated to tackle the teaching field and do so with a multicultural viewpoint. It is not going to be perfect and there will be mistakes made, but it has been interesting to learn about these different viewpoints, even if I disagree with some of the points that are being offered.
In conclusion, the balancing of schools is an ongoing issue of discussion. There are now cases where blacks and Hispanics outnumber whites in school districts such as Detroit. Pasadena also had a similar issue and decided to bus white kids to urban areas until white families began moving out of the district as a counter measure (Green, 2007). Clearly, this issue is still seeking a solution.
Gloria Ladson-Billings supports this idea in her essay titled “’Yes, But How Do We Do it?’ Practicing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy” and also expands upon its importance by adding the insight of how teachers think about the social contexts, the students, the curriculum, and about instruction, all impact the students because how teachers regard these contexts gets woven into their pedagogy, which creates the very classrooms for learning. If I had to identify with one of the authors, I would identify more with Curtis Linton, who is white and grew up in a predominantly homogenous community (Park Ridge, Illinois).
For centuries African Americans have fought for equal rights, one of them being an opportunity for the chance to get an equal education. Many people believe that African Americans have an equal or better chance at getting an education than other students. This is not the case when in fact, it is actually harder for these three reasons: African American students tend to come from harsh, poverty stricken atmospheres. Shattered family lifestyles that make it difficult to pursue a higher education because they have not received the proper information. Secondly, just because African Americans are minorities does not mean that they receive a vast amount of government assistance or financial aid to pursue a higher education. Lastly, African American students do not receive the same treatment as other students when they attend predominantly white colleges and universities.
Through the courses that I have taken thus far, I have learned about and experienced many rewards of teaching for social justice. However, I have also learned about the challenges of teaching for social justice, such as mismatches, racial stigmas, and avoiding oppressive teaching, to name a few. From course readings, the dispositions, and real-life situations, I have been able to grasp the understanding of being a teacher for social justice.
The U.S. Educational system has historically divided into two objective groups. The first objective focuses on increasing opportunity. The second objective focuses on stabilizing an unequal society. The objective of increasing opportunity has mainly emphasized on practition more than discussions of schooling. Thomas Jefferson implemented a plan in 1779, it promised the laboring class more opportunity to attend higher education. The point of the plan was to rake out the brilliant from the poor class, and add them to the prospering upper class. The goal of the plan was to divide the youth
As stated in my Week 3 Journal Entry, at one point I was helping in a classroom with a child who speaks Spanish. Instead of trying to force the child to speak English, I tried to use some basic Spanish when I worked with them in order to make the child feel more comfortable. I believe by making this small effort to speak the child’s native language that the child was more willing to participate in class and try to learn English. An additional example of making a relation from the text to a personal experience is when I was in elementary through high school. I did not realize until reading Spring’s book how little cultural diversity was taught in my elementary, middle, and high school. I went to school in a very Scandinavian county, and we did not have a lot of diversity. There were several students in the district who came from Hispanic, Asian, or African decent—but they were very few. I cannot recall a day when a teacher spent time to discuss a one of these student’s cultures, which is utterly ridiculous. With the amount of time spent in school and the amount of diversity in the world, it seems illogical to barely speak of ethnic and cultural diversity. Even though there were only a handful of students in the district from different cultures, it would have been beneficial to learn more about the rest of the world because when high school is done we all go out into that diverse world. I know I will take the time and make the effort to teach my future students about the beauty of diversity and
John, a 15 year old male, is an 8th grade student attending a local middle school. John is a transfer student from another state and he been placed into an inclusion classroom because he has been identified as a student with a disability and requires an IEP. Lately, John has been verbally and physically disruptive during math class. Some of the disruptive behaviors John often exhibit in the classroom include making loud noises and jokes during instruction, calling his peers names, physically touching his peers, and grabbing group materials. John’s teacher collected data and learned that his verbal disruptive behavior occurs 4-8 times during each sixty minute class meeting, and his physical group disruptions occur 75% of the time he works with a group. After meeting with John’s other teachers, his math teacher learned that his disruptive behavior is only present during math class. According to John’s math test scores on his IEP, his math instructor also learned that math is a challenging subject for John and he is significantly below grade level. Both John’s math teacher and his IEP team reached an agreement that they would like to decrease the number of times John disrupts instruction and eventually eliminate the disruptive behavior. The replacement behavior for John is to remain focused and on task during math instruction and assigned activities without triggering any disruptions (i.e., distracting loud noises or jokes causing the class to go into a laughing uproar, physical contact with peers, name calling, or grabbing his peers’ materials). Instead of John being punished for his disruptive behavior, the replacement behavior would allow him to remain in math class, and he will also be able to receive posit...
The United States criminal justice system is an ever-changing system that is based on the opinions and ideas of the public. Many of the policies today were established in direct response to polarizing events and generational shifts in ideology. In order to maintain public safety and punish those who break these laws, law enforcement officers arrest offenders and a judge or a group of the law offender’s peers judge their innocence. If found guilty, these individuals are sentenced for a predetermined amount of time in prison and are eventually, evaluated for early release through probation. While on probation, the individual is reintegrated into their community, with restrict limitations that are established for safety. In theory, this system
As a leader or administrator I would conduct a professional development for my staff by using the teaching strategies based from the article “Diversity Toolkit: Cultural Competence for Educators,” located in www.nea.org website. In which I would use Geneva Gaye publication culturally responsive teaching using the cultural knowledge, performance styles, and prior experiences of diverse students
Develop an argument on or some ideas of understanding about curriculum as multicultural text by relating the works of Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, Delpit, Duarte & Smith, Greene, Nieto and Sletter to your experience of curriculum, teaching, and learning as affirming diversity. You could think specifically about the following questions: Is there a need for diversity in curriculum studies and designs? Why? What measures do you think will be effective in incorporating such a need into curriculum studies and designs? What is the relevance of diversity to your career goal, to education in your family, community, and school, to education in Georgia, and to education in general? In which way can you develop a curriculum which helps cultivate empathy, compassion, passion, and hope for citizens of the world, and which fosters social justice?
The advantages of diversity in classrooms promote positive images for United States of America in terms of the status quo, and it promotes rich experiences for students and teachers. In terms of status quo, diversity in classrooms challenges America’s status quo. It challenges America’s status quo by breaking the standards of American classroom traditions. Back in the days, the typical American classroom were taught by white women and white men, filled with white students. They all came from the same background, culture and economic status. There is no wrong in having people of the same culture, and race come together in one classroom, but students and teachers do not gain as much opportunities or rich experiences as they would if they were surrounded by diverse stude...
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.
I believe it is important to first analyze the word diversity when examining the need for diversity within a classroom. According to Webster's New Pocket Dictionary, diversity means variety, a number of different kinds. I often discuss and read about diversity in terms of cultural backgrounds; the unification of histories and stories from people from all over the world. Although, I believe that in a higher-educational setting, diversity can also be discussed as the acceptance of the various minds within a classroom. I believe that it is important to recognize the thoughts and experiences of others in a learning environment. Collectively, students learn from teachers, teachers learn from students, and students learn from their peers. By allowing diversity within the classroom, a sense of community can develop. Diversity encourages an active, not passive, learning style. I believe that the culture of Columbia College Chicago is dependent on diversity. The motto “Create Change,” suggests students actively seek the change they want to see in the world. In order to obtain change a community developed out of diversity must be discovered.
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
1. Instructional Context-My class includes 25 five and six year old kindergartners; 24 African-American students and 1 Caucasian student. I have 11 girls and 14 boys in my full-day kindergarten class where I teach language arts, math, science, social studies, and health.