Creating a Classroom Culture that Celebrates Diversity

Teresa L. Draguicevich
High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Abstract
In today's increasingly diverse classrooms, children often need to collaborate with peers from
diverse backgrounds who might see the world differently than they do. To create a classroom
culture where all children feel a strong sense of belonging and reap the benefits of group
learning, I need to help them trust those whose views differ. This six month study with a diverse
group of 18 kinder and first grade students utilizes improvement research methods to determine
which change efforts towards building trust among diverse populations prove most effective. The
key findings suggest that teaching children language protocols, using concrete objects to
illustrate abstract concepts and providing more opportunities for guided collaborative play have
an almost immediate positive impact on their reported sense of belonging in the classroom and
social networking patterns. Additionally, this study explores implications for the teachers role in
supporting young learners as they navigate their differences in a group setting, often for the first
time.

Keywords: diversity, equity, group learning, collaborative play