Curriculum Strategies to Prepare Teacher Candidates for the Multicultural Classroom

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Curriculum Strategies to Prepare Teacher
Candidates for the Multicultural Classroom

• Workshop Presented at the
• 17th Annual International NAME Conference
• Baltimore, MD
• November 2nd, 2007
• Luz Carime Bersh, Ph. D.
• Keene State College 

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Agenda

• Greetings and Introductions
• Contextual Framework
• Description
• Purpose
• Rationale
• Discussion 1 Obstacles and resistance educators
  face when initiating discussions about
  multicultural issues.
• Research on Whiteness-Reasons underlying
  resistance Nakayama Krizeks Model (1995)
• Engaging the White student/teacher candidate
• Cultural self-portraits
• Values and beliefs inventory
• Connecting with multicultural issues through
  empathy Role-Playing Seedfolks (Fleishman, 1997)
• Identifying multicultural factors leading to
  discrimination, bigotry, violence Lets Get Real
  (Chasnoff Cohen, 2003)
• Addressing real-life multicultural biases by
  developing integrated units based on cultural
  factors Webs
• Thematic multicultural textsets Integrating
  child/adolescent literature across the curriculum
• Discussion 2 Self-assessment
• Workshop evaluation

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Contextual Framework

• Description
• Preparing teachers for the multicultural
  classroom in the context of an increasingly
  pluralistic society is not an easy task. Students
  with limited exposure to multiculturalism need
  support to engage, connect and develop a
  transcultural understanding. This workshop
  focuses on sharing curriculum strategies
  developed in an undergraduate curriculum
  development course, which have supported White
  teacher candidates in preparing for the
  multicultural classroom.

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Purpose

• Engage participants in a critical discussion
  about the contextual complexities of teaching
  about multiculturalism and multicultural
  curriculum development to prospective teachers
  (in particular, the White teacher).
• Introduce curriculum strategies that support
  prospective teachers engagement in effective
  multicultural experiences that can be adapted and
  transferred into the K-12 classroom Community
  Building and Multicultural Thematic Text Sets.
• Actively work in small groups to share,
  experience and assess the value of the strategies
  introduced.

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RationaleCaring at the core of curriculum
development (Bersh, 2007)

• Todays curriculum focuses on teaching our youth
  the content and skills that will allow them to
  produce, produce, produce! The No Child Left
  Behind imposes an economic-driven curricula that
  emphasize subjects that are tested at the expense
  of excluding the arts, physical education, social
  studies and even recess.
• I am not opposed to progress, nor radically
  opposed to economic-driven values. However, I am
  critical of trading these values for what is
  essential to the survival of humankind The value
  of humanity itself and the value of our natural
  environment.
• Our society desperately needs a
  back-to-the-basics curriculum that will teach
  our youth not just the three Rs, but the
  essential values of humanity itself and our
  natural environment. Only then can we aspire to
  fully develop our humanity potential to become
  self-actualized as we find our position in
  society, not in a competitive, economic,
  value-driven race, but in a truly meaningful,
  interdependent and mutually caring place. What is
  the purpose of living without love? Is it worth
  living without happiness? Arent these the
  fundamental human drives for anything that we do?
• I strongly believe these are the questions we
  need to be addressing as we re-think what we
  should be teaching our youth.

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Discussion Question

• Why are teacher candidates (especially White,
  middle class students) resistant to participating
  in discussions about multicultural issues?

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Nakayama Krizeks Model (1995)

• White equals power. In this category, whiteness
  is viewed as the majority, a privileged social
  position tied to white identity.
• White is not color. In this category, whiteness
  is defined in juxtaposition to what it is not
  white means not having any other blood lines to
  make it impureone can only be white by not being
  anything else (1995, p. 299).
• White is a scientific definition. It is ahistoric
  and lacks social status. Whiteness is tied to the
  biological determinism assumption that whiteness
  is strictly linked to skin color.
• White equals American. In this rhetorical
  strategy, whiteness is perceived as a normalizing
  invisible agent directly linked with nationality
  Americans are White.
• White is intangible, therefore, it has no labels.
  This strategy is linked to the colorblindness
  attitude I dont see skin color I see you as a
  human being.
• White is acknowledging a symbolic ethnicity
  (1995, p. 302). Whiteness an identification with
  European ancestry. An acknowledgement of an
  ethnic European background, which in many cases,
  lacks any real meaning or value it is used as an
  accessorywhich is not a substantial part of
  their everyday lives and thus, is not a central
  factor in an individuals cultural identity.

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Beyond Nakayama Krizeks Rhetorical
StrategiesMy findings (Bersh, 2006)

• White resistance to discussing multicultural
  issues stems from genuine fear of losing power
  and privilege to the other and the inability to
  feel like or identify with the other.

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How do we help teacher candidates/students
overcome this fear?

• ENGAGE
• CONNECT
• IDENTIFY biases
• ADDRESS biases through development of
  multicultural curriculum.
• SUPPORT with multicultural curriculum resources
  Multicultural Textsets.

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ENGAGE

• Building TRUST through community building
  activities
• CARING, CARING, CARING
• Go back-to-the-basics I share my humanity with
  you, you share yours with me

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Community Building

• Among the most effective strategies for school
  violence prevention and intervention programs is
  establishing meaningful connections between
  students, teachers, and the school (E.G. Smith
  Sandhu, 2004 Whitted Dupper, 2005).
• The focus of these programs involve developing
  emotional literacy skills, such as empathy and
  respect for the rights of others boosting
  resiliency factors, such as self-esteem and
  academic success
• (Smith Sandhu, 2004, p. 287).

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Community Building Strategies

• Warm welcome
• Greeting
• hand-shaker
• Start where they are
• Self-exploration/Cultural self-portraits
• Values and Beliefs Inventory
• I have never (you actually have!)
• Pot luck day
• Yoga /Salsa dancing
• Show and Tell
• Eye contact

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Touch base every day before getting into
subject matter

• How are you feeling today?
• How is your mother in the hospital doing?
• Are you feeling better from the flu?
• If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do?
• International Day of the Beautiful Friend
• Thank You cards
• I found this cartoon/article/joke on the
  internet, I thought you would enjoy.
• What do we like about ourselves?
• What would you like to change about your
  attitudes/behaviors?
• What are you going to do this weekend?

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Coreys testimony

• I will never forget our class and how much you
  have inspired me. Ill start teaching Spanish
  this fall at Interlakes High. You have taught me
  the most important thing you can do in a
  classroom and that is to create an environment
  of trust and respect and that is exactly what I
  am going to do.

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Connect

• Empathizing by role-playing
• Seedfolks, Fleischman (1997).
• Identifying cultural factors leading to
  discrimination Lets Get Real (Chasnoff Cohen,
  2003). (See multicultural web)
• http//www.newday.com/films/LetsGetReal.html

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Address real-life multicultural biases

• Now what?
• In curriculum development teams, design
  integrated units based on topic stemming from a
  cultural factor.

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ExampleRACE

• Possible related unit topics (upper grades)
• L.A. Riots
• Immigration
• Civil Rights Movement
• Underground Railroad
• Japanese Internment Camps
• Rwandas Genocide
• Holocaust
• Family Diversity
• Slavery

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ExampleRACE

• Possible related unit topics (lower grades)
• Families
• All about me
• What makes us Unique
• Colors everywhere
• The Chinese New Year
• Children around the World
• Working for Peace
• Friends

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Support Curriculum DevelopmentUsing
Multicultural Thematic Text Sets

• Help teacher candidates develop multicultural
  thematic text sets with children and adolescent
  picture books.
• These support understanding of multiculturalism
  and expand content knowledge of curriculum
  resources teachers can implement in developing
  multicultural curriculum.
• (See bibliography)

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References

• Bersh, L.C. (2006) Deconstructing Whiteness
  Prospective Teachers Dig Beyond the Meanings of
  their Cultural Identities. (Article under
  review). Multicultural Perspectives.
• Bersh, L.C. (2007) Caring at the core of
  curriculum development. (Work in progress).
• Chasnoff and Cohen (2003) DVD Lets Get Real.
• Fleischman, P. (1997). Seed folks. NY Harper
  Collins.
• Nakayama T. K., Krizek, R. L. (1995).
  Whiteness A strategic rhetoric. Quarterly
  Journal of Speech, 81, 291-309.
• Smith, D. C., Sandhu,D. S. ( 2004). Toward a
  positive perspective on violence prevention in
  schools building connections. Journal of
  Counseling and Development. 82(3), 287.
• Whitted, K. S. Dupper, D. R. ( 2005). Best
  practices for preventing or reducing bullying in
  schools. Children and Schools. 27(3), 167-175.