Welcoming
Families From Around the World
The name of the family’s country of
origin is “Russia.”
When working with diverse families and
communities, it is important to become knowledgeable of their traditions,
worldviews, and strengths of the cultural groups while remaining open to the
nature of their culture. Gay (2000) states that “cultural responsiveness is the
ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture
as well as those from other cultures.”
Five ways I will prepare to be culturally responsive towards this family
is by stressing respect for diversity of all learners and their families and
build a relationship with students and their families, create a safe,
inclusive, caring and respectful learning environment by organizing the
physical design of the classroom through cultural diversity, integrate
culturally responsive teaching practices into all disciplines, and ensure that
the curriculum promotes social justice and equity.
Today’s classrooms require
teachers to educate students varying in culture, language, abilities, and many
other characteristics. Gay, (2000) defines culturally responsive teaching as
“using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and
performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters
more relevant and effective for them.” Culture responsiveness is about issues
of knowledge, pedagogy, gender, race, religion, and family. It is important to
learn about the lives and experiences of other groups in order to understand
how different experiences have shaped attitudes and perspectives of various
groups. Fostering children’s development of a positive cultural identity and
their comfortable, respectful interaction with the cultures of others is the
foundation of all anti-bias education (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).
I hope that these preparations will
benefit me and the family by bridging cultural differences through effective
communication and help establish a learning environment that promotes success
for all students.
References
Derman-Sparks,
L., & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Anti-bias
education for young children and
ourselves.
Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC).
Gay,
G. (2000). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education,
53(2),
106-116. Retrieved from http://nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity-Brief.pdf
Hey Robbie,
ReplyDeleteGood post and I love the reference material that you use for this assignment. I thought that your last two suggestions were very useful in bridging the gap and integrating the cultural diversity within the classrooms and educational settings. I believe that if we use these practices than we can successful implement a cultural appropriate classroom.
Thanks for sharing!
Robbie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post. It is very important to have the classroom environment established from the beginning so that you can offer all children a warm and pleasant welcome. I think it is also important to allow the other children to be much involved in welcoming the new child and their parents into the classroom. This gives the children a chance to use their skills on communication, sharing, ecision making, and the most inporant one would be building relationships with one another.
Sandra
Hi Robbie,
ReplyDeleteYou have some really great ideas for instituting a framwork of acceptance for diversity. I can feel your positive attitude as you talk about creating an atmosphere of respect and making your classroom a safe haven for children and families.
Having that type of attitude will prepare you to handle many obstacles as you become a great anti-bias teacher.
Sally