Suggestions to Improve The Climate in its Diverse Classrooms

 

Suggestions to Improve The Climate in its Diverse Classrooms

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

Diversity in the Classroom

The classroom consists of students from different diverse ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, religious belief, etc. which can bring differentiation among students in the classroom and can seriously affect their learning process. It is because students are judged based on how they appear, who they are, and how they talk (TheHoustonFactor, 2015, April 19), and makes them the victim of discrimination and exclusion. Such experiences in the classroom would make them feel that they do not belong to the class due to the insecure mind they possess and they would avoid participating in the classroom (Yale, 2021). Thus, diversity in the classroom is essential because it brings students from diverse cultural backgrounds, backstories, and perspectives together through inclusive and respectful engagement in the classroom.

Suggestions

A good school climate brings positive practices into the classroom through purposeful, meaningful, and collaborative relationship building with mutual respect and positive responsibilities (Grayson, 2016). Education should fill in the gap to overcome the barriers that students face due to their diverse cultures and other differences. Promoting diversity in the school brings students from different cultural backgrounds together with empathy and flexibility to make the school culture socially and culturally sound (Matthiessen, 2018). The school should design appropriate strategies to improve the climate in its diverse classrooms. Some of the strategies that schools can use to improve the climate in their diverse classrooms are as follows:

• The classroom should foster inclusive education using the responsive approach by creating awareness about multiculturalism so that students are encouraged to endure acceptance in their lives to foster respect for all living in this diverse world (Drexel University, n.d.).

• The teacher should understand how diversity affects students’ development and behavior to establish a “safe” environment and link it with the educational goals and purposes for the success of the students’ learning (Hurtado, 2001).

• The teacher should promote a sense of respect among each other by addressing the issues of diversity and assumptions (du Plessis and Bisschoff, 2007) and make the curriculum more inclusive to create a safe environment for diverse students. The teacher should also avoid tokenizing students in the classroom (Garibay, 2014).

• The teacher should create a space for interaction in the classroom so that they can express and reflect on their individuality and improve their self-efficacy (WGC, 2020).

• Conducting interdisciplinary strategies through collaboration with other teachers to teach students to develop a sense of the importance of diversity (WGC, 2020).

• The teacher should create a structured classroom through well-managed procedures whereby students are trained with self-regulated strategies to monitor themselves (Vanderbilt University, 2022).  It can be done by collaboratively creating classroom rules with zero tolerance for discrimination, bullying, and criticizing so that they remain secure emotionally, mentally, and physically (Kamb, 2012).

• The teacher should motivate students through intensive engagement activities and provide positive reinforcement and feedback. Students should be engaged in expressing their thoughts openly with individualism so that they improve their self-efficacy for better learning outcomes (WGU, 2020).

• Promote empathy practices through the awareness lesson, through the use of varieties of teaching strategies so that students can connect themselves with their peers from diverse cultural backgrounds (Drexel University, n.d.).

• The teachers should know the backstories, interests, and learning styles of students to study their culture, tradition, interests, way of life, etc., and should let other students know to promote inclusion and diversity in the classroom for better classroom culture.

• The teacher should re-evaluate the curriculum and teaching-learning materials based on the needs of the students through appropriate accommodation modification for the inclusive and responsive classroom to promote diversity in the classroom.

• The school should involve parents and community members who are culturally diverse during any events in the school to build strong parent-school partnerships and overcome any barriers by working collaboratively (Ozturk, 2013).

• Families help and support the community and school their children are studying. Without the involvement of parents, a school cannot stand on its own.

• The school can invite parents and guest speakers from the locality who are culturally diverse to give a talk about their culture so that students learn about various beliefs, customs, traditions, etc. that value other students' cultures. The school should also encourage parents to educate their children at home about diversity.

• The school should conduct multicultural activities in the school so that students are exposed to other cultural identities.

• The teacher should involve students through collaborative activities in the classroom so that they socialize and learn to value others.

• There should be an open forum for students in the school and inside the classroom so that they can voice their concerns (TheHoustonFactor, 2015, April 19). It creates a situation among students where they can reflect on and modify their actions accordingly.

The answer I gave in Unit 1 is somewhat different this time with additional significant points because after going through this entire unit I learned some other strategies and ideas that I didn’t learn while writing Unit 1. For instance, I didn’t include multiculturalism in unit 1, and now I realize that creating awareness about multiculturalism is essential in the school. Through my intensive research, I also learned about why tokenizing in the classroom affects students and classroom culture. Moreover, conducting interdisciplinary strategies is another new thing that I learned.

 

References

Drexel University. (n.d.). The Importance of Diversity and Cultural Awareness in The Classroom. https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/importance-of-cultural-diversity-in-classroom/#:~:text=When%20working%20and%20learning%20with,in%20a%20diverse%20working%20environment.

du Plessis, P., & Bisschoff, T. (2007). Diversity and complexity in the classroom: Valuing racial and cultural diversity. Educational Research and Review, 2(9), 245-254. Download the pdf.

Garibay, J. C. (2014). Diversity in the classroom [Pamphlet]. UCLA Diversity & Faculty Development. https://equity.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DiversityintheClassroom2014Web.pdf

Grayson, K. (2016). Positive School Climates and Diverse Populations. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/positive-school-climates-diverse-populations/

Hurtado, S. (2001). Linking diversity and educational purpose: How diversity affects the classroom environment and student development (ED456199). ERIC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED456199.pdf

Matthiessen, C. (2018, August 27). Why diversity in classroom matters. Greatschools. https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/why-diversity-in-classrooms-matters/

Öztürk, M. (2013). Barriers to Parental Involvement for Diverse Families in Early Childhood Education. https://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/jesr/article/viewFile/922/953

TheHoustonFactor. (2015, April 19). Fox 26 news special: Diversity in the classroom! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEw0Rv5cmzc&list=RDCMUC_brIqxDpMQREAtqXvliKTw&start_radio=1&rv=YEw0Rv5cmzc&t=151

Vanderbilt University. (2022).  What should teachers understand in order to address student diversity in their classrooms? https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/div/cresource/q2/p06/

WGC. (2020). Improving diversity in the classroom. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/improving-diversity-classroom2005.html#openSubscriberModal

Yale. (2021). Diversity in the Classroom. Poorva Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/