Race and Ethnicity Reflection
The article, “Another inconvenient truth: Race and ethnicity,” discusses important aspects that can aid teachers in understanding students from different cultures (Hawley & Nieto, 2010). To increase children’s academic knowledge, educators need to understand that children are unique. Thus, not all children learn the same way. The article provides insight of how race and ethnicity impacts the learner. It is vital for educators to understand these aspects in a student.
Culture Awareness
United States educators are now teaching students from diverse backgrounds. Taking this into consideration, teachers need to recognize that student’s “bring cultural values and experiences to their education” (Hawley & Nieto, 2010, p.69). However, many educators ignore these
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Parents play an important role in their child’s education because they influence their child’s social and cultural development. Despite shaping their children, parents from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds do not participate in school activities (Hawley & Nieto, 2010). For that reason, teachers come to a conclusion that these families do not value education. However, this is a misconception because there are ethnicities that value education (Hawley & Nieto, 2010, p.71). The explanation for low parent participation is because they feel “unwelcome and uncomfortable in school” (Hawley & Nieto, 2010, p.70).
Teachers should increase family involvement by using strategies that make parents feel welcome and comfortable in the school setting. My parents value education, but due to the language barrier, they did not to participate in school activities. However, if a teacher makes an effort to speak Spanish, this encouraged parent involvement in school activities. Promoting parents to attend these activities can help students’ academic success.
Responsive School
One of the reasons I chose to the book Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit was because I want to be aware of the stereotypes and prejudices this books might uncover that I had and didn’t know I has. Teaching in a DLI program there is big diversity in our school and community. I want to be able to be culturally competent and be able to eliminate my cultural assumptions. I want to be able to understand where my students are and families are coming from so I can adjust my teaching methods and strategies. I thought it was very interesting how in her introduction she talks about how the educational system in this country is more focused on the standardized tests, scripted lessons and mandated classroom management strategies that they seem
A student’s home life and schooling experiences have seen to be heavily affected by their race and the way in which they were raised. In “Of Borders and Dreams” by Chris Liska Carger, the lives of the Juarez family, who are Mexican-American Immigrants, are explored through their educational and home experiences living in Chicago. Due to their race, class, and parent’s level of education, the opportunities in which they were granted were heavily limited. Dumais writes, “Children who have more cultural capital (having been exposed to it in their upper-class families will feel more comfortable in the school setting, will communicate easily with teachers, and therefore will be more likely to do well in school” (Dumais 2005, p. 421).
A classroom should be filled with a wide variety of languages, experiences, and cultural diversity. An effective teacher understands the importance of culturally responsive teaching, and recognizes the significance of including students ' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Having an enriching classroom that engages all students does not mean making judgments about a student’s culture based on their skin color, gender, or socioeconomic status, rather it means knowing each student in a way that is individualized. According to the authors of The First Day of School: How to be an Effective Teacher Harry Wong, race, gender, religion, financial statue, and skin color is the least important factor determining a student’s achievement. Moreover, demographics and culture are not an excuse for students’ lack of achievement.
One teacher Kozol interviewed at a school where 95 percent of the students were either black, asian, hispanic or native american, told him “not with bitterness but wistfully--of seeing clusters of white parents and their children each morning on the corner of a street close to the school, waiting for a bus that took the children to a predominately white school”. (p.203)
10). In chapter six of The Skin That We Speak, Asa Hilliard explains why it is hard to separate the historically oppressed status of African American children and the educational assessments used to measure their language abilities. Hillard also explains how teaching and learning are a direct link between shared language between teacher and student and the environment they are in. Hilliard also acknowledges that “African American children are not achieving at optimal levels in the schools of the nation” (Delpit, L., & Dowdy, K., 2002, p.91).
From experiences with my parents, and those growing up around me, our parents held a certain type of cultural capital, or societal resources, which garnered them knowledge sets and access to certain resources (Bourdieu, 1986). It is apparent that the educational system values the cultural capital students have gained from “white, middle or upper-class resources,” and considers those without these knowledges “deficient” (Yosso, 2005, p. 81). Within higher education, this may still be the case. In my experience as a Peer Advisor, I had a multitude of different students with varying identities.
In this practicum I will narrate an interview that was done with a Hispanic parent. I will describe her and her family structure. I will also elaborate on her involvements in her children academics, and teacher parent relationship. Also better ways to encourage parents to get involved in their children education will be added, and how teachers can assist with making the parents feel welcomed inside of the classroom.
Racial identity plays a role in the physical and psychological features of humans. Physically, humans in different parts of the globe endure different conditions and environments. Humans adapt to their environments and obtain different physical traits, henceforth, these physical traits have become adjacent to race. Psychologically, ancestral prejudices and influences throughout history have lingered through the generations and have impacted modern racial identities and tensions. Ethnic conflicts of the past such as the Social Darwinist theory of a "superior race" are morally refuted in current times, but that assumption had a brunt impact in which the world is still repairing today.
2.2.5. Cultural diversity in Classroom: There are various cultural differences that teachers are likely to come across culturally diverse classrooms including Gender, Age, Cognition, Norms, beliefs, Primary language, Exceptionality, Cultural heritage, Socio-economic status, Opinions, ideas, Attitudes, Expectations, Behavioral styles, Geography, Learning styles, Communication Styles, Decision making styles, Ways of Communicating Non-verbally, Ways of Learning, Ways of Dealing with Conflict, Ways of Using Symbols and Approaches to completing tasks etc. According to Pratt-Johnson (2005), there are six basic cultural differences that teachers are likely to encounter in the culturally diverse classroom. Familiarity with these differences will begin
Introduction The concept of identity has been a notion of significant interest not just to sociologists and psychologists, but also to individuals found in a social context of perpetually trying to define themselves. Often times, identities are given to individuals based on their social status within a certain community, after the assessment of predominant characteristics that said individual has. However, within the context of an ethnicity, the concept identity is most probably applied to all members of the ethnical group, and not just one individual. When there is one identity designated for the entire group, often times the factor of “individuality” loses its significance, especially when referring to the relationship between the ethnic
A teacher is no longer the source of learning, rather a facilitator of learning. As a teacher I should know my student and understand that all students possess diverse backgrounds, by knowing your students, I will be able to decide which teaching style and strategies are needed to maximize their learning. I strongly believe it is vital to encourage the integration of culture, ethnicity, and life experiences into personal and corporate learning. I believe it is important to develop and implement innovative strategies in teaching. I feel that student learning is enriched and confidence increased with the utilization of
We can notice students ' academic achievement are increasing when parents involve in the education of their children (Ramirez, 2003). On the other hand, some parents do not make any effort to help their children at home although "the family is the most influential context for learning" (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Maybe they think teachers have a better understanding of how to educate their children, therefore they avoid of becoming involved in the classroom or talking with teachers too much. As Latino parents mention that, we have to help our children in every way possible.
IDEA lists three ways of being culturally skilled in the classroom. This includes the teacher being culturally alert in the class to connect the gap of learning about other ethnicities, learning to communicate to students in unwritten and non-vocal styles, and know the different views of the cultures, for example, skin-to skin contact, no communication, the clothing of the student, and simple gestures. This is important in my eyes because my school alone is very diverse, and I had my share of teachers that did not respect a certain students religion or culture. This upset me and made me want to learn more about different cultures and religions. It also leads me to want to work harder to become more culturally aware, and diverse for my future students and willing to do what I can to break down barriers that may be created by students of different cultures or religions.
This chapter explains the difference between race and ethnicity and how they came about. It also explains the advantages and disadvantages some have due to the creation of race. Race and ethnicity have strong foundations not only within countries, but between them. Globalization has increased the individual’s ethnic identities, but has also put some at disadvantages. Having different races and ethnicities is not an issue, but ranking the different races and putting others at disadvantages creates issues.
Dietz(1997) argued that when a school limits parental involvement to a particular type of involvement (e.g. fundraising, committee membership) then only a small proportion of parents become involved. As a result the school neither really involves parents, nor reaps the potential benefits from involvement. Instead, a more comprehensive model of parental involvement which elicits a wide variety of parental involvement is advocated (Dauber & Epstein, 1993). Epstein and colleagues (Epstein, 1992) thus developed a typology which aimed to comprehensively categorise the variety of involvement activities in which could potentially engage. These are summarised in the table below.