RUNNING HEAD: Reflective Journal

Diversity and Change: A Critical Pedagogy

Assignment No. 3
Reflective Journal
Cristina Ulloa

National University
Professor James Mbuva
March 1, 2014

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Abstract

This paper was a written fulfillment of Assignment 3.0 for TED 667. In this paper are included
my reflections of the learning outcomes acquired from Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and how
it has transformed my way of teaching. How I plan on implementing everything that I have
learned about my students in relation to global issues and understanding and the importance of
teaching them to appreciate diversity. How taking this course has given be a broader knowledge
about our multicultural society.

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My awareness on culturally responsive pedagogy and the importance of transformative

teaching playing an important role in the educational development of our students has grown
tremendously throughout this course, on insuring that cultural diversity and intercultural
interchange is treated with plenty of knowledge and respect among students, teachers,
administrators, and staff. Obtaining a good education is very important for our multicultural
community, but implies plenty of hard work and knowledge from teachers, students, students
families and the community. Cooperation is one of the main keys in the building of a
multilingual educated society whose main goal is to preserve their cultural heritage. I have
learned the importance on the amount of responsibility that we as educator have with the
multicultural community in our schools; that it is our responsibility to take action on encouraging
our students and parents on the importance of education and being open minded to diversity.

Historically we have come a long way on how we treat multicultural education, History
has shaped our ideas about immigrants in schools, and has influenced attitudes towards bilingual
schooling. Historical myths have also been critical to the United States bilingual education
policies. There is a pervasive mythology in American society that schools provide immigrants
with opportunity and access to the American mainstream, even the American Dream (Samarco,
2010, n.p.).
Its quite amazing when we look back and analyze how diversity has managed to change
the way the United States views diversity in the education system, and how policies and teaching
practices have changed in order help our immigrant community. However, reality is that the
endless struggles that our students, teachers and other staff members in our school system face
do to diversity in the classroom continue to grow.

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Like our textbook mentions, Multicultural education frames inequality in terms of

institutionalized oppression and reconfigures the families, and communities of oppressed groups
as sources of strength (Au, 2009, p.18)
Critical Pedagogy in education allows us as educators to discuss certain classroom
problems that are relevant to our students to help them deal with the differences with much better
understanding. For example, I now know that when wanting to address a topic related to ethnic
or cultural issues in my classroom, I must try my best on being especially creative to talk about it
with my students. Figuring out how to teach about differences of race among students without
pulling them apart, which is something quite difficult to do with the diverse community we now
have, but absolutely possible to accomplish when we use the right strategies. We need to do
whatever is necessary so that our children and our people accept themselves, with all our
magnificent phenotypes, as people of beauty (Au, 2009, p. 29).
As the language teacher that I want to become, I realize that I am not just going to be
teaching language in a classroom, I am also going to be helping my students understand their
history, their culture, their language and how they interrelate with each other to make them who
they are.
In order to have good cultural responsive teaching, educators must acquire the cultural
knowledge necessary in order to deal with the different styles of learning of every student.
Diversity in the classroom of today forces us to become much more creative when teaching our
students. In order to be a more effective multicultural teacher, one must learn to incorporate the
different languages, cultures, and traditions that make up our classroom. This will surely promote
respect and acceptance among the differences that are viewed in the classroom and the

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community. As educators we have to find ways to be their allies and be sensitive to how our
work in the classroom affects them (Au, 2009, p.275).
The main focus of culturally responsive teaching is to build connection between the home
culture and school. In order to motivate cultural acceptance in the classroom, we must include
our students cultures in our daily lesson activities. Meaning that educators have the
responsibility of acknowledging every students culture through classroom activities,
celebrations, holidays, inviting special guest speakers into the classroom, community fieldtrips,
and many other types of lessons. In sum, educators have the obligation to promote respect the
appreciation of different cultures in the United States. Culturally responsive teaching brings in
different types of teaching strategies that interrelate with different kinds of learning styles.
Students need explicit support in going from classes with progressive, critical
perspectives to the rest of the world (Au, 2009, Pg.189).

Teachers and Globalization like our textbook says it, Globalization is complicated,
globalization and its implications that are constantly changing our educational system mostly
thanks to the huge waves of migration. As educators, we know that our students of today will be
the ones in charge of forcing the future of this country and as teachers we must try the best we
can to prepare our students for the challenges they will be facing. We can do this my always
including the teaching of multiculturalism in our daily lessons. Multicultural awareness is
extremely valuable to our students, especially in this new era of globalization where our students
are presented with hundreds of opportunities to better their future. For us educators, we find it a
little complicated, do that we have to learn about so many different races and nationalities in
order to be able to help our students. Having to modify lesson plans and reinventing ideas in
order to help our immigrant children is a lot of extra work for us as educators, but a pleasure to

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do so because we want our students to become the best citizens of this wonderful country. Like
Bonvillain (2014) stated, They formulate conceptions of themselves and of their place in the
world in accordance with cultural models that are enacted on a daily basis (p.186).
Having such diversity in our classrooms is a lot to take, and acknowledging each and
every nationality is the key to a great start in education. I believe that starting with my students
immigration experiences would push them to deeper emotional level. In my experience, deep
emotions lead to deep learning (Au, 2009, p.181).
This course has given me useful knowledge on how to help my students that come from
different cultures and that are struggling with learning a new language. Incorporating activities
that involve learning about different cultures is a great way to make a difference in the
classroom. The importance of teaching our students the appreciation of different languages and
cultures will surely create a more welcoming environment for all of our different cultures. As
teachers in the never ending learning path, we must never forget to be innovative when it comes
to motivating our students. Simple activities that we can incorporate to our lessons, like writing
letters to pen-pals from different parts of the world, is an exciting way of getting our students to
appreciate different countries and cultures.

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References
Au, W. ed. (2009). Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Social Justice.
Milwaukee, WI: A Rethinking Schools Publication.
Bonvillain, N. (2014). Language, Culture, and Communication. .Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Chaika, E. (2008). Language the social mirror. 4th Edition. Boston: Heinle.
Samarco,( 2010),Bilingual Education: A Historical Perspective/Children of
Immigration/ http://pages.vassar.edu/children-of-immigration/