chapter 5 addressing cultural and socioeconomic diversity viewing recommendations for windows: use...

Chapter 5

Addressing Cultural and Socioeconomic Diversity

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Overview

• The rise of multiculturalism

• Taking account of your students’ cultural differences

• Multicultural education programs

• Bilingual education


From melting pot to cultural pluralism

• Melting pot– Diverse ethnic groups assimilating into one

mainstream culture

• Cultural Pluralism (Janzen, 1994)– Every culture has its own internal coherence,

integrity, and logic – No culture is inherently better or worse than

another– All persons are to some extent culture-bound


Years Number Years Number 1820–1830 1831–1840 1841–1850 1851–1860 1861–1870 1871–1880 1881–1890 1891–1900 1901–1910

151,824 599,125

1,713,251 2,598,214 2,314,824 2,812,191 5,246,613 3,687,546 8,795,386

1911–1920 1921–1930 1931–1940 1941–1950 1951–1960 1961–1970 1971–1980 1981–1990 1991–1998

Total

5,735,811 4,107,209

528,431 1,035,039 2,515,479 3,321,677 4,493,314 7,338,062 7,605,068

64,599,082

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration, and Naturalization Service (2000).

Immigrants to the United States


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

White (non-Hispanic)

AfricanAmerican

Asian American

HispanicAmerican

20012020

Percentage of children between 5 and 18 years old

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census (2000).

Projected change in percentage of school-age children for four ethnic groups between 2001 and 2020


The effect of ethnicity on learning

• Five aspects of ethnicity that are potential sources of misunderstanding:1. Verbal communication patterns

2. Nonverbal communication

3. Time orientation

4. Social values

5. Instructional formats and learning processes

(Bennett, 1999)


0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

White (non-Hispanic)

Asian American

HispanicAmerican

African American

Native American(avg. 97-99)

Percentage of families

Source: U.S. Bureau of Census (2000).

Percentage of families within ethnic groups living below poverty level in 1999


Adverse factors experienced by many low-SES children

• Many low-SES children, especially those who live in urban areas, live in overcrowded homes and stressful neighborhoods

• Low-SES children typically have not been exposed to a wide variety of experiences (especially education-related experiences)


Adverse factors experienced by many low-SES children (cont’d)

• Many low-SES children do not receive satisfactory health care

• Low-SES children are more likely than middle-class children to grow up in a one-parent family


Adverse factors experienced by many low-SES children

• The interactions that occur between low-SES parents and their children often lack the characteristic of mediation (scaffolding)

• Many low-SES children do not place a high value on academic achievement

• Low-SES children may have no definite career plans after leaving school and may be limited to low-paying, dead-end jobs


Teacher expectancy effect

• On the basis of such characteristics as race, SES, ethnic background, dress, speech pattern, and test scores, teachers form expectancies about how various students will perform in class

• Those expectancies are subtly communicated to the students in a variety of ways

• Students come to behave in a way that is consistent with what the teacher expects


Factors that help create expectancies

• Middle-class students are expected to receive higher grades than low-SES students, even when their IQ scores and achievement scores are similar

• African-American students are given less attention and are expected to learn less than white students, even when both groups have the same ability



• Teachers tend to perceive children from poor homes as less mature, less capable of following directions, and less capable of working independently than children from more advantaged homes



• Teachers are more influenced by negative information about students than they are by neutral or positive information

• High-achieving students receive more praise than low-achieving students



• Attractive children are often perceived by teachers to be brighter, more capable, and more social than unattractive children

• Teachers tend to approve of girls’ behavior more frequently than they approve of boys’ behavior


Assumptions of Multicultural Education

Goals of Multicultural Education

U.S. culture is formed by the contributions of different cultural groups. Individuals must have self-esteem and group esteem to productively work with people from other cultures. Learning about the achievements of one’s cultural group will raise self-and group esteem.

Promote understanding of the origins and validity of ethnic stereotypes. Teachers should give all students a sense of being valued and accepted by expressing positive attitudes, by using appropriate instructional methods, and by formulating fair disciplinary policies and practices. Promote self-acceptance and respect for other cultures by studying the impact ethnic groups have had on American society.

Multicultural education programs


Assumptions of Multicultural Education

Goals of Multicultural Education

American society benefits from positive interactions between members of different cultural groups. Academic performance is enhanced when teachers incorporate various cultural values and experiences into instructional lessons.

Reduce ethnocentrism and increase positive relationships among members of different ethnic groups by understanding the viewpoints and products of these groups. Help students master basic reading, writing, and computation skills, by embedding them in a personally meaningful (i.e., ethnically related) context.

Multicultural education programs


Approaches to multicultural education

• Contributions Approach– Ethnic historical figures whose values and behaviors

are consistent with American mainstream culture are studied while individuals who have challenged the dominant view are ignored

• Ethnic Additive Approach– An instructional unit composed of concepts, themes,

points of view, and individual accomplishments is simply added to the curriculum


Approaches to multicultural education

• Transformation Approach– There is no one valid way of understanding people,

events, concepts, and themes; there are multiple views, each of which has something of value to offer

• Decision-Making and Social Action Approach– Incorporates components of all the other

approaches and adds the requirement that students make decisions and take actions concerning a concept, issue, or problem being studied


Key Concepts

• Immigration• Culture• Identity• Perspectives• Ethnic institutions• Acculturation

• Demographic, social, political, and economic status

• Racism and discrimination

• Intra-ethnic diversity


Characteristics of effective multicultural teachers

• Provides students with clear objectives• Continuously communicates high expectations

to the students• Monitors student progress and provides

immediate feedback• Has several years experience in teaching

culturally diverse students• Can clearly explain why she uses specific

instructional techniques


Characteristics of effective multicultural teachers

• Strives to embed instruction in a meaningful context

• Provides opportunities for active learning through small-group work and hands-on activities

• Exhibits a high level of dedication

• Enhances students’ self-esteem by having classroom materials and practices reflect students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds

• Has a strong affinity for the students


Recommended instructional tactics

• Peer tutoring– Teaching of one student by another

• Cooperative learning– Working in small, heterogeneous groups to help

one another master a task

• Mastery learning– Approach that assumes most children can master

the curriculum if certain conditions are established


Rationale for multicultural education

• Multicultural programs foster teaching practices that are effective in general as well as for members of a particular group

• All students may profit from understanding different cultural values

• The U.S. is becoming an increasingly multicultural society and students need to understand and know how to work with people of cultures different from their own


Rationale for multicultural education (cont’d)

• Multicultural education programs expose students to the idea that “truth” is very much in the eye of the beholder

• Multicultural programs can encourage student motivation and learning


Using technology to bridge the cultural and SES gap

• Share ideas with electronic bulletin boards and video conferencing

• Engage in cross-class and cross-cultural collaboration and mentoring– International Education and Resource

network

– Multimedia Environments That Organize and Support Learning Through Technology (MOST)

End ofChapter 1

Addressing Cultural and Socioeconomic Diversity

chapter 5 addressing cultural and socioeconomic diversity viewing recommendations for windows: use...

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