My approach to multicultural education is to incorporate books and activities that celebrate holidays, heroes, and special events from various cultures. I think it is very important for my students to be able to read books that not only have pictures of people from their culture but also have ideas associated with their cultural norms and backgrounds. I will give students a chance to teach about their own culture along with building my instruction around different cultural happenings. When we talk about holidays I will include curriculum that incorporates different cultural celebrations. I will make sure my students understand that different cultures celebrate in different ways.
In order to interact with all of my students I understand that I have to be able to understand their background and culture. If I do not understand the cultural background in which a child comes from I may not be able to understand why they act or learn the way they do. Not understanding their cultural norms may cause me to assume things about the child that may not be true. Such as, why they are not getting homework done, why they act out or speak out in class. These may not be behavioral problems but they may be directly connected with what is going on at home or how their culture deals with different situations.
To be culturally competent means I am able to understand cultural differences and have a good attitude towards different cultures. It also means to be able to work with students of different cultural backgrounds in order to make the best of their education. We have learned about different cultural backgrounds and what we should expect to see as a teacher. I know that I will have to adapt my classroom and learning environment to accommodate different children’s cultural backgrounds. In order to do this I will talk to parents about things the child might expect to see when they enter my classroom, how students are expected to behave at home, how they interact with friends and family members and what the parents expect of their child. This will give me a better understanding of their culture and what I need to do to accommodate the students.
1 comment:
It might be helpful to ask parents of the children what they do that might be different from typical "American" traditions. That way, you can understand why they are coming to school unprepared to work. For instance, in my class we have a child who is Russian and observes fasting and staying up all night for special occasions. The teacher asked her parents to explain it to all the teachers so that their child wouldn't get in trouble for not eating lunch. It was really helpful.
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