Diversity Reflection Christine Church Concordia University Educational Psychology, November 6, 2011

When I look at Banks theory of multicultural education and the diversity presentation, in my opinion, the presenters information is consistent with the theory. Banks defines multicultural education as providing a positive education by improving the outcomes that children have for all ethnic, social class, religious, genders and exceptionalities. The reason I feel that the presenters information is consistent with the theory is because of their positive attitudes about all of their kids. They dont look at the kid as what their background is; they look at the kid as a child that needs guidance and education so that he/she can be a success. They want their kids to feel safe and loved at school. They are like a huge family and they take upon themselves, as a staff, to educate their students in life skills too. They teach them basic skills that the students should be learning at home but dont always get taught. They learn how to communicate and work out their differences. One area that the presenters schools are very focused on is the prejudice reduction. They really focus on positive relationships among the students, parents, and the teachers. A great teacher tries to communicate with the parents so that their students can get the best education possible. They also work to help the students learn to talk to each other instead of using physical aggression to deal with issues. They have been awarded as a school for educating their students to use their hands in a positive way. Another area that they work on is the equity pedagogy by encouraging their students to use technology as much as possible. The administrators know that it is very important for students to have as much knowledge as possible for their futures because the future is going to use technology even more than today. Due to the high number of students that live in poverty, the school is aware that from birth to five years old their students brains could have had brain damage occur. They have also learned how to reproduce brain cells in their students by focusing

on exercising. The school has started after school activities that promote exercise for their students. They are training for a 5K run. The last area that the presenters schools are using from Banks theory is the empowering school culture. The way that they do this is through encouraging and talking about the importance of higher education. They are good role models by consistently showing high expectations. An example of how important this is, at their school, they have a program where they send girls to the University of Kearney for a day to encourage them to pursue a higher education. 450 words