Alma E. Berowa, PhDCollege of Social Sciences and HumanitiesMSU-Marawi

Student differences ▪ enhances student’s perspectives▪ increases their critical thinking▪ fosters higher intellectual

engagement

(Milem & Hakuta, 2000;Alger, et al, 2000)

(Banks & Banks, 1995) a field of study and an emerging discipline whose

major aim is to create equal opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social class and social groups.

Impt goal is to help students gain knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function effectively in pluralistic democratic societies in order to create a civic and moral community that works for the common good

Field of study designed to increase educational equity for all students that incorporates for this purpose, content, concepts, principles, theories and paradigms from history, the social and behavioral sciences, and particularly from ethnic studies and

women studies

Multicultural society student diversity Socio-economic background/class Race/ethnicity Sex Age Religion Sexual Orientation Physical and Learning abilities

Moral Grounds focus on mutual respect between teachers

and learners as people

Intellectual importance of many perspectives of seeing things from the fullness of human

experience of growth through challenge and contrast

Social The call is for justice and equity among

people while they are in formal learning environment & as they live their lives

some students are older than 17-22 age brackets

women are now the majority sex in schools

there are gays, lesbians, bisexuals

there are singles, married, live-in, separated

there are Catholics, Muslims, born-again Christians, Iglesia ni Cristo, Seventh-Day Adventists , others

there are members of cultural communities –Manobo, Higaonon, Subaben, Tausug, Maranao, Maguindanao, Tagalog, Ilongo, Ilocano, others

(Nancy Van Note Chism of Purdue University, in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 2002, Houghton Mifflin)

Curriculum The content of the curriculum narrowly focuses on

“western” intellectual tradition, specifically the experience of the mainstream

Students from other cultural traditions feel marginal to the academic experience

They see no role models & feel that their experience is not valued

References should also include those written by representatives from other diverse groups. Transformation through “emancipatory view of authority.

(Darder, 1996 – Knowledge as a historical and cultural product is forever in a state of partiality)

Teaching Strategies Classroom interactions, academic

discourse, cognitive style, and other aspects of teaching and learning also exhibit a particular cultural style that constraints full participation by students from other backgrounds and includes insights from other cultures

(Adams, 1992; Bowser, et al, 1995; Sanders & Kardia, 1997; Prenger, 1999, among others)

all students need to feel welcome

they need to feel they are being treated as individuals

they need to feel they can participate fully

they need to be treated fairly

sometimes, we need to go beyond neutrality

address the feeling of alienation, of being “invisible” – the “outsider syndrome” – or “OP” (out of place)

some are embarrassed to talk because they may be ridiculed by because of their pronunciation or intonation and other speech patterns

the use of technology may be a barrier for others, some students may not have access; use IT in ways that encourage active participation and interaction

Feeling welcome through the curriculum key to student motivation, use community resources, discuss

justice issues students should not encounter overt hostility, ignorance &

insensitivity (careful about our jokes, sometimes they are not funny, instead, they are subtle insults on women, on being gay, or on physical disabilities, etc.)

otherwise, the message received is that there is an underlying resentment about the presence of students who “don’t fit)

in order to become more sensitive to the feelings of others, let us look within ourselves for lingering biases

we need to unlearn some deep-seated prejudices impt - helping al students to display welcoming behavior

toward one another in the classroom . As teachers, we play a critical role in monitoring classroom behavior.▪ maximize “teachable moments” – not only to be welcoming

to diverse groups but also to teach increasing sensitivity to students about cultural differences.

Being treated as an individual avoid stereotyping and generalizations (do not refer

to Muslim student as “terrorist” or female students to be aspiring `beauty queens)

continuous process of “unlearning” through careful reflection our wrong assumptions

allow students to volunteer opinion

individual nurturing through mentoring relationships

Diversities: gender (women and men) students with mobility impairments problems with vision or hearing

(permission to audiotape lecture)

differences because of attention issues dyslexia age differences/marital status

(extended time for tests, childcare issues, workplace pressures)

Increase opportunities for full participation be aware that different cultural and

learning styles exist use varied instructional approaches

(lectures, discussion, small group work, experiential, learning, simulations

evaluate work from multiple perspectives: each is valuable in a different way

Increasing Motivation (Wlodski & Ginsberg, 1995) Establishing inclusion by conveying a sense of respect for

students and communicating a sense of confidence in the student▪ Practices include peer and collaborative learning, peer teaching, writing

groups, exercises that create opportunities for reframing knowledge from different perspectives

Enhancing meaning stresses the need for engagement and challenge through HOTS (higher order thinking skills) in real world applications▪ Critical questioning, decision-making exercises, creative activities

Engendering competence – the need for the learner to realize that success is possible▪ Multiple ways to represent knowledge▪ Frequent feedback▪ Self-assessment▪ Alternatives grounded on the context of the skills and knowledge being

assessed

Being treated fairly Egalitarian treatment is a valued norm in

higher education grading anonymously, giving all

students same time to complete a test or assignment, requring same number and type of assignments are common practice – ▪ assuming that students are homogenous but I reality

contemporary classroom are by and large, heterogenous▪ therefore, I argue that students should not be treated

uniformly but fairly

Students with disabilities should be given more time to answer for exams

Possibility of help from a reader or a special setting for the exam, for working

students. Normative speakers may be allowed the use

of dictionaries and their work may be graded more for content than for expression of ideas

Some students may be excused from class for religious holidays.

Equal treatment does not necessarily mean same treatment, but treatment that respects the individual circumstance of particular learners.

Mutuality – need for order and routine must be balanced by appreciation for variation and richness in perspective

There is ongoing revitalization of colleges and universities as places of learning.

Do not be exclusivist, but rather, try to be inclusivist in your perspectives. Changing paradigms is necessary as we improve our

craft as teachers.

1. People from the same nation or geographic region or those who speak the same language, share a common culture. Tremendous historical, racial, and cultural differences must be acknowledged. To view regions or nations as if they were monocultural is erroneous, and it may inhibit students’ construction of the fact that many parts contribute to the whole.

2. Families from the same culture share the same values. There are mainstreamers, bicultural individuals, culturally different individuals, culturally marginal individuals. In reality, a continuum of cultural identity exists and the entire range often can be found in the same family.

3. Multicultural education just include ethnic or racial issues. While ethnic and racial concerns are a large part of multicultural education, gender, and socioeconomic diversity also are important. Children come from many types of homes, including those headed by lesbians and gays parents.

School goals for multicultural education includes promotion of equal opportunity in the school, cultural pluralism, alternative lifestyles, and respect for those who differ and support for power equity among groups.

4. The tour and detour approaches are appropriate for teaching multicultural education. “Tourist multiculturalism” describe approaches that merely visit a culture, involving a curriculum dictated by seasons or months of the year.

These methods trivialize, patronize, and steretype cultures by emphasizing traditional costumes, foods, and dances while avoiding the true pic ture of the everyday life of the people from that culture (Derman-Sparks,1993). Students come away from such teachings with even more biases.

5. Just as touring and detouring are not recommended practices, neither is teaching multicultural education as a separate subject. In a subtle way, it will point out that many groups are still on the margin of society.

In a transformation approach, the structure and basic assumptions of the curriculum are changed so that the students can view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of diverse cultures and groups. Instead of adding to the teacher’s already full plate, multicultural overall is better. Integrating multicultural concepts throughout the curriculum is better.

6. Multicultural education is an accepted part of the curriculum. Far from true. This is a new concept. Being new, a lot of people will raise eyebrows and would say, what kind of animal is that?

7. Differrent cultures contribute to making up one particular country, Phils, US, Canada, others.

8. Most people identify with only one culture. Increasingly children and families are multiethnic in nature. Many children now are not stereotypical.

9. There are not may resources about multicultural education. In the past 10 years, there have emerged a lot of materials and websites about this emerging field.

Despite all these myths and misconceptions, there are a growing number of modern educators who are interested, have a commitment to multicultural education and learning.

Join us and enjoy the full range to experience humanity.

Respect for all persons regardless of age, religion, class, marital status, race/ethnic group

Realization that women and men are different but equal.

Some things can be changed towards equality at home, in school, in the

community, and institutions.

Let us be proactive. Let the change begin with us, with ourselves. Let us take responsibility for change in our homes, in our classrooms, in our lives.

Out there it is a struggle… but think win-win. You change, they change. Let us all be multiculturalist in our perspective. All for the better.

Let us synergize … learn to work WITH others, not against them.

Thank you for your attention and wassalam!