Culture and Community Chapter 5

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Culture and CommunityChapter 5

• Overview
• Multicultural Classrooms
• Social Class Differences
• Gender Differences in the Classroom
• Language Differences in the Classroom
• Creating Culturally Compatible Classrooms

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• DIVERSITY
• 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-Bankss
  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

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Social Class Differences

• 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
• See Table 12.1, Woolfolk p.151-Selected
  Characteristics of Different Social Classes

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SES and Achievement

• 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 self-
• defining by the people of the group
• Minority Group Group of people who have been
  socially disadvantagednot 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.

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Development of Prejudice
Prejudice Prejudge Prejudgment or irrational
generalization about an entire
category of people such as -racial -ethnic -p
olitical -religious -geographic -gender -sex
ual 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-t
erm effects-Test anxiety-performance Long-term
effects-Disidentification-self defeating-dont
care attitude
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Culturally Compatible ClassroomsTo 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
  activityschool 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.

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Girls and BoysDifferences in the Classroom

• 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

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Language Differences in the Classroom

• Culture affects communication. Children from
  different cultures and ethnic backgrounds
  experience many confusions in the classroomone
  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

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Bilingualism

• 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
• 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 languagemix English and ESL students
  and teach togetherall become bilingual