My Multicultural Classroom

Implementing multicultural ideas: We have discussed several interrelated themes concerned with equity--power, freedom, culture, respect, voice, discrimination and resiliance--which permeate educational content and shadow classroom interractions. I believe that the first step toward an equitable classroom is awareness of these themes in their educational manifestations. As the teacher, I need to be alert to issues of power and culture, for example, but I also must work to build student awareness--because teenagers are so naturally self-focused that they may not recognize even their own cultural values. As we saw in class, softer persuasion, in the form of music, video, fiction and storytelling are much more effective ways to raise awareness of differences--and samenesses--than preaching or teaching, because they work on and emotional level and because they are less threatening to the status quo. Teens can be fiercely protective of their identities and may react with fear and resistance if they feel they are being forced to learn about, value, or even accept, other cultures. Awareness also emerges as students become familiar with other cultures. Equity awareness could be built in a classroom through presentations about minority viewpoints--just as we did in our class. Incorporating diversity in the curriculum: Attitude is the most important factor in incorporating change. Many of the textbooks we evaluated, for example, had added stories or sections about minority history or culture, but they had failed the attitude test by maintaining a patronizing attitude, or actually advancing stereotypes. The literature book we looked at provided plenty of stories about African Americans, for example--stories about African Americans battling poverty or playing basketball. We have to work toward attitudes that can accept African Americans driving subarus, and eating quiche--and poor white rural families enjoying opera and ballet. I want to teach stories and historical events that respect people as people. Students don't like to be singled out and they don't like to be clumped. Unfortunately, many of the efforts of educators to establish equity end up making minority students uncomfortable. As one Japanese student said about a unit on Hiroshima and internment camps--"I don't like school to be the me show about me and my race." Interacting with my students: I will always treat my students with respect. I am still considering using titles (Mr. Ms) with my high school students, because the use of first names seems so much like master to servant or boss to employee. Especially when it comes to minority students, evey way they can be respected is building. The dominance of power is signalled in subtle ways. I think it is important that the minority students who visited our class continued to stress that they wanted teachers to be "color blind". I don't think they knew exactly what they meant by that--I took it to mean that they wanted equality of respect, and that singling out and giving special treatment are ultimately demeaning. The meaning of cultural competency: Competency suggests action--smooth, integrated, informed action. Cultural competency means open-mindedness--modeled by the teacher, and shared through example with the students--recognition of cultures (including my own) and understanding of the almost unavoidable possibility of bias. Teachers have bias, students have bias, textbooks have bias. Stereotypes go both ways--all ways. Active respect and familiarity of friendship, however, can overcome bias and stereotyping. Polls have shown, for example, that Americans distrust Congress, but that individual Americans almost always trust their own members of Congress. People find it easy to demonize groups, but they find it hard to betray their friends. The quote for the week of August 17th (an important week for MAT candidates) was from Nietzche: "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." Intellectual equity--equality of thought and idea--is the most important kind of equity to be found in a school. How possible it is for narrowmindedness to squeeze out "different" kinds of thinking--even in the smallest ways. But when one student's thoughts are crushed by the forces of classroom opinion, the thoughts, voices and identities of all are in danger.