Demonstrate knowledge of students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Standard 1.3
Rationale:
I have chosen the following key notes I used when being interviewed by a university staff member. The interview was designed to assess my knowledge regarding diversity and how this presents in the classroom. During the interview I was able to identify how threats to achievement may be minimised among Indigenous cultures. I drew attention to the burdens of financial hardship, divorce, and how living in a multi-racial family can impact upon classroom achievement.
Artifact 1:
Indigenous cultures
In Indigenous cultures, education is an all-of-life experience that is mediated by the relationships that exist within a community. In other words, young people learn from the older members of the community. Many challenges confront Indigenous students associated with the mismatch of cultures and traditions and these are not altogether different from those faced by other students with diverse abilities and from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds. Threats to achievement can be minimised when appropriate attention is given to the following issues.
Financial hardship
Poverty appears to have a greater effect on school achievement than emotional or behaviour problems. Of concern is the co-occurrence of poverty with other social or cultural factors that also affect performance at school, such as the family structure and parenting behaviour, race or ethnicity, and violence or abuse within the home.
Disrupted families
The traditional family is becoming less common. Children today are having to cope with divorced or single-parent households, step-families, adoptive families, grandparent-headed families, intergenerational and multi-racial families, and families that are headed by lesbian or gay parents, or by a parent who has never been married. These factors can have considerable effects on childrens' performance in school.
Multi-racial and adoptive families
Children in mult-racial families are often confronted by the issue of identity (i.e., how to define themselves racially). This is affected by their physical appearance, the language that might be used only at home, values and customs with which they may or may not agree, and whether or not they live in an area where there are others from the same racial background. Children from mixed-race families occasionally experience ridicule that can lead to the loss of established friendships and difficulty making new friends at school.
Same-sex parents
Despite legislation, many individuals continue to experience prejudice and injustice because they do not align with the views, dispositions, or characteristics of the dominant social or cultural group. This kind of prejudice can have real implications for students at school.
In the classroom
Inclusive responsive teaching will be foregrounded in my considerations of curricula (content), instruction and assessment related to literacy and numeracy. Inclusive teaching involves the ideas of access to, and participation by all students in, classroom teaching and learning experiences, plus the development of a sense of belonging to a classroom community. I believe all learners should have access to a planned curriculum in which a range of teaching and assessment approaches and practices are used to meet the knowledge, skills, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, and needs of the students.
My classroom will embrace a genuine acceptance of, and respect for:
Rationale:
I have chosen the following key notes I used when being interviewed by a university staff member. The interview was designed to assess my knowledge regarding diversity and how this presents in the classroom. During the interview I was able to identify how threats to achievement may be minimised among Indigenous cultures. I drew attention to the burdens of financial hardship, divorce, and how living in a multi-racial family can impact upon classroom achievement.
Artifact 1:
Indigenous cultures
In Indigenous cultures, education is an all-of-life experience that is mediated by the relationships that exist within a community. In other words, young people learn from the older members of the community. Many challenges confront Indigenous students associated with the mismatch of cultures and traditions and these are not altogether different from those faced by other students with diverse abilities and from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds. Threats to achievement can be minimised when appropriate attention is given to the following issues.
- Identify physical or medical problems that may affect learning, such as vision and hearning.
- Improve English-language skills.
- Raise low self-perception and increasing learning independence, through recognition of the student's positive attributes and encouraging discovery learning.
- Improve motivation through encouragement and support.
- Appreciate the importance of cultural diversity, such as values, traditions, lifestyles, and kinship structures.
- Develop partnerships with the school and local community.
Financial hardship
Poverty appears to have a greater effect on school achievement than emotional or behaviour problems. Of concern is the co-occurrence of poverty with other social or cultural factors that also affect performance at school, such as the family structure and parenting behaviour, race or ethnicity, and violence or abuse within the home.
Disrupted families
The traditional family is becoming less common. Children today are having to cope with divorced or single-parent households, step-families, adoptive families, grandparent-headed families, intergenerational and multi-racial families, and families that are headed by lesbian or gay parents, or by a parent who has never been married. These factors can have considerable effects on childrens' performance in school.
Multi-racial and adoptive families
Children in mult-racial families are often confronted by the issue of identity (i.e., how to define themselves racially). This is affected by their physical appearance, the language that might be used only at home, values and customs with which they may or may not agree, and whether or not they live in an area where there are others from the same racial background. Children from mixed-race families occasionally experience ridicule that can lead to the loss of established friendships and difficulty making new friends at school.
Same-sex parents
Despite legislation, many individuals continue to experience prejudice and injustice because they do not align with the views, dispositions, or characteristics of the dominant social or cultural group. This kind of prejudice can have real implications for students at school.
In the classroom
Inclusive responsive teaching will be foregrounded in my considerations of curricula (content), instruction and assessment related to literacy and numeracy. Inclusive teaching involves the ideas of access to, and participation by all students in, classroom teaching and learning experiences, plus the development of a sense of belonging to a classroom community. I believe all learners should have access to a planned curriculum in which a range of teaching and assessment approaches and practices are used to meet the knowledge, skills, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, and needs of the students.
My classroom will embrace a genuine acceptance of, and respect for:
- cultural differences (e.g., religious and ethnic practices)
- values and beliefs that we may not share (e.g., political views)
- lifestyles that may be unfamiliar or incomprehensible to us (e.g., homelessness, same-sex attraction, ostentatious wealth)
- tragic life experiences (e.g., sexual abuse, inter-racial violence, persecution)
- intellectual and physical capabilities (e.g., attention deficits, sensory impairments).
