Teaching Strategies I: Avoiding Bias Cecilia Moore-Cobb English and Humanities Department

The teacher is the single most influential element in the classroom. (Mushi 5) NCCC instructors are predominantly white, monolingual, and come from middle class backgrounds. (Gandara 21)

Teachers and students carry with them into the classrooms their personal cultural backgrounds. Latino students are: Less likely to have had early childhood education. More likely to be enrolled below grade level. More likely to be enrolled in remedial classes. More likely to have the highest drop out rate. (Science Education)

Faculty and administrators strategy often is to Americanize foreign-born or newly immigrated children. Societys pressures for conformity explicitly or implicitly determine individuals status. (Mushi 11) Those of us who are North Americans often do not recognize diversity among Latino students. There is no definitive Hispanic perspective and no monolithic interpretation of a definitive Hispanic perspective. (Teaching for Inclusion 1)

MYTHS: All Latino students are fluent in Spanish. Students with Spanish speaking skills can also read and write in Spanish.

Statement with hidden, subconscious negative connotations: I am enjoying my class; even my Mexican students are doing well. Identification by language ability: One of my students is a young woman with a Spanish accent.

Compounding the problem of both overt and hidden bias is the fact that Hispanics are not an officially recognized minority population, an omission that results in inadequate resources and support services. (Teaching for Inclusion 2)

Teaching Strategies II: PracticalApplications

As instructors, we can: recognize that we may be perpetrating cultural preconceptions quite unintentionally; look introspectively at our own cultural backgrounds; realize the effects of our enculturation as we interact with our Latino students.

Avoiding Bias: Specific Modifications to Classroom Activities Suggestions 1 – 9 are listed in workshop notebook...

Did you ever stop to think... that the U.S. now has an unofficial second language? »SPANISH! ¿Hablan Uds. español?

Please look in the workshop notebook for suggestions to eliminate language barriers in the classroom.

At the heart of Latino students academic success is the colleges collective understanding of the role of culture in acquiring knowledge. Latino instructors are less likely to refer Latinos to remedial education Non-Latino instructors have more difficulty identifying gifted Latinos than they have identifying other races and ethnicities. (Gandara 2)

Cultural beliefs must be integrated into program curricula, teaching strategies, and educational resources. Learn history and experiences of Latino students. They know when we have done our homework; therefore, we build credibility. Understand historical impact on current conditions, thus clarifying the impact of immigration patterns on our particular Latino students. Modify syllabi to include Hispanic-American contributions, culture, and history to correlate topics taught.

TEAMS SHOULD LOOK IN THE WORKSHOP NOTEBOOK FOR Adapting Latino and Anglo Worlds into a Third System.

IN CONCLUSION Demonstration of knowledge may embarrass those who do not know Team members who do not work are not offensive. Destiny, fate, and other religious forces control achievement. Helping others during a test is acceptable.

And... Needs of the group overshadow needs of the individual. ¡Muy Importante! The good of the whole is often more important than the individuals goal – a concept foreign to the Anglo learning experience.

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