Culturally Diverse Students

Steven Cooper
December 2, 2012
Gary Clark
Research Paper #2

Failing to meet Culturally Diverse Students Needs:
Ways to Improve

Our country is becoming one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. With its nicknames “The Melting Pot” and “The Salad Bowl”, the United States is a place where any culture can come, live, and be free. However, in the education system, culturally diverse students’ needs are not being met. Many teachers are not qualified to for the position of being a teacher in a multicultural school and they now have to be trained properly for such a position. Researchers are trying to find ways to make schools more accessible for their students while allowing the material to be significant for each student. Also, not only does the institutions need to change, but also the personality and the way that the teachers are instructing their students as well. Since the time this country was founded, people around the world have been immigrating to the United States. The United States is a country known for being free and allowing people to find jobs to support their families. With these students integrating their way into the educational system there are many changes that need to be made so that they are able to receive the same education as the other students. Right off the bat, the educators are not meeting the needs of these culturally diverse students. It has been proven that Hispanic, Native American, and African American students score lower consistently on standardized tests than do their Asian and white classmates. Although many people do not believe that it is the educator’s fault that they are scoring lower, researchers still believe that the schools need to work on fixing this problem. To make the institution more culturally responsive, the changes need to be made in at least three specific areas; Organization of the School, School Policies and Procedures, and Community involvement. When the school needs to change the organization of the school, the board of education is saying that the administrative structure needs to be changed and also the way it relates to diversity. They also need to adjust the physical space in classrooms so that students are more comfortable in their surroundings. The last change they need to make when it comes to the organization is to arrange the classrooms so that they are more things encouraging the learning of diversity and accepting it. With these changes researchers believe that cultural diverse students will be more comfortable in their surroundings and will be able to feel comfortable learning with the other students. The School Policies and Procedures need to be changed so that they impact the delivery of services to students from diverse backgrounds. Some of the policies that are going to be enforced are some that teach the students to correct injustices that take place in society so that they know what is socially acceptable and what should not be done. The idea behind that is so that students will understand that if they want the world to be a better place and if they want everybody to be treated equally then they have to make that work out for not only themselves but for everybody as well. The procedures need to be adjusted so that teachers can see the difference between students who are fully comprehensive of the material and are following along at the acceptable pace and from those who are behind and are struggling to understand what is being explained. When those are changed then teachers will be able to reach the students, along with the culturally diverse students, and also the students will be able to have a fair chance at receiving higher test scores and also feel more comfortable with the information they are supposed to learn. Lastly, Community involvement needs to be altered. The communities need to become more involved with their students and seek out ways to help improve their child’s ability to retain the information, other than them seeking out the school to take care of the job for them. When parents are able to take responsibility for helping their child, the teachers can then find specific help for each student to improve their learning abilities. When that is accomplished, each teacher then understands their student’s diversities along with finding ways to reach out to that student so they then feel included. Also, it allows the teachers to see where that diverse student comes from and how their family wants to take an initiative to see their child receive the best education that they can. The next task that most believe is necessary is to find teachers that are well suited for the position of handling a classroom full of diversity. There are a lot more issues that need to be covered in today’s society since there are so many different histories being brought together. Teachers cannot just focus on the history of the United States and what battles the Americans have had to fight through, but they must also incorporate a lesson plan that covers the history of other countries and cultures. However, there is now word of ways to allow these teachers to become more aware of the different ways to teach to a diverse classroom. Teachers have to first exam their personality and beliefs honestly and rule out any negative thoughts that they may have towards any particular language, culture, or ethnic race. Once being able to eliminate any chance that there could be of a bias towards another language, culture, or race, then they are able to create a more suitable atmosphere and can build an acceptable amount of trusts with their students. It’s also been considered that teachers should have basic knowledge of at least two other languages. They do not need to be fluent in either languages, they should just know the basic words so that if a student is having a problem explaining something to the teacher, they can help that student out as fast as possible. Not only would this help out communication in the classroom, it would also help teachers introduce words from different languages to the class. Within today’s society English is slowly losing its rank as the primary language being spoken in the United States. Currently the ranking for the top three languages spoken in the United States, not including English, are Spanish, French, and German. When teachers are able to accommodate words from different languages into their lessons it allows students to have a better understanding of their background and see what makes it so important to be diverse and how it is beneficial to society. Something that is very important to meeting the needs of the culturally diverse is the steps teachers need to take in order to understand their students more effectively so that there is no way to leave any particular student out. Teachers need to be able to acknowledge their students differences along with their commonalities. Teachers need to understand that there are many different practices that each culture follows. While some students may feel that it is inappropriate to make eye contact with an adult the teacher may not understand why they are avoiding them and become irritated and make wrong decision with what they should do about that student. When teachers have a better understanding of their students, then they are able to move past a difference easier than if they did not completely understand the reason behind it. The school board needs to allow teachers to use textbooks designed to be culturally supportive to their students and also encourage bulletin boards that use thoughts and ideas for classroom activities that are also supportive of the diversity in the classrooms. When teachers utilize exercises that are common to students, the teachers can then use the strengths the students bring to school to be able to carry out a more intensive lesson for the class. Also, by using books that is more diverse the teachers can then educate their students about the world around them and inform them of how each person comes from a different background. When students are able to do that, they are more appreciative of their culture and are more willing to learn more about themselves and the others around them. Overall, there are many things that the institutions need to change in order to meet the needs of every diverse student in education. With teachers now being better informed on how to reach out to their large amount of diverse students along with more diverse textbooks being chosen for each class, the culturally diverse students stand a better chance at keeping involved with their work along with doing better on testing. When students are able to feel comfortable in their classes along with understanding the material being taught at the same pace as their fellow classmates, students feel better about them and do not feel that they are lacking any sort of skills to keep them from falling behind. When more schools start to practice the changes of their institutions, then more people will be able to see the needs being met of the culturally diverse along with the better appreciation they have for each culture. Hopefully schools will start to make the progression in reaching out to these students so that schools as a whole, make students feel more comfortable attending and allowing them to focus more on their grades.

Works Cited

Addressing Diversity in Schools. (n.d.). nccrest.org. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf

Andersen, F., & Ottesen, E. (2011). School leadership and linguistic and ethnic diversity. Contemporary Management Quarterly / Wspólczesne Zarzadzanie, 256-69.

Brummer, B. (2011, May 14). Languages in the United States. Infoplease. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from www.infoplease.com/spot/multilingual1

Walker, A., & Riordan, G. (2010). Leading collective capacity in culturally diverse schools. School Leadership & Management, 30(1), 51-63. doi:10.1080/13632430903509766

Cited: Addressing Diversity in Schools. (n.d.). nccrest.org. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf Andersen, F., & Ottesen, E. (2011). School leadership and linguistic and ethnic diversity. Contemporary Management Quarterly / Wspólczesne Zarzadzanie, 256-69. Brummer, B. (2011, May 14). Languages in the United States. Infoplease. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from www.infoplease.com/spot/multilingual1 Walker, A., & Riordan, G. (2010). Leading collective capacity in culturally diverse schools. School Leadership & Management, 30(1), 51-63. doi:10.1080/13632430903509766