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How to work with students and families of different cultures

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The face of the United States is changing, and so are many of your early childhood classrooms. As racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity increases, so does the importance of your role in teaching children to live and work together respectfully. In this article, you'll find suggestions and strategies for doing just that. Read on for advice on working with all children and families, fostering bilingualism, and encouraging tolerance and self-esteem.

Four Strategies for Working With Children and Families of Different Languages and Cultures

What happens during children's earliest years shapes whether they become open to or fearful of people with different skin colors and customs. It determines whether children learn to feel proud or ashamed of their heritage. It lays the foundation for children to grow up speaking English as well as the language of their home.

As an early childhood teacher; you play a crucial role in laying this foundation. You're creating the first group environment most children encounter outside their home, and your challenge is to make it inclusive and respectful. One key factor for success will be your ability to work well with children's families, some of whom may not speak English. The following four strategies can help.

STRATEGY 1: Exchange information with parents about race, language, and culture.

Orientation is a great place to start. Because this is often the first meeting between you and the parents of the children in your program, it can set the tone for your ongoing relationship and lay the foundation for open communication on sensitive topics, including race and culture. If you didn't discuss diversity at the start of the school year, it's not too late. Ask parents these questions:

How would you like us to recognize your child ethnically?

What family traditions would you like our program to acknowledge?

What can we learn about your culture to help us be as respectful as possible?

What language (or languages) does your family speak?

What holidays do you celebrate?

Remember to ask for information from families even when you and they are from a similar racial or ethnic group. In any group, opinions and practices may vary. A family's customs may differ due to religion, length of time in the United States, and other factors.

STRATEGY 2: Involve parents in the life of the school.

One way to build relationships with parents is by drawing them into school routines and events. Different programs have different ways of doing this. Teachers can take turns communicating with small groups of parents or coming in later on some mornings so they can stay late in the evening to be available to parents. Some programs encourage parents and teachers to write each other notes. In others, folders or steno pads (with one column for teachers and one for parents) convey information back and forth.

Another idea: Ask parents and grandparents to share their experiences and skills with your class. Invite them in to talk about trips they've taken to their ancestral country or to demonstrate games, dancing, and crafts from their culture. Such presentations teach children about other cultures, give you information about families' backgrounds and traditions, and show children that you value their heritage.

STRATEGY 3: Use parent conferences to set mutual goals.

Your school may have a policy of holding meetings where parents and teachers can without distraction discuss the welfare of a child. Perhaps you even visit families' homes instead of asking parents to come to the school. Such visits are a great way to see the child and the family in their own environment and gain a better understanding of their culture and practices.

During conferences, work with parents to establish goals for their child. Such goals can relate specifically to cultural understanding, language development, and anti-bias attitudes. Striving toward a common goal can create opportunities for you and the parents to examine how you can help realize it at home and at school. For example, you may agree that a child should be grounded in his or her cultural traditions.

But it may not be realistic for parents to expect you to learn and then teach those traditions, especially if your classroom has children from a number of cultures. In this case, the parents may assume responsibility for teaching traditions to their child while you find ways to demonstrate in the classroom that you value those traditions.

Likewise, if a child's family speaks a language other than English, you and the parents can set a goal together to help the child retain the home language as he or she acquires English. Once you've done that, you can talk to parents about the steps all of you can take to achieve the goal.

STRATEGY 4: Validate home language in the classroom.

Some parents resist early childhood programs that promote bilingualism. English-speaking families may think that if teachers are using other languages, they're sacrificing instructional time in English. Research shows, however, that exposure to another language can enrich children's ability to acquire and comprehend languages in general.

Non-English-speaking families may not support the bilingual approach either. They often feel they're sending their children to school specifically to become fluent in English and therefore may object to using their home language in your program. They may need encouragement to nurture the child's first language so he or she won't lose the ability to speak and understand it.

Such a loss can be significant and far-reaching for both the child and the family. Because language is such an important component of culture, a child's fluency in the family language will affect his or her sense of identity. The use of the home language also promotes children's cognitive development, self-esteem, second language (usually English) acquisition, and academic preparation.

Your active support and validation of families' languages whether Spanish, Punjabi, or Japanese has a tremendous influence on how parents feel about your program and whether they get involved in school activities. Your actions also have a big effect on how children feel about their home language and whether they'll lose or retain it. To avoid communicating negative messages about home languages to children, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I respond to children when they initiate contact with me in their home language?

Do I encourage both children and parents to use their home language?

Do I take care not to use the home language only to reprimand children or give them directions?

Do I use the home language to give children positive reinforcement?

Do I create opportunities for children to use different languages in day-to-day activities?

Do I have classroom materials in the different home languages and are those materials equal in quality to the English materials?

Do I work with parents to identify when to validate home languages and dialects and when to emphasize standard English?

You can use this checklist now and throughout the year. By reinforcing home languages and communicating well with families, you'll be fostering the kind of classroom environment that can give children a strong start in life. Perhaps Anthony Behill, a member of the Chumash Tribe whose grandson attends a child-care program in California, best summed up the importance of focusing on diversity in the classroom. "Knowing who you are is important for attaining an education," he said, because knowing who you are gives you a base for learning everything."

Working It Out
Striking a balance between respecting a family's culture and standing up for what you believe in isn't always easy. What if you discover a parent is hitting a child? Is this part of the family's culture or child abuse? What if a parent believes that girls are less valuable than boys? What if parents don't want their child to call you by your first name? How would you resolve these issues in the classroom?

Think about your bottom line. People may legitimately disagree about the appropriateness of physical discipline, but if a home situation poses danger to a child, you must step in and be able to say why you did.

Understand why a family behaves a certain way. In less critical cases, talk to parents about your classroom routine and their home routines. Establishing an atmosphere of trust may keep tensions from escalating into clashes.

Agree to disagree. In the end, as long as the health of the child isn't at stake (which is usually the case), you and parents may come to compromise or simply accept differences. The important thing is to avoid letting any disagreement affect the children. Don't make them choose sides or feel bad about what their parents do at home.

Bridging the Language Barrier
A classroom can be a strange environment to parents whose primary language is not English. Some parents feel the need to be part of the system that socializes their children, but they're unable to bridge the language barrier. Others view education as their path to success and want their children to do well, but they feel uncertain about a language and culture that's different from their own. All these things put non-English speaking parents at a real disadvantage. Like all parents, they hunger for information about their child but may feel frustrated, powerless, or alienated. If they equate lack of recognition of their language with lack of respect for their culture, they may isolate themselves further. Here are some ways you can help bridge the barriers:

Establish a relationship of equality and respect from the start. If parents feel embarrassed about their English skills, you might share how frustrated you feel at not being able to communicate in their language. This demonstrates that you respect parents as equals and puts everyone at ease.

Link parents who speak the same language with one another. This is a way to encourage informal support networks among people who share similar experiences of being outside the mainstream. Parents can count on one another to translate, to solve problems, and just to commiserate about how difficult maneuvering through the system can be.

Show parents how much you value them. Reflect diversity of culture and language in your classroom. Translate notices into different languages by working with staff, community agencies, and parents themselves. And do all you can to involve parents in their children's education. Ultimately, you both have the need and responsibility to keep the lines of communication open.

At the time of this article's original publication, Hedy Chang was co-director of California Tomorrow, a non-profit organization in Oakland, California, committed to making racial and ethnic diversity work.

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Many Languages, Many Cultures | Scholastic

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The face of the United States is changing, and so are many of your early childhood classrooms. As racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity increases, so does the importance of your role in teaching children to live and work together respectfully. In this article, you'll find suggestions and strategies for doing just that.

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How to Plan a Multicultural Event at your Elementary School

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How to Plan a Multicultural Event at your Elementary School

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How to Plan a Multicultural Event at an Elementary School

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How to Plan a Multicultural Event at an Elementary School. A multicultural event can be an effective way to bring diverse families together in an elementary sch

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For the classroom

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The Importance of learning your Student's Names

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The Importance of learning your Student's Names

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10 Ways for Parents to Fight Against Racism

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10 Ways for Parents to Fight Against Racism

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I grew up in the '80s near a Philadelphia still cratered from the MOVE bombings. Reading Comprehension meant "Famous Black Americans," Mary McLeod Bethune and George Washington Carver. There were Black History Month Celebrations and Harriet Tubman lectures. Coretta Scott King herself appeared at an assembly.

66% of my class was white. We received these earnest efforts with a mixture of boredom and resentment.

Then, my fourth-grade teacher explained Jim Crow. Under a banner ordering us to "Accentuate the Positive," Miss Crutchfield told us of a childhood of segregated train stations and bathrooms. And I thought: when you and my mother were girls, you could not drink from the same water fountain. You were separate-but-equal. I cared about Miss Crutchfield, and I cared about the injustice she'd suffered.

February recitations of "I Have a Dream" can't obliterate 300 years of oppression. But how do we teach kids to care about racism? In the wake of Ferguson, more parents want to start talking. We know we want our children to have a personal stake in fighting injustice. But that's about as far as we get.

There are a few things we can do to help kids of all colors understand racism in America. Some tokenism? Probably. But we're battling ingrained cultural assumptions, and we have to start somewhere.

1. Talk about race.
People of color talk and think about race -- they have to. White parents can choose to ignore it -- one more benefit of white privilege. Stop ignoring and start talking. We don't sit our kids down at 16 and explain the birds and the bees. We use proper terms for body parts, answer questions and discuss sexuality in age-appropriate ways. Do the same for race. Use appropriate names: Black, African-American, Native American, Latino/a, immigrants (rather than illegals). Open the door and let your kids' questions take the lead.

2. Integrate the toy chest.
You want your child to see people of color as valued, important parts of their world? Make their toys reflect it. Yes, it's an old liberal cliché for the hippie kid to drag around Black Barbie. But kids need to see possibilities beyond whiteness. Children learn through play. And if we want them to learn diversity, they need to play it.

3. Integrate the book shelf.
Find books that show characters of color -- especially when their color isn't a significant plot point. Corduroy and Lola at the Library both have Black main characters; Mama, Do You Love Me? features an Inuit mother and child. Read Chinese fairy tales and African folklore. Yes, there's a place for hero-biographies of Harriet Tubman and Barack Obama. But save room for Iktomi and the Buzzard. Our world is larger than white-washing would let us believe. Give your kids all the possibilities, not a narrow sliver.

4. Talk about absences.
The town of Chewandswallow isn't exactly swarming with minorities. Hogwarts is run by white people, and let's not touch racism and Tolkien. Where are the South Asian superheroes? The Black people in Dr. Seuss? Make sure your kids know the world they see has missing pieces, missing people and missing stories.

5. Talk about racism they can see.
I hadn't watched Peter Pan in decades when "What Makes the Red Man Red?" jolted me out of Disney nostalgia. We had a long talk about Native Americans that day. Kids understand that more Black kids get called to the principal's office; that more Latino boys populate the lowest reading group. Call racism and racial discrimination by name. My 4-year-old doesn't need to know that the police shot Michael Brown in cold blood. But he can understand that people might not like his friend's dreadlocks.

6. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.
Nothing makes you love a culture like its parties, and nothing brings people together like food. Go to Greek festivals, heritage celebrations and Juneteenth block parties. Eat and drink and dance. Yes, these show only the positive parts of a culture. But you have to start somewhere, and somewhere can look a whole lot like empanadas.

7. Diversify your friendships
This is uncomfortable. It can smack of tokenism of the worst sort. And it can be a hard question to face. But how diverse is your group of friends? Do you regularly interact with people of other colors? Do your children? If not, how can you change that? It can be as simple as going to a different playground. You cannot expect your children to value people as authentic community members if they aren't actually part of your community.

8. Watch yourself.
Parenting well takes self-evaluation: it's gutting to hear your own worst self speak in your child's voice. Examine your own prejudices. Be careful about how you speak about people of color -- do you see African-American boys as rowdier and more aggressive, for example? Does your language reflect that?

9. Let your kids hear you.
Angry at the events in Ferguson? Conflicted about the Washington Redskins? Don't hide it. Let your kids hear your speak about racism and white privilege. Find it in the little things, in the way a clerk rolls his eyes at a black kid or Grandpa complains about "illegals." Talk, and keep talking.

10. And don't stop.
Talking about race can be uncomfortable. It's frightening. It's fraught with grief and sadness and rage: the legacy of race in America. Feeling these things means you're getting somewhere. Push through. Keep going. Make discussing race a part of your everyday life. See it. Say it. Listen to stories and tell them. Because it's only when we start to speak, when we join our voices to the chorus of others, that racism will finally disappear.

How do you help your kids confront racism? How do you work to help them recognize people of color as important parts of their own world?

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I grew up in the '80s near a Philadelphia still cratered from the MOVE bombings. Reading Comprehension meant "Famous Black Americans," Mary McLeod Bethune and George Washington Carver. There were Black History Month Celebrations and Harriet Tubman lectures. Coretta Scott King herself appeared at an assembly. 66% of my class was white.

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A Look at Race Relations through a Child's Eyes

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let's teach kids to learn to treat everyone with kindness and respect!

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The Girl With Pinhead Parents, an anti-racism lesson, feat.Nelly Furtado, Chris Bosh, LIGHTS & more

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For more information on the Pinhead project, contact: info@thegirlwithpinheadparents.com STARRING Nelly Furtado - Pinhead Girl (Pina) Chris Bosh - Hockey-stick Hands Boy (Wayne) Jully Black - Pinhead Mom Jacob Hoggard - Pinhead Dad LIGHTS - Flourescent Glow Teacher (Miss Becqueral) Skye Sweetnam - Hockey-stick Hands Mom Jian Ghomeshi - PIN-FM deejay ADDITIONAL VOICES Karen Bliss - Flower-eared Girl (red) LoriAnn Villani - Flower-eared Girl (white) Brett Carruthers - Supermarket Announcer Theme Song: Matisyahu's "One Day" Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc.

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25 Mini Clips to Show Students about Racism

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25 Mini Clips to Show Students about Racism

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26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students (Published 2017)

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To help teachers make the most of these films, we also provide a grab-bag of teaching ideas, related readings and student activities.

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A list of the best racism movies ever made, ranked by movie fans with film trailers when available. This racism movie list is ordered by popularity, so only the greatest movies about racism are at the top of the list. If there are any great movies about racism you believe we missed, please feel free to add them to the list yourself. The films on this list are the most famous racism movies of all time, so use it to find some movies that you haven't seen already. Click on these racism movie titles for more information about the films.

List items include This Is England, The Cotton Club and more.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best racism movies?" and "What is the greatest racism movie of all time?"

Various bits of information are included with these popular racism movies, such as who directed them, when they were released and who starred in the films. Whether you're watching these racism movies on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming, these good racism movies can be enjoyed no matter what.

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A list of the best racism movies ever made, ranked by movie fans with film trailers when available. This racism movie list is ordered by popularity, so only the greatest movies about racism are at the top of the list. If there are any great movies about racism you believe we missed, please fe...

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Martin Luther King | "I Have A Dream" Speech

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In social psychology, a stereotype is a fixed, over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.

Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is one of the reasons for prejudiced attitudes (i.e., "them" and "us" mentality), which leads to in-groups and out-groups.

Positive examples of stereotypes include judges (the phrase "sober as a judge" would suggest this is a stereotype with a very respectable set of characteristics), overweight people (who are often seen as "jolly"), and television newsreaders (usually seen as highly dependable, respectable and impartial). Negative stereotypes seem far more common, however.

Racial Stereotypes

Researchers have found that stereotypes exist of different races, cultures, or ethnic groups. Although the terms race, culture, and ethnic groups have different meanings, we shall take them to mean roughly the same thing at the moment.

The most famous study of racial stereotyping was published by Katz and Braly in 1933 when they reported the results of a questionnaire completed by students at Princeton University in the USA.

They found that students held clear, negative stereotypes - few students expressed any difficulty in responding to the questionnaire.

Most students at that time would have been white Americans, and the pictures of other ethnic groups included Jews as shrewd and mercenary, Japanese as shrewd and sly, Black people as lazy and happy-go-lucky, and Americans as industrious and intelligent.

Not surprisingly, racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle other races. It is probably true to say that every ethnic group has racial stereotypes of other groups.

Some psychologists argue that it is a "natural" aspect of human behavior, which can be seen to benefit each group because it helps, in the long run, to identify with one's own ethnic group and so find protection and promote the safety and success of the group.

There is no evidence for this view, however, and many writers argue that it is merely a way of justifying racist attitudes and behaviors.

Katz and Braly (1933) - Racial Stereotyping

Aim: To investigate the stereotypical attitudes of Americans towards different races.

Method: Questionnaire method was used to investigate stereotypes. American university students were given a list of nationalities and ethnic groups (e.g., Irish, Germans, etc.) and a list of 84 personality traits. They were asked to pick out five or six traits that they thought were typical of each group.

Results: There was considerable agreement in the traits selected. White Americans, for example, were seen as industrious, progressive, and ambitious. African Americans were seen as lazy, ignorant, and musical. Participants were quite ready to rate ethnic groups with whom they had no personal contact.

Conclusion: Ethnic stereotypes are widespread and shared by members of a particular social group.

Research Evaluation

The Katz and Braly studies were done in the 1930s, and it can be argued that cultures have changed since then, and we are much less likely to hold these stereotypes.

Later studies conducted in 1951 and 1967 found changes in the stereotypes and the extent to which they are held. In general, stereotypes in the later study tended to be more positive, but the belief that particular ethnic groups held particular characteristics still existed.

Also, it should be noted that this study has relied entirely on verbal reports and is, therefore, extremely low in ecological validity.

Just because participants in a study will trot out stereotypes when asked does not mean to say that people go around acting on them. People do not necessarily behave as though the stereotypes are true.

The limited information that the experiments are given is also likely to create demand characteristics (i.e., participants figure out what the experiment is about and change their behavior, for example, give the results the psychologist wants).

Finally, there is the problem of social desirability with questionnaire research - people may lie.

Stereotype Threat

A stereotype threat arises when one is in a situation where one has a fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype. It is cued by the mere recognition that a negative group stereotype could apply to you in a given situation.

It is important to understand that the person may experience a threat even if he or she does not believe the stereotype.

Steele and Aronson (1995) conducted an experiment involving African American and White college students who took a difficult test using items from an aptitude test (American GRE Verbal exam) under one of two conditions.

In the stereotype threat condition, students were told that their performance on the test would be a good indicator of their underlying intellectual abilities.

In the non-threat condition, they were told that the test was simply a problem-solving exercise and was not diagnostic of ability.

Performance was compared in the two conditions, and results showed that African American participants performed less well than their white counterparts in the stereotype threat condition, but in the non-threat condition, their performance equaled that of their white counterparts.

In another study ( Shih, Pittinsky, and Ambady, 1999 ), Asian women were subtly reminded (with a questionnaire) of either their Asian identity or their female identity prior to taking a difficult math test.

Results showed that women reminded of their 'Asianness' performed better than the control group and women reminded of their female identity performed worse than the control group.

According to Steele, stereotype threat generates "spotlight anxiety" (Steele & Aronson, 1995, p. 809), which causes emotional distress and "vigilant worry" that may undermine performance.

Students worry that their future may be compromised by society's perception and treatment of their group, so they do not focus their full attention on the test questions.

Students taking the test under stereotype threat might also become inefficient on the test by rereading the questions and the answer choices, as well as rechecking their answers, more than when not under stereotype threat.

It also can induce "attributional ambiguity" -a person gets a low grade and asks, "Is it something about me or because of my race?"

Frequently Asked Questions

References

Cardwell, M. (1996). Dictionary of Psychology. Chicago IL: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Katz, D., & Braly, K. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.

Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological science, 10(1), 80-83.

Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69(5), 797.

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Stereotypes in Psychology: Definition & Examples

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In social psychology, a stereotype is a fixed, over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.

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6 Steps to Creating a Multicultural Classroom

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6 Steps to Creating a Multicultural Classroom

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6 Ways to Implement a Real Multicultural Education in the Classroom

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Multicultural education is about more than a classroom with varied skin color.

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Multicultural Paintings | Fine Art America

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Choose your favorite multicultural paintings from millions of available designs. All multicultural paintings ship within 48 hours and include a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Multicultural Books to use in the Classroom

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Multicultural Books to use in the Classroom

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Books shelved as multiculturalism: White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan, Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, Henry's Freedom Box: A T...

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Best 20+ Multicultural crafts ideas on Pinterest | Multicultural activities, Chinese new year crafts and Chineese new year

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Find and save ideas about Multicultural crafts on Pinterest. | See more ideas about Multicultural activities, Chinese new year crafts and Chineese new year.

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We all want students to become global citizens who can successfully engage with an increasingly diverse world. But how do we facilitate interactions and learning experiences that foster acceptance and understanding of a range of people and cultures? How can we inspire them to work for social justice and actively counter bullying, stereotypes and racism?

Here are nine tips for teaching diversity skills, defined as the ability to learn about differences, talk about them, accept them and (if conflict is involved) peacefully resolve them.

Building these skills isn't as hard as you might think. It's really about nurturing a healthy curiosity and developing a comfort level with asking about-and sharing-personal cultural traditions and other characteristics that make individuals unique.

Bring learning to life.

Integrate multisensory "props" into lessons to deepen learning about a variety of cultures. It's one thing to learn about Mexico from a social studies textbook. It's another to let students see, hear, taste and feel interesting items such as music, Spanish words, folktales, personal stories of immigrants, musical instruments, artwork, crafts, foods, photographs, fabrics and jewelry.

Expose students to a variety of people and environments.

Breaking down barriers begins with getting to know people and spending time with them. If you can manage an off-site field trip, try an ethnic fair or festival, ethnic neighborhood, or ethnic restaurant or grocery store. Beforehand, have kids do some reading or research about the culture(s) that will be explored through the field trip. Encourage students to ask polite questions of people they meet, or arrange in advance someone in one of these locations who is willing to spend a few minutes talking to students. Perhaps as part of the experience, they can learn a few words in another language.

On-site options include virtual (Web-based) "pen pals" or pairing up with a classroom in another country. Or, bring in speakers of a particular cultural group and have students prepare questions in advance. Even school staff and students can serve as speakers, but be careful not to single them out or put them "on the spot." If a local museum makes on-site visits, ask them to bring artifacts, artwork and other cultural treasures to share.

Let students pursue their interests.

Children are natural explorers. Encourage students to study a culture they find intriguing. Use KWL charts to stimulate curiosity and document learning.

Ensure that cultural learning goes beyond parties.

Holidays and foods are important, but make sure to dig deeper to help kids understand the day-to-day experiences of diverse members of a particular culture. This includes people in other countries as well as those in the United States. Do some members of a group or culture face discrimination and racism, inadequate healthcare or other challenges? Do recent immigrants face employment and language barriers? How have events (such as the American Civil Rights Movement) changed the experiences of a group of people over time?

Discuss how race/ethnicity, religion, culture, geography and socioeconomic status intersect, resulting in vastly different life experiences for different groups of people.

For engaging pictures and stories about children living in widely varying contexts all over the world, check out James Mollison's book Where Children Sleep. This title is a great conversation-starter for exploring differences. For example, see the EducationWorld lesson plan The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Through Children's Eyes.

Use books to explore tough topics.

Stock your classroom with books that share the personal experiences of diverse individuals. Engage students in discussion after reading as a group, or have kids choose a book that interests them and then report back to the class about what they learned. Don't be afraid to read books that explore challenging themes such as bullying, acculturation/assimilation and racism. For ideas, see EducationWorld's comprehensive Book Suggestions: Multicultural and Diversity. If the school library doesn't have titles of interest on the shelf, have kids help raise funds to buy new ones.

Help kids get "below the surface" with those from other cultures.

Often out of politeness, fear of the unknown or fear of offending a person who is different from oneself, we hesitate to ask questions that would help us learn about and appreciate diversity. In addition, when young people fail to engage with others who are different from them, stereotypes and misconceptions can flourish. Letting students practice asking questions will increase their comfort level, help them avoid preconceived notions about groups of people, and give them the means to build relationships with diverse individuals. Here are some sample questions to try with students: source 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Implement explicit lessons about racism and conflict resolution.

When we teach about different cultures but avoid conversations about the challenging aspects of human differences, the message students may take away is that "because all cultures are interesting and fun, everyone gets along." Instead, make time for thorough and concrete lessons about overcoming racism and dealing with cultural misunderstandings, mistreatment and clashes. An excellent source for lessons is Kaylene Stevens' Unit on Racism and Teaching Tolerance in the Classroom.

Teach about social justice.

Teach about the work of key organizations ( list 2, list 3, list 4) and movements that work to promote tolerance and understanding around the world. Discuss career options that involve this kind of work. Engage kids in school-wide and community social-justice work.

Related resources
Five Lessons for Teaching Tolerance
Social Justice Activities for Students
Teaching Tolerance: Resources
Racial Inequities: What Schools Can Do
Black History Month Resources
Hispanic Heritage Month Resources
Asian and Pacific-Island Heritage Month Resources
Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month Resources

Article by Celine Provini, EducationWorld Editor
Education World®
Copyright © 2012 Education World

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Education World: Combat Racism: Classroom Ideas

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We all want students to become global citizens who can successfully engage with an increasingly diverse world. But how do we facilitate interactions and learning experiences that foster acceptance and understanding of a range of people and cultures? How can we inspire them to work for social justice and actively counter bullying, stereotypes and racism?

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What we can do to combat it

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November 2016 | Volume 74 | Number 3
Disrupting Inequity Pages 16-22

Rick Wormeli

We all build our own version of the human story and our role in it. We proceed daily, sure that our truth is the truth, then someone commits a horrific act of inhumanity that shreds our careful constructs. Then, it happens again, and again-and again, just as it did this past year with the multiple deaths of black men after interactions with police-and then the deaths of police officers.

The normal tools of interpretation and comfort seem to be gone. Who would think that in a caring, thoughtful democracy, we needed a large political movement to remind police officers-and all citizens-of the simple truth that black lives matter? Who would think that when a police officer was asked why he shot an autistic man's caretaker-who was lying with his hands in the air asking officers not to shoot-he'd answer, "I don't know" (Rabin, 2016)?

The violence among U.S. residents of different colors, cultures, religions, and political groups has heated to new levels. Social media may have exacerbated the divisive rhetoric and fanned the flames of hatred more than in past decades, but the intense distrust and contempt, and the inability to resolve these feelings in a civil manner, didn't start with social media. They are the new normal for many.

Rather than give in to the helplessness we feel to stop racism and our collective, civic hemorrhage, every institution must examine its own role in perpetuating (inadvertently and advertently) racist thinking and policies. We can't truly create equal opportunities for all until our institutions take specific actions to end that thinking and those policies. And ground zero for an equitable, nonracist society is the K-12 classroom.

Before we consider recent examples of racism and how it affects all Americans, let's be clear: No one is born racist. Racism is learned. Just as important, racism is not insurmountable.

What We're Up Against

In response to a recent Pew Research Center report that showed white and black Americans aren't on the same page about issues of poverty and racism, blogger Rob Wile (2016) noted, "While most black people think that higher levels of poverty and lower levels of economic mobility in their communities are the fault of America's legacy of systematic racism and under-investment, more white people are content to blame black people themselves."

Five years ago, I was giving a day-long presentation to a group of teachers in the United States. During a morning break, I overheard one woman say to another, "When we get that darkie out of the White House, we'll get this country back the way it should be." The other woman replied, "You got that right."

Refusal to respect other cultures isn't confined to interactions between blacks and whites. On commercial flights, passengers dressed in Muslim clothing who are texting on their phones have been asked to leave the plane because they are making other passengers uncomfortable. And some of my Hispanic students have told me their parents have been shadowed by security personnel as they shop at stores.

Imagine if, at a dinner celebrating local Cub Scouts and their achievements, the adult leader asked everyone to bow his or her head for a word of prayer before the meal. Then he prayed into the microphone, "Praise and glory be to You, O Allah. There is no God but You. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful!" If this happened in most American Cub Scout packs, people of Christian, Jewish, and other faiths or no faiths would be offended that they were forced to bow their heads and listen to something foreign to their beliefs.

My family experienced something similar at a Cub Scout dinner. The pre-dinner prayer was full of Christian references like, "Through the one and only God, Jesus, our guiding savior, we are redeemed and made whole." This was in a diverse area near Washington, D.C., with a Scout pack full of Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths as well as Christians. Imagine those non-Christian families' reactions to such a prayer.

I asked the leader if there might be a more inclusive prayer we could offer. She dismissed the concern. As I looked around the room at the faces of many parents and children, I saw the real lesson learned: You don't belong.

Not all disrespect and conflict is purely about race. Religious, cultural, and racial differences interweave. Stark differences result in fervent debate and divisiveness among Christians as well as among Muslims and Jews. Racism, however, is among the most insidious and deepest-running challenges of our time.

Moving Beyond Silence

Clearly, Americans must begin talking candidly together about race-starting now. We don't need to justify having focused conversations about racism in schools. I'm bothered by my own silence at times as I witness racism. After I overheard the comment about "that darkie [in] the White House," I didn't confront these women. It wasn't a proud moment; in my silence, there was tacit acceptance of racist thinking.

I'm upset at my silence about racist statements and behaviors by others that I've heard about but not witnessed personally. It might seem that because the incidents are second-hand, I'm absolved from speaking out against them. Yet, how do I reconcile that silence with my belief that each of us is free only if everyone is free? As Nelson Mandela (1995) wrote, "Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me. ... The oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed" (p. 624).

Besides the stunning cruelty of racism, letting it fester serves no one, not even the predominant group. We're in this together. It's ironic, then, that we focus on labeling differences among us, particularly whether those differences are negative or positive. For example, if a teacher looks at the students before her at the beginning of the school year, it's likely she will wonder who are going to be the easiest ones to teach. Isn't the one we assume to be easy to teach the student who most reflects our own culture, or the one who looks similar to a student from last year we enjoyed teaching? We're already sorting according to built-in biases. When we wonder who'll be the hardest to teach, we often guess the students who don't look like anyone we've taught before.

Humans have built-in "other"-isms in order to protect ourselves. We categorize people in terms of ourselves and, in many cases, interpret differences from us in a negative way. ( That music they play in their homes is annoying! Can't they eat less disgusting food?) We might even think, How sad. My neighbor who worships at a different church doesn't understand the higher truth. Or for easy identification, we might resort to caricatures, versions that emphasize one or two attributes we think a cultural group has. ( All Asians are gifted mathematicians. White people who live in trailers are alcoholics.)

Principles for Brave Conversations

I sometimes question whether white educators can accept that institutionalized racism exists and whether they can do so without succumbing to paralyzing guilt about their complicity in racism's growth or becoming so overwhelmed that they give up. I sometimes question whether black teachers and parents can embrace white teachers and parents who want to do right. Can they accept whites' sincere efforts to work together to end racist practices, even if they stumble or are unintentionally offensive?

But we have to try talking with one another, because biases and quick categorizations about people who are different from us are expressions of our limited experiences with them. Such categorizations are a slippery slope into classism and racism. With more experiences with others, we flesh people out in our minds and become comfortable with them. When we spend time with quadriplegics, for instance, we come to see them as individuals first, persons with paralyzed limbs a distant second. People with a hardened stance against LGBTQ rights soften when a member of their family reveals he is homosexual.

Yet talking about racism is uncomfortable. We avoid such conversations in schools because it could stir things up that we're unprepared to handle. We might lose friends or colleagues for a while-or longer. Or we're so afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing or appearing racist that we cripple constructive opportunities to talk about race and resolve conflicts. By approaching one another with good faith and caring, we can ease these fears. As Howard Stevenson (2014) writes,

Students, teachers, parents, and educators must expect, receive, and give affection (nurturing), protection (monitoring), and correction (accountability) while they take risks to become aware of and learn to resolve racial stress and conflict in daily social interactions. Without these ingredients, the risks of racial avoidance will be too great, and the improvement of race relations and racial climates within schools too arduous to complete.

Reviewing and agreeing on the principles below can help us have candid discussions about racism with our students-or among fellow educators.

▪ Assume that, at any given moment in the conversation, the other person is doing the best he or she can. Chances are, it's true.

▪ Forgive yourself and others for making mistakes, including inexact wording, muddled thinking, or unintended use of stereotypes.

▪ Suppress hidden agendas and the urge to preach or politicize.

▪ Remain nonaccusatory when you see things differently from another. Use phrases like, "It's been my experience that ___," "Tell me more about___," or "How did faculty at your last school respond to ___?"

▪ Seek first to understand, then to be understood (Covey, 2013).

▪ If you disagree with someone, paraphrase that person's point before responding. It helps him know that his comments were heard and considered.

▪ Avoid language that blames ("If it weren't for white people. ..." "They're always speaking Spanish together, so they must not want me around." "You're blind to white privilege.") Blaming thwarts honest conversation.

▪ Don't ask anyone to speak for a whole race if there's only one student or colleague in the group from a particular culture or race.

▪ Acknowledge that candid conversation makes us all vulnerable. Teachers' inner selves are on view daily by many constituencies-students, parents, administrators, and the general public. They are also subject to self-doubts and high expectations of professionalism. As a result, they may be hesitant to open those vulnerability gates too widely.

▪ Avoid associating the quality of a colleague's teaching with exploratory comments offered in conversation about racism. A peer can be a neophyte in such conversations, but effective in the classroom.

The questions in Figure 1 can help start robust conversations in school communities. As to how to launch these discussions, I don't recommend starting conversations on racism at a large faculty meeting. This often results in side conversations, cross-talking, and "knowing" glances passed among people, and personal buttons may be pushed. In large gatherings, many voices and perspectives don't get heard (in fact, a few teachers might hijack the conversation with their own agendas). A thoughtful exploration of issues involving racism in the school is better started in groups of no more than six. Build to a larger group experience after conversation skills have developed.

Figure 1. Questions to Start Faculty Discussions About Racism

Does racism exist in our schools? What does it sound or look like?

What would it take to create a truly race-neutral society? Do we want this?

Am I racist? Why, or why not? Am I open to others' critique when it comes to how I relate to other races?

Does the rise of certain groups' influence-Latino, Jewish, white, Muslim, or whatever-mean a decline in other groups' well-being? If people say yes, discuss whether this represent a "zero sum" mindset. Is this a mindset we want to communicate to students?

How can we counter negative stereotypes?

Are we responsible for teaching students and colleagues to recognize and confront racism?

What should we do when we inadvertently do or say something racist?

What do we communicate to the parents of our minority students about our expectations for their children?

How are we battling the student opinion that academic proficiency is inherently white?

Do we have a disproportionate number of administrative referrals for our minority students?

Choose faculty to lead these conversations who are good at making sure each voice is heard and valued. Give these leaders time to brainstorm constructive responses or strategies to diffuse any (intentionally and unintentionally) incendiary comments. If a point becomes particularly contentious, for instance, participants might record their thinking on index cards and pass them to the facilitator to read aloud. Dozens of books and websites on group facilitation provide helpful tips on small-group dynamics. For conversing on racism, I particularly recommend Ali Michael's Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education (Teachers College Press, 2014) and Howard Stevenson's Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference (Teachers College Press, 2013).

Informing Our Conversations

To build a climate where such discussions bear fruit, we should immerse students and ourselves in learning experiences that will positively inform conversations about race. Lack of awareness about other races rarely helps a difficult conversation; it leads to misunderstandings, limited sharing, hurt feelings, and eventually, a discussion's demise. Experiences like these will help us sustain difficult interactions-and bring equal opportunity to students from nonmainstream cultures.

▪ Use fiction and nonfiction that will open students to different worlds, help them see situations from different perspectives, and build empathy.

▪ Try simulations and role-playing in which students can approximate the perspectives of others, but be sensitive to the fact that some of us can leave the role at the end of the learning experience. Anyone from a minority race or oppressed group can't slip out of the challenges at the end of the day: They live with them 24-7.

▪ Have your class regularly think about a contentious issue from one prevailing perspective, then give them 20 minutes to argue the same issue from the opposite perspective. Working with partners can help.

▪ Practice responses to scenarios involving racism. What should a teacher or student do if someone says something that might be perceived as racist? For instance, in a class discussion about the economy of the South during the Civil War, one student blurts out, "I wouldn't mind having slaves around to help me get a lot of work done!" (Stevenson, 2014). A thoughtful teacher might say something like, "Tobey, consider how someone coming from a culture severely traumatized by slave masters would hear your words just now. How would they feel about your comment about slavery? Would you like to rephrase your statement?" By rehearsing successful responses, we can create a picture of ourselves responding to an instance of racism, which increases the likelihood that we will respond.

▪ Hold students accountable immediately for racist statements and behaviors. You can do so in ways that let the student repair damage: "Terry, I know you're not naturally a racist thinker. Check your statement again: Is there anything there that could be construed as racist?" If a student consistently makes racially insensitive comments and needs a nonhumiliating boost in executive function skills-which is where much of the filtering of impulsive, inappropriate comments resides-you might videotape class discussions from time to time. In a private moment away from classmates, cue up the video to a place showing inappropriate comments from this student and ask him or her, "What did you say here? Look at the body language, faces, and responses from your classmates. Did you read the situation correctly? How could you have made a completely different comment that would demonstrate respect for people of color?"

▪ Talk to students about what you believe about race and equity. Successful teachers aren't afraid of teaching a community's values; they are not indifferent. It's important to model for students a vision of adults standing up for what they think is morally right. With racism, there is little ambiguity; intentional or unintentional discrimination against a person or group based on race or culture is against the law.

▪ Teach skills of debate and civil discourse, using materials from Teaching Tolerance, the National Speech and Debate Association, and the National Institute for Civil Discourse.

▪ Don't just skim information on the Civil Rights movement and its leaders, and don't limit its study to Black History Month. Give it full attention throughout the school year. Study more than just the struggles of black Americans. Civil Rights isn't just about equitable treatment for one group.

▪ Share news stories that surface racism in the local community and in national politics. Have students investigate school or community racism, if appropriate.

▪ Empower students to do something about racism in the media (and social media) when they see it, such as writing letters, making presentations, or analyzing a racist's arguments.

▪ Expose students to artworks and contributions by many different cultures and races and let them respond personally to those artifacts.

▪ Teach students and teachers to recognize and control micro-aggressions-the small, seemingly nonracist things people do, say, and think that are hurtful and may betray unconscious racism or bias. Examples include: avoiding eye contact with students outside our culture; telling a student her math work is excellent for a student who comes from such a poor background; demeaning service industry jobs or any job perceived as being done primarily by minorities ("If you don't study, you might wind up as a taxi driver"); and using language like saying black youths "rioted and turned violent," whereas white youths "protested unfair treatment."

▪ Have students write personal reflections about racial tension. Discuss how much people filter their language in trying to say it just the right way.

Securing a Nonracist Future

Part of our job as educators is to secure a nonracist future, so our response to racism in our schools must be clear and compassionate. Settling for indifference exacerbates the problem. And we can't afford to leave anyone out of this conversation. For instance, I'm a white male, so some people might think, How could he possibly understand this enough to be helpful? Some might even dismiss my ideas because of my race alone. Think about that idea-that because of my race, I have nothing of value to add to the community discussion on racism-and you'll see it's misguided. Every one of us is touched by racism. We all have a stake in positive race relations.

A conversation needs only two people. Let's each identify, today, one person on our faculty with whom we're willing to initiate a conversation on racism, regardless of the make-up of our student body or faculty. Whole futures are at stake-ours. Together, we are powerful.

▪ Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)

▪ Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education by Ali Michael (Teachers College Press, 2014)

▪ Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives by Sendhil Mullainathan (Picador, 2014)

▪ Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall by Carl T. Rowan (Back Bay Books, 1993)

▪ What's Race Got to Do with It? How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequity edited by Edwin Mayorga and Bree Picower (Peter Lang Publishers, 2015)

▪ Reading for Their Life: (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males by Alfred W. Tatum (Heinemann, 2009)

References

Covey, S. (2013). Seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Mandela, N. (1995). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Boston: Back Bay Books.

Rabin, C. (2016, July 20). Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck. Miami Herald. Retrieved from www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.html

Stevenson, H. (2014). Promoting racial literacy in schools: Differences that make a difference. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wile, R. (2016, June 27). White people don't blame racism for black people's struggles. They blame black people. [blog post] Retrieved from Fusion at www.fusion.net/story/319381/black-white-gap-on-black-struggle/

Rick Wormeli ( www.rickwormeli.com) is a long-time teacher, consultant, and author of The Collected Writings (So Far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy, Good Stuff I Learned about Teaching Along the Way (2013) and Summarization in Any Subject (ASCD, 2004). Follow him on Twitter.

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November 2016 | Volume 74 | Number 3 Disrupting Inequity Pages 16-22 Rick Wormeli We all build our own version of the human story and our role in it. We proceed daily, sure that our truth is the truth, then someone commits a horrific act of inhumanity that shreds our careful constructs.

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Teach children to be open and tolerant

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Talk About Racism in the Classroom-Don't be Afraid!

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Talk About Racism in the Classroom-Don't be Afraid!

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The Anti-Racism Experiment That Transformed an Oprah Show Audience | Where Are They Now | OWN

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Presentation on how to build an equitable classroom for EDUC567