Culture and Diversity

1. Culture and Diversity Cluster 5 Modules 13 – 15

2. Focus Questions • What is the difference between the ‘melting pot’ and ‘multiculturalism’? • What is ‘culture’ and what groups make up your cultural identity? • Why does the school achievement of low-income students often fall below that of upper- and middle-income students? • What are some examples of conflicts and compatibilities between home and school cultures?

3. Overview of Cluster 5 • Today’s Diverse Classrooms • Economic and Class Differences • Ethnic and Racial Differences • Language Differences • Gender in teaching and learning • Multicultural Education • Diversity and Convergences

4. What would you do? • Review “What would you do?” on p. 191 • What is the real problem here? • How would you handle the situation? • How would you teach eth class to help the students feel more comfortable with each other? • What are your first goals working on this project? • How will these issues affect the grade levels you will teach?

5. Today’s Diverse Classrooms • American Cultural Diversity • Culture is defined as the knowledge, skills, rules, traditions, beliefs, and values that guide behavior in a particular group of people, as well as the artifacts produced and passed down to the next generation.

6. Today’s Diverse Classrooms • Meet Five Students • Felipe Vargas (5TH grade, Mexican Immigrant) • Ternice Mattox (7th grade, single mother) • Benjamin Wittaker (suburban, single father) • Davy Walker (2nd grade, afraid of being held back) • Jessie Kinkaid (HS Junior, single mother)

7. Today’s Diverse Classrooms • Interpreting cultural differences • Individuals are complex and consist of more than their cultural identity. • Group membership is an umbrella, not a definition. Race Class Gender

8. Today’s Diverse Classrooms • Interpreting cultural differences • Cultural differences may be obvious, but may also be hidden. • What are some examples?

9. Expectations • Stereotyping students can be damaging. • Sometimes stereotypes negatively cast students, causing teachers to hold low expectations. • Sometimes stereotypes positively cast students, causing teacher to hold extremely high expectations.

10. Social ClassDifferences • Social Class • Socioeconomic status (SES) is another way of describing social class, which is an older term that may also refers to social and economic power. • Socioeconomic Status • Socioeconomic status is defined as the variations in wealth, power, control over resources, and prestige.

11. Poverty and Achievement • Poverty and School Achievement • Lower student achievement and lower socioeconomic status are moderately correlated • Q: What does correlation mean (recall Module 2)? • A: Students from low SES backgrounds are more likely to be lower achievers. • Why should teachers care about the relation between SES and achievement? • What can teachers do to address the needs of low SES students?

12. Poverty and Achievement • Why should teachers care about the relation between SES and achievement? • Students from low SES groups tend to experience higher levels of stress, which may impact achievement. • Minority students tend to be over-represented in low SES groups. • Students who are from low SES backgrounds may be stereotyped as low achievers or tracked into adjusted coursework that does not enable them to reach full potential.

13. Ethnicity and Race • Ethnicity: groups with a common nationality, culture, or language. • Race: men and women who share biologically transmitted traits that are defined as socially significant.

14. Ethnicity and Race • What role do race and ethnicity play in schooling? • What is the achievement gap? • There is more variation within racial and ethnic groups than between, but there nonetheless exist disparities among groups. • Some striking examples from the Manhattan Institute: • The public school graduation rate for African Americans in the U.S. is: • 56% • The public school graduation rate for Latino/as in the U.S. is: • 54%

15. Ethnicity and Race • Students of color (non-majority) are disproportionately represented in lower socioeconomic groups. • As a result, many minority students fall into low achieving groups. • Not all minorities are low achievers, and many do not fit with typical stereotypes.

16. Discrimination and Prejudice • Minority groups are groups that receive unequal or discriminatory treatment • Prejudice is a rigid and irrational judgment about a group of people • Also considered a culturally transmitted set of values • Begins before age 6 in many cases

17. Stereotype Threat • Stereotype threat is “an apprehensiveness about confirming a stereotype” • Individuals whose cultural groups are stereotyped fear confirming the stereotype. • The aversion can affect test performance (see Steele & Aaronson). • Disidentification occurs when students try to avoid challenges and experience withdrawal, stop caring, even drop out of school.

19. Language Differences • Dialect: Any variety of a language spoken by a group of people. • Includes variation in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation • Differs by region, even within small distances or communities • Genderlect: Differences between ways males and females speak. • Accent: inflection, tone, or choice of words unique to an individual or group of individuals.

20. Language Differences • Bilingualism • Children experience two languages as they are learning to speak • Can be additive (maintain two) or subtractive (lose one) • Multilingualism • Learning to speak multiple languages at once

22. Language Differences • English Language Learners • Students learning English as a second language (ESL) who have already acquired a first language. • ELL students have already developed a comprehension of a first language (e.g. grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) and are challenged with mapping English onto their prior language knowledge.

23. Language Differences • Giftedness and Bilingualism • Verbal ability is often confused with intellectual capacity. • Many bilingual students report discrimination on the basis of their speaking and writing abilities. • Students who are bilingual may be gifted intellectuals who simply require support attaining the primary language in which education is conducted.

24. Gender Bias • Gender bias in texts • Check children’s texts for bias in title characters and illustrations • Television can also reinforce gender norms and biases—including children’s television. • Gender bias in teaching • Research suggests boys receive more attention from teachers than girls

25. Multicultural Education • Culturally Relevant Pedagogy • Strategies for teaching that address the cultural needs and norms of students. • Multicultural Education • Teaching about diverse cultural groups as they relate to curricula.

26. Multicultural Education • Cultural Skills for Students • Develop and maintain cultural competence • Develop critical consciousness and commitment to cultural change in favor of equity

28. Multicultural Education • Fostering Resilience • Success in the face of heavy stress or adversity • Academic self-efficacy • Behavior self-control • Academic self-determination • Caring relationships • Effective peer relationships • Effective home-school relationships

29. Melting Pot or Multiculturalism • The melting pot approach suggest cultural groups lose their individual identities and become part of a larger cultural identity. • The multicultural approach suggests various individuals’ retain their cultures as a part of conglomerate of distinct cultural groups.

30. Diversity • Tharp’s (1989) dimensions of diversity-fostering classrooms: • Social organization • Cultural values and learning procedures • Cautions about learning styles research • Sociolinguistics • Sources of misunderstanding

31. Convergences • Tips for teaching in a diverse classroom • Know your students • Respect your students • Teach your students