Cross-Cultural Awareness in Education

1. Cross-Cultural Awareness in Education Melissa Hallmark ECE 7513

2. Taking a closer look:the Impact of Cross-Cultural Awareness on students

3. Impact of Cross Cultural Awareness: Quotes • 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).”

4. Impact (continued) Identify similarities and differences in various cultures Cross- Cultural Awareness can… Allow students to become aware of cultural diffrences Allow students to identify possibilities of misunderstanding or miscommunications that can occur in the classroom Foster tolerance in the classroom and future real-world instances

5. Taking a Closer look: Challenges to Teaching Cross- Cultural Awareness

6. 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.

7. How to teach it as a standalone concept • 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 • International Night • Everyone 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.

8. How to Integrate cross-cultural awareness within content areas KidBlog http://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. 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. The Global Read Aloud Project http://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/#!/main ePalsprovides 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.”

9. Taking a Closer Look: Other Resources and Pointers for Teachers

10. Potential Cultural Issues in the Classroom to Consider • Attitudes Towards Teachers • Depending on a student’s culture, their attitude towards the teacher may be overly formal of too informal by our standards. • Attitudes Towards Studying • Several 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”.

11. Potential Cultural Issues in the Classroom to Consider Participation Levels 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).

12. Great Resource Books and Picture Books for Teaching Cross-Cultural Awareness

13. 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. Google Images