This chapter really serves as a great ending for the class, bringing together the main points and things we as future educators should keep in mind. At times, I felt as though many of the course readings were simply complaining about one injustice or another, never offering a solution. However, this chapter gives advice about what we as educators can do to ensure an equal education for all. For example, as shown by an interview with a student, most students just want teachers to accept them as unique individuals. We need to stress to our students that they can be whatever they set their mind to. We need to dump our traditional, one size fits all expectations and use judgement on a case by case basis that makes sense. We need to be racially aware in our classrooms, even with issues that are not blatantly discriminatory, such as not having the culture of a student represented in some way in the classroom. Though the text states that we need to build on the identity of our students, I fear that due to all of the demands on academics and standardized testing that exist, it may be difficult to explore the cultures and identities of every student due to time constraints. However, I will try my best to find creative ways to solve this problem.
Through my ELL class and this one, I think it is integral that foreign languages are not only allowed, but encouraged in our classrooms, as we know it will help students of other cultures learn. The book makes note of the need for multicultural programs, which I do indeed agree with to a certain extent. However, my only fear is that students benefiting from these programs may feel different than other students and this is not our intention. I think to a point we should be more focused on bringing students from different cultures into ours and including them, though I do understand the benefits of such programs. Our readings and this chapter really highlighted for me just how much power we really have as teachers to change the lives of our students, positively or negatively. Furthermore, out of all the points this chapter raised regarding dealings with students, I feel the most difficult part will be getting parent involvement and dealing with parents. Adults seem like the hardest people to connect to in a way. Lastly, the part of the reading which emphasized that one cannot be a multicultural teacher without first becoming a multicultural person made lots of sense to me. I am glad that the book went over ways for teachers to reach this objective, such as by confronting deeply hidden racism within all of us. I feel after reading this section that I may be able to take some of the tools given to me and apply them to my own life and most of all, my future teaching practice.
Nice post, Jason. I agree with the idea of addressing the diversity instead of ignoring it. Granted all teachers may not be interested in learning about other cultures but they can take a few minutes to learn or address it in the classroom. I am confident a lot of the minority students will be interested in sharing their culture. In fact, they may even feel confident about themselves if they are given a chance to talk about their culture in classroom. I just read an article about racism and prejudice in the latest issue of TIME magazine. The article that appeared in the May 7th 2012 issue of TIME magazine states "Studies show that most people have some sort of prejudice or bias. Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions, even when an individual does not want to discriminate. The article also talks about stereotypes. A national survey published in the journal Social Forces in 2007 found that 15% of Americans believe that blacks “pose a greater threat to public safety than other groups.” Americans also tend to overestimate the proportion of crimes committed by blacks. In one survey, 37.5% of the 2,223 respondents believed that 60% or more of the people arrested the previous year for violent crimes were black, when in fact black accounted for only 38.4% of violent-crime arrests.
ReplyDeleteI would say, if I get an opportunity to become a teacher, I would like to get to know my students. Minority or not, each student is unique. And even if a student belongs to the so-called dominant culture, he/she has something special to share about his/her ancestry. I would love to tap into it at the beginning of the year to get a feel of my classroom.