Student Diversity

In our increasingly diverse and multicultural society, it is important than ever for teachers to incorporate
culturally responsive instruction in the classroom –whether teaching elementary school, middle school, or
high school students. And the increase of diversity doesn’t only relate to race and ethnicity; it can conclude
students of different religion, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity and language background.
In typical educational and social settings, students tend to show classic in-group/out-group behaviors. In
general, most students are comfortable interacting with people, behaviors, and ideas that they are familiar
with, and react with fear and apprehension when faced with the unfamiliar. Culturally responsive instruction
can help you show your students that differences in viewpoint and culture are meant to be cherished and
appreciated, not judged and feared.

How can you, a culturally responsive educator, overcome human nature’s fear of the unknown and help
students become more respectful of cultures with different ideas? Fortunately, I have a few tips to make this a
lot easier for you.

1. Provide students with evidence that people who don’t look or act like them are still people just like them.

You can teach this viewpoint by building a culture of learning from one another rather than a culture of
passing judgment on differences in values and beliefs.
There are a wide range of classroom activities that can help students recognize the essential humanity and
value of different types of people. For instance, providing students with an opportunity to share stories of
their home life, such as family holiday practices, provides fellow students with a window into their peer’s
cultural traditions.
Another thing you can do is show your students everyday photographs of people of different ethnicities,
shapes, sizes, and garb. This gives students the opportunity to see people that look very different from
themselves and their family engaging in the same types of activities that they and their family participate in.
This can help humanize types of people that your students have never had an opportunity to meet.
Welcoming guest speakers into the class that hail from differing backgrounds and have all made a positive
contribution to important fields can also help dispel any preconceived notions that students might possess
about the relative competence and value of people from different cultures.
2. Teach your students about multicultural role models. This demonstrates that people of all genders,
ethnicities, and appearances can have a positive influence on the world and deserve to be respected and
emulated.

It’s important to avoid teaching students about the same minority role models repeatedly; after all, if students
never learn about prominent African American citizens other than Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X
then it’s likely that some students will assume that few other African Americans have made substantial
contributions to American culture and politics. If students are taught about the contributions that people of
various ethnicities, genders, and creeds have made to a variety of different artistic, scientific, and political
fields, then they’re more likely to respect and value diverse culture backgrounds as a whole.

3. Craft the right environment for culturally responsive learning. Use your wall spaces to display posters
depicting cultural groups in a non-stereotypical fashion. Students can also mark the countries from which
their ancestors immigrated on a world map, and classroom signs can be hung in several languages.
These added touches might seem innocuous, but they go a long way in helping students absorb the rich
diversity that surrounds them, both in the classroom and in the world outside the school walls. Such touches
will help promote an environment in which students from diverse backgrounds feel more comfortable being
themselves and will help insulate students from the cultural and ethnic stereotypes that pervade television and
other mass media outlets.

4. Teach students to embrace their own culture and heritage. Another important goal of culturally responsive
education is to teach students to respect and appreciate their own culture and heritage. Minority students can
sometimes feel pressured to dispose of their cultural norms, behaviors, and traditions in order to fit in with
the prevalent social order. When this happens it can create a significant disconnect between the culture of the
student’s school and community lives and can interfere with emotional growth and social development,
frequently resulting in poor performance in social and academic domains.

Providing opportunities for students to investigate unique facets of their community is one effective way to
help students gain a greater appreciation for their own culture. Having students interview family members
about cultural practices and traditions or write about important learning experiences that the student has
experienced in his home community are just two of the many ways that students can explore their heritage.

Using a culturally-centered instructional approach can help facilitate cultural pride among diverse students.
Given the current federal and state preoccupation with standardized testing in core subjects, it is particularly
crucial that educators consider the impact of multiculturalism in core curricula such as math, science,
reading, and writing. Providing diverse students with examples of diverse contributors to these fields and
using culture-specific subject matter when teaching core topics will help them perform better in these highly
scrutinized and important domains. Placing ethnically diverse students in a situation that emphasizes the
strong points of their culture’s preferred means of learning may help provide them with a greater sense of
self-efficacy and achievement.
Factors That
Lead to a
Diversity of
Today's learners are more diverse than ever before. Where once students in a given school came from
similar backgrounds with similar goals and aspirations, nothing could be farther from the truth today.
Today's teachers need to be more aware of different school populations than ever before in order to meet
the needs of all learners.

Diversity in the Past

Where teachers once looked at education as a one size fits all prospect, they now realize that educational
success depends on many factors. Originally, classroom diversity referred only to gender, race, nationality
and culture. In an attempt to better reach all of these groups, textbooks began to include works that
highlighted these populations and tried to remove all cases of gender, racial and cultural bias. Various studies
highlighted the different learning styles and interests of these groups in order to better prepare them for the
future. While these groups are still part of today's diverse classroom, many others must also be considered.

Economic Diversity

Today's classroom typically includes students from diverse economic backgrounds. This means that while
some students come from families that can afford the latest electronic gadgets, take vacations to exotic
places, and visit art museums and similar destinations, other students come from families that can afford no
frills. They may not have a computer or Internet access or wear the latest styles, and their address may be a
homeless shelter. These experiences can definitely affect their ability to learn.

Religious Diversity

Today's students are also likely to come from different religious backgrounds, which can mean a difference
in holiday celebrations and activity scheduling in K-12 classrooms. For example, most schools no longer
have Christmas programs; they are more likely to hold winter concerts with secular songs. Families of
Wiccan students may not look favorably on traditional Halloween parties and activities while students who
are Jehovah’s Witnesses may feel ostracized for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or taking part in
holiday and birthday celebrations. In addition, students of Orthodox Jewish background may not be able to
take part in school activities on Saturdays.
Family Diversity

Where once students usually attended the same school district from kindergarten to twelfth grade, today's
mobile society and blended families may mean that students change schools many times. Because of this,
some students may have missed early lessons covering reading and other core concepts. In addition,
separated and divorced parents may enforce different educational standards. Other non-traditional families
may include grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, relatives raising nieces and nephews and
parents of other students who can no longer live with their family members. Students who are in foster care
may move several times during the course of a year, often repeating some units while missing others.

Educational Diversity

Many classrooms also have differently-abled and gifted students in addition to "regular" students; some of
these students will need additional support in the form of modified lessons or paraprofessionals in the
classroom. Those with hearing, speech and sight impairments may need extra classroom help as well while
students with ADHD may require medication. Students with health issues, such as Crohn's, may miss
numerous days of school. Non-native speakers may not hear any English spoken outside of the school day.
Each of these populations presents different challenges for the teacher who must see that all students obtain a
specific level of learning by the end of the school year.