Cultural Diversity Of Students Research Articles

Developing a Cross-Cultural Competence Scale for Pre-Service Teachers: A Filipino Case Study

As classrooms grow increasingly diverse, cross-cultural competence (CCC) becomes imperative for pre-service teachers to create inclusive, equitable learning environments. Hence, this study focuses on developing a cross-cultural competence scale specifically for pre-service teachers that highlights the dynamic nature of education and the need to foster inclusivity amid increasing classroom diversity, aiming to address gaps concerning assessment tools dedicated explicitly for pre-service teachers. Exploratory factor analysis of an initial 29-item scale assessing knowledge, teaching flexibility, willingness to engage students, and cultural empathy administered to 109 Filipino pre-service teachers' responses ultimately yielded a 22-item, two-factor structure with sound psychometric properties: "Attitudes Toward Culturally Diverse Students" and "Cultural Knowledge and Teaching Flexibility." The factors align well with the conceptual domains of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning. This research significantly contributes a contextualized CCC instrument that enhances multicultural education and evaluates pre-service teachers' readiness for diverse classrooms, aligning with the educational dynamic imperative. In summary, this research makes an invaluable contribution to teacher training and multicultural education by developing a targeted and rigorously validated assessment tool.

EMI Strategy: A Misconception in Early Grade

This article discusses on the debatable EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) issue as there is confusion either English must be taught right from the Nursery or at some later stage. Nepalese classrooms are the product of multilingual, multicultural and bilingual society. Without considering the fact of multilingual and multi-ethnic context, EMI (English as a medium of Instruction) is strictly adopted in schools in early grade. Our school system, including textbooks, instruction, curriculum, teaching practices, is influenced heavily by the dominant English hegemony in early grade. In this context, this paper aims to explore the difficulties and struggles of Nepali language speaking children’s experiences as they find in between the Nepali-speaking home environment and English-speaking school environment at their early grades. To fulfill this objective, the researcher adopted narrative research design under qualitative method incorporating interpretative philosophical guideline. It is based on the unstructured interviews aimed at eliciting personal stories and experiences related to EMI in early grade. Discussing on a narrative analysis, this paper revealed that how the learners are discouraged to what Bourdieu’s term symbolic violence with some examples of how such demotivation is seen in school’s teaching-learning practices. The results further concluded that to address the problematic nature of schooling for such learners in most of the schools in Nepal, this paper highlights the need for socially responsive school policies and pedagogy understanding local context entertaining the linguistic and cultural diversity of students.

‘The body and the ear’: an aesthetic education approach for the international social work classroom under Erasmus+ blended intensive programmes

ABSTRACT The new generation of Erasmus+ agreements offer funding for innovatively designed compact blended intensive programmes in which international students study abroad together in Europe. The heterogeneity of international social work curricula, coupled with the linguistic and cultural diversity of students, presents pedagogic challenges. Inspired by teaching on such a programme in Germany, this paper theoretically examines an ‘aesthetic education’ (arts-based) response to these challenges. The basis of this learning is heightening students’ perception of each other, their own bodies, and their embodied knowledge. Examining a music workshop and a tango workshop reveals pedagogies grounded in creative arts, and utilizing the different senses of hearing, movement, and touch. It is suggested that theoretically-founded teaching approaches utilizing non-verbal communication and learning can supplement the primarily verbal pedagogies more commonly used in the social work classroom. Investigating philosophical writings from Friedrich Schiller and sociological ideas from Hartmut Rosa, it is argued that playful interactions can lead to students deepening their understanding of bodily-based aspects of communication and thereby experiencing more resonant relations to one other. The skills and sensibilities acquired in such creative sessions have contemporary relevance, preparing the student social worker for communicative interaction with ‘the other’.

Religion and ESL Teacher Identity in Malaysia Context: Does Religion Matter?

This paper aims to showcase the interrelationship between religion and ESL teacher identity by using the literature on religion, religion and English teacher, religion and English teacher identity, as well as religion and English Language Teaching (ELT). Despite the potential significance of religious beliefs in shaping teacher identity, this area has received little attention. By examining the literature on religion and ELT, this paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the importance of religious beliefs in shaping teacher identity. The significance of this study lies in its potential to inform teacher training programs and promote culturally sensitive and inclusive learning environments. This study reveals that religious beliefs play a significant role in shaping ESL teacher identity. Religious beliefs are deeply personal and intimately intertwined with one’s identity, and they can influence teaching practices and interactions with students. The study proposes a conceptual framework for future research on the impact of religious beliefs on ESL teacher identity. The article also suggest that a study focuses on the impact of religious beliefs on ESL teacher identity, whether religion matters in shaping and negotiating ESL teacher identity, should be conducted in Malaysia, a country with a diverse religious landscape. These findings have important implications for teacher training programs and for creating inclusive learning environments that take into account the religious and cultural diversity of students.

Blended and collaborative learning: Case of a multicultural graduate classroom in Taiwan.

As internationalization of higher education has become more prevalent, the search for approaches to support quality learning within multicultural classrooms has become critical. In this study, we presented a blended and collaborative learning (BCL) method and discussed its potential as a viable learning approach for graduate classrooms with culturally-diverse students. We first discussed implementation of a BCL approach in a multicultural graduate course, then explored learnings gained from the BCL experience in terms of three interdependent Community of Inquiry elements: teaching, cognitive, and social presences, and in terms of its implementation in a multicultural setting.

Cultural Differences in Critical Thinking Style: A Comparison of U. S. and Chinese Undergraduate Agricultural Students

This study aimed to compare critical thinking styles between students studying agriculture in the U.S. and China. A survey of critical thinking styles was administered to two groups of students in U.S. (n = 104) and China (n = 103). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to determine if there were significant differences in critical thinking styles between the two groups. Results indicate that U.S. students tended to prefer an engaging critical thinking style, whereas Chinese students tended to prefer an information seeking critical thinking style. These differences between critical thinking style preferences may be explained by students’ cultural backgrounds. This study can help agricultural educators understand the differences in critical thinking style preferences among culturally-diverse students. Further, it provides empirical evidence to guide agricultural educators seeking to adopt effective pedagogical approaches to cultivate critical thinking among students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This study provides fresh insight into the individualism and collectivism theory by explaining the cross-cultural differences in critical thinking style between U.S. and Chinese agricultural students.

Cultural Differences in Critical Thinking Style: A Comparison of U. S. and Chinese Undergraduate Agricultural Students

This study aimed to compare critical thinking styles between students studying agriculture in the U.S. and China. A survey of critical thinking styles was administered to two groups of students in U.S. (n = 104) and China (n = 103). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to determine if there were significant differences in critical thinking styles between the two groups. Results indicate that U.S. students tended to prefer an engaging critical thinking style, whereas Chinese students tended to prefer an information seeking critical thinking style. These differences between critical thinking style preferences may be explained by students’ cultural backgrounds. This study can help agricultural educators understand the differences in critical thinking style preferences among culturally-diverse students. Further, it provides empirical evidence to guide agricultural educators seeking to adopt effective pedagogical approaches to cultivate critical thinking among students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This study provides fresh insight into the individualism and collectivism theory by explaining the cross-cultural differences in critical thinking style between U.S. and Chinese agricultural students. Keywords: agricultural education, critical thinking style, international agricultural student, cross- cultural

‘And what language do you speak at home?’ Ethnocentrism and cultural openness in teacher–parent interactions in disadvantaged and ethnically segregated schools

ABSTRACTThis article, based on a deep ethnography in schools located in a disadvantaged multicultural context in Geneva (Switzerland), questions the way in which the local school system and teachers comprehend the cultural diversity of students and their parents. Oscillating between recognition and assimilation, teachers publicly adhere to discourses that emphasise cultural diversity, while limiting its expression, especially when a student encounters school difficulties. Teachers’ meetings with parents are significantly influenced by the majority perspective, leaving the parents with little place to express their own needs. Nonetheless, within the conversation, some parents are able to assert practices that differ from those promoted by the host society. Ultimately, it seems that, in the absence of a multicultural position, teachers are limited to adopting hybrid practices that create unease and are evidence of limited understanding of multiculturality.

Exploring Changes in Science Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Culturally Diverse Students During an Equity-Focused Course

ABSTRACTIn recent decades, schools in most Western countries, including the United States, have become increasingly culturally diverse. As global migration rises, cultural diversity in schools will continue to grow. Though an expansive research base has shown that teacher attitudes play an important role in student performance, comparatively little is known about science teachers’ attitudes toward cultural diversity or teaching culturally diverse students. The purpose of this study was to explore how the attitudes of beginning secondary science teachers toward teaching culturally diverse students were influenced by a four-week course focused on equitable science teaching. We conducted semi-structured interviews with participants (n=8) at two time points: once during the first week of the course and once during the last week. Both interviews followed an attitude-eliciting, card-sort activity completed by teachers in small groups. Qualitative analysis of the data indicated that, following their participation in the course, science teachers felt more prepared to work with their culturally diverse students; posited that authority shifting in the classroom could benefit student learning; and openly acknowledged that cultural, ethnic, and racial differences influence the classroom environment. These findings suggest that engaging beginning science teachers in opportunities to be introduced to, reflect upon, and consider practical applications of culturally responsive teaching may positively impact their attitudes and beliefs about teaching culturally diverse students and about the students themselves.

Incorporating Diversity Content Into Courses and Concerns About Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

I examined concerns surrounding teaching culturally diverse students and attitudes toward incorporating diversity content into courses, held by a national sample of psychology educators ( N = 91). Findings indicated that as instructors’ personal acceptance of culturally diverse students increased, instructors’ level of “backlash” attitudes toward those students decreased, and instructors attached a greater level of importance to incorporating diversity issues into their course content. Lower levels of instructor concern surrounding managing cultural differences in the classroom was associated with instructors attaching a greater level of importance to incorporating diversity issues into course content. Instructors of color spent a significantly greater amount of class time teaching about diversity issues in their psychology courses than their European American counterparts. I discuss implications of these findings for established and future psychology educators.

PENGEMBANGAN LKS DENGAN PENDEKATAN MULTIKULTURAL PADA PEMBELAJARAN SENI BUDAYA DAN KETERAMPILAN DI SEKOLAH DASAR

This research is a development research, conducted to develop Student Worksheet (LKS) with multiculturalbased. LKS is designed by integrating various forms of cultural diversity of students into subjects of CulturalArts and Skills. This study aims to introduce and grow regional cultural values to elementary school students.This LKS was developed using 4-D model consisting of four stages namely define, design, develop, anddisseminate. The instruments used in the study consisted of validation questionnaires, pretest posttest andstudent response questionnaires. LKS that has been designed validated by 3 people namely learning materialexperts, media experts, linguists, and teachers of class V. After the design of LKS validated and then tested onthe students of Class V SDN 11 Rice. The result of the research shows that LKS based on multicultural that hasbeen designed is declared very feasible by the validator with score percentage 86,74. In the limited trial stage, apretest average score of 46.54 and posttest of 65.35 was obtained. For N-Gain results in pretest and posttest is0.33, with medium category. Student response to LKS based multicultural is in very good category with scorepercentage 92,16. In dissemination stage (product disseminate) on Class VI obtained response equal to 85,32with very good category. For teacher response obtained an average of 90.1 with very decent category.

Approaches to studying across culturally contrasting groups: Implications for security education

<i>The problem of increased migration and integration of migrant children in schools has become a serious challenge for Security Education, especially the question of how to teach increasingly varied groups of students and whether students that come from culturally contrasting groups differ in their preferred learning style. This study sets out to analyse how students of various cultural backgrounds approach learning tasks, which is of utmost importance nowadays given that modern schools face the challenge of educating culturally diverse students. To this end, the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was administered to 450 Thai students in a Thai university. Th e correlation between the learning approaches and individual differences (age, GPA and major) was assessed. Then, the results of the study were compared with the results of similar studies carried out in different cultures. The results show that the students scoring higher on the deep approach have the highest academic performance, whereas the students who approach the learning material strategically achieve the lowest learning outcomes. Furthermore, the Thai students did not differ significantly from their western peers (Norwegian, Egyptian, Portuguese and British); however, their results differed from the students from China, who generally scored lower on all subscales of the ASSIST scores. Thus, the findings of the study prove that the integration of migrant children can be highly successful because both migrant and host society students adopt similar approaches and strategies that strive for academic excellence.</i>

Falling prey to the dominant culture? Demystifying symbolic violence against ethnic minority students in Nepal

Nepal’s multicultural society is hierarchical and divided along the lines of caste, ethnicity and language and its school system, including curriculum and pedagogy, is influenced greatly by the dominant language and culture. In this context, this article analyses the difficulties and struggle ethnic minority children experience as they move between the cultures of home and school. Drawing upon a narrative case analysis, this article argues that ethnic minority students are subjected to what Bourdieu terms symbolic violence with illustrations of how such violence is reproduced in schools’ everyday interactions, practices and dispositions. In particular, schools’ symbolic violence against minority students has been reproduced and manifested in various guises of language, peer culture and pedagogy. Given the problematic nature of schooling for such children in the majority of schools in Nepal, this article underscores the need for culturally responsive school policies to embrace the linguistic and cultural diversity of students as well as tapping into the cultural resources each student brings to the school.

Actitudes hacia la diversidad cultural de los estudiantes de Grado de Magisterio de Educación Primaria. Análisis entre el primer y el último curso

The purpose of this text is to know if the training received by the faculty of education at the University of Cordoba substantially improved attitudes toward cultural diversity of students. This study includes the participation of a sample of 320 subjects of the Degree in Primary Education, with 184 first year and 136 in the fourth year. An ad hoc Likert scale called Attitudes Toward Cultural Diversity (ADC) is used. The results of this investigation confirms that there are significant differences between grades (1-4) they are future teachers.

Islamic Education Teaching Practice Based on the Cultural Diversity of Students

The teaching of Islamic Education is not only meant to convey the contents of the curriculum of Islamic Education, but actually to establish students’ good character, and practicing the skills presented in the classroom. It should be noted that, classrooms consisting of students from various cultures can be challenging for teachers to provide teaching and learning. In this case, the teacher must meet the needs of each student so that they get a fair education. Therefore, the sensitivity of the teachers and their skills in the delivery of education require the appropriate use of approaches, strategies, methods and techniques. Approaches are direct or indirect, teacher-centred or students-centred strategies. This article briefly explores the concept of teaching based on the cultural diversity of students be it the languages, practices, beliefs or values held by students. This is because teachers' understanding of the concept of cultural diversity of students will help them provide the appropriate teaching materials. Thus this preliminary study aims to analyze and provide recommendations based on literature research on how the teaching based on the diversity of students can be implemented in the teaching of Islamic Education. It is hoped that this article can serve as a guide in realizing teaching based on cultural diversity. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v4n1s1p135

Culture-Based Education: Lessons from Indigenous Education in the U.S. and Southeast Asia

Cultured–based pedagogy has been positively related to students’ socio-emotional well-being, civic engagement, school motivation and higher academic outcomes, particularly with culturally-diverse students is concerned. This paper examines the benefits of culture-based education in the context of indigenous education in the United States as well as in communities in Southeast Asia. It also demonstrates the possibilities that may arise when communities are able to guide the education of their children and ensure meaning to their lives.

Creating culturally responsive environments: ethnic minority teachers' constructs of cultural diversity in Hong Kong secondary schools

One of the challenges facing Hong Kong schools is the growing cultural diversity of the student population that is a result of the growing number of ethnic minority students in the schools. This study uses semi-structured interviews with 12 American, Canadian, Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani teachers working in three secondary schools in the public sector to examine how school teachers are handling this challenge. The study uses these interviews to establish a model for the creation of culturally responsive environments that may help to improve the academic performance and promote the personal growth of students in Hong Kong's secondary schools. Five aspects of cultural responsiveness are identified: conceptualising cosmopolitanism, raising sensitivity to “minor acts of racism”, managing the diverse learning needs of students, promoting a deep understanding of cultural values and helping students deal with the challenges of trilingualism. This study argues that ethnic minority teachers are engaged in a continuing cross-cultural process through which they make sense of the cultural diversity of students and re-learn their own beliefs and practices. The implications for the creation of a culturally responsive environment are also presented.

Educating Culturally Diverse Students with Challenging Behaviors: A Review of Literature

Abstract Changing demographics in American school systems necessitate educators to better prepare themselves to work with students from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, culturally diverse (CD) students are disproportionately represented in special education, indicating a need to investigate assessment for identification purposes. We, the authors, believe that examining current research in higher education will highlight the need for effective special education teachers prepared to teach CD learners with challenging behaviors. This article is a review of existing literature related to educating CD students with challenging behaviors and preparing special education teacher candidates for this population.

Narrative Inquiry on Experience of Culturally Diverse Students in Physical Education

Narrative Inquiry on Experience of Culturally Diverse Students in Physical Education

Culturally Different Learning Styles in Online Learning Environments

The importance of individual culture depends on the characteristics of national culture and the individual’s background; within individual culture, different learning styles also exist. This paper addresses the topic of how learning style interacts with receptivity to online methods in different cultures, in this case in Nigeria. It examines and analyzes online learning environments in terms of differences in the learning styles of Nigeria university students according to their cultural backgrounds, specifically tribes, gender, and program of studies and how that can affect their online learning. The differences in tribes and learning styles affect the way the students respond to online learning. Despite the need for improvement, the future of online learning environments seems bright. The online instructor should try to offer learning activities that will appeal to the widest variety of learning styles possible. The ethnicity and cultural diversity of students needs to be considered in online systems design.