Cross-Cultural Awareness in Education

Melissa Hallmark

ECE 7513

CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS IN EDUCATION

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK: THE IMPACT OF CROSS-CULTURAL

AWARENESS ON STUDENTS

According to Vanderbilt University professors Victoria J. Risko and Doris Walker-Dalhouse, “Students whose

language, ethnicity, and race are not represented in the school’s dominant culture experience varying degree of success in reading achievement, resulting in persistent

gaps in reading achievement and disproportionally higher dropout rates in U.S. high schools” (2007).

According to Darling-Hammond, Wise, and Klein, “If all children are to be effectively taught, teachers must be prepared to address the

substantial diversity in experience students bring with them to school-the wide range of languages, cultures, home conditions,

learning styles, exceptionalities, abilities, and intelligences (1995).”

IMPACT OF CROSS CULTURAL AWARENESS:

QUOTES

IMPACT (CONTINUED)

Cross- Cultural Awareness can…

Allow

students to

become

aware of

cultural

diffrences

Foster tolerance in the classroom and future

real-world instances

Identify similarities

and differences in various cultures

Allow students to

identify

possibilities of

misunderstandin

g or

miscommunicatio

ns that can occur

in the classroom

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK: Challenges to Teaching Cross- Cultural Awareness

CHALLENGES TO TEACHING AND INCLUDING CROSS-CULTURAL

AWARENESS IN THE CLASSROOM

There are several challenges in teaching cross-cultural skills—• “Students can use cultural knowledge to improve relationships or use it

against their schoolmates” (Jehle-Caitcheon, 2013). Some students may learn of cultures and, because of immaturity, decide to poke fun at beliefs and practices. For example, Arab families highly respect their mothers. Even jokes about mothers are highly offensive to Arab children. Some students may not understand and try to test this, with a negative/defensive reaction from the Arab student.

• Student frequently hear stories from home. Depending on the mix of cultures and family backgrounds, historical events can cause a problem.

• Maturity and intellectual development plays a role in how seriously and reflectively students take discussions of customs, beliefs, and traditions of different cultures from their own.

• “Debate on issues can be healthy but needs careful managing. While students from some cultures thrive on fairly aggressive debate, this isn’t part of others' cultures and can make them uncomfortable and puts them at a disadvantage in putting forward their ideas” (Jehle-Caitcheon, 2013). In the elementary classroom, this passive or docile behavior may be more evident in student willingness to share about their heritage—It make in fact make them becomes even more introverted and less likely to share in the future if they feel uncomfortable.

International NightEveryone makes a

traditional dish and any native clothing to share about their culture. You can get the whole school

involved!

Holidays Around The World

Learn about special holidays celebrated by

various cultures.

Celebrate Cultural Heritage Months with isolated lessons once a

week:• Hispanic Heritage Month —

September 15 to October 15• American Indian Heritage

Month — November• African American History

Month — February• Women's History Month —

March• Asian Pacific American

Heritage Month — May• Caribbean American

Heritage Month — June

HOW TO TEACH IT AS A STANDALONE CONCEPT

HOW TO INTEGRATE CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS WITHIN

CONTENT AREAS Skype https://

education.skype.com

Have students connet with other students their age to dicuss concepts learned, share writing

pieces, partner read, and learn about other

cultures all over the country and world.

KidBloghttp://kidblog.org/home

/

Students can create blogs about various concepts learned or

as a year-long reflective journal of their school year.

This can also be used as a platform

through which to connect students

with people in other cultures around the

world through replies and comments.

The Global Read Aloud

Projecthttp://

globalreadaloud.wikispaces.com

This project connects students in reading and

discussing literature together via Skype and through

collaborative spaces such as Edmodo and wikis.

ePals Global Community

http://www.epals.com/#!/mainePals provides digital content designed for collaboration and self-paced, self-

directed learning as well as a safe platform to share work globally.

Authentic ePals projects are centered around meaningful content and

experiences that require teamwork, digital literacy skills, higher-level

thinking and communication.”

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK:Other Resources and Pointers for

Teachers

• Attitudes Towards TeachersDepending on a student’s culture, their attitude towards the

teacher may be overly formal of too informal by our standards.

• Attitudes Towards StudyingSeveral Asian countries with Confucian tradition are competitive.

However, the feeling of control over their education and learning is generally not as strong. Decisions relating to education are left in the hands of the teachers. Western European students calculate what they have to learn and try to find the most efficient way to achieve these goals but many Middle Eastern students have a less goal oriented attitude to learning. They are more fatalistic, “What will happen, will happen” or it will happen if “Allah will it”.

POTENTIAL CULTURAL ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM

TO CONSIDER

POTENTIAL CULTURAL ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM

TO CONSIDER

• ParticipationLevels of participation are cultural. Students from certain cultural

backgrounds are not used to participating in class. Some find it easier to participate in small groups where there is a smaller “audience” listening. Discomfort felt by the student can cause inappropriate behaviors, such as taking extra time to answer aloud (may need longer wait time)

• Questions“In educational systems in many countries students are not

encouraged to ask questions. They therefore hesitate to ask questions even when they really need to know something. When they do, they often wait until they can ask the teacher in private. Some students won’t repeat a question if they don’t understand the answer the first time” (Jehle-Caitcheon, 2012).

Great Resource Books and

Picture Books for Teaching

Cross-Cultural Awareness

REFERENCES

Hilt, Lyn. (2011, October 26). The Case for Cultivating Cultural Awareness (Blog Post). Retrieved from

http://plpnetwork.com/2011/10/26/the-case-for-cultivating-cultural-awareness/.

Jehle-Caitcheon, Ngaire. Cultures in the Classroom: Cross-Cultural training for Teachers. (2012). Retrieved from: http://culturesintheclassroom.com/7_skills_students.shtml.

King, K. P., Bethel, T., Dery, V., Foley, J., Griffith-Hunte, C., Guerrero, M., Lasalle-Tarantin, M., Menegators, J., Meneilly, K., Patterson, S., Peters, S., Pina, A., Ritchie, D., Rudzinki, L., Sandiford, D., & Sarno, I. (2008, Fall). EDGE 6101 Fall 2008 Race and Multicultural Education with Dr. King. Retrieved from http://edge6101-08f.blogspot.com.

Smithsonian (2013). Smithsonian Folkways: Celebrate Cultural Heritage Months. Retrieved from :http://www.folkways.si.edu/tools_for_teaching/celebrate.aspx.

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