Cultural Diversity in Schools and Society Reflection

Introduction

It is no secret that the world we live in has grown increasingly varied and undoubtedly will continue to do so. However, I have learned via this course the various ways in which I can continue to equip myself and my future pupils to live in this diverse world. The following themes stood out to me as being very significant and useful for my future career: education in a global society, teaching from a global viewpoint, and characteristics of learning communities. As such, this paper basically reflects on the three themes, with emphasis on new insights from the course and how the insights are likely to have changed and deepened my beliefs in teaching.

Course Impact

At the beginning of this course, I was proud of the fact that I had travelled the world and during these travels, I had come into contact with many people from diverse backgrounds, eventually making me culturally competent. Little did I know that there is more to understanding cultural diversity other than meeting people from diverse backgrounds. It takes due diligence and a mind of inquiry to be able to be culturally competent and to seamlessly engage and interact with all people without wreaking havoc in the diverse communities. From this course, I have learnt that there is no any other place where we get equipped for the world awaiting us other than in the education system. Diversity plays a more significant role in the realm of education and this is where we get to acquire the right skills to prepare us for a diverse global society. In the small and confined classrooms, we acquire the skill of cultural awareness. Since the communities have become more diverse in the 21st century, most classroom settings now feature more diversity and dynamism which should be reflected in the curriculum too. I have come to learn from the characteristics of learning community that teachers who teach in classes that are largely homogeneous do not get to be culturally sensitive. However, for those who teach in heterogeneous classrooms, this comes hand-in-hand, especially because teachers need to adjust to different learning needs and styles.

The Cultural Learning Process

The topic that I found most interesting in this semester and in this course was that on cultural learning process, which point to insignificant but very impacting differences in personal identities. I often thought that people from the same cultural or ethnic background should develop similar identities. Yet from this topic, I have come to appreciate the fact that, whatever our similarities in terms of cultural backgrounds, we are likely to develop differing personal identities depending on how we interact with the diverse community around us. Basically speaking, it is for a fact that a student who attends a school in a predominantly white community will develop a different identity to one who attends a school in a culturally diverse community even when the two have similar cultural origins. That is to say, what the course topic basically insinuates is that interactions are important in forming cultural identities. According to Cushner, McClelland & Safford, there are twelve sources of cultural identity. It follows that people, and more so students, develop cultural identity depending on which sources are more pronounced in the course of their interactions with their environments and the world around them.

Building a Culturally-Inclusive Learning Community

From the lessons in this course, my beliefs on teachings have changed and deepened. My focus now and in future is to develop a culturally inclusive learning community, in which curriculum is adjusted to enable teaching with a global perspective. Since the forces of globalization, which result in an increased scope and magnitude of interactions and interdependency, will continue to influence our society, it is the best policy to equip students with cognitive demands for a global society. As Campbell & Dickinson determine, students develop the ability to appreciate differences among them in learning communities, if and only if, the approach used in modeling positive behaviors and the strategies employed to do this take into account the concept of learning styles. In short, I will endeavor to build a multicultural curriculum that appreciates and respects all my students who will obviously come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Apart from including a multicultural curriculum that will address the differences in learning styles, the other goal will be to create an enabling environment for my students. A multicultural curriculum will only meet its objectives if the learning environment is safe, adjustable, and inviting. The learning environment also needs to articulate the different physical designs that appreciate diversity and reflect the diverse student population. Otherwise, other students may feel excluded by the very learning environment and thus fail to appreciate what they learn from the multicultural curriculum.

Lastly, I will endeavor to ensure the student assessment aspect of learning also incorporates the appreciation of diversity and dynamism characteristics of globalization learnt in the course of teaching. Apart from using more traditional forms of assessments such as tests and worksheets, I intend to incorporate non-traditional assessments approaches such as journals, informal discussions and portfolios, which enable students to perform more in-depth self-assessment and get to learn more and appreciate more.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I can confidently say that this course best addressed my knowledge gap in matters concerning cultural diversity and how to be culturally competent as a student and as a teacher. I will work to incorporate the learning outcomes into my future teaching career with the aim of building cultural competent students as well as students who appreciate the small differences among themselves.

Works Cited

Campbell, L, Campbell, B, & Dickinson, D. Teaching and learning through multiple intelligences. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc, 2004. Print.

Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. Human diversity in education: An integrative approach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.