Perspectives on Diversity and
Culture
An especially effective method
to deepen one’s grasp of any topic is to listen to and then reflect on the
ideas of others. This week, you have an opportunity to use that method and ask
other people what they think about diversity and culture. You can then blog
about the answers you received as well as your new insights.
Culture
and diversity responses:
·
"Culture could
be thought of someone's background whether it be religious, artistic, personal
etc. It's how someone was brought up. Diversity is the multiple ways and
differences in every single human being. Today we live in a diverse society that
bring many different cultures to the table."
·
"Culture:
central concept in anthropology. A particular society at a particular time and
place which can include language, manners, art, religion, etc. Diversity
- the state or quality of being different or varied. There are lots of
different types of diversity and can refer to contents, communications,
science, and politics and law - a few. Different elements or variety - the
inclusion of different types of people."
·
"Diversity is
having a mix of people from all different ethnicities and cultures. Culture is
what defines your roots not your race. For example, being a hillbilly is a
culture not your race"
·
"Diversity
simply means many different types. It isn't exclusive to just people. Culture refers to a certain group's set of
norms. It is large in scope and can encompass things such as language, dress,
rituals, foods, likes and dislikes, etc."
·
"diversity-
various types/options/selections of anything Culture- the quirks, oddities,
traditions, styles, habits, beliefs,...etc. that influence a people group"
·
"Culture are
all of the traditional aspects of a group of people... Diversity is respecting
the differences between the groups."
·
"Simply put-
cultures are the ties that connect a group of people together; diversities are
the distinct differences among individuals (singularly or individual
groups)"
·
"Culture could
be thought of as commonalities/traditions/ties that a group of people share, or
the shared knowledge & art through the ages...which would also be a part of
the first thought... Diversity is just having more than one type of
something-from a diversity of colors of M&Ms to the diversity of languages
worldwide, as well as people"
I
posted on a personal social media site for some help in understanding each
person's personal opinion on these two words.
I have a great group of encouragers and supporters, so I knew I would
get answers quite quickly. My
anticipation upon responses were that people would be thoughtful and real with
their replies. The answers that they
responded with are congruent with what we have been studying in our text. They intertwine as we discussed on our
discussion board this past week in regards to traditions and how we can bring
our community of culture in the classroom that would combine things such as
language, attire, and other rituals (including food). One of my responders mentioned these exact
items when they described the word "culture." Also, one responder described diversity as
simple as a bag of colored M&M's.
Sometimes, relating terminology like culture and diversity to something
as simple as a bag of colored M & M's is what our families need from
us. We try so hard to be professional
and use educated terminology. I thought
this was such a great example, because while we do have some families that
expect more educated responses, we do also have families that need an example
as simple as a bag of colored M & M's to relate to the concept being
taught.
While
the discussion wasn't as deep as I had hoped on this social media site in
regards to this discussion, there wasn't much left out. There were no suggestions on how to
incorporate culture and diversity within a classroom setting; so I went back
and asked on the same social media site "How would you incorporate a diverse culture into a classroom
setting or a community of different cultures?" Here were some of their responses:
·
"I would have a world map displayed. Using
yarn and stick pins, students' names would be strung to different countries and
attached to our city. When my students
were reading a story of where the character was bilingual, I had someone read
the story to them in Spanish."
·
"Brown egg white egg crack them
open."
·
At our center we celebrate EVERY
holiday with different activities! We have guests read, dance or bring items
in. We also have multicultural items in our rooms at all times...instruments,
music, books, puzzles, dolls, animals, etc! In February we will have our own Olympics! Each class is a country and we decorate,
learn all about that country with our kids! Each class gets medals according to
how their is doing in the actual olympics!
·
Read a lot of books with the main character from
different countries and with different cultures
Hearing
another person's view on a topic, like culture and diversity, assist in
understanding the community I am within.
When I understand this community, then I can relate and meet the needs
of them more. This discussion about
culture and diversity influenced my brain to start moving in regards to how I
can incorporate more diversity within my classroom setting and using some of
their suggestions, tweaked a bit for my classroom age group. I began to search on the Internet some
different sites and blogs that other teachers use to share their diverse
classrooms. Here are a few of the things
that I found as well as ideas that I thought would be great to incorporate and
show the diversity and cultures around us.
Maybe you will like them as well.
Hello Shelly,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very insightful. You gave many wonderful ways to introduce diversity into the classroom as well as showing how social media can play a huge part in getting to know different cultures. Great blog.
Joyce Galloway
Thank you Joyce. Blogging is a fun experience! I love the collaboration!
ReplyDeleteHi Shelly
ReplyDeleteYou have very concrete ideas for early educators to use in their classrooms. What a great way to get families engaged without being too formal. We all learn better when we are having fun!