Kristen Reiter

ED 460- Multicultural
Final Essay
June 11, 2014
1. To what extent and in what ways has this class opened your mind to understanding and
embracing others who are different than you are? What areas or topics in our curriculum
challenged you or provoked a need/desire for further inquiry?
This class has expanded my knowledge on people who come from cultures other than my
own. This knowledge makes me more aware of my actions towards others and towards my own
unconscious biases. The panel from the Multicultural Resource Center opened my eyes to the
fact that racism and discrimination still exists today. During that session, questions were
answered that would be uncomfortable to ask in any other setting, but those are the questions that
really needed to be addressed in order to combat the barriers between races. I feel like I have
more understanding for some of the struggles that people of color face in the world today and I
will be able to address at least some of these burdens in my own classroom. The panel from the
Queer Resource Center was very informative about the queer community. The class was again
able to ask questions that may be uncomfortable, but that we need to ask in order to gain more
understanding about this culture. I feel like I gained tools during this panel that will help me
appropriately address situations in the queer community, and especially instances that may occur
in my classroom.
One area in the curriculum that both challenged me and provoked a desire for further
inquiry was the research projects and presentations. The research paper was a bit of a challenge
due to the amount of time and work that it required. There was a vast amount of information
available on the poverty culture that I struggled at first to find a focus. The research
presentations from other groups activated a desire for me to learn more about these cultures. I

felt as though I did not know enough about the other cultures. I want to continue to research
about various cultures so that I can deepen my own understanding of people who are different
than me.
Another area of the curriculum that challenged me this term was creating the group
lesson plan. All of our ideas were broad and more appropriate for a unit; we struggled to find a
focused topic to teach. Our group finally decided on a lesson about language and one of the
group members found a lesson online. Due to the pre-made lesson, I feel like I was not able to
contribute to the group as much as I would have liked. I would like to have had the opportunity
to develop my own multicultural lesson so that I could practice my own skills with the
information I learned over the term.
2. What readings or experiences in this class have helped you think critically about the role of
educators in our changing society? What issues and implications do you see for schooling now
and in the future?
Chapter 1 in the textbook discussed the importance of a multicultural education and how
it should be implemented. It is the role of teachers to provide this multicultural education in
order to teach students about different cultures and also promote respect for those differences.
Jensen mentioned, though, that this multicultural education must be a yearlong and ongoing
process. It should be integrated into all areas of the curriculum and be a school-wide approach.
In the article Teaching Secrets: When the Kids Dont Share Your Culture, the author emphasized
the fact that the most important act a teacher can do is to really get to know their students, the
families of their students, and the many cultures in which their students live. This is a vital
aspect of a teacher in todays society. The students in my classroom will be very diverse and
come from different backgrounds. The author said, We cannot eliminate the differences but we

can learn to communicate effectively with each other. This is very important to keep in mind. I
know that I will have students of different races and cultures, but rather than create a barriers
because of these differences, I can talk with my students about their cultures and get to know
who they are and what they like.
I know that racism and discrimination will, unfortunately, be an issue in education now
and in the future. Hopefully, though, educators can make enough of an impact in exposure
children to other cultures and to accepting others for who they are that this will become less of an
issue in the future. I also know that students who speak a language other than English is an issue
in schools know and will grow in frequency in the future. Jensen states in Chapter 2 of the
textbook, Language diversity is one of the most significant challenges facing U.S. schools. The
number of students who speak a language other than English has grown dramatically (p. 37). In
addition, these students will most likely be from different cultures. These students will not only
have a language boundary, but a cultural one as well. As a teacher, I will need to be able to work
with these students to maintain their cultural and language backgrounds, but also integrate them
into the classroom culture and the cultures of the surrounding community.
3. How will you ensure inclusive learning environments and integrate culturally responsive
pedagogy to enable each learner to meet high standards?
One way in which I will ensure that my classroom is an inclusive learning environment is
by establishing a class etiquette. This idea came out of a group discussion over the chapter 1
reading. I will use this classroom etiquette as guidelines for how my students must behave when
they are in the classroom to make sure that everyone feels welcome and safe. Other ways in
which I would create an inclusive learning environment come out of the reading from chapter 11.
One of the main ideas from that chapter was that teachers need to recognize the individual and

cultural differences of every student. All students are unique and their backgrounds will play a
role in their personality and learning styles. As a teacher, I need to get to know each of my
students and make an effort to meet their individual cultural and educational needs. One
particular way in which I can create a culturally responsive pedagogy is by including
multicultural information and materials in my lessons. All of my lessons can feature information
on various cultures, or even comparisons to like cultures.
4. What have you learned about the characteristics, cultures, and perspectives of diverse learners,
and how will you adapt learning experiences to meet their needs? (Consider
racial/ethnic/religious groups, socio-economic class, English learners, and sexual/gender
orientations from the readings, activities, and presentations.)
In Chapter 2 of the textbook, Jensen writes, A persons social class is sometimes thought
to indicate his or her ambitions or motivation to achieve. It is a serious mistake, however, to
stereotype people by social classIt is not unreasonable to suggest that lower-class families,
regardless of cultural background, want to improve their social status in life but meet with
considerable frustration when faced with poverty and its accompanying conditions (p. 37). This
quote can apply to other race cultures as well as the culture of poverty. Many minorities are
labeled as unmotivated in schools, but, in reality, they are just like other students. As a teacher, I
will hold the same high expectations for all of my students. From the presentations, I learned
that students genders and sexual orientations can impact their learning. Gender roles are still
apparent in the classroom today. The group said that boys get called on more and that girls are
called out more when they act out in class. As a teacher, I will work to combat these gender
roles in my own classroom. I will be sure to call on children equally and acknowledge behavior
from both genders. The group also discussed the fact that students with sexual orientations other

than heterosexual may be confused or just feel different than everyone else. I hope to be able to
teach about other sexual orientations in my classroom when the time is appropriate. I can do
simple tasks, such as including a story about a student with two mom or two dads. I want to
make sure that my students in the classroom do not feel alone and know that they can come to
me whenever they need to talk.
5. Pinpoint specific information, assignments, resources (including readings, videos, discussions,
and panels) that caused you to analyze your own assumptions, biases, and beliefs. How will you
work with children and youth differently because of what youve learned?
One video that caused me to analyze my own assumptions and biases was The Danger of
a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. She spoke about the fact that many people generalized
a group of people or an area, such as the continent of Africa, into a single assumption based on
one perspective. While watching this video, I realized that I was guilty of seeing a single story
for some cultures. I wondered why I have only these single stories. Did I not learn about
various cultures in school? Or is the blame on me because I have not search for the information
on my own? Whatever the case, her video opened my eyes to some of my own biases. I believe
that it is important to recognize your own biases, especially since I want to be a teacher. Now
that I am aware of the single story phenomena, I can educate myself on others cultures to deepen
the story. I will use Chimamanda Adichies theory of the single story in my own classroom.
Depending on what grade I teach, my students may not have a lot of knowledge of different
cultures in general. If that is the case, then, within my multicultural education, I will expose
these students to many perspectives of various cultures. For example, I would teach them about
Africa, but I will be sure to expose them to the many cultures that arise throughout the different
countries in Africa and not focus on the single story of catastrophe that many see. I will

challenge the current knowledge that my students have about other cultures and have them
question whether their perspective is one from a single story. The more I can break down the
biases and misinformation in my classroom, the more educated and culturally relevant my
students will be.
The articles on white privilege also made me analyze my own assumptions and beliefs.
Before reading the articles, I was not aware of the many ways in which I am privilege. I did not
as for this privilege and I cannot help that I was born into this race, but I can take a stand to
challenge the issues that other cultures face. While I was reading through the list of some of the
ways in which white poverty is seen in education, all I could think is that I want to make sure all
of my students and their families feel this way in my class. This is what I can do to reduce white
privilege; I can make all students in my classroom equal and treat all students fairly, which, as
Roni said on the last day of class, is defined as everyone getting what they need when they need
it. Making my students feel welcome can be as simple as having a wide variety of skin tone
markers and crayons and also having pictures of children of differences races up in my
classroom.