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.
Maha Kassem commented on an update Human Diversity and Learner Transformation - Mary Kalantzis .
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Hermione Le commented on an update Race and Cultural Diversity in US Education - James D. Anderson .
Hermione Le created the update Demographics change the way of education in Australia.
Hermione Le commented on an update My personal life experience as an educator and the new xenophobia.
Hermione Le commented on an update How are these differences important to your work as a teacher, or your life as a learner?.
Hermione Le commented on an update Rural vs Urban Education: a personal commentary.
William Cope
Samuel E. Moskowitz
Navin Poudel
One of the issues with regards to productive diversity is the Implicit Bias and Stereotyping: Educators, consciously or unconsciously, may hold biases that affect their treatment of students from diverse backgrounds. Stereotypes about students based on their race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status can lead to lower expectations, discriminatory behavior, or unequal opportunities. This can create an environment where productive diversity is not fully embraced, as some students may not feel valued or supported.This comes through a personal experieince that I had when I was studying for my MA at an American univeristy. I myself experience and suffered from this bias. At that time, I did not have sufficient knowledge to deal with the situation, which eventually resulted in my withdrawing from the program.
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.