School is a place where the children shape their characters and behavior. As diversity is continuously blooming in education, creating a learning environment that equally benefits all students is crucial. Schools that accept the diversity of their student population recognize the significance of fostering cultural awareness. A multicultural humanity is best taught by a culturally responsive curriculum. It is important for teachers who are interested in fostering a cultural awareness in their classroom to demonstrate that they genuinely care about their cultural. Teaching and learning has changed throughout the years and it continues to change as a result of the increase in cultural diversity in post-secondary classrooms. Based on the culture and traditions of the students and instructors, the curriculum has impact the teaching and learning experience in culturally diverse settings.
How can teachers enhance the educational development of students by fostering cultural awareness in the classroom? The topic question aims to address culture, language, race, gender, ethnicity, arts, privilege and education by bringing more knowledge about different cultures into the classroom. Across the world, children of all cultures experience a time in their lives that leads to a discussion about race, gender, religion, and culture. Most teachers would avoid the topic of discussing race, culture, religion, gender, and ethnicity because they fear those conversations may lead students to feel angry, discomfort, sadness, and disrespected.
The article Reconceptualizing Teacher Education as a Social Justice Undertaking: Underscoring the Urgency for Critical Multiculturalism in Early Childhood Education by Dilys Schoorman focuses on the Early Childhood Education curriculum development where it has been grounded in the lives of students, therefore allowing for larger multicultural significance in Early Childhood Education curriculum. Dilys Schoorman, in her article argues that educators are under pressure to create academic environments that are fundamentally increasing diversity. She supports this claim by first to ensure the value towards educational programs for all children, a critical force of awareness is involved in the making of education curriculum, and then teachers are being led to critically explore bias, attitudes, and cultural influences. Exposing students to work on cultural assignments, the students are more aware of other cultures within the classroom and be able to connect with each other. She adopts a firm tone towards the educators; Schoorman’s purpose is to help the teachers be more mindful of the politics of education and understand that education is not a neutral process. Nevertheless, as schools become more diverse the demands escalades for teachers to find the most effective way to help all students succeed academically. The author Dilys Schoorman states, “Through this assignment, students reflect on multiple facets of their identity (e.g., race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, language background, etc.), the manner in which they were socialized into these identities, and the implications of these positions in the context of diverse perspectives.” (p. 3) Although Schooman’s argument may seem of concern to the teacher, it should concern anyone who care about implementing cultural education in the classrooms because culture is hardly mentioned within a classroom setting and it can affect the child’s perspective with other race as they get older.
The article Cultural learning in the EFL classroom: the role of visuals by Tamás Kiss and Csilla Weninger emphases that the role of culture in language education has regularly been a focal point of discussion amongst the educators. Tamás Kiss and Csilla Weninger, in their article argues that the learners who create cultural meanings in the language classroom and that such meanings are not predetermined by the materials that they use. They support this claim by first consider that intercultural learning is a dynamic procedure and that it is arranged in students social and subcultural involvements, then students conjure allegations that are fitting in with general, culturally acknowledged thoughts, then innovative in their reasoning, they make a significant asset for learning. Kiss and Weninger adopts a firm tone towards educators; Kiss and Weninger’s puposes is to communicate and teach the language of culture to the students and to have a better understanding of the language delay/accent. Kiss and Weninger’s assertion that “In the classroom, students are no longer required to master cultural content knowledge; they are encouraged to come up with individual, situated interpretations that often lead to unexpected learning outcomes beyond the teacher’s control. This trend reflects a general paradigm shift in language education. As grammar translation gave way to more communicative approaches, language teaching curricula moved from a knowledge-based, structural, usually syntactic and lexical focus to a more skills and competency-based orientation where learners are seen as active and empowered participants in the classroom.” The authors Kiss and Weninger also state that “There have been multiple attempts to define culture, a very elusive concept, and these definitions have generally reflected the pedagogical and socio-political views of certain eras.” By doing so, students who attend schools with a diverse population can enhance their outlook of children from different backgrounds and learn to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment. Teachers are faced with the challenge of making teaching culturally approachable for all students while not focusing on one group over the other. While this is true, students are able to feel confortable in the classroom and get involved. Although Kiss and Weninger’s argument may only seem of concern to the students, it should concern anyone who care about their child’s education because the students are the future.
The book Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives by James A. Banks, in chapter two the main focus is on cultural issues on the individual, education, and society. James Banks, in his book, argues that multicultural education has the opportunity to go against what is considered the norm by the macroculture, that indicate issues such as race and class privilege are not discussed in the classroom. He supports this claim by first referring the systems of culture being invisible and visible, then focusing on a cultural change in school and society, then fundamental diversity cultures and subcultures, and finally mixture of cultures within the individual. He adopts a suggesting tone towards the educator and learner; Banks’ purpose is to have teachers get to know their students not only inside the classroom but also outside the classroom in order to help make direct connections between students’ lives and what they are learning in class. Banks’ assertion that “In a sense, everything in education relates to culture…Culture is in us and all around us, just as the air we breathe.” (p. 35) While this is to be true the most school do not implement other cultural education into the classroom. Although Banks’ argument may only seem of concern to educator and students, it should concern anyone who cares about cultural change in the school environment because as mentioned before culture is everywhere.
The article Building Global Awareness in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs by Raynice Jean-Sigur, Douglas Bell and Yanghee Kim focuses on teachers needing to understand prejudice and reflect upon issue of privilege. Raynice Jean-Sigur, Douglas Bell and Yanghee Kim in their article argues that the purpose of this article is to define and address eight concepts recommended for courses that focus on global diversity and early childhood education. They are: Self Reflection and Self Awareness, Participating in Global Learning Experiences Incorporating Technology, Teaching Environmental Responsibility, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Anti-bias and Social Justice Curriculum and Instruction, Self as a Part of the Global World, Understanding Learning and Relating to Others in a Global World, Developmentally Appropriate Planning and Teaching. They support this claim, by first learning about the world and the people who live in it requires reflection on self and knowledge of others, then being able to help students have a better understanding of global education, then incorporate global education into early childhood teacher curriculum, and finally culturally relevant pedagogy as teaching that addresses the individual learning needs of students while preventing stereotypes and promoting academic achievement of all students. The authors adopt a strong aggressive tone towards the educators and people in general; the authors’ purpose is to educate the teachers about global awareness in order to educate his or her student. Jean-Sigur, Bell and Kim’s assertion that “many early learning settings are more culturally diverse than ever before. due to widespread migration, early learning classrooms now include students from a rich variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.” Although the authors’ argument may only seem of concern to educators, it should concern parents as well because as parents we should want our children to be taught about other cultures and racial backgrounds; within the classroom, teachers can provide activities for their students to build a better understanding and develop skills that fosters on preventing stereotypes that may occur when teaching about race, ethnicity, culture, and privilege