Multicultural Methods and Application in Teaching

• How lessons in your subject field can reflect the diversity of your community, region, country, or world.

My subject field is physical/general science. In this subject I can incorporate diversity of my community, region and country by addressing the different cultures in projects or material that we are reading. In physical science we talk about different regions of the world such as in the topic of geology. In a lesson that studies rocks I can show the students that the society of the United States is not only founded on it's own but relies on that of other regions of the earth. For example, students will learn that things we use in our everyday lives come from resources that are created, produced, and molded in other areas of the world. 

• A rationale for why it is important to introduce students to multicultural content and multiple perspectives.

It is important to introduce students to multicultural content and multiple perspectives in order to prepare students for the future. Ultimately as a teacher I am working on preparing students to succeed outside of the classroom as well. This looks like being able to understand different cultures and habits of others. Being able to see different perspectives will help students communicate more effectively with their peers. For example, someone may be seen as rude when it can just be a cultural difference that is misunderstood. It's important to gain knowledge of different cultures and habits in order to have an open mind and better understanding of others. 

• How you will know that students are developing cultural competence in your classroom?

It is not expected that any one person knows everything about different cultures but it is best to try our hardest to educate ourselves to develop cultural competence. There are different ways to reach that cultural competence in the classroom. In order to assess the competence level one can do so by evaluating the different ways below:

1. Find out how cultures gather and learn information.

2. Understand the different methods of solving problems by different cultures.

3. How different cultures communicate non verbally.

4. The different methods that cultures learn. 

5. Different conflicts and resolution styles.

6. Symbolism and their meanings.

References

“Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers Should Know.” Pratt-Johnson - Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers Should Know (TESL/TEFL), iteslj.org/Articles/Pratt-Johnson-CrossCultural.html.