Understanding Multiculturalism: In the Context of the American Educational System
Learning about multiculturalism within the context of education was quite informative. But before we can get into why multiculturalism is important, let’s first define the idea of multiculturalism and there must be a push for multiculturalism with the public school system.
The definition of one 's culture is created by a history of experiences. At many times, one 's culture can be misinterpreted by others who are not familiar with that culture. For example, it is a norm in some Asians cultures to bow when greeting another. It 's a sign of respect. My first time experiencing this was of great surprise, as I did not know how to react. The life we all live …show more content…
This comes from the fact that most teachers, middle class and white, come into the educational world already possessing pre conceived notions about certain groups (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/culturally-responsive-pedagogy_b_1147364.html ).
In an opinion piece about cultural responsive pedagogy, educator Matthew lynch notes that well-meaning teachers, at many times, are not aware of their actions. That is, “A related misconception that many teachers labor under is that they act in a race-blind fashion; however, most teachers greatly overestimate their knowledge about other cultures, which manifests itself in a lack of cultural sensitivity in classroom management and pedagogical techniques( ).”
Willis D. Hawley and Sonia Niet offers similar feedback as they state, “ that when it comes to maximizing learning opportunities and outcomes for students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, race and ethnicity matter. Race and ethnicity influence teaching and learning in two important ways: They affect how students respond to instruction and curriculum, and they influence teachers ' assumptions about how students learn and how much students are capable of learning ( …show more content…
What is somewhat perplexing, is that the educators believe that by teaching less rigorously or by becoming “color blind,” that this will somehow beneficial to the receiving group. Nonetheless, the very idea of decreasing the rigor is in and of itself discrimination as it signals one believes a group is less qualified, either by culture or by race, to endure the standard academic content.
The second point of becoming color blind is one that is made by mostly well-meaning individuals. However, to ignore someone’s differences only marginalizes one’s culture. It does little to prevent a group from feeling ostracized. What should be done, however, is a full embrace of this difference. Embracing differences allows others to see how unique and special other cultures are. That embrace would be an application of multiculturalism within education.
The two previous issues mentioned, cultural responsive pedagogy and the embrace of one’s culture are all important facets of multiculturalism that needs to be addressed before meaningful reform can take place within the public school system. Multicultural education tells us that in order to have an equally yoked educational process, curriculum must be aligned to student’s cultural needs. If this is true, then teaching the one size fits all
Learning about multiculturalism within the context of education was quite informative. But before we can get into why multiculturalism is important, let’s first define the idea of multiculturalism and there must be a push for multiculturalism with the public school system.
The definition of one 's culture is created by a history of experiences. At many times, one 's culture can be misinterpreted by others who are not familiar with that culture. For example, it is a norm in some Asians cultures to bow when greeting another. It 's a sign of respect. My first time experiencing this was of great surprise, as I did not know how to react. The life we all live …show more content…
This comes from the fact that most teachers, middle class and white, come into the educational world already possessing pre conceived notions about certain groups (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/culturally-responsive-pedagogy_b_1147364.html ).
In an opinion piece about cultural responsive pedagogy, educator Matthew lynch notes that well-meaning teachers, at many times, are not aware of their actions. That is, “A related misconception that many teachers labor under is that they act in a race-blind fashion; however, most teachers greatly overestimate their knowledge about other cultures, which manifests itself in a lack of cultural sensitivity in classroom management and pedagogical techniques( ).”
Willis D. Hawley and Sonia Niet offers similar feedback as they state, “ that when it comes to maximizing learning opportunities and outcomes for students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, race and ethnicity matter. Race and ethnicity influence teaching and learning in two important ways: They affect how students respond to instruction and curriculum, and they influence teachers ' assumptions about how students learn and how much students are capable of learning ( …show more content…
What is somewhat perplexing, is that the educators believe that by teaching less rigorously or by becoming “color blind,” that this will somehow beneficial to the receiving group. Nonetheless, the very idea of decreasing the rigor is in and of itself discrimination as it signals one believes a group is less qualified, either by culture or by race, to endure the standard academic content.
The second point of becoming color blind is one that is made by mostly well-meaning individuals. However, to ignore someone’s differences only marginalizes one’s culture. It does little to prevent a group from feeling ostracized. What should be done, however, is a full embrace of this difference. Embracing differences allows others to see how unique and special other cultures are. That embrace would be an application of multiculturalism within education.
The two previous issues mentioned, cultural responsive pedagogy and the embrace of one’s culture are all important facets of multiculturalism that needs to be addressed before meaningful reform can take place within the public school system. Multicultural education tells us that in order to have an equally yoked educational process, curriculum must be aligned to student’s cultural needs. If this is true, then teaching the one size fits all