1. Student Diversity: Culture, Language, and Gender
EDUC Chapter 4

2. Dimensions of Diversity
Culture
Language
Gender
Development
Ability
Exceptionalities

3. Diversity Terms Culture Cultural Diversity Ethnicity
The knowledge, attitudes, values, customs and behavior patterns that characterize a social group.
Cultural Diversity
The different cultures that you'll encounter in classrooms and how these cultural differences influence learning.
Ethnicity
A person’s ancestry; the way individuals identify themselves with the nation they or their ancestors come from.

4. Urban Schools and Diversity
Cultural minorities
Are majorities in 48 of 100 largest U.S. cities
Are majorities in 6 states
Comprise 90% of students in
Chicago
Detroit
Houston
Los Angeles
District of Columbia
Percentage of minority students predicted to increase in the
future

5. Diversity in Utah Schools

6. Cultural Attitudes, Values, & Interaction Patterns
Learned at home and in neighborhood
Influence school success, both positively and negatively
Require both teacher sensitivity and adaptability

7. Educational Responses to Cultural Diversity
Multicultural education:
A variety of strategies schools use to accommodate cultural differences in teaching and learning
Salad bowl or mosaic versus melting pot
Culturally responsive teaching:
Instruction that acknowledges and accommodates cultural diversity
Accepting and valuing cultural differences
Accommodating different cultural interaction patterns
Building on students’ cultural backgrounds

8. Bilingual Education
Bilingual Maintenance language programs: use and sustain the first language
Immersion programs: emphasize rapid transition to a new language
English as a Second Language (ESL) programs: focus on English in academic subjects
Transition programs: maintain first language while students learn English

9. Bilingual Education
Controversial because critics fear the loss of English as U.S. language
26 states have official English language legislation
De-emphasized by No Child Left Behind
Proponents claim it is effective, humane, and practical.
Critics claim it is divisive, ineffective, and inefficient.

10. ESL Programs English as a Second Language
ESL endorsement
Alternative Language Services (ALS)
English Language Learners (ELL)
Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

11. Gender Gender influences career choices.
Gender-role identity creates differences in expectations and beliefs about appropriate roles and behaviors.
Stereotypes create rigid and simplistic caricatures of groups of people.
Single-gender classrooms and schools separate male and female students.