Curriculum Strategies to Prepare Teacher Candidates

for the Multicultural ClassroomWorkshop Presented at the

17th Annual International NAME ConferenceBaltimore, MD

November 2nd, 2007

Luz Carime Bersh, Ph. D.Keene State College

 

Agenda1. Greetings and Introductions2. Contextual Framework:

• Description• Purpose• Rationale

3. Discussion #1: Obstacles and resistance educators face when initiating discussions about multicultural issues.

4. Research on Whiteness-Reasons underlying resistance: Nakayama & Krizek’s Model (1995)

5. Engaging the White student/teacher candidate:• Cultural self-portraits• Values and beliefs inventory

6. Connecting with multicultural issues through empathy: Role-Playing Seedfolks (Fleishman, 1997)

7. Identifying multicultural factors leading to discrimination, bigotry, violence: Let’s Get Real (Chasnoff & Cohen, 2003)

8. Addressing real-life multicultural biases by developing integrated units based on cultural factors: Webs

9. Thematic multicultural textsets: Integrating child/adolescent literature across the curriculum

10. Discussion #2: Self-assessment11. Workshop evaluation

Contextual Framework

• Description:• Preparing teachers for the multicultural

classroom in the context of an increasingly pluralistic society is not an easy task. Students with limited exposure to multiculturalism need support to engage, connect and develop a transcultural understanding. This workshop focuses on sharing curriculum strategies developed in an undergraduate curriculum development course, which have supported White teacher candidates in preparing for the multicultural classroom.

Purpose:

• Engage participants in a critical discussion about the contextual complexities of teaching about multiculturalism and multicultural curriculum development to prospective teachers (in particular, the White teacher).

• Introduce curriculum strategies that support prospective teachers’ engagement in effective multicultural experiences that can be adapted and transferred into the K-12 classroom: Community Building and Multicultural Thematic Text Sets.

• Actively work in small groups to share, experience and assess the value of the strategies introduced.

Rationale:Caring at the core of curriculum

development: (Bersh, 2007)• Today’s curriculum focuses on teaching our youth the content and skills that

will allow them to produce, produce, produce! The No Child Left Behind imposes an economic-driven curricula that emphasize subjects that are tested at the expense of excluding the arts, physical education, social studies and even recess.

• I am not opposed to progress, nor radically opposed to economic-driven values. However, I am critical of trading these values for what is essential to the survival of humankind: The value of humanity itself and the value of our natural environment.

• Our society desperately needs a “back-to-the-basics” curriculum that will teach our youth not just the three “R’s”, but the essential values of humanity itself and our natural environment. Only then can we aspire to fully develop our humanity potential to become self-actualized as we find our position in society, not in a competitive, economic, value-driven race, but in a truly meaningful, interdependent and mutually caring place. What is the purpose of living without love? Is it worth living without happiness? Aren’t these the fundamental human drives for anything that we do?

• I strongly believe these are the questions we need to be addressing as we re-think what we should be teaching our youth.

Discussion Question:

• Why are teacher candidates (especially White, middle class students) resistant to participating in discussions about multicultural issues?

Nakayama & Krizek’s Model (1995)• White equals power. In this category, whiteness is viewed as “the

majority”, a privileged social position tied to white identity.• White is not color. In this category, whiteness is defined in

juxtaposition to what it is not: “ white means not having any other ‘blood lines’ to make it impure…one can only be white by not being anything else” (1995, p. 299).

• White is a scientific definition. It is ahistoric and lacks social status. Whiteness is tied to the biological determinism assumption that whiteness is strictly linked to skin color.

• White equals American. In this rhetorical strategy, whiteness is perceived as a normalizing invisible agent directly linked with nationality: Americans are White.

• White is intangible, therefore, it has no labels. This strategy is linked to the colorblindness attitude: I don’t see skin color; I see you as a human being.

• White is acknowledging a “symbolic ethnicity” (1995, p. 302). Whiteness: an identification with European ancestry. An acknowledgement of an ethnic European background, which in many cases, lacks any real meaning or value; it is used as an “accessory…[which] is not a substantial part of their everyday lives” and thus, is not a central factor in an individual’s cultural identity.

Beyond Nakayama & Krizek’s Rhetorical Strategies:

My findings (Bersh, 2006):

• White resistance to discussing multicultural issues stems from genuine fear of losing power and privilege to the other and the inability to feel like or identify with the other.

How do we help teacher candidates/students overcome this fear?

• ENGAGE

• CONNECT

• IDENTIFY biases

• ADDRESS biases through development of multicultural curriculum.

• SUPPORT with multicultural curriculum resources: Multicultural Textsets.

ENGAGE:

• Building TRUST through community building activities:

• CARING, CARING, CARING

• Go back-to-the-basics: “I share my humanity with you, you share yours with me”

Community Building:

• Among the most effective strategies for school violence prevention and intervention programs is establishing meaningful connections between students, teachers, and the school (E.G. Smith & Sandhu, 2004; Whitted & Dupper, 2005).

• The focus of these programs involve “developing emotional literacy skills, such as empathy and respect for the rights of others; boosting resiliency factors, such as self-esteem and academic success” (Smith & Sandhu, 2004, p. 287).

Community Building Strategies• Warm welcome:

Greetinghand-shaker

• Start where they are: Self-exploration/Cultural self-portraitsValues and Beliefs Inventory

• I have never… (you actually have!)• Pot luck day• Yoga /Salsa dancing• Show and Tell• Eye contact

“Touch base” every day before getting into subject matter:

• How are you feeling today?• How is your mother in the hospital doing?• Are you feeling better from the flu? • If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do?• International Day of the Beautiful Friend• Thank You cards• I found this cartoon/article/joke on the internet, I

thought you would enjoy.• What do we like about ourselves?• What would you like to change about your

attitudes/behaviors?• What are you going to do this weekend?

Corey’s testimony:

• “I will never forget our class and how much you have inspired me. I’ll start teaching Spanish this fall at Interlakes High. You have taught me the most important thing you can do in a classroom and that is to create an environment of trust and respect and that is exactly what I am going to do”.

Connect:

• Empathizing by role-playing:

Seedfolks, Fleischman (1997).

• Identifying cultural factors leading to discrimination: Let’s Get Real (Chasnoff & Cohen, 2003). (See multicultural web)http://www.newday.com/films/LetsGetReal.html

Address real-life multicultural biases

• Now what?

• In curriculum development teams, design integrated units based on topic stemming from a cultural factor.

Example:RACE

• Possible related unit topics (upper grades):• L.A. Riots• Immigration • Civil Rights Movement• Underground Railroad• Japanese Internment Camps• Rwanda’s Genocide• Holocaust• Family Diversity• Slavery

Example:RACE

• Possible related unit topics (lower grades):• Families• All about me• What makes us Unique• Colors everywhere• The Chinese New Year• Children around the World• Working for Peace• Friends

Support Curriculum Development:Using Multicultural Thematic

Text Sets• Help teacher candidates develop

multicultural thematic text sets with children and adolescent picture books.

• These support understanding of multiculturalism and expand content knowledge of curriculum resources teachers can implement in developing multicultural curriculum.

• (See bibliography)

References• Bersh, L.C. (2006) Deconstructing Whiteness: Prospective

Teachers Dig Beyond the Meanings of their Cultural Identities. (Article under review). Multicultural Perspectives.

• Bersh, L.C. (2007) Caring at the core of curriculum development. (Work in progress).

• Chasnoff and Cohen (2003) [DVD] Let’s Get Real.• Fleischman, P. (1997). Seed folks. NY: Harper Collins.• Nakayama T. K., & Krizek, R. L. (1995). Whiteness: A strategic

rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 81, 291-309.• Smith, D. C., & Sandhu,D. S. ( 2004). Toward a positive

perspective on violence prevention in schools: building connections. Journal of Counseling and Development. 82(3), 287.

• Whitted, K. S. & Dupper, D. R. ( 2005). Best practices for preventing or reducing bullying in schools. Children and Schools. 27(3), 167-175.