RUNNING HEAD: CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

Cultural Diversity Research Project and Reflection

Thomas Sparkes
Florida SouthWesten State College

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

Cultural Diversity Research Project and Reflection

The face of the average American classroom has changed over the years. Where schools
used to be primarily white or black; we now see many cultures, religions, gender identities,
learning styles, and exceptionalities. These changes have given rise to a greatly diverse learning
and teaching environment for students and teachers alike. This diversity grants richness and
perspective for those open and welcoming to it, but for some, this new diverse environment is
unknown and can often lead to apprehension, or even discriminatory behavior. Throughout this
reflection and research piece, a few of the many diversities and biases will be explored, along
with pedagogical strategies to help teach these diverse students.
Gender and Sexual Orientation
As social awareness of the lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender and Questioning
(LBGTQ) community grows, teachers will find themselves in the position of creating a healthy
classroom community, allowing LBGTQ students to feel safe and part of the classroom, as well
as facing their own bias that they may not be aware of. It is not uncommon to walk down the
hallway during class change at a middle school and hear a student call another a fag or say that
they are gay. I spent one year working as a paraprofessional middle grades boys gym coach.
Nearly every day I would hear this coming from some of the boys, and every time I heard it I
would do my best to nip it in the bud. I could tell that some of the other students were
uncomfortable with these words being thrown around in such aloof and careless way. I have no
tolerance for any type of discriminatory behavior in general, often times I would find myself
completely stopping any activity that was going on and correcting their use of insensitive
language and teaching them how these words can hurt other students even when its not meant
to. This language, even if its meant to be playful when directed at a friend, can often lead to any

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

LBGTQ students in hearing range to feel alienated and unwelcome. According to Stufft and
Graft (2011), these students expressed concern for their well-being, given the prejudices against
non-heterosexual individuals.
In the classroom LBGTQ students can often times be looked over, or even ignored due to
the teachers fear of facing the issue, or a lack of confidence in their ability to properly handle
the situation. LGBTQ students often report that administrators, teachers and other staff do not get
involved when derogatory language is used towards them (Stufft & Graft, 2011). These students
live day-to-day with anxiety and feat that they may be ridiculed or even physically assaulted.
Both adolescent males and females have a tendency not to express their true beliefs and opinions
when in the company of teachers, parents, and members of the opposite sex. This phenomenon is
called loss of voice (Snowman & McCown, 2015). It is extremely difficult for students,
especially those in the middle grades, to truly express how they feel or think about something.
Students often time dont want to be perceived in a certain light, or thought to be weak in any
way, according to Maslows hierarchy, a students esteem shout come after their need for
belonging and love, but can often times be more important to them. For this reason, as teachers,
we need to cultivate an environment of understanding and teamwork.
Cultural, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Diversity
Teaching and observing in multiple Title-One schools gave me the opportunity to work
with students from many cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Personally, I find the variety
of backgrounds and experiences to be refreshing to work alongside; each student has a different
story and a different perspective that can be a great asset for the classroom. There are some
though, who view these students as lazy, not caring about school, or assume that since they come
from another cultural background wont be able to communicate properly. All of these are unfair

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

biases that do not belong in the modern classroom. The idea that culturally diverse students are
lazier than any other student is far from true; typically parents of low socioeconomic status
(SES) have full time jobs, and if times are hard can have up to four jobs at once (Gorski, 2008).
He also states that parents of low SES students care about schooling and education just as much
as wealthy parents; they just dont have the ability to access school activities or events as easily,
due to work or transportation. Teachers sometimes assume that poor students will have a difficult
time communicating, or are linguistically deficient, when a student speaks in a way that is not
considered proper English. At that point the teacher can become biased and hold the student to
a lower standard than other students, or dumb down the material instead of challenging the
student to their highest potential.
It is easy for students from diverse backgrounds and cultures to feel like they are not fully
a part of the classroom, their diversity can go overlooked or even ignored for the sake of a
uniform classroom or ease of teaching. This can greatly affect a students ability to perform in
the classroom in a negative way. Teachers should embrace their students diversity and have
students share their culture with a classroom activity, or a culture day, so they can be proud of
where they come from and have it be a part of their school life.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
The moment students are viewed as different in any way, its possible to lose sight of
common ground and slowly, even if inadvertently, begin to alienate and see a students deficits,
as opposed to their strengths. To remove this possibility, we, as teachers, need to take time to
reflect and take a moral inventory of our own biases and assumptions of other cultures, and be
aware of how their actions and habits are perceived by the students.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

The first thing to keep in mind when creating a positive and understanding classroom
community is the difference between prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is the unjustified or
incorrect attitude toward an individual solely based on the individuals membership of a social
group. Discrimination is the actions or behavior towards an individual or group of people,
especially on the basis of sex, religion, race or social class. One is a mindset, the other is action
taken against a group or individual. According to Garza, Ovando, and Seymour (2010), Students
are in the best position to provide an authentic account about student-teacher interactions in the
classroom, and their perceptions about teacher behaviors that convey caring can add an important
perspective to caring. With that knowledge, teachers can better model appropriate behavior and
begin cultivating a classroom of acceptance and understanding.
Some strategies teachers can use in the classroom to encourage tolerance and
understanding is to remove all stereo types from the classroom, model proper behavior and
language, and ensure all materials that are being used are culturally diverse and inclusive for all
styles of learners. I feel that one of the most important things a teacher can do is to get to know
the student on an individual level; get to know who they are as a person as well as where they
come from. This shows the student that you care about who they are as well as caring about them
academically, which will help them be confident in themselves as well as being comfortable in
the classroom.
Group activities and projects can also be used as tools to promote cultural diversity.
Depending on the classrooms population, students in my science classroom can do a project on
scientists that come from their native country, or members of the LBGTQ community who have
influenced invention or scientific discovery and create a presentation to go along with the
information they found.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

As a teacher, I am determined to create a classroom environment of understanding, safety,

and learning for students from every background, sexual orientation or learning ability. The
majority of students in schools now have a head start in creating a world of understanding and
patience, just by being born when they were. I want to fuel their drive for greater knowledge and
empathy by using the strategies and tools Ive learned from this program and implementing them
in my own classroom.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT AND REFLECTION

References
Garza, R., Ovando, M., & Seymour, C. (2010). Latino and White students perceptions of teacher
behaviors that convey caring: Do gender and ethnicity matter? Current Issues In
Education, 13(1). Retrieved from
http://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/258/125.
Gorski, P. (2008). The myth of the culture of poverty. Educational Leadership, 65 (7), 32-36.
Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/apr08/vol65/num07/The-Myth-of-the-Culture-of-Poverty.aspx.
Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching (14th ed.). Mason, OH:
Cengage.
Stufft, D., & Graff, C. (2011). Increasing visibility for LGBTQ students: What schools can do to
create inclusive classroom communities. Current Issues In Education, 14(1). Retrieved
from http://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/636/87.