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Building a multicultural classroom means creating an environment in which various cultures are discussed, explored, and appreciated. When you add other cultures into your lessons as an afterthought, your students learn that they aren’t important. When you make a big deal out of one holiday, they learn that it’s the only one that matters. When you teach about ‘other’ cultures without making connections back to your own culture, your students will believe that one is normal and the other is not.
Multicultural teachers know that good practices are done habitually so that they don’t get tossed in only when you remember.
Mainstream versus Multicultural Educators
A mainstream teacher doesn’t think about how their lessons are landing with their students. They do not predict the harm their careless attempts can cause, and they certainly don’t try to reduce that harm.
A multicultural teacher, on the other hand, is aware of their own biases. They know that what they are teaching will be received differently by each student. They know that each student has a cultural filter that information passes through affecting the way they learn. Multicultural teachers know that students are forming their worldview, and they care to make it robust and accurate.
Multicultural teachers don’t work harder, nor are they superior teachers. They simply have formed a strong set of habits. These habits help them analyze themselves to find mainstream practices that would work better as multicultural practices.
When I started forming these habits, it took a lot of trial and error. I taught students from over 50 countries. When I would find a great technique with one group of students, I would try it with another group of students from a different culture, and it would flop. I did this over and over again, but eventually, I learned what worked and what didn’t, regardless of a student’s cultural background.
These tips are five years of work condensed into my best strategies. If you form these habits, your classroom will go from mainstream to multicultural. It isn’t easy, but it is simple. Here is what you need to do.
8 Small, but Powerful Habits of Multicultural Teachers
1. Call students by their preferred names
Names are a part of our identities. They signify our cultures, personalities, family heritages and histories, and more, so it is crucial to get them right. One of the biggest mistakes I have made as a teacher is not spending ample time learning students’ preferred names and preferred pronunciations.
The first few days of school have a lasting impact on how your students view you. Take the time to ask their preferred names, ask the story behind their names, and learn how to pronounce them correctly. If you struggle to pronounce their name, just pull them aside and ask for extra help. It builds trust and shows respect for your students’ identities and backgrounds.
TIP: If you struggle to pronounce a student's name, pull them aside and ask for extra help.
2. Admit to your own biases and limitations
Everyone has biases. Just like students, teachers see the world through their cultural filters.
A learning environment with unchecked biases is dangerous. The hallmark of a strong learning environment is one in which biases are discussed, explored, and challenged.
TIP: Whenever you read an article, book, or consume media, ask your students to consider the author's bias and how that might have affected their work.
3. Always question the content you’re about to present
Multicultural teachers reflect on how their lessons will be received by different students. I learned this lesson the hard way.
At the peak of the pandemic, I had a class of Chinese students who were at home in China because of travel restrictions. I taught Early World History. One day, I was teaching about regionalization and projected a map of Asia.
One of my students stopped me.
He asked why the map showed Taiwan as a separate country.
I stopped in my tracks. I had not anticipated the question, nor did I have a response prepared for such an important teaching moment.
What could have been an opportunity for learning and discussion flopped because I had not thought about how my lesson would land with my particular cohort of students.
Empathy and knowledge are really important here. You have to have the knowledge and context to understand the content you are presenting from multiple angles. You also have to be able to put yourself in the shoes of your students to see how your students will interpret your lessons.
TIP: Develop your cultural context. See #7.
4. Seek opportunities for adding new perspectives into your lessons
When you are planning your lessons, count how many perspectives or cultural viewpoints are included. If you cannot count, the answer is probably zero.
Multicultural teachers are intentional about presenting units of study from multiple points of view that facilitate conversations about human differences. Not only should the classroom content and units of study be diverse, but the materials should also include diverse backgrounds and present ideas from multiple perspectives.
For example, if you are an English teacher, consider adding novels from African authors, instead of teaching the same classic novels year over year. If you are a biology teacher, explore how the topic is approached in another country. Every subject has the opportunity for diversification.
TIP: Count the viewpoints in your units of study. Try to add at least one more.
5. View your students as valuable resources
Affirm students’ language and cultural knowledge by integrating it into your classroom discussions. Encourage students to share their stories with one another and to have pride in their linguistic and cultural identities.
TIP: Include learning experiences that provide windows into students’ worlds outside of school or learning experiences that provide students with the experience to show leadership and expertise in their lived experiences.
6. Pay attention to the cultural backgrounds of your students and families
Language teachers use a term called the affective filter. It basically describes how a student’s attitude or emotions can impact the success of learning a new language. But attitudes and emotions can change from day to day.
There is a much bigger force in our lives that is more likely to impact their learning — culture. A student’s cultural identity is much more likely to affect how they perceive new information and experiences. It’s therefore essential that you think about how your lessons will land with your students.
TIP: Make an effort to understand families and respect their cultural knowledge by developing relationships with them.
7. Develop your cultural intelligence
The most important quality you can cultivate as a multicultural teacher is staying open to rethinking your worldview. Teachers are usually intellectual curious, lifelong learners. It is an integral part of the job, so hopefully you will enjoy the process of amping up your cultural intelligence and throwing out old information when you are proven wrong.
The habit of building your cultural intelligence is something you will do for the rest of your life, both at work and at home. Some of my favorite ways to bolster my cultural intelligence is by travelling, reading novels and authors outside of my culture, and having conversations with people who see the world differently than I do.
The way we live outside of the classroom, inevitably trickles into it. When we are curious, open-minded, and respectful of diversity and difference, our students notice. They benefit from our own intellectual and personal growth.
TIP: Connect your class with an organization that supports a community outside of your own.
8. Repair when things go wrong
In healthy learning cultures, mistakes are normal. They are seen as an opportunity to grow. Apologies shouldn’t feel shameful. Rather, new information is an invitation to question your outdated views. This is a better environment for both you and your students to experience continuous learning, without the fear of repercussions.
TIP: Frame mistakes as opportunities to update your thinking, so they feel like opportunities rather than failures.
None of these habits are formed overnight.
Instead, I dived into the intense work of exploring my content, curriculum, and classroom community from all angles. I explored my biases and limitations that were affecting the way I taught.
If you are looking to deepen your practice as a multicultural educator, first, you need to assess where you are.
Are you Mainstream or Multicultural?
Now that you know the eight best habits you can develop as an educator, which one are you going to work on?
Trying to form eight habits won’t work. Focus on one or two to start your multicultural education journey. Pick the ones that excite you or intrigue you, and find a way to stick to them, whether it’s an accountability buddy, a phone alarm, or something else that works for you.