corinne rosenberg managing diversity in the classroom prepared for ecis hamburg november 2009...

Corinne Rosenberg Corinne Rosenberg

Managing Diversity in the

classroom

Prepared for ECISHamburg

November [email protected]


Objectives

Explore what diversity and inclusion mean in an international school

Reflect and discuss every day incidents which can highlight such issues in an international school

Develop systematic ways to increase awareness and learning of these issues

Consider how such methodology might be mainstreamed into the school


Diversity can be seen as an Iceberg


Diversity can be seen as a wheel:


Defining diversity and inclusion

“The basic concept of diversity accepts that the stakeholders of the school consists of a diverse population of people. The diversity consists of visible and non- visible differences which will include such factors as gender, age, background, race, disability, personality and work/lifestyle.

It is founded on the premise that harnessing these differences will create a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where their talents are being fully utilised and in which the school’s organisational goals are met. “ Adapted from Kandola and Fullerton


Diversity in international schools

• What kinds of diversity are visible and recognised in your schools?

• How are they recognised and included?

• How is the diversity issue different in a multicultural school in London, New York, Paris or Tokyo?

• What kinds are diversity are present but less visible and recognised?


CorporateCulture

History

Region

Religion

Family Values

NationalCulture

Culture A Culture B

Behavior

Visible

Less Visible

Why are some kinds of diversity less recognised or included?

1. Be aware of our own lens! 2. Dive deeper!


Stereotypes & Generalizations of others

GeneralizationsStereotypes

NEW INFORMATIONNEW INFORMATION

Fixed and oversimplified opinions, images or judgments

General statements, ideas or principles

Always

Never

All

None

Either/Or

Most

Many

Some

Usually

Typically

Generally


We are all unconsciously shaped by the environment


Defining diversity and inclusion

Please share specific examples of how

1. your school is successful in diversity and inclusion

1. your school needs to develop its strategies for diversity and inclusion


How might school norms exclude some

students? Language: mother tongue Physical disability Expected behaviours of school culture Religious needsCultural style and values Race and ethnicity Socio- economic status Transitional issues TCKs Family situation Learning styleSpecial needsOther


Diverse Values Clash A : critical incident 1 on the inclusion of religious

values Sharon, a 7th grade teacher, receives a a note from Meena’s

parents to ask if she may be excused from swimming classes for religious reasons. Sharon is upset at this as it is core curriculum and she believes that swimming is an important life skill. Moreover she believes that Meena herself should make this decision and so she asks Meena whether she wants to attend swimming classes.

Meena looks very uncomfortable at the question and tells Sharon that she would like to swim but she is not allowed by her religion. Sharon wants to act further on this but is not sure what would be the best approach?

What is Sharon’s perspective on this incident? (values and assumptions)

What might be Meena’s perspective? What are Sharon’s options?


Diverse Values Clash B : critical incident 1

Meena’s parents, Mohamed and Parveen, are very disturbed to hear that Meena has been asked if she wants to attend swimming lessons, after they had already sent a polite letter explaining their position.

They feel as if the teacher is undermining their personal religious values and creating more confusion for their daughter. It is difficult enough to bring up a family in your own traditions and beliefs when you are a minority in another country. They have tried to fit in with the school on many areas which were strange for them, but how much must they compromise their values? After all they had selected this school for their daughter because it claimed to be inclusive of diversity.

How can Susan learn more of their perspective?What could be the effect on Meena?What are Susan’s options?


Role Play : critical incident 1

Select a role as Susan, Meena, Parveen or Mohamed or a coach

Take1

Scene 1 Susan and Meena

Scene 2 Parveen and Mohamed

Coaches give feedback to Susan,Meena and the parents

Take 2 Susan and Meena


Diversity detectives

Decoding diversity interactions in

international schools


STOP: a strategy for building diversity and

inclusion

STOP: A strategy for learning from every incident systematically

• Stop and question: what just happened

• Think through what you expected and what different expectations your international counterpart might have

• Options for style –switching: is there an alternative approach

• Plan for differences: anticipate and develop a new repertoire of skills


Using the STOP strategy

Select one of the following incidents and decode using the STOP strategy in a small group

Identify an incident from your own experience, which could be decoded in the same way


Joking and diversity: critical incident 2

Suzanne, a social studies teacher, overhears Otto teasing his friend Kwan calling him Fatso. Kwan does not seem to mind, but Suzanne is uneasy, remembering that Otto called an African student Barack Obama last week.

She does not want to appear as too politically incorrect by maximising insignificant incidents but wonders what she could do ?


Case study 3: Inclusion of cultural style

Noriko entered an international school in the UK at 10th grade. She had great difficulty with the open communication style of the school, the level of eye contact which was expected, and could not say hello to the teachers.

The library however was her favourite place, where she worked hard to produce an excellent 10th grade 4,000 word personal project on Egypt. However, she dropped out of the school at the end of the year.


Critical incident: Language and identity

A new 4th grade student from a Pakistani British had just returned from 3 years in Germany, where he had experienced difficulties in learning German. He moved back to an international school in Britain. At first he became visibly uncomfortable with an exercise on question “where are you from”. Soon afterwards he

refused to learn French.


The Who, Where, What about our students

What all mainstream class and subject teachers need to ask.

• Who is this child?

• What makes him/her different to the child next to her?

• Where does he/she come from, not only in terms of education

• What does he/she carry in her cultural and linguistic baggage that I as a teacher need to know in order to instruct him fully?

Gallagher 2008

ITC 3.2


How is EAL regarded in different international schools

1. Schools that see Language as a Problem

- Schools need to ‘fix’ the problem- Date collection focused on ‘what the child can’t do’- Place in ‘remedial’ group; ‘remove’ the child until English

problem is ‘cured’- Do not allow use of the mother tongue till English problem is solved- Consequences (disciplinary measures) for children who use

mother tongue causing children to feel ‘badly’ and associate negative connotations with their mother tongue and possibly culture

Gallagher, 2008


What teachers need to consider

• If first language loss with its problematic personal and academic consequences is extremely common among bilingual children, why is it relatively few main-stream teachers know about this issue?

• Why is it the exception rather than the rule that teachers take pro-active steps to help bilingual students feel proud of their linguistic accomplishments rather than ashamed of their bilingual differences

• Why is it relatively uncommon for educators to encourage bilingual students to maintain and develop their home languages.

Gallagher 2008

Cummins in Gallagher 2008


Case Study 4 (Socio-economic status /family values )

Sven, a teacher in an international school notices that several of his students are met from school by local housekeepers or drivers. One of them. Carolina, seems to be rude and dismissive and shouts at the woman who collects her from school

Sven feels uncomfortable at this but is unsure how to handle it?


Cultural self- awareness: a journey

:


Cultural self- awareness

Develop awareness of your own

• Personal and cultural style

• biases

• values

• comfort zones

• sticking points


Denial --- Defence --- Minimisation

Ethnocentric Stages

Developmental model of intercultural Sensitivity

Source: Milton Bennett

Acceptance –- Adaptation --- Integration

Ethnorelative Stages


Exploring how we deal with difference

Ethnocentric stages

Comparing everything to your own culture

Denial: generalising ,stereotyping, lack of awareness

Defense: my culture is superior. e.g more logical

Minimization: focus on similarities “we are all human after all”


Exploring how we deal with difference

Ethnorelative stages Acceptance: acknowledging /respecting that cultural

value differences are real

Adaptation: New ways of acting/reacting are added to my personal repertoire

Integration: Internalizing bi or multicultural frames of

reference. Seeing one’s self in process


Identify the stages from these

comments ethnocentric defensive minimisingaccepting adapting integrating

• I am just completely direct and candid. Honesty is the only way.

• Why do we need to produce the welcome brochure in other languages . All our parents speak English

• I treat every student and family equally and I am sure my sincerity is enough

• I cannot possibly know about all the student’s cultures but I want to learn as much as I can in order to become a more effective head teacher.

• Although the host country language is not a native language for most of our school population, we insist that students become conversational, so that they can integrate better into the environment

• We need to engage in an ongoing process creating an inclusive school culture which recognises the cultural challenges from parents, students and staff. We must not close our eyes to the difficulties, but learn from them


An inclusive school culture which supports intercultural learning will

foster these behaviours:• Empathy • Active listening and observation • Reflective practice • Developing self -awareness • Open-minded curiosity about others • Suspension of judgment • Sophisticated questioning skills• Collaborative inquiry • Coaching skills• Risk-taking


Options for structured diversity learning

• Journaling incidents regularly

• Building critical incidents in a portfolio

• Sharing with a buddy/mentor/coach

• Creating an action learning groups


What are the advantages of creating action learning groups ?

A practical, accessible form of learning Helps to solve real issues in the classroom Surfaces entrenched communication problems,

attitudes and assumptions Personally rewarding and fosters continuous

learning Creates a learning community in the school It can be cascaded through a school


In Summary

Managing cultural differences effectively is a key factor for all international schools in the twenty first century in order to develop global citizens This involves a commitment to reflective practice and continuous learning

corinne rosenberg managing diversity in the classroom prepared for ecis hamburg november 2009...

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