Cultural Diversity in my classroom
A learning Journey by SchoolEducationGateway
Module 1: Developing Intercultural competences
Nowadays we live in cultural diverse societies so it's our duty as teachers to prepare our students to deal with interculturality. What is most important is for them to realise that respect to diversity is vital and the cornerstone for successful communication and collaboration among people.
1,2.Developing intercultural competence as a teacher.
Various aspects we should consider as intercultutally competent teachers are underscored in the videos below.
- We should reflect on our own cultural values , define our family, religious and cultural background ,see who we are in order to be open to others and accept diversity. My opinion: I feel this is essential because many people usually suffer from a false belief of social superiority which mainly stems from the lack of their self knowledge.
- We should live the diversity and make our students realise that being different is ok. A suggestion could be to organise events in our schools that will give them the opportunity to share elements of their culture with the rest of the school community. My opinion: I think it's very important for students from culturally diverse backgrounds to share elements of their culture and it's our duty as teachers to organise relevant events. Sharing knowledge in an authentic way beyond books is captivating and engaging for all learners.
- We should be open to try new things, experiment with new things without being necessary to have all the answers. There's space for all cultures, it's a matter of our willingness as teachers to get out of our comfort zone and learn about what we don't know. My opinion: Attending this MOOC makes it clear that we are teachers who care ,we are already out of our comfort zone and are eager to learn things we don't know.
- Integrating diverse resources in our teaching will definitely help in developing our students interculturality.A wide pool of resources is available for us to use, adapt and enrich.My opinion: I consider it very important to use culturally diverse resources in class and here are some I intend to use.
- Integrating cultural diversity as a cross- curricular theme is also an important aspect to consider.Migration is a topic that can be tackled in all school subjects so it's about time we gave it a try. My opinion: as a supporter of the cross-curricular approach and an EFL teacher, I regard it essential to handle the issue of interculturality within all school subjects. It needs our creativity and imagination to manage that.
The five areas we should have knowledge and experience on when teaching in classrooms with learners from diverse backgrounds are the ensuing:
- Language
- Pedagogy
- Social identity - Social psychology norms (ethnic forming, xenophobia, racism)
- Parent involvement
- Community relationships
1.3 Teaching Resources
A range of teaching resources I would like to explore and use with my students have been already posted ,however, many interesting ideas and suggestions are shared by the participants of this MOOC on this PADLET.
1.4 Developing intercultural competences of our students.
How can we develop our students intercultural awareness? According to a video by Alicia and Erika there are some basic areas we should focus on:
- Create the culture you want to have in the classroom
Try to get to know your students personally ,show that you care.
- Teach respect for other culture
Intercultural awareness or diversity is mainly character building; it develops empathy ,respect ,understanding appreciation for other cultures. This way we can develop the 4 Cs. i.e communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking
(21st century learning).
Cultural diversity helps us develop these competences as it allows us to explore, to research, to individualize ,personalize the learning journey of the students ,Technology helps us connect with the outside world and extend the classroom.
- Encourage your students to accept differences
It’s not necessary to understand everything we can’t change everything.
- Teach students empathy
How? By creating situations where students have to work towards a common goal. PBL approach.Think about others.
- Teach students how to debate
- Teach how to resolve conflicts in class
Make an intervention as soon as possible and make them understand why some kind of behaviours are not acceptable in class .Team building is very important to prevent conflicts and handle negative feelings.
My opinion: I believe all aspects mentioned should be considered seriously when teaching in culturally diverse environments. Teachers should help their students realize the importance of co existence , collaboration and communication not only with people who share similar beliefs or ideas but also with people who have a different outlook on life and are from diverse cultural backgrounds. School is the place where students will learn to respect the different and live with it. All of us are different and this is the beauty of life as we can share various experiences learn from each other. Respect and empathy are key preconditions for us living peacefully together. Disagreement is acceptable as long as it is supported by arguments and expressed in a civilised manner. Keeping all these under consideration, we should try to adapt our teaching to the current needs of our culturally diverse society and provide our students with the appropriate learning experiences so as to develop their interculturality.
Other participants 'opinions are shared in the padlet below.
Question of the day #2
I believe students should be helped to become culturally competent in case they aren't and here our role as educators is very important. For me cultural competence is the ability to communicate with and interact effectively with people across cultures. Of course this presupposes that you are aware of your own world, are positive towards other cultures and willing to learn from different cultural views and develop the necessary skills for intercultural communication. In this respect I think I am culturally competent as well as many colleagues of mine and students too.
What does it mean to be culturally competent .A good read !!!
Are you an interculturally competent teacher? You can find out by doing this TEST !!
Question of the day#3
Up till now I belong to the lucky teachers who haven't been present to racist tendencies in my classrooms. Generally speaking Greek people are open to cultural diversity and human rights support.If ,however, I found myself in such an awkard position I would try to enhance my students team spirit through many and various collaborative activities as well as encourage discussion with the aim of making them realise the value of civilized co-existence, human rights and respect towards the values of interculturality. Behind racist tendencies there is ignorance , misinformation, prejudice, false beliefs of human values and loads of anger and eventually unhappy people.
1.5 Understanding different models of living and working together in culturally diverse communities.
My notes are based on the videos by Ahmad Aminian, a lecturer at the Free University Brussels who runs a lot of projects with schools as part of the work of the Cultural Center Omar Kayman .
According to this model there's a public space where cultural entities interact. As long as the individuals who belong to these entities return to their homes interaction stops.In other words in a multicultural society where there's an interculturality of co-existence this interculturality is schematized in the public space. Each cultural entity participates in this space with all its characteristics and adapts administratively and legally to the rules of the public space.However, within this space all the characteristics of their private space are and should be respected and the concept of tolerance is developed. We belong to a Multicultural system where each community can express itself and all should respect the rules of living together .
The interculturalism of integration. In this system there is a cultural ,dominant, judicial space where there is a cultural validity ,which is linked to the rational approach of finding the universal truth which exists in this space.This system justifies the behaviours of the individuals.As a result the cultural entities must integrate into the system, there are communities but what is important is the individuals. The core of this system is the rights of the individuals. Of course between the communities there is interaction but its aim is not to construct something together because they do not possess the truth. They should take part in a rational system in order to acquire the universal truth. This way the entities will eventually be assimilated. In this system, which believes that universal ideas exist people tend to move towards the Universal. In this model there's an a priori universality
3. Humanistic Participative model
The intercultural model of humanism and participation.This model embodies the aforementioned systems.In this model you respect universality but you also try to understand how the diverse cultural entities come into discussion.(Differential Universalism),Thus an essential element is mediation. It is important for people to construct together to share feelings and emotions.The entities (A,B,C ) are in intercaction arrive at common points which constitute our public space.Within this space they construct together are linked emotionally and rationally yet their cultural differences give new perspectives to each culture. In this system we move towards an a posteriori
universality.
In my country, Greece, the integration model is prevalent and the same applies in our schools too. Behaviours are justified due to cultural diversity and the rights of the individuals are respected and eventually the social entities are assimilated.
Module 2: Recognising cultural diversity for learning in everyday practice
Starter Activity
- What are your students' cultural backgrounds?
- How are they diverse in other ways?
- Do you have a positive relationship with them?
- How do they interact with each other?
This year I've had the chance to teach in another school in my borough , a common phenomenon for Greek teachers, i.e, to work in more than one schools so as to cover their teaching hours. In one of my classes there are students from Turkey, Russia, Albania, Greece and Romania. It's been the first time there have been so many different cultural backgrounds I have to work with. The students have been in the same school for a couple of years and what I have realised is that there is a strong bond among them. They seem to enjoy each other's presence and have fun all together. Their positive attitude is very encouraging as it shows that kids of different cultural backgrounds can interact with each other pleasantly. My challenge is to establish a positive relationship with them too and inspire them somehow to enjoy learning English. All of them are of very low level concerning English language learning and have been unwillling to participate in the lesson so far - at least as I have been told- so my challenge is even bigger. I don't know what I'll manage till the end of the year however, I am willing to do my best.
2.1 Example activities to develop students intecultural competence
Many helpful and inspiring suggestions are presented in this video and technology plays a vital role in realising them. Different approaches such as project-based , problem based learning , or personalising learning are highlighted ,community involvement as well while collaboration, creativity ,critical thinking competences are enhanced. Multimedia products such as videos , digital posters , e- books ,quizzes and games among others can encourage the students to take the lead ,explore and enjoy learning themselves.
How could I apply these ideas in my teaching?
I could either involve my students in an eTwinning project, something I have already done many times with multiple benefits for both them and me or engage them in project work following the steps of PBL approach. One activity could be to give them a topic of their interest, "Friendship" for instance and working in groups they will have to decide what they would like to present about it. Songs, poems, drawings, thoughts written down, parents' contribution too, movies that relate to the topic ,posters could be some helpful suggestions. Students will reflect on their learning steps and assess each others work throughout the project. The final product could be a blog shared within the school community.
Lots of interesting ideas definitely worth reading are shared by the MOOC participants in this PADLET.
Question of the day #4
Some worth watching videos related to intercultural competence shared by MOOC members are the following:
2.2 Supporting students with different first languages
How can we use multilinguality of our classroom as a tool for engaging students?
A couple of things we should consider seriously when working in multicultural classrooms. At first we should know what languages our students speak. We may be greatly surprised when we find out that many of our students are multilingual. We should welcome ,embrace and respect diversity .Students should be allowed to use their mother tongue. Why not? The way I see it, it's a great opportunity for us to learn their language too. This is something my students like, i.e. to reverse roles.
Then we should support our students to understand the language of instruction. Teachers should be patient with their students' lack of competence to communicate and help them either by letting them use their smartphones to find words they can't understand or find other ways to get their message across. In addition, we should build our students' confidence. They should be proud of their language competences and it is our role to make this clear to them. When students feel confident they become more open to communication.
How to paint your language profile? Here's a helpful VIDEO to watch.
How can multilingualism be embedded in a school culture?
Useful suggestions are highlighted in this VIDEO. In a nutshell, lots of audio visual materials ,games , roleplays or drama activities can be used to reinforce learning that takes place in the classroom along with inviting the local community to get school's help , guidance and support as to what resources to use to help their kids. The school ,on the other hand ,should allow the parents to become part of the school community (open door policy), recruit multilingual teaching and support staff. It would be nice if our school reflected the community in which we work.Why not organize events where the school celebrates the different communities students come from? Furthermore, the curriculum should be multicultural and students previous experiences should be taken into account. What I really liked watching this video was that students could have books written both in their language and in English too.Moreover, we should encourage students to do a lot of speaking and listening both in English and their home language. Then, we could organise a library where parents can borrow learning material, games ,books and so on to help their children at home. Students get support at home this way and learning can be fun. These are some of the useful tips mentioned in the aforepresented video.
So far I haven't experienced teaching students who are entirely unaware of the English or Greek languages but even with students whose target language competences were limited I always tried to slow down my teaching speed ,using pictures or even miming to get information across. I want my students to feel comfortable at school and never begrudge no matter how many times I need to explain things. Patience is vital as well as wilingness to help and support.
What do the other members of the MOOC think? Click HERE to find out.
Question of the day # 5
Unfortunately I didn't manage to attend it but I hope the recording will be available soon to watch and upload it in my Learning Diary. However, here is a PADLET with other participants' comments and questions related to the webinar.
Useful resources kindly shared by MOOC participants are here :
- What is Privilege? ,15 Resources, Prepare for Cultural Diversity in Class,
- Resources for addressing Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Your classroom ,
- Preparing for Cultural Diversity : Resources for Teachers ,
- Developing International Competence through Education,
- Cultural Diversity
- Education to the core
And yeeesss!! The recording is HERE !!!
Community building is essential because students feel connected despite their differences. Working in such an environment conflicts can be solved in a positive way and diversity is respected. We should help our students develop their communication and collaboration skills and make learning more challenging.
My school reality. In my school none of the suggested ideas have been put into practice yet. Although there are immigrants there are no language barriers insurmountable as students speak Greek somehow. Of course this does not excuse the fact that more helpful ideas haven't been adopted yet. What I could say for sure ,however, is that there is no frustration on the part of the teachers but lots of patience ,understanding and respect towards the minorities. In addition, lots of collaborative activities take place where all students are involved one way or the other. I totally agree that there must be a sense of belonging and identity in our schools and classrooms and we should definitely foster the team spirit, embrace cultural diversity and work all together. I always ask my students to share various kinds of information from their cultural background and pinpoint the similarities as well as differences of cultures .
It's true that in order to understand the others we should at first understand ourselves. Only by researching and reflecting upon our personalities may we be able to understand other personalities too and the various cultural backgrounds that exist in our schools. By doing so we can move further to interpret others emotional markers and body language.
A website worth sharing and exploring is ENABLE. Among lots of interesting material there are resources related to reading emotions in social situations. Clikc HERE and HERE.
More useful resources are : Value the different resource pack , SALTO Cultural Diversity Resource Centre
Are your grateful for what you have or just complain about what you don't have? A nice question to reflect upon. Inspiration was drawn from the video below. What is privilege?
Reflecting upon the MOOC
My Learning Design: https://v.gd/xt28Bf Comments are welcome.