William Cope
Samuel E. Moskowitz
Navin PoudelNegotiating Learner Differences MOOC’s Updates
Human Diversity and Learner Transformation - Mary Kalantzis
Comment: Connect an issue raised on one of these videos with a contemporary issue in society or education. You can also respond to other people's comments by starting comment, @Name.
Make an Update: Describe an experience of diversity in your personal life or your work as an educator, and analyze the dynamics—which may be exlusionary, or inclusive.
Differentiation is a key component of the learning experience. In order to plan and deliver lessons effectively, importance must be given to differentiation.
After watching the provided videos in this course, and reflecting on my own experiences as an educator, it made me realize how each student brings a unique background to the classroom setting. In 2021, I moved from New York City to Vermont where I now teach in a rural educational setting. Watching the video by Dr. Mary Kalantzis entitled “Learner Identities” made me wonder how my students’ learner identities impacted their access to education. In New York City, I had students who came from a diverse background and had many students who spoke other languages or were born outside of the United States. As a World Language educator, one type of learner difference that is critical is the language background of my students. I know how hard it is to go to another country, having to learn a new language. After looking at information from the Migration Policy Institute, it estimates the following data. In Fall 2021, more than 5.3 million ELs were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, representing nearly 11 percent of total K-12 student enrollment. ( https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/english-learners-k-12-education-state#:~:text=In%20Fall%202021%2C%20more%20than,total%20K%2D12%20student%20enrollment.)
My students also came from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and brought different life experiences with them in the classroom. Students identified themselves in various ways. Whether discussing where they lived in the city, their linguistic background, age or race, students often identified themselves in one or more categories. It made me think about how I describe myself. I am a teacher, sister, wife, New Englander, skier, bilingual, lover of book, etc. My students in Vermont come from a less varied background but still identify themselves in many ways. I believe this comes from the fact that each student, no matter where they attend school, wants to fit in and get the education they deserve. This just makes me think how important it is to get to know each of our students to learn how they best identify themselves, in order to provide them with the best tools to succeed in the classroom.
Some time ago I tackled courses called Communication 2.0 by Radislav Gandapas. The reason for this was my problem with lack of confidence while communicating. They promissed me to teach some techniques how to prepare, manage and benefit from communication, for example, in public speech, at work with management and colleagues, in unknown places (conferences, webinars, parties, etc.) and the like. And they did - I was provided many lifehackes that made my communication easier and simplier. Also they prompted me how to diversify my life. Now I want to say I changed greatly. My life is full because I started a new page: I do sport (archery), go to the gym, jog in the mornings, go skiing and skating, read books, travel, knit and sew. In the past I was completely different person, my life was borring and I myself was boring too, I guess. However, everything has changed for me, I enjoy every new experience.
The religious beliefs and practices are directly infused into the culture and education system in Thailand, where I work in a private school. This affects me as a Social Studies teacher to encourage liberal thinking, ideas or opinions towards the students. This also hinders me to give research projects expecting them to do it home so I just assign tasks to the students in school by getting them group work. It is not the students who have differences in mind, but we adults.
@Srilatha Alva, Being an Indian myself, I'm in complete agreement. Diversity thy be the other name of India. We humans have the same fundamental needs and have learned to negotiate for our needs and live in harmony. The if's and but's of the societal pressures shall always remain and continue to impact the harmony the common man strives from time to time. But as a nation, we have become stronger over the years and we have learned to be tolerant of such radical forces and to survive amicably.
India is a diverse country and has been housing various religions, languages, castes, culture for time immemorial. We Indians have been successful in bringing in unity in diversity in places of worship, work, classrooms etc. Although it seems unreal but we have been living in harmony for many years now, however miscreants with political influence and fanaticism have tried to create rift with ulterior motives now and then. It has not been a struggle for us Indians on a daily basis negotiating diversity, but we have taken it as growing up, respecting and knowing each other irrespective of our differences.
India is a diverse country and has been housing various religions, languages, castes, culture for time immemorial. We Indians have been successful in bringing in unity in diversity in places of worship, work, classrooms etc. Although it seems unreal but we have been living in harmony for many years now, however miscreants with political influence and fanaticism have tried to create rift with ulterior motives now and then. It has not been a struggle for us Indians on a daily basis negotiating diversity, but we have taken it as growing up, respecting and knowing each other irrespective of our differences.
Last year I worked as English teacher in a private school and was consistently involved with learners coming from different areas of the world. In the classroom the stereotypes were deep and hard to eradicate. For this reason different teaching activities were implemented to overcome the problems and create a common ground where to work on. On one hand, we decided to consider Diversity and Inclusion activities to make the learners cooperative with one another. On the other hand, we decided to create the opportunity to build a better environment together, step-by-step, with the aim to create a sense of community and being helpful. The main problems were related to faith differences and power groups that used to attack some of the learners. Negotiating the debate was even difficult within the teachers that used to perform exclusion forms of punishment to change the behavior in the classroom. Working in an environment where standards are not clear between stakeholders is challenging because it could create safety and security issues that must be addressed correctly. In fact, due to negligence activities I noticed that the problems didn't decrease, on the contrary they became more and more.
I am working in a private school in India, and the difference with us is the religious beliefs and practices because of which a certain group of students belonging to a certain religion are unable to complete the task assigned by the teacher at home. This was negated by stopping to assign any tasks at home and work around the students in school by getting students involve in group work. I understood that its not the students that have differences in mind but we adults.
Negative Racial Stereotypes and Their Effect on Attitudes
Stereotypes are cognitive structures that contain the perceiver's knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about human groups These cognitive constructs are often created out of a kernel of truth and then distorted beyond reality.The racial stereotypes of early American history had a significant role in shaping attitudes toward other races.
Racial categorization reflects the process of placing people into distinct groups based on variation in phenotypic physical features of the face and body such as skin color, hair color and texture, eye shape, nose width, and lip fullness. Racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination reflect the human tendencies to conceptualize and value certain configurations of phenotypic features differently, and act on these thoughts and feelings in our interactions with members of racial categories.
Many of us, particularly students of prejudice, can recruit from memory vivid examples of racial bias and its consequences. In both overt and subtle forms, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination exhibited among individuals belonging to different racial categories has long been a significant source of social strife.
A relatively small but growing literature produced by historical, sociological, medical, anthropological and psychological researchers confirms that racially-motivated biases exist not only between members of different racial groups, but also among individuals who belong to the same racial group.These outcomes are, in part, due to interpersonal processes that were not generally recognized in social psychological theory. Dominant theories in social psychology have emphasized the role of racial categories.
Reflection on assimilation and generations of emigrants: i am currently living in Sweden, a very diverse country if we consider that in last decades more than 100,000 emigrants were received each year. This diversity is visible everywhere on the street, in the offices, probably more in the big cities than in the rural side. There is an expectation that new comers are learning Swedish, and learn the culture and adopt Swedish habits and kids are mostly attending local schools - an emigrant could ask for her kids to have classes to learn still maternal language and this can be granted depending on how many request are in the same school/ administrative area. And due to the school, and the friends and social network these kids will be assimilated in my view, and they will be more identify themselves as ‘swedes’ than Ethiopians, or Sudanese or Polish. They are some who will also change their family name (simple administrative procedure) to ensure they are blended completely in the society - some studies few years back showed that CVs where disregarded based on candidate names (it happens in many countries probably). Shall we see this easiness to change one’s name as positive (ease the access to jobs, higher belonging to the group) or negative (society is not accepting emigrants)?
About surname change in Sweden https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6729922