Cultural Diversity and Its Impact on the Digital Classroom
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Cultural Diversity and Its Impact on the Digital Classroom
One of the only constants of education is change itself, and one of the biggest drivers of change in education today is the use of technology in our schools and classrooms. By virtue or by circumstance, many classrooms are going digital. Although the digital platform provides unique opportunities for success and instructional change, we also need to ensure we are honoring all our students in a virtual world in the same way we would in a face-to-face learning environment. Where does cultural diversity fit into the digital classroom?
Now more than ever, we need to recognize and celebrate cultural diversity in our digital classrooms. When we affirm and honor the rich backgrounds and diversities that our students bring to our digital classroom environments, students gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and feel empowered to participate and engage in academic content. By modeling this as educators, we teach students how to use their own strengths and points of view to contribute to a diverse classroom environment.
In this lesson, participants will:
- Explain the connection between culture and diversity to understand their effect on the student learning experience.
- Evaluate school and educator practices that contribute to inequitable and exclusionary practices in an effort to modify current structures and promote student achievement.
- Develop curriculum and instructional practices that allow for authentic and continuous representation.
Culture, Diversity, and the Impact on Learning
Objective: Explain the connection between culture and diversity to understand their effect on the student learning experience.
What Is Culture?
When we think about the definition of culture, it may be difficult to pinpoint, especially within the context of education, how we teach our students, and how we’d like for our students to grow. That is because “culture” is so more than simply a word or something that we address in a single lesson. Culture is often the sum of its definitions, representing the identities and experiences that make up ourselves and the students we teach. Culture is not one thing; it is many things that make up the fabric of our being, how we see the world, and how we interact with others. In education, this means that culture influences how we approach our students, how we interact with our students, and how we create (and teach) our lessons. In his paper “What Is Culture?” Lebrón (2013) writes that “culture is complex and operates at many levels. While country or ethnic origin is often used as a proxy for an individual team member’s culturally-oriented values, the two levels may actually capture different aspects of diversity” (p. 127). For educators, it is important to keep in mind this concept that culture is multifaceted.
Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines culture as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” In this course, we will refer to culture as the knowledge shared by a group of people. This shared knowledge can be anything, and the group of people may be bound by region, religion, ethnicity, or identity. An individual does not necessarily need to live in the same area as a group of people to feel connected to their culture or feel as though he or she is a part of that culture. For example, French culture, Italian culture, and African culture all encompass knowledge shared by specific groups of people who live or have lived in a specific region. However, if we were to go deeper into the meaning of culture, Samovar and Porter (1994) define culture as the “knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.”
Many types of culture exist. All are valid and all deserve representation within our classrooms to serve our students and honor their humanity. Aspects of culture include but are not limited to socioeconomic, racial, generational, regional, religious, ancestral, gender, identity, and other aspects. In addition, all these types of cultures influence our own perception of the world and, therefore, how we interact with our students in our classrooms.
Defining Traditional Culture
Because culture can take so many forms, examples can help us understand how broad culture can be. Merriam-Webster defines “tradition” as “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom).” If we consider the concept of traditional culture, that is a form of culture that people inherit and pass down through generations and groups of people. Here are a few examples of traditional culture that you may encounter or may have experienced:
- Ancestral: Where do members of a certain group come from? Have they always stayed in the same place?
- Religious: How do people within a group worship, who or what do they worship, and how often do they worship?
- Food: What do people eat, and how did they start eating those foods?
- Holidays: What do people celebrate, and what is the purpose of the celebration?
- Traditional music: What do we listen to? What kinds of instruments are we listening to? What kinds of words are being sung, or what kinds of melodies do we hear?
Defining Culture: Nontraditional Forms of Culture
In contrast, Merriam-Webster defines “nontraditional” as not following or conforming to tradition or not adhering to past practices or conventions. A nontraditional culture could also be one that is not inherited or is not shaped by past practices or knowledge. Nontraditional culture forms and shapes our world just as much as traditional culture. Examples include:
- Regional location: Where do we live, and how does where we live shape what we do, what we eat, and what we believe?
- Age: How does our age influence what we do, where we shop, the people with whom we associate, and the activities we do?
- Marriage customs: At what age do people get married, if they want to get married? Are there specific customs that come with the ceremony?
- Work: What is the culture at your workplace? Do people arrive early? Do they arrive on time? Are there celebrations for event such as weddings, baby showers, and milestones?
Intersectionality
Multiple types of culture exist, and culture can be represented in many ways. Often, these are rooted in language and customs. In addition, people can be a part of many cultures as opposed to being a part of only one culture. For example, I am an American woman. As an American woman, I know about typical American sports culture: I know that professional football games typically happen on Sundays, I know the American national anthem comes on before each game, and the list goes on. These concepts are not innate, however; they are learned and were taught to people who came before me over periods of time. As a new Seattle-area resident, I am also getting versed in Seattle sports culture. I know the Seahawks is the football team here, I know to avoid the highway before and after the games because the traffic will be wild, and I know where all the superfans hang out after a big win. But, again, these were not innate—I have learned them over time by living in the Seattle area. An intersectionality exists between American sports culture (the “larger” category) and Seattle sports culture (the “smaller” category or subset of the larger category), the same way that intersectionalities exist with all our students and their cultures.
Performative and Other Cultural Inclusivity Missteps
Because inclusivity of culture is an important element of designing an inclusive space, we need to talk about one of the potential pitfalls of trying to embrace culture in a school community. As people, we may not belong to all the cultures our students do, yet we want them to feel invited and embraced. As a result, we sometimes do things to “celebrate” other cultures, often with good intentions. The intent does not always match the outcome, however.
In education specifically, I have recognized that, generally, either culture exists in a vacuum or it exists in a performative way. “Performative” means that something has been done for performance alone, with little depth to the activity, situation, or lesson. “Operating in a vacuum” means that these events are separated from outside events or influences, whereas performative means that something is made or done for show (e.g., to bolster one’s image or to make a positive impression on others).
Culturally Centered Instructional Missteps
To give a specific example of culture operating in a vacuum, I once observed a “culture day” in a school where students were expected to pick a country other than the United States and talk about its people and culture. This was part of a social studies unit on research skills, so the students researched a country, wrote down two paragraphs about what they learned, and gave a presentation to the class. Although this had the positive goal of teaching students about other countries and cultures, the project was extremely “one note” and lacked depth. The rubric addressed only social studies skill-based learning and made no account for cultural competencies.
The rubric that the teacher gave the students did not take any cultural competencies into account and did not ask students to reflect on culture and the learnings of culture that they found (i.e., food, traditions, customs). In addition, there was no discussion after the lesson to help students muse on what they had learned and how they could continue their research. There was also no “debrief” with the class afterward to discuss learnings, questions, and takeaways. It was almost as if the teacher had created this activity to check a box on the curriculum and standards, while simultaneously parading that students have learned about other people and cultures.
Although this was a well-intentioned project, it missed out on key components of cultural understanding that could have supported the academic content. The teacher could have strengthened the rubric by including a section on how well the student explained the culture, as well as a section on overall presentation. The teacher could have asked students to reflect on their learning, to consider how they had gained an understanding of other cultures, and perhaps to make connections between the culture they had researched and their own cultures. Students also could have benefited by celebrating their learning in a class debrief, where they could share major takeaways and learnings from the project, and the teacher could have used these takeaways and learnings to modify the assignment for the following year.
Performative Optics
Another misstep is emphasizing culture in external-facing materials (such as photos, webpages, or mission statements) without incorporating evidence of culture in the classroom environment itself—for example, in curriculum or instructional practices. This happens all too often at the classroom and school levels.
To give another example that I have seen, a “culturally diverse” classroom may include items such as posters of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks on the walls, piñatas hanging from the ceiling on Cinco de Mayo, art projects such as creating red envelopes for Chinese New Year, and cooking-and-tasting sessions with tortillas, fry bread, or rice boats during cultural heritage months. To take this into the context of the digital classroom, teachers often create Bitmoji classrooms with backgrounds adorned with posters of Black and Indigenous leaders, as well as inspirational quotes. Although these teachers have good intentions, posting a quote or displaying one image of visual media does not signify authentic culture infusion. All artwork and classroom displays, whether virtual or in person, are more meaningful when connected to the curriculum and instruction, and this is especially true for elements of culture.
As educators, we need to move beyond the surface level and discover how authentic infusion of culture into our classrooms and digital learning environments can positively affect students. After all, our students deserve more than surface level—they need authentic experiences and representation in the classroom. To dive deeper, we’re going to look at why culture is important, why diversity is important, and actionable steps to implement these concepts into your digital learning environment.
Why Is Culture Important?
As educators, it’s our duty to explain to our students that everyone has roots and that our roots add value. Research backs this up: Lebrón (2013) states that, regardless of department, role, or workplace, “You should be aware of cultural differences, bring them out in the open and get agreement on behavioral and decision-making processes (Maccoby, 2006). Cultures provide a source of identity for their members” (p. 128). Culture is a strong part of our lives and the lives of the students we teach. A student’s culture influences his or her views, values, humor, hopes, worries, and fears. Unfortunately, teachers can also use culture in a way that unintentionally puts the spotlight on students (such as highlighting achievements of Black Americans only during Black History Month). As educators and cultural beings, culture also influences our views, values, humor, hopes, and worries as well. Because of this, when you are working with students and building relationships with them, it is paramount to have perspective and an understanding of cultures other than your own.
For example, one of the biggest differences between face-to-face instruction and digital learning environments is how students interact with the teacher and their peers. Although some institutions may have synchronous hours and community time, the vast majority of online classrooms remove physical, synchronous presence from the learning community. It is often the role of the teacher to guide class discussion and proper feedback. These environments are normally driven by text, with little emphasis on live or verbal exchanges. This is tough even when considering academic content; how can we conduct conversations, discussions, and classes in a digital learning environment?
Although that can be challenging at times, it is certainly not impossible. In the next section, we’ll discuss how culture affects the virtual classroom and some authentic ways to infuse culture into the virtual classroom.
What Is Diversity?
We can’t discuss the importance of culture without also looking at the impact of diversity. Merriam-Webster defines “diversity” as the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. However, in the field of education, diversity is so much more than that: Diversity and the honoring of diversity demonstrate to our students the harmonious concept of how to live and work in a society where every individual is unique, has value, and deserves a voice.
From the moment our students enter our classroom environments, we immediately understand that each student brings unique experiences, strengths, and ideas and that we should not push these concepts to the wayside. These concepts include but are not limited to race, familial structure, religion, and identity. In our increasingly diverse and multicultural society, it’s more important than ever for us as educators to incorporate diversity into our classrooms, curriculum, and instructional practices—regardless of who you teach or where you teach.
Diversity is the exploration and incorporation of these differences to enrich learning in our classrooms. Research backs this up, suggesting that incorporating diversity into the classroom makes students critical thinkers, improves academic outcomes, and increases student engagement. In Katherine W. Phillips’ article “Diversity Makes Us Smarter” (2014), she argues that “decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups” (para. 1). Furthermore, diversity is correlated with positive performance.
The Student Experience
If we think about this from the student’s perspective, students with a diverse cultural background may feel that they stand out alone in the classroom or do not fit in with the class. They may also feel underrepresented in curriculum and instructional practices. Because of this, students with a diverse background may feel unsafe and uncomfortable in a classroom when they don’t feel that their diversity is seen or valued. This is problematic for any educator, but is exacerbated in a virtual learning environment, where there are often additional hurdles to getting to know a student and connecting with him or her.
Optional Reading: A Guide to Culture in the Classroom
PDF: A Guide to Culture in the Classroom
This reading, “A Guide to Culture in the Classroom,” is a comprehensive tool for educators who want to know more about the cultures, languages, and identities in our nation’s schools, with the belief that educators can make academic achievement and learning more meaningful when they understand and appreciate the richness of the culture and heritage their students bring to school.
Please read pages 5–14 (please select one question to explore on page 14). You are welcome to read the rest (or save it for later). Before reading this resource, consider the following questions:
- What would you say are some of your core beliefs about achievement?
- What are some of your core beliefs about diversifying learning?
After reading, stop and reflect on the same questions. Has the reading changed your thoughts at all?
- What would you say are some of your core beliefs about achievement?
- What are some of your core beliefs about diversifying learning?
In addition, consider the following two points:
- On page 8, there is a quote: “It is obvious that children who learn to learn in one culture and then must learn in the modes of another must experience some confusion and dislocation in the process.” As an educator, what can you do to rectify those situations and support your students?
How Does Culture Affect the Virtual Classroom?
Objective: Evaluate school and educator practices that contribute to inequitable and exclusionary practices to modify current structures and promote student achievement.
Culture in the Virtual Classroom
Before we can consider culture in the virtual classroom, we need to consider the concept of classroom culture itself. Classroom culture involves creating a classroom environment where students feel a sense of safety and belonging. If you cultivate a positive classroom culture, it is a space where everyone feels accepted and included in activities, games, assignments, and read-alouds. In a classroom with a positive culture, students feel comfortable sharing how they feel, what they are doing, and how they can best be supported, and the teacher is willing to take in that feedback to improve learning. A classroom with a positive culture is largely an egalitarian classroom where students have agency, choice, and voice alongside their teacher.
In a digital environment, building a positive classroom culture can be difficult because of the nature of the situation. A digital learning platform, screens, and microphones have replaced the face-to-face classroom. Depending on your institution’s policies and terms of use, all lessons may be recorded. Student cameras might be off the entire time, and it is quite possible that you could go through an entire lesson without vocally hearing from a student. There are inherent barriers to creating a positive classroom culture in virtual learning just by the nature of the task, which is why it is also important to examine the concept of trust and to establish relationships with students in a digital learning environment. Without trust, we cannot create a positive classroom culture.
Creating a Positive Culture in the Digital Classroom
Creating a culture of trust in a digital learning environment involves building relationships and helping students build empathy and understanding for each other and for you as the educator. This is because the virtual classroom must be a safe space for students to learn, share, and collaborate with each other. If there is no trust, it is possible that little learning and collaborating will get done.
To begin to build trust in your digital classroom, consider implementing principles of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship is a guiding philosophy that calls for equipping students, before they go online for school or personal reasons, with the tools and skills they need to communicate with others, participate in activities, and create and consume digital content alongside their peers. Be sure that students know how to use their devices, access your learning management system (LMS) and all applicable links, communicate with you using the features of your LMS, and communicate with others before you begin to create and cultivate your classroom culture. Otherwise, you may continuously encounter “tech hurdles” that hinder the learning and collaborative experience. One great resource for this is Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Curriculum. If your school does not have a program, that is a great place to start building a foundation.
Practices for Building Digital Classroom Culture
Not only are we working to support culture in the classroom, we are also working to create a shared culture in our classrooms. In a traditional or face-to-face classroom environment, most teachers use standard practices to build trust with their students (such as getting-to-know-you games, nametag glyphs, and activities for the first week of school). In a digital learning environment, these strategies rarely transfer perfectly; however, it is still possible to create trust with your students. Teachers have many ways to build trust in their classrooms, including:
- Check-ins with students: Even if you have many students, you can still leverage tools to touch base daily (e.g., e-mail, a tool such as Remind) and to set up more personal one-on-one sessions (such as a video meeting or phone call) on a more reasonable schedule. Daily office hours are also a good practice if the design of your system allows for it.
- Frequent contact with families: Transparency and communication build trust. They also help address and balance expectations for stakeholders. Openly conveying schedules, the organization of your LMS, expectations, and other information from the beginning, and then continuing this process, builds a reciprocal relationship in the learning process.
- Weekly letters to families and students: In addition to transparency, an established form of weekly communication creates a space to build community. You can use these letters to share important information and to explore all sorts of other topics.
- Trust-building activities such as “Getting to Know You” and icebreakers throughout the year: Just as you enjoy a good coffee break with coworkers, students can benefit from the same type of interaction!
- Creating class norms and expectations with your students instead of establishing “class rules”: The class as a whole, rather than the teacher alone, can agree on norms and expectations. This can accompany the teaching of digital citizenship in meaningful ways. Establishing expectations and consciously working to develop a positive culture together fosters a strong sense of ownership in students.
These activities can build a culture of trust, respect, and empathy in your digital learning environment. When you build trust, respect, and empathy with your students, they are more open and willing to share about themselves, which means they are also more open and willing to share about their own varied cultures and learn about other cultures.
When we went online last year, this was pretty much how we started off for the first two weeks. I had a class of students that were new to the school and came in halfway through the year. The first two weeks of online learning were building this rapport and incorporating some activities to better understand them and what they have previously learned.
This seems quite obvious though, were/are teachers not doing this?
Digital Activities to Celebrate Culture
When considering and creating activities related to culture in a digital learning environment, recall that many types of culture exist. All are valid and all deserve representation in our classrooms to serve our students. These types include, but are not limited to, socioeconomic, racial, generational, regional, religious, ancestral, gender, identity, and other aspects.
Accordingly, infusing culture into the digital classroom is more complex than just recognizing Kwanzaa or having a “word of the day” in a different language. Culture is a lived experience unique to each individual, and as educators, it’s our job to stimulate this in unique ways that both develop students’ academic growth and expand their worldviews.
If we were to take this thought deeper into the context of the classroom, consider that students are often inspired by their own cultures when they hear stories, scenarios, and situations about them. This inspiration can often spur connections to and ideas about other content within your subject or within other subjects. In the digital classroom, examples of this may include, but are not limited to:
- Filling your digital classroom resource library with culturally diverse books, texts, audio files, and video files that feature characters and authors from all over the world
- Engaging in discussions with your students and allowing space for them to tell authentic stories
- Incorporating powerful visual images of diversity on LMS home pages and virtual learning platforms alongside academic content and instruction
- Inviting diverse leaders to speak to your virtual classroom via platforms such as Zoom or Skype about their cultures and their experiences in the workforce
- Incorporating students’ stories about their cultures into lessons about the history, food, celebrations, and important members of various cultures represented in your classroom (As a note, please do approach this idea carefully. We want to create space for students to share, but no one should be forced to serve as an example of a culture or a voice for a group. That is a complex and personal choice.)
Avoiding Cultural Bias
It is also important not to inflict cultural bias onto our students. Cultural bias refers to the interpretation of situations, actions, or data based on the standards of one’s own culture. An example that is directly related to education is the suspension rate of Black boys in American schools. The wonderful study on student discipline, “Misbehavior or Misinterpretation” (Monroe 2006), highlights that great efforts are needed to improve interactions between American teachers—the majority of whom, remember, are white women—and African American male students. From the text:
Ferguson (2000), Rong (1996), and others have argued that discrepancies within institutions are magnified when student gender and socioeconomic status are considered concurrently with students’ ethnicity and race. Given the national prevalence of the discipline gap, educators might expect to encounter correspondingly high rates of misbehavior among African-American students in K–12 public schools. Notably, however, no compelling research studies support such an ostensibly logical relationship (Skiba 2001; Skiba and Peterson 1999). Rather, the discipline gap appears to stem from a lack of cultural synchronization in the classroom. (p. 163)
Because middle-class and European American professionals hold most K–12 teaching positions, classroom behavioral policies and expectations tend to reflect their culturally specific perspectives. Students are expected to learn and conform to the standards and expectations that the teacher sets, as opposed to the teacher taking time to learn about the students, their cultures, and how to best serve them. In doing so, we do a disservice to our children.
As a result, the ability to identify the cultural biases that we hold as educators is a crucial step to understanding how we can better serve our students. If you are just beginning in this process, recognize and understand that your students are cultural beings, and consider using some of the aforementioned strategies to gain perspective and show your students more than just what the curriculum has to offer. When you do this in your classroom, everybody benefits.
Taking Into Consideration Cultural Differences as You Set Expectations
Cultural bias can appear—often unintentionally—in many ways, but one big way is through the systematic expectations we put into place. Look at some of the ways that inequitable situations can arise from systematic design that does not take into account different cultural elements. As noted, these ideas will highlight the complex notion that the school is attempting to exert “control” over students in their own homes. Although some students willingly sign up for digital schools and agree to their expectations, others are there because of other circumstances. When at all possible, schools should avoid policies that may overstep their place. Hopefully, these ideas about cultural diversity might help articulate why:
- Dress codes: Requiring students to wear or not wear certain items in their homes is complicated, because various cultures dictate different styles of dress in the home. For example, many cultures discourage people from wearing shoes in the home. Many cultures encourage frugality (regardless of the family’s socioeconomic status), and as such, they may keep their heat low in the winter and instead wear warm clothes, such as hooded sweatshirts and even scarves. Hairstyles and clothing are an important part of cultural and individual self-expression, and we need to be careful not to design policies that negatively affect students.
- Classroom rules and expectations: In some cultures, staring at adults directly in the eye is considered disrespectful; however, some teachers have a class rule that states that whenever the teacher is talking, the student has to look at the teacher. This class rule is not culturally responsive and does not take into account the diverse perspectives and customs that students may uphold.
- Allowing other people in the room or learning space: Many cultures are collective and familiar in their living arrangements. Some of these cultures take pride in their ability to support each other in the home. As a result, some cultures may have an adult sitting with or next to a student at all times to support his or her focus and understanding.
- Selecting tools or LMS without linguistic support: Not all students are fluent in English, but many tools require them to be. The same goes for the adults in the home who support them. As your school selects tools, it is important to take into account all the needs of your population and consider how you will ensure they all are met.
It is important that schools and teachers reflect on these ideas when designing expectations. It is also important to listen to your students and those who support them. Even with the best of intentions, we can make mistakes. Acknowledging those errors and correcting for them can go a long way in building the trust we have discussed.
Why Is It Important to Incorporate Diversity Into the Virtual Classroom?
Objective: Develop curriculum and instructional practices that allow for authentic and continuous representation.
Bridging the Classroom–Community Cultural Gap
Thriving communities can exist when we tap into the cultures and diversities of the students and families with whom we work. When we do this, we focus on connecting our families to the work that we do in our digital learning environments. Amy Stuart Wells, Lauren Fox, and Diana Cordova-Cobo (2016) argue that racially diverse classrooms and schools help to benefit all students in the classroom and beyond:
Students can learn better how to navigate adulthood in an increasingly diverse society—a skill that employers value—if they attend diverse schools. Ninety-six percent of major employers, Wells, Fox, and Cordova-Cobo note, say it is “important” that employees be “comfortable working with colleagues, customers, and/or clients from diverse cultural backgrounds...” With leadership, such success stories can be replicated to help us move, at long last, beyond separate and unequal to something far better for all American students. (para. 10)
As educators, we have a unique opportunity to highlight diversity in our classrooms and prepare students for a 21st-century world. However, bridging that gap can definitely seem like a daunting task, especially in a virtual world.
Actionable Steps for Bridging the Classroom–Community Cultural Gap
Progress requires action, and as such, you are probably wondering where to start. For some actionable steps, here’s what you can do in your digital learning environment:
- Take time to do research on diverse speakers and authors in your area: If none reside in your area, feel free to reach out to others outside of your immediate vicinity (via platforms such as National Geographic Education or Skype in the Classroom). They may be able to speak via your digital learning platform in your digital classroom. For example, if you and your students are learning about space travel and astronauts, you could reach out to folks who work at NASA or the Kennedy Space Center and ask them to write a letter to your class or speak to your class. As another example, you may be looking for diverse authors so you can add diverse texts to your classroom. Reaching out to local bookstores or writing communities may give you the opportunity to connect with diverse authors.
- Communicate your goals for diversity in the classroom to parents: When broaching these conversations with students in your digital learning environment, you may receive questions or inquiries from parents. If you do receive any, ask if they have any questions or concerns regarding what you are speaking about in your classroom, and then listen. If applicable, invite them to identify areas in the curriculum or the school culture that they feel could benefit from a stronger focus on diversity. In addition, you never know what will happen—some parents may feel comfortable coming in and doing a guest lesson on their cultures or experiences!
- Start a paper or e-mail newsletter: A project like this can communicate diversity initiatives and student events to students and their families. This will ensure that families and students are aware of what you are doing in your digital learning environment. Students can also use this as an opportunity to contribute to the newsletter on happenings in the classroom!
From there, begin to look for authentic ways to infuse diversity into your digital learning environments, which we will explore during the next module. Keep in mind that although there may have been diversity of content and positive intent to infuse culture and diversity into lessons in your previous work, it becomes authentic when it comes directly from a diverse voice.
Strategies for Creating More Culturally Diverse Practices
On a larger scale, cultural diversity in the digital classroom requires long-term and focused attention to effect change. Ideally, this happens at a school level and a district level, but we understand that some of you are doing the best you can in a system that is still developing. These ideas can still support educators at a classroom level in improving their practices:
- Establish a system for consistent evaluation of your practices, including but not limited to gathering feedback from all relevant stakeholders regularly.
- Encourage feedback and offer a space for stakeholders to submit concerns.
- Take action when issues are identified. Acknowledge and apologize when necessary. Make changes and do better.
- Use an authentic lens to critique exercises, activities, statements, and other initiatives aimed at diversity in advance of assigning or publishing them. No one can own a culture that he or she is not a part of. No one can invite another individual into a culture that he or she is not a part of. As such, when doing activities promoting diversity, approach them with the respect of a visitor. You wouldn’t walk into someone’s home and put on their clothes or mimic their habits. The same goes for culture.
- Build in supports for linguistic diversity.
- Evaluate the costs of activities (from financial to the need to provide personal mobility) and try to create options that are as inclusive as possible.
- Use data, because it can work in meaningful ways to be more objective, but be sure to contextualize it because many assessments contain biases that result in inaccurate pictures of student success.
Summary
Incorporating culture and diversity in the classroom is an essential part of establishing a culture of belonging and progression in your virtual learning environment. By taking these steps, you are changing your digital classroom for the better and creating enriching, equitable learning environments for your students.
Although your school may do its part to promote policies and procedures for equality, diversity, and inclusion in schools, as an educator, you have a unique and direct opportunity to implement diversity and inclusiveness in the classroom on a daily basis with your students. A lack of diversity and inclusiveness in the digital classroom may lead to students feeling isolated, can lead to increased stress levels for minority or otherwise marginalized students, and can cause them to be victims of bullying at higher rates within your digital learning environment. In particular, minority students, LGBTQ students, and students who are questioning their gender or sexual identity are at risk for marginalization and/or bullying from their peers. Creating learning environments in which students are empowered to acknowledge and celebrate differences is paramount to their safe education and protection.
In gratitude, thank you for embarking on this initial journey with us, but we are just getting started. In the next module, we will explore even more actionable steps toward incorporating cultural diversity into the digital learning environment.
General Document Comments 0
Are there any other influential forms of culture you can think of?
Can you think of any examples of you or others you worked with intending to celebrate culture but it falling short? What would have helped this situation?
This is one of the most powerful questions in shaping your classroom around equitable outcomes. While we don’t have time to dive deeply enough, pause for a minute and think about what your feelings about achievement. Is achievement solely about student effort? The support students are given?
Can you think of any other ways to build relationships in the online space? Or.. if you’re mainly in person, how to leverage online options for community building.
In the morning we would hold all class sessions to go through the topics for the day and check in with the students. Throughout the day I would schedule students to join an online session with me in groups of 3-4. With these small groups, students were able to ask me questions about school, the work they were doing, me, etc. while we talked so students could better get to know one another. I also made myself available daily for office hours that students could join if they had any questions or wanted to chat.
Have you tried any other great exercises in the online space that celebrate culture?
As students were getting to know each other and getting used to the online platform, we held a show and tell as a simple activity to encourage students to talk to their classmates. This could be changed to students explaining about an object that their family values, something that has been passed down from generations, etc.
What other tips, experiences, or strategies would you suggest in helping avoiding cultural bias
Any other ideas or additional thoughts?
I might just be more aware than before because we’re in our culture unit, but a lot of this seems obvious. It pretty much boils down to not assuming that everyone has the same experiences that you do and don’t make assumptions about others.
I think teachers that are working in international settings will inherently understand this, and if they don’t then they won’t be teaching abroad for much longer. I can’t help but think this message needs to seen by older teachers in their 40s, 50s, 60s that assume kids still act like they when they were growing up.
Yeah, I don’t think you’re wrong. I think this mainly discusses cultural as a nationalist thing as well. It does get more complicated in an American setting where we mistakenly believe we’re all int he same “culture” when there’s really a lot of diversity.
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