The Fine Line: Culture and Accomodation

I started reading a book about multicultural teaching.  I am trying to get a bit ahead for the upcoming semester.  I know if I don't do a little prep now the summer will come and go before I realize and I will start off behind in my work.

I was reading through the preface; the book is a new edition and I wanted to get an idea of what changes had been made.  The author made a point about instructors needing to realize that there is also a culture of gender.  I never thought of gender as a culture, but her point made a lot of sense.  We seem to see the obvious differences of race and ethnicity.  However, within these broader categories there is also a distinct issue of gender.  This is most especially apparent when dealing with an Islamic culture.  In my last post I wrote briefly about the two young Muslim women who received awards at the local university.  After reading through the beginning of this new book, I came to realize that in addition to the challenges to overcome stereotypes that these young women had to face; their instructors had to work equally as hard overcoming their own biases. I thought about how I might overcome some of the religiously based gender issues when preparing a lesson plan.  Of course, female students from other cultures have issues to overcome, but it is most glaring in the case of Muslim women.  I admit I am not an expert, but there has to be topics and even types of drills that might simply be offensive to a woman of Islamic faith.  I know in the strictest sense there are cases where Muslim women and men simply do not participate in classes together.  So, the question is, how do I accommodate something like this and still teach to my other students; especially males from the same background or from backgrounds diametrically opposed to Muslim culture? It become a very fine line.  I like to think that any good instructor can and will adapt.  Yet, what is our requirement to do so and to what degree?  In the end do we go with gender based classes.  I know when I was a child we would separate for our annual "sex" talks.  Boys always seemed to get a coach and I have no idea who taught the girls.  I think there may come a period of time when something like this is done for more types of classes than just sex education.  Until then we seem stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place".

The text also mentioned the increasing rise in the immigrant make-up of our educational population; especially in public schools.  I think we will approach about 40% of K-12 students being from immigrant families by 2020.  I don't have the text here, so I may be off a bit in my numbers.  I will try to look it up and correct the number when I get a chance.

The beauty of blogging is that one can do it on one's smart phone as I am doing with this post.  However, I don't generally carry texts with me while doing normal, routine tasks.

Anyway, back to the topic.  I thought for a few days about how I might accommodate a student from a unique cultural background?  The simple answer is that I don't know.  I do know that I would try my best and perhaps seek out some help from a more experience educator.  Ideally, I might go to an educator of the same cultural background.  It might be easiest to do that, but I doubt if some small town teacher from a rural area would have as easy a time finding help as I might.  I think the first step is to simply be aware that this type of situation is on the rise and try to educate ourselves before it happens to us.  From there I would try to adapt lesson plans to meet the needs of the student or students in need.  Again, I think there might be significant work involved, but it is certainly something that can be done.

The next big question for me is how far would I go to accommodate a single student over a class of say 20 other students.  This is where the "fine line" comes in.  I truly think it is a potentially messy situation to go too far in one or the other direction. Obviously experience helps, but in the end the individual teacher has to make some choices.  

Perhaps ask yourself the same question.  Would you be able to change from what has worked well for you in the past and accept the challenge to adapt?

Musings of Harmony and Pronunciation

I have a couple interesting, but short items I would like to write about in this post.  I hope they will  be interesting to some of you as well.

I had a chance to attend an awards ceremony at the local university.  My wife received a scholarship and an award for community engagement.  I am, as always, proud of her work.  However, what struck me as a bit ironic was another situation.  There were two sisters who seemed to steal the show from all the other award winners.  Both of these young women were awarded multiple scholarships, won several awards and were generally praised throughout the ceremony.  The interesting fact was that they were adherents of the Islamic faith.  I have lived in the Middle East and I am aware of some of the issues of Islam as it relates to other faiths and cultures.  What I found a bit ironic was that the news is overloaded with instances of racism and a general xenophobia in America, especially with regards to Islam.  Yet, in the midst of all the hate and jingoism here were two Muslim women who were not only accepted by their peers but generally overwhelmingly praised by them as well.  Sadly, I looked around and saw no television crews.  I guess instances of peace and cooperation are just not as newsworthy.  I also found it interesting that in many Muslim dominated countries these young ladies may not have even had the opportunity to attend a university.  I like to think that most Americans would have been as proud of their recognition as I was and that they would have seen past race, religion and sex.  America is truly a unique and wonderful country at times.

Another issue that came up recently was a question brought forth by a student of mine.  He asked me why Americans get to mispronounce their English, but he, as a ELL student had to practice proper pronunciation.  I honestly had no real answer for him.  I told him that some of it was a simple laziness of use and ownership.  "It is our language, so we can mispronounce it if we wish," I laughingly stated.  This, of course, is not a great answer and not the answer to give.  I felt that there was really no adequate answer to give him.  However, I do have to think that my flippant response was probably the right one.  Between, the regional patterns of American English, the lack of pronunciation training, and yes, the general laziness of American English speakers, we have sort of allowed pronunciation to slip and take a back seat to general usage.  I think that I am now more certain I should endeavor to present my own speech with an ear towards proper pronunciation.  I will tell you, it is not as easy as it sounds.  I also want to encourage all my fellow instructors to be mindful of this issue as well.  I think we owe our students a bit more in this area.

Chickens!!

My wife and I decided to try and raise some chickens.  We have both decided to try and become a little more Earth friendly and this is one of the ideas we came up with.  How does this pertain to teaching ELL students?  I am glad the question is in your mind as you read this post.

One of the biggest challenges an instructor faces in a multicultural classroom is making the initial connection to one's students.  It can be a huge impediment to learning.  I would suggest that many Americans, in general, have little knowledge of life in the rest of the world.  Sure, there is Europe and some parts of Asia that most Americans could be comfortable residing in for a period.  But, how do you relate to a student from a third-world country; chickens!

Chickens are ubiquitous in most poorer countries.  I can't even remember the number of places I have visited where chickens were underfoot and everywhere.  Now that I am raising chickens myself, I have a perfect place from which to open up a discussion.  I would be shocked if in a class of ELL students I wouldn't find someone who had chickens around at some point in their lives.  There is a wealth of material in just this one simple connection.

There is all manner of vocabulary just about food; eating chicken for a meal or eggs.  What are some good recipes for chicken?  What do chickens themselves eat?  From there one could talk about raising chickens or raising animals in general.  Did anyone have a pet or have to do work related to chickens or other animals.  The list of potential topic is as endless as one's imagination.

The point is that making that initial connection is key to getting a class moving in the right direction and stimulating participation and conversation ... so, don't discount chickens when it comes to ELL learners.