How do you Teach Diversity in a Homogeneous Population?

So how do you teach diversity in a homogeneous population?

Megan and I are going to talk to you today about ways in which this can happen

and while

it isn't easy, it is important, particularly for our youngest learners.

The world to them already seems so large and filled with awe.

You know, how can we help them to see the larger world that exists around them?

Um a world that often looks different from the one that they see each day

and then conversely would be those that look around and

they don't see many people who look like they do.

I'd like to introduce you to taylor and her story.

She's 1/4 grade student outside playing with her

friends during recess when it starts to rain,

her hair gets wet

and as all the students run in, her friends look at her and ask,

well what's wrong with your hair?

She's like nothing, it's just wet.

And what starts with curiosity about something they've never really seen before,

they don't understand.

It escalates into something different.

The girls walk away whispering and giggling and yeah,

what starts as curiosity in their minds ends

with taylor feeling a knot in her stomach.

Now, why is this important?

Really understanding, you know,

the different viewpoints of white students and those of

students of color,

while white students from predominantly white

schools will interact with multicultural,

multiracial,

multi lingual and multi ethnic people in the United States

for the remainder of their lives and like form people

of color will interact with mainstream students and it is

essential for all of these students to develop knowledge,

skills, awareness and understanding

in order to live healthy and productive lives.

Now.

Meghan and I worked together to create this web

of ideas and our role starts in the classroom

with this culturally responsive sustaining education

and through social emotional learning,

healing and social studies we would hope to plant seeds that may be

influential in opening minds to a higher awareness of themselves and others.

So the D. O. E.

Use this educational strategy um that embraces students identities

and it's called the culturally responsive sustaining education.

And this framework helps educators create

student centered learning environment to that affirm

racial linguistic and cultural identities,

prepare students for rigor and independent learning,

developed students abilities to connect across lines

of differences and elevate historically marginalized voices.

Let's see how an environment like that really could

have helped taylor. But for right now um Taylor feels more and more alone now.

She's being ostracized by those that she thought were her friends and through

mean words and taunts and teasing and notes passing.

She is just being bullied on a daily basis.

Now let's look at the social emotional learning and

how maybe this could have played a part in helping

these um these girls

now social emotional learning as we know is a process through which all young people

and adults acquire and apply the knowledge

and skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities

manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals.

Feel show empathy for others,

establish and maintain supportive relationships and

make responsible and caring decisions,

all of which would have gone a long way

to helping taylor.

Now this Castle wheel. This framework

really helps cultivate those skills and environments.

Um and as you can see what starts in the classroom can be incorporated in schools,

families um and communities and it really incorporates the five

areas of social and emotional competence from self awareness.

Self management,

then responsible decision making

and then of course social awareness and relationship skills.

Okay,

and now these um coordinate practices across

four key settings that support students.

Social, emotional and academic development.

Yeah.

Now let's look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Now you may remember this,

but he proposed that human needs can be organized into this hierarchy

and in order to better understand what motivates human needs,

you can look at this hierarchy.

Now it ranges from more concrete needs, such as food and water

and those physiological needs to more abstract concepts such as self fulfillment,

self actualization.

This desire to become the best person you can be

according to Maslow. When a lower need is met,

then that next need on the hierarchy becomes the focus focus of attention.

Now you can see along this hierarchy after

the physiological needs and the safety needs,

personal security comes love and belonging.

Okay, and that would be where we have friendships, intimacy,

family and just a sense of connection.

Mhm

Now when we look at that sense of belonging,

we understand exactly how important that sense of belonging is for our students

belonging, would be that emotional need. We all have to feel

seen and connected

and truthfully

wherever you are and whatever your identity is, you know,

we should all examine all the ways we make,

consciously and unconsciously engage in acts of what's called mothering.

Now, the other thing would be when we kind of mentally say, okay,

that person is not one of us, and then

really, kind of dismissed parts of their humanity, their dignity and their worth.

Um and we can see that happening to Taylor in her story, and how it escalates.

Now, Taylor's grades begin to drop, and she starts getting in trouble on the bus.

Four teasing and yelling and eventually fighting

her mother at her wits end, starts to talk to the teachers, the counselors,

administrators about the problem.

She discovers that her daughter is actually

retaliating against a hurtful series of notes,

and taunts,

you know, from these girls that were once her friends.

Now, what was the root cause of this problem? And what caused it to escalate?

Well,

how was Taylor's need to belong, being affected.

Okay, and then, of course,

how could the social emotional needs of all of these students have been addressed?

And how could they, how could that have helped?

Now let's look at help. Looking at perspectives.

It's kind of like the golden role here.

Um putting yourself in other people's shoes,

treating others the way you want to be treated.

That goes, that would have gone a long way to help taylor

in the classroom.

The presence of diversity,

whether in the curriculum and the books are just within the students,

allow them to understand and consider perspectives

and opinions that differ from the ones

that they've already formed and presenting students

with viewpoints far different from their own.

It gives them the opportunity to think critically about their

own beliefs and examine the world in fresh ways.

How do you Teach Diversity in a Homogeneous Population?

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