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Culture and Diversity. Chapter 5. Today’s Diverse Classrooms. American Cultural Diversity
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Culture and Diversity Chapter 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.
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
Today’s Diverse Classrooms • Interpreting cultural differences • Cultural differences may be obvious, but may also be hidden. • What are some examples?
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.
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.
Poverty and Achievement • Poverty and School Achievement • Lower student achievement and lower socioeconomic status are moderately correlated • Q: What does correlation mean (recall Ch. 1)? • 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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Convergences • Tips for teaching in a diverse classroom • Know your students • Respect your students • Teach your students