Roles of the Adult Educator
In regard to the Roles of the Adult Educator I found that this article shed some light on the true diversity of the students. We as educators must adapt not only our instructional methods and material but also modify our personal perceptions and prejudices. The points made regarding these perceptions and prejudices help us to conform to the needs of our multicultural classrooms, regardless of the culture, race or environmental situation.
Irish and Scrubb (2012) state that "A critical analysis of one's own cultural assumptions is foundational to culturally-responsive teaching and learning." Without analyzing through reflection, educators leave themselves open to shortcomings in instruction resulting from their own misconceptions or stereotypes that they direct toward their students. A simplified example of this is how many people, when trying to communicate with someone whose native language is different from their own, have a tendency to raise their voices. In cultures where raising your voice is only done in instances where the speaker is either angry or demeaning, this tendency of speaking louder can be misinterpreted easily for being rude or angry toward the student. This ultimately results in a loss of respect for the instructor by the student or worse, the student perceiving that the instructor doesn't respect them. In construction trades training it is easy to assume that basic construction skills are universal. This is not the case when the student has already begun learning in another country where resources, methods and environments are different from what we have here in Canada. If a worker who has come from Hawaii were to be instructed prepare a wood-framed wall for installation of drywall, he would likely leave out the steps of adding insulation or vapour barrier sheeting, since insulating a structure is not required on Hawaii. Being aware of such differences in the background of our students, is just one portion of the role we play as instructor in our diverse classrooms.
Five Competencies for Culturally Competent Teaching and Learning
I could really relate to what you blogged about the way we communicate with students that speak English as a second language and how we adjust our way of communicating with them without taking into consideration how this could be interpreted as being rude or angry.
ReplyDeleteJust last week a colleague of mine was talking to our airbrake instructor and felt that he was scary to deal with because of the way he spoke to her. I mentioned to the instructor that a couple of the staff members in our department were afraid to deal with him because they thought he was always very loud and cranky. After bringing this to the instructors attention the next time he came in he explained to the staff member that he was nearly completely deaf and as a consequence of that he speaks very loud. I agree that instructors need to be very conscious to the diversity of our students and make allowances where necessary.