Multicultural Content and Multiple Perspectives
Multicultural Content and Multiple Perspectives
Introduction
As a Taiwanese person, the environment I grew up was just full of Chinese and Taiwanese.
The lack of a chance to explore multicultural content and perspectives, gave me a narrow
mind. Until I studied aboard in Europe, I got an experience to explore myself with European
cross-cultural education and living style. In addition, I work as an English teacher in an
international school in China. It is also a multicultural experience for me since I work with
foreign teachers who come from America, Canada, Britain, South Africa, South Korea,
Japan, The Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. I am Exploring in English, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese languages; it has helped me to become a multi-lingual
person. Regardless of this fulfilling work climate and resources that I can ask for, it is
not hard for me to plan a lesson with multiculturalism. This blog I will discuss is how
I expose my students to multicultural content and multiple perspectives. Next, I will
discuss why it is important to introduce multicultural content and multiple perspectives
to students. Last, I will discuss how students develop cultural competence in the classroom.
Exposure to Multicultural Content & Multiple Perspectives
The learning environment that students are exposed to no matter in school or outside
the school is full of the cross-culture content and perspectives, because there are many
foreigners living nearby the school. Even though the common language those foreigners
speak is English, it is full of diverse cultures inside. Regarding multicultural content,
for example, the way British describe transportation or cab is different than an
American. In America, people use the word taxi instead of saying cab. Additionally, the
gesture of the number seven in Taiwan presents number eight in China. (China and
Taiwan have very different ways of showing small numbers on their hands than in the west).
It is a multiple perspective about number. In Taiwan, the number four presents bad luck;
people avoid living or saying number four on because the pronunciation of number four is
similar to the sound of die or death in traditional mandarin, which is what is used in
Taiwan. (they used simplified characters and only have 4 tones in mainland China)
On the other hand, in China, the number four presents a good luck number. The example
shows multiple perspectives about number. Another example is the color, in Japan
people wear white wedding dresses to present something pure and clean. By contrast,
Chinese wear red wedding dresses to present good luck. Chinese believe red brings
happiness and wealth. Conversely, in Korea you never want to write down someone’s
name in red, because that means they have died. All three countries have different
perspectives about the colors. It is important for teachers to instruct the diversity
of cultures and perspectives for students in the class or outside the class. The teachers
can use videos, stories or personal traveling experience to discover the cross-culture
and perspectives in different countries.
Why do we Need to Introduce Multicultural & Multiple Perspectives to Students?
It is an inclusive society that is full of multiple cultures. The diversity of family brings
different perspectives to the world. Most of my students come from Taiwan and live in
China. Although China and Taiwan share the same culture, there are also some slight
differences between these two places. Additionally, the students who study in my school
are planning to study aboard in the future, it is important for them to understand the
diverse culture and perspectives from different points of view. Understanding the
diversity of linguistics, living style, culture and perspectives helps students to engage
in a diverse world or society easily. The increasing awareness of globe issues,
strengthening cultural consciousness, strengthening intercultural awareness, and
developing critical thinking skill are the important skills for the 21st century learners.
What’s more, it also facilitates students to develop a positive self-image, offer an
equitable opportunity, and allow students think in multiple perspective ways
(Garcia, n.d.).
Developing Cultural Competence in the Classroom
In a classroom, a teacher can meet the diversity needs of students in terms of students’
unique experiences, strengths, and ideas. It is important for the teacher to create a
welcoming, respectful and safe environment for students. But how I develop cultural
competence in my classroom? Firstly, what cultural competence is? “Cultural competence
is the awareness of cultural identity, beliefs and values system. It impacts the way you think
and behave. It also includes the ability to integrate and transform knowledge about people
and cultural groups into practices used in settings such as the classroom (Herrmann, 2015)”.
In my school, we have students that come from Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan. They all
have different perspectives and cultures about everything. For example, Taiwanese,
Japanese and Korean students care a lot about respect and politeness as well as stick to
the rules. On the other hand, Chinese students do not follow school’s rules and regularly
break school’s property. As a teacher, it is very important for me to educate them what
is right and what is wrong in the society. But, how I develop this culture competence
in the class? Firstly, build up an atmosphere about respecting and valuing diversity.
It is important for students to accept the traditions and perspectives from the people
from different cultural background. For example, copyright is important for many
countries, but not China. This comes from a deeply rooted tradition of trying to copy
everything. The teacher needs to provide an opportunity to instruct students about the
what is correct culture and what is wrong culture to discuss and communicate with
others or teacher about the reasons. At higher grade levels, this issue becomes a huge
problem with respect to plagiarism, so it’s important to get students to value and
respect the Secondly, accept diverse performance style for students to make
learning more effective for them (NEA,n.d.). That is, to accept the diverse perspectives of
students. For example, for some specific students, they might have some traditional issue
or habits. Thirdly, learning with the context of culture (NEA,n.d.). The best way to
understand cultural competence is to expose to diverse cultural context to perceive the
idea mentally. The teacher can display different kinds of story books or posters around
the classroom for students to read and comprehend. Last, build a connection of
experiencing diverse cultures for students inside or outside the classroom. For
example, holding a Korea Day for all students to experience and recognize the
cultures of Korea.
Conclusion
I never thought about how the diversity of culture or perspectives can affect students’
learning that much. However, when I read some relevant articles online, I realized that
a good lesson plan should not just focus on what the teacher wants to instruct, but on
how teacher considers of any possibility that could happen in a class then to provide
an effective and well-prepared instruction for students to achieve their learning goals.
References
Garcia. E.K. (n.d.). Multicultural Education in Your Classroom. TeachHub.com.
Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/multicultural-education-your-classroom
Herrmann. Erick. (2015, August 13). Cultural competence in the classroom: A key 21st-
century skill. Retrieved from http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/cultural-competence-in-the-classroom-a-key-21st-century-skill/education
NEA. (n.d.). Diversity Toolkit: Cultural Competence for Educators. Retrieved
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