Transcript Culture and Community Chapter 5

Culture and Community
Chapter 5
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Overview
– Multicultural Classrooms
– Social Class Differences
– Gender Differences in the Classroom
– Language Differences in the Classroom
– Creating Culturally Compatible Classrooms
DIVERSITY
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The Melting Pot vs. Salad Bowl/Stir Fry (Jane Elliott)
Cultural deficit model
The James Banks(2002) Model– Content Integration-examples and content from a variety of
cultures and groups
– Equity Pedagogy-Matching teaching styles to learning
styles
– Knowledge Construction Process-Helping students
understand how implicit cultural assumptions within a
discipline influence ways that knowledge is constructed
– Prejudice Reduction-Identifying racial attitudes and how
you as a teacher can modify them
– Empowering School Culture and Social Structure-Create
a school culture that empowers students from all groups
 See Figure 12.1, Woolfolk p.149-Banks’s Dimensions of
Multicultural Education
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Culture and Group membership
– What is culture? knowledge, attitudes, rules, traditions, values,
customs, behavior patterns that characterize a social group/guide behavior
in a certain group
– Visible and Invisible signs of culture
• Visible: costume, music, food
• Invisible: rules for relationships
– Cultural Cautions:
• Real children are complex beings and belong to and are
influenced by MANY groups to which they belong
• Membership in a group does not necessarily determine
behavior
• May belong to more than one group
– Influenced by many cultures
– Ideas and beliefs of one culture sometimes are incompatible
with another group(s)
– Groups create cultures such as:
Regional
Ethnic
Religious
Racial
Gender
Social class
Social Class Differences
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Socioeconomic Status (SES)
– 4 levels: Upper, Middle, Working and Lower
– Income is not necessarily an effective measure of SES
– Relative standing in society based on income, power,
background and prestige.
– Social class is a strong characteristic that unites people even
beyond ethnic differences
Characteristics of the Poor
– 1 in 4 Americans under the age of 18 lives in poverty
– Poverty level is $18,100 for a family of four
– US has the highest rate of poverty for children among
industrialized nations
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See Table 12.1, Woolfolk p.151-Selected Characteristics of
Different Social Classes
SES and Achievement
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Poor Health Care
Low Expectations leads to low self-esteem
Learned Helplessness
Peer Influences
Peer Influences and Resistance Cultures
Tracking
Childrearing Styles
Home Environment and Resources
Ethnic and Racial Differences
•Ethnicity: A cultural heritage shared by a group of people. This can be based upon
common nationality, culture, language, religion or race
•Race: A group of people who share common biological traits that are seen as selfdefining by the people of the group
•Minority Group: Group of people who have been socially disadvantaged—not
always a minority in actual numbers. Sociologists use this term to
label a group of people who receives unequal or discriminatory treatment.
•Cultural Conflicts are usually the subtle/invisible signs of culture. When cultural
differences meet, misunderstandings can occur and members from
different cultures may be perceived as rude, ignorant or disrespectful.
Development of Prejudice
Prejudice: “Prejudge” Prejudgment or irrational generalization about an entire
category of people such as:
-racial
-ethnic
-political
-religious
-geographic
-gender
-sexual orientation
Why do prejudices develop?
-combination of personal and social factors
-Children may develop prejudices as a result of familial attitudes, friends, media,
advertising, and the entire environment around them
-Authoritarian Personality that rigidly conforms to the belief that society is
naturally competitive, with “better” people reaping its rewards
-Using schemas to structure and make sense of the world through our experiences.
Our experiences help us construct our schemes of knowing about different
groups of people based on the characteristics we have encountered or what others
have told us. These are stereotypes that we develop.
Stereotype Threat- Burden placed on person(s) being stereotyped. Pressure to
confirm or combat stereotype.
Short-term effects-Test anxiety-performance
Long-term effects-Disidentification-self defeating-don’t care attitude
Culturally Compatible Classrooms
To Eliminate, Racism, Sexism and Prejudice
– Social organization: the way people interact to accomplish a certain
goal. Some groups are more effective with cooperative learning than
others
– Learning Styles: differ for students from different ethnic backgrounds
as all children differ so be careful not to automatically presume to
teach a certain way because a child is of a certain background
– Sociolinguistics: study of formal and informal rules for how, when,
about what, to who, and how long to speak in conversations within
cultural groups
– Participation structures: formal and informal rules for how to take
part in a given activity—school structures tend to be more aligned
with communication rules found in middle class homes.
 Research supports that when schools are changed to meet the social
organization, learning style and sociolinguistic needs of ALL students,
experiences and achievement changes.
 All classrooms should strive to be Culturally Compatible in which
procedures, rules, grouping strategies, attitudes, and teaching methods
do not cause conflicts with the students’ culturally influenced ways of
learning and interacting.
Girls and Boys
Differences in the Classroom
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Gender-Role Identity-learned very early from parents/guardians
Biological and environmental differences do exist between men and
women
Interactions with our parents/guardians help shape our notions of
what is to be known as male or female -gender schemas
Androgynous individuals are well adjusted individuals who possess
both “masculine” and “feminine” characteristics depending on a
situation
Gender Biases in the curriculum, stereotyped views of gender roles
Sexual discrimination in classrooms-teachers create and perpetuate
– give boys more praise, comments, criticisms and corrections
– ask boys to do physical tasks, be leaders, girls to arrange ‘pretty”
stuff, be secretaries
Se GUIDELINES, p. 169-Avoiding Sexism in Teaching
Language Differences in the Classroom
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Culture affects communication. Children from different cultures and ethnic
backgrounds experience many confusions in the classroom—one of the
largest can stem from language and dialect differences.
 Dialect A variation of a language spoken by a particular ethnic, social or
regional group.
– Dialects have rules and order
 Standard Speech is the most generally accepted and used form of a
language
 Best Teaching Approaches
– Focus on understanding the child
– Need to be sensitive to your own possible negative stereotypes about
children who speak a different dialect
– Ensure comprehension by repeating instructions using different words,
asking students to paraphrase and give examples. illustrations should
also be used.
– Accept the dialect as valid but teach the standard form of English.
–See GUIDELINES, page 178-Dialects in the Classroom
Bilingualism
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Increase in numbers of children for whom English is not their native language
Most recent reports show that almost 25% of students speak a first language other
than English, usually Spanish.
Speaking two languages fluently is called Bilingualism.
Those that are not proficient in any language are semilingual
Higher degrees of bilingualism are associates with increased cognitive abilities.
English as a Second Language (ESL): Designation for programs and classes to
teach English to students who are not native speakers of English
Limited English Proficiency (LEP): Descriptive term for students who have limited
mastery of English
2 formal approaches
– Transition
• English should be taught as early as possible.
• Do not teach in native language
• Most bilingual programs follow this
– Native-language maintenance instruction
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Use the native language to teach new skills while teaching the English language
Will have problems learning “math” in a ‘foreign” language
Sends the message that home language is second class
Any academic concepts learned in native language will still be retained when more
proficient in English
• In High School/Middle School need to take courses in a second language—mix English
and ESL students and teach together—all become bilingual
See page 182, Table 14.3
Ideas for Promoting Learning and Language Acquisition