As an international student from Japan studying in America, I have
a great interest in multicultural education. In order to better understand
how to teach "multiculturally," I chose this book, and I found some statements
in the articles that expressed almost exactly how I was feeling as a foreigner
here. The articles in this book give us many useful ideas to understand
students from ethnically heterogeneous cultures like me. The seven experienced
authors of this collaborative book tell you a set of classroom strategies,
assessment tools, mentoring relationships, and the like, which you soon
find very practical. Even though the educational setting of this book
is a university in California, I'm sure that you can apply this to your
own classroom in a K-12 school. After reading this book, you, teachers,
can welcome culturally diverse students in your classroom without alienating,
condescending, or offending.
Questions:
1) I do agree with the following statement: the absolute starting point
is that once you accept an individual, then you can move forward to effectively
teach the student. How did you get other teachers or staff members involved
with this basic idea?
2) There are many resources that we can make use of in our school.
What is the most important thing to create the positive learning climate
that all of our students deserve?
3) Students with diverse backgrounds study and think in different manners
and they might sometimes offend each other. In order to avoid such a situation,
what skills should teachers have in the classroom?
4) Language plays an important role in culture. How do you facilitate
bilingual students to effectively learn English and preserve their own
language and culture?
5) We, the minorities, sometimes tend to use our "differences" in some
self-defeating ways. How did you manage not to use your race as an excuse
not to compete and excel?
Submitted by Noriko Enari.