Director
BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)
Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"
The Letter 'U'...
Uniting in the future in
many different ways
There will be marriages,
weddings, and wonderful things
Arranged, sehra,
tea-ceremony, ketubah, pamanhikan
Tsyhanshchyna, zaffa, karamu, and golden rings
Unbelievable are all our
differences, still all can agree that we:
- ultimately want to be good students
- stand united in class
- once had an umbilical cord
- ask the teacher for help when we are uncertain
- feel adventuresome when searching for the undiscovered
- sometimes undervalue our personal strengths
- know we are an important part of the universe
- often look high for a UFO
- try to uphold our values
- know how to print the letter U
Teaching a multicultural or
diversity-related course can create a tremendous challenge, and if not
carefully approached, can generate and escalate students’ defensiveness and
negative dispositions, which can contribute to defeating the whole purpose of
multicultural education. Greenman & Kimmel (1995) note, “the road to
multicultural education is paved with good intentions, but rutted with potholes
of resistance”. My personal odyssey sheds some insights. As I look back on that
first experience of teaching multicultural education, I can safely say that the
students rejected the ideas I presented because they felt impacted by the
issues which they perceived scapegoated the white race of which a vast majority
of them claimed membership and because they were determined to protect their
cultural hegemony, which resulted in defensive attitudinal behavior …
… those of us in teacher
education who teach multicultural education courses will continue to struggle
with ways to prepare preservice teachers who are inexperienced and parochial in
their worldview and who exhibit high levels of defensiveness when enrolled in
multicultural/diversity courses. Yet, in each class, I do believe that the
multicultural experience surprisingly touches some and makes a difference in
their lives.
Ukpokodu, Nelly
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