Strategies for a Multiculturally aware teacher
There are four important aspects of being a multiculturally aware teacher, according to Gary Howard, the author of We Can't Teach What We Don't Know.
1. Honesty
- This involves the teacher being aware of their own culture and how their culture differs or is similar to the experience of children in the classroom.
- In the classroom, the teacher must be honest and open about their own bias, before the teacher can even begin to act against their bias.
- Educators have to acknowledge their own insecurity and privilege when dealing with students from various backgrounds and cultural heritages.
- Teachers need to teach Social Studies and history by including multiple perspectives and making sure to tell the truth about the history of this country and ALL of the people who played a part in shaping it.
2. Advocacy
- Teachers can advocate the inclusion of different cultural perspectives in their own curriculum.
- Classroom materials are inclusive of a variety of different cultural backgrounds, such as different ethnicities on posters in the classroom, books about children with varying abilities, etc.
- Teachers can become an advocate for students who are struggling in the school system because they do not possess the same social advantages as other classmates.
3. Empathy
- This is the ability for teachers to view social reality through the lens of multiple perspectives and understand the view points that several different cultures can have about the same event.
- Teachers should learn about students on a deep cultural level and try to understand and relate to the students.
- Teach lessons that involve listening to the stories of other people from various cultures and how they perceive different concepts and events.
- Teachers should be able to understand that the achievement gap is not a fault of the students but rather a fault of the system they are being taught in.
4. Action
- Teachers act in accordance to end white privilege in the classroom by presenting students with the true history of this country and exposing students to how people have been marginalized in the past.
- Teachers can develop lessons that nurture a passion for justice and skills for taking social action outside of the classroom.
- The classroom discipline should be culturally sensitive, where students don't get in trouble because they react differently from other students because of their culture.
1. Honesty
- This involves the teacher being aware of their own culture and how their culture differs or is similar to the experience of children in the classroom.
- In the classroom, the teacher must be honest and open about their own bias, before the teacher can even begin to act against their bias.
- Educators have to acknowledge their own insecurity and privilege when dealing with students from various backgrounds and cultural heritages.
- Teachers need to teach Social Studies and history by including multiple perspectives and making sure to tell the truth about the history of this country and ALL of the people who played a part in shaping it.
2. Advocacy
- Teachers can advocate the inclusion of different cultural perspectives in their own curriculum.
- Classroom materials are inclusive of a variety of different cultural backgrounds, such as different ethnicities on posters in the classroom, books about children with varying abilities, etc.
- Teachers can become an advocate for students who are struggling in the school system because they do not possess the same social advantages as other classmates.
3. Empathy
- This is the ability for teachers to view social reality through the lens of multiple perspectives and understand the view points that several different cultures can have about the same event.
- Teachers should learn about students on a deep cultural level and try to understand and relate to the students.
- Teach lessons that involve listening to the stories of other people from various cultures and how they perceive different concepts and events.
- Teachers should be able to understand that the achievement gap is not a fault of the students but rather a fault of the system they are being taught in.
4. Action
- Teachers act in accordance to end white privilege in the classroom by presenting students with the true history of this country and exposing students to how people have been marginalized in the past.
- Teachers can develop lessons that nurture a passion for justice and skills for taking social action outside of the classroom.
- The classroom discipline should be culturally sensitive, where students don't get in trouble because they react differently from other students because of their culture.