Culture in the classroom

[dancin75]

How do you increase cultural awareness in the classroom?  How would that lead into positive social change?

[safirah chinwe]

that's a tricky question since most teachers who try to do such are sometimes forced out of the school.

[Johnson TATA]

Cracking Culture Code to enhance cultural awareness in the Classroom

               What is culture?  This question looks so simple yet it has been underused or defined incompletely to mean different things to different people. Before I define culture, I will bring you a scenario where I was in a High School as a science educator. I started first as a substitute teacher before finally going through the certification process. Many times I go from one building to another someone would ask me “where are you from” and I would say “ I am  from …” and I mention the name of the city where I became naturalized to be a citizen, yet they were not satisfied with my answers. Finally they say but I have an “accent”. One day I decided to give the students an essay as an ice breaker. The topic was “Everybody has an accent”.  They were all baffled and I gave them some clues like the people of New York have accent, the people from the Southern part of US have their own accent, the people from California side have their own accent. At this point they stopped me and went on to write wonderful essays. When I read those essays I knew they now understood what an accent was. Before the essay activity, the word accent was used stereotypically.

           What then is culture?  When I was doing my student teaching just mare mention of the word “multiculturalism” scared some colleagues.  The fact today is that every human kind has a culture depending on what perspective one is using. Dr. Talmadge Guy in Laureate Education Inc., 2010, [DVD] defines culture as patterns and meanings that shape our understanding of our practice in the classroom.

           In a classroom both the teacher and students are attached to some form of culture.  It can the mainstream culture, minority culture or international culture category.  In this case, culture can be viewed as a way of life that is manifested in form of clothing, food, language, beliefs, norms, values held, individual/group world view etc.  These can be divided into two parts: the visible and the invisible.

         The visible culture such was the type of clothes worn, food eaten; language (accent) is just superficial. Teachers are to be careful for meeting people for the first time and sizing them up. What teachers need to know is the deeper or invisible culture such as belief systems, norms, values, worldview, etc.  Knowledge of invisible culture of all members of the classroom will inform how curriculum or content is design to make it meaningful to all; and also what methods will be used to disseminate knowledge for learning to take place. The design of learning activities that negates one culture  will make the subject matter being treated become biased as not all are benefitting cognitively.

        I will end up with a scenario in city XYZ.  They had very good doctors and nurses that were experts in their field. However, they were apparently not prepared for wave of influx of immigrants from various countries due to the diversity visa program and other factors. The immigrants have world view on how to express their condition to medical practitioners. Unfortunately, cases of communication misinterpretation due to wrong perception result in wrong prescription. The end results were sometimes devastating. The cries in city XYZ went up to the authorities until an NGO was formed to take care of a health initiative. In this case, MDs and nurses with similar cultural background were matched with these groups to get them well taken care of. This example can be applied to a classroom situation to seek ways to reach all.

      Cracking culture coat is very essential. For instance, some educators used to complain on how the young adults from the high school program to prepare them for college was sloppy and the youth were not getting it. What was going on was that the deep culture was that they were used to hip hop music cultural setting. Some educators designed curriculum infusion that used hip hop music concept to design subject matter learning activities to write in poetic manner and get know how to interpret such. This got them engaged and the culture walls came down for them to grasp fully the content and grew cognitively. Related with the students [teacher-students] and planning activities that encourages student interaction to one another will help. What goes on in a classroom is influenced by culture dynamics. Each day students come to the classroom with culture baggages that can either be a plus or minus to their cognitive development. These are challenges that educators are faced with in the 21st century. 

 Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Multicultural learning environment [DVD]. In Laureate Education Inc. (Executive Producer), Adult learning: Trends, issues, global perspectives. Baltimore, MD: Author.

  

[Learner]

Dr. Tata:

I personally believe that cultural awareness is not sufficient in today’s society to effect positive social change.  Perhaps I am too radical in my stance, but cultural awareness teaching needs a heavy dose of social justice theory.  Just as black folk are often lectured about improvement opportunities around issues of education, family values, and the “we can do better if we only try harder” mentality; white folks and those in power should be taught THEIR identity development that is premised on White Privilege.  When will cultural awareness include acknowledgement by white folks that they are also in a racial group?  And why is racial identity and development always studied based on perceptions about People of Color? Don’t you think it is time that white folks look to themselves and find out why they remain oblivious to the acceptance and identification with privilege as viewed through white culture? My point Dr. Tata is that cultural “awareness” has missed the development of the psychosis of racial dominance, unearned privilege, and indifference to inequalities which I believe is part of white identity development.  Although we are currently in a multicultural society and the age of global awareness; the reasons whites remain silent in the face of inequalities should be subject to the same scrutiny as the cultural awareness programs where People of Color remember painful experiences of racial inequity.

 

[Annette V. Lewis]

Cultural in the Classrooms

Educators are faced with cultural diversity everyday in the classrooms. Educators do not have a choice on the students that they are teaching. Hopefully, the instructors see students or adult learners depend on the grade level. All educators should exemplify a respect attitude that enables them to identify the students’ performance level. However, sometimes biases can occur with instructors regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity.  As an educator, I have attended trainings that help build qualities to be opened minded and fair to people. I have always tried to promote the golden rule of treating people like would want them to treat me.  Merriam, Courtenay, & Cervero (2006) state that “Self-other relationship is the center, the heart of lifelong learning through which authentic and mutual respect is experienced and expressed” p. 387.

Also, to help reduce possible chance of discrimination, we are aware of social actions, discrimination laws, and political changes that are on-going in the world.  The effectiveness of those initiatives should be embedded in all educators. This will help to promote mutual respect globally if the principles are promoted globally.

Finally, adult educators, parents, and community members can initiate research focusing on diversity within their environment. Program can be conducted to allocate funds to enhance more cultural awareness. People can network to learn more about the different cultural, write stories and complete projects on the different cultural and use transfer of learning to promote what has been learned about a particular culture.  I think this will help in promoting culture in the class rooms. Plus, this process will also promote social change.

 

Reference:

Merrian, S., Courtenay, B., & Cervero, R. (2006). Global issues and adult education: Perspective from Latin American, Southern Africa, and the United States. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Cultural in the Classrooms

Educators are faced with cultural diversity everyday in the classrooms. Educators do not have a choice on the students that they are teaching. Hopefully, the instructors see students or adult learners depend on the grade level. All educators should exemplify a respect attitude that enables them to identify the students’ performance level. However, sometimes biases can occur with instructors regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity.  As an educator, I have attended trainings that help build qualities to be opened minded and fair to people. I have always tried to promote the golden rule of treating people like would want them to treat me.  Merriam, Courtenay, & Cervero (2006) state that “Self-other relationship is the center, the heart of lifelong learning through which authentic and mutual respect is experienced and expressed” p. 387.

Also, to help reduce possible chance of discrimination, we are aware of social actions, discrimination laws, and political changes that are on-going in the world.  The effectiveness of those initiatives should be embedded in all educators. This will help to promote mutual respect globally if the principles are promoted globally.

Finally, adult educators, parents, and community members can initiate research focusing on diversity within their environment. Program can be conducted to allocate funds to enhance more cultural awareness. People can network to learn more about the different cultural, write stories and complete projects on the different cultural and use transfer of learning to promote what has been learned about a particular culture.  I think this will help in promoting culture in the class rooms. Plus, this process will also promote social change.

 

Reference:

Merrian, S., Courtenay, B., & Cervero, R. (2006). Global issues and adult education: Perspective from Latin American, Southern Africa, and the United States. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Johnson TATA said:

Cracking Culture Code to enhance cultural awareness in the Classroom

               What is culture?  This question looks so simple yet it has been underused or defined incompletely to mean different things to different people. Before I define culture, I will bring you a scenario where I was in a High School as a science educator. I started first as a substitute teacher before finally going through the certification process. Many times I go from one building to another someone would ask me “where are you from” and I would say “ I am  from …” and I mention the name of the city where I became naturalized to be a citizen, yet they were not satisfied with my answers. Finally they say but I have an “accent”. One day I decided to give the students an essay as an ice breaker. The topic was “Everybody has an accent”.  They were all baffled and I gave them some clues like the people of New York have accent, the people from the Southern part of US have their own accent, the people from California side have their own accent. At this point they stopped me and went on to write wonderful essays. When I read those essays I knew they now understood what an accent was. Before the essay activity, the word accent was used stereotypically.

           What then is culture?  When I was doing my student teaching just mare mention of the word “multiculturalism” scared some colleagues.  The fact today is that every human kind has a culture depending on what perspective one is using. Dr. Talmadge Guy in Laureate Education Inc., 2010, [DVD] defines culture as patterns and meanings that shape our understanding of our practice in the classroom.

           In a classroom both the teacher and students are attached to some form of culture.  It can the mainstream culture, minority culture or international culture category.  In this case, culture can be viewed as a way of life that is manifested in form of clothing, food, language, beliefs, norms, values held, individual/group world view etc.  These can be divided into two parts: the visible and the invisible.

         The visible culture such was the type of clothes worn, food eaten; language (accent) is just superficial. Teachers are to be careful for meeting people for the first time and sizing them up. What teachers need to know is the deeper or invisible culture such as belief systems, norms, values, worldview, etc.  Knowledge of invisible culture of all members of the classroom will inform how curriculum or content is design to make it meaningful to all; and also what methods will be used to disseminate knowledge for learning to take place. The design of learning activities that negates one culture  will make the subject matter being treated become biased as not all are benefitting cognitively.

        I will end up with a scenario in city XYZ.  They had very good doctors and nurses that were experts in their field. However, they were apparently not prepared for wave of influx of immigrants from various countries due to the diversity visa program and other factors. The immigrants have world view on how to express their condition to medical practitioners. Unfortunately, cases of communication misinterpretation due to wrong perception result in wrong prescription. The end results were sometimes devastating. The cries in city XYZ went up to the authorities until an NGO was formed to take care of a health initiative. In this case, MDs and nurses with similar cultural background were matched with these groups to get them well taken care of. This example can be applied to a classroom situation to seek ways to reach all.

      Cracking culture coat is very essential. For instance, some educators used to complain on how the young adults from the high school program to prepare them for college was sloppy and the youth were not getting it. What was going on was that the deep culture was that they were used to hip hop music cultural setting. Some educators designed curriculum infusion that used hip hop music concept to design subject matter learning activities to write in poetic manner and get know how to interpret such. This got them engaged and the culture walls came down for them to grasp fully the content and grew cognitively. Related with the students [teacher-students] and planning activities that encourages student interaction to one another will help. What goes on in a classroom is influenced by culture dynamics. Each day students come to the classroom with culture baggages that can either be a plus or minus to their cognitive development. These are challenges that educators are faced with in the 21st century. 

 Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Multicultural learning environment [DVD]. In Laureate Education Inc. (Executive Producer), Adult learning: Trends, issues, global perspectives. Baltimore, MD: Author.

  

[sue batory]

Johnson,

I enjoyed your classroom experiences. I think another way to increase clultual awareness in the classroom could be through some of the text books/picutres. I teach in health education and most of the assessment teaching or book examples in our on the typical white patient. I would like to see books that include all different cultures and a variety of assessments picutres using diverse populations.    

 

Johnson TATA said:

Cracking Culture Code to enhance cultural awareness in the Classroom

               What is culture?  This question looks so simple yet it has been underused or defined incompletely to mean different things to different people. Before I define culture, I will bring you a scenario where I was in a High School as a science educator. I started first as a substitute teacher before finally going through the certification process. Many times I go from one building to another someone would ask me “where are you from” and I would say “ I am  from …” and I mention the name of the city where I became naturalized to be a citizen, yet they were not satisfied with my answers. Finally they say but I have an “accent”. One day I decided to give the students an essay as an ice breaker. The topic was “Everybody has an accent”.  They were all baffled and I gave them some clues like the people of New York have accent, the people from the Southern part of US have their own accent, the people from California side have their own accent. At this point they stopped me and went on to write wonderful essays. When I read those essays I knew they now understood what an accent was. Before the essay activity, the word accent was used stereotypically.

           What then is culture?  When I was doing my student teaching just mare mention of the word “multiculturalism” scared some colleagues.  The fact today is that every human kind has a culture depending on what perspective one is using. Dr. Talmadge Guy in Laureate Education Inc., 2010, [DVD] defines culture as patterns and meanings that shape our understanding of our practice in the classroom.

           In a classroom both the teacher and students are attached to some form of culture.  It can the mainstream culture, minority culture or international culture category.  In this case, culture can be viewed as a way of life that is manifested in form of clothing, food, language, beliefs, norms, values held, individual/group world view etc.  These can be divided into two parts: the visible and the invisible.

         The visible culture such was the type of clothes worn, food eaten; language (accent) is just superficial. Teachers are to be careful for meeting people for the first time and sizing them up. What teachers need to know is the deeper or invisible culture such as belief systems, norms, values, worldview, etc.  Knowledge of invisible culture of all members of the classroom will inform how curriculum or content is design to make it meaningful to all; and also what methods will be used to disseminate knowledge for learning to take place. The design of learning activities that negates one culture  will make the subject matter being treated become biased as not all are benefitting cognitively.

        I will end up with a scenario in city XYZ.  They had very good doctors and nurses that were experts in their field. However, they were apparently not prepared for wave of influx of immigrants from various countries due to the diversity visa program and other factors. The immigrants have world view on how to express their condition to medical practitioners. Unfortunately, cases of communication misinterpretation due to wrong perception result in wrong prescription. The end results were sometimes devastating. The cries in city XYZ went up to the authorities until an NGO was formed to take care of a health initiative. In this case, MDs and nurses with similar cultural background were matched with these groups to get them well taken care of. This example can be applied to a classroom situation to seek ways to reach all.

      Cracking culture coat is very essential. For instance, some educators used to complain on how the young adults from the high school program to prepare them for college was sloppy and the youth were not getting it. What was going on was that the deep culture was that they were used to hip hop music cultural setting. Some educators designed curriculum infusion that used hip hop music concept to design subject matter learning activities to write in poetic manner and get know how to interpret such. This got them engaged and the culture walls came down for them to grasp fully the content and grew cognitively. Related with the students [teacher-students] and planning activities that encourages student interaction to one another will help. What goes on in a classroom is influenced by culture dynamics. Each day students come to the classroom with culture baggages that can either be a plus or minus to their cognitive development. These are challenges that educators are faced with in the 21st century. 

 Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Multicultural learning environment [DVD]. In Laureate Education Inc. (Executive Producer), Adult learning: Trends, issues, global perspectives. Baltimore, MD: Author.