This document discusses key concepts and strategies for creating a culturally responsive social studies classroom. It defines terms like multicultural education, ethnicity, and cultural pluralism. It recommends approaches like the contributions approach and transformative approach for incorporating multicultural perspectives. The document also addresses gender issues like developmental sexism and guidelines for avoiding sexism in teaching. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of adapting instruction to students' diverse cultural and individual needs and promoting inclusion, understanding and respect for all.

1. Ch. 16
Diversity in the Classroom…
…The Children You Will Teach

2. e pluribus unum

3. True or False?

4. Different cultures have similar
needs but choose to satisfy those
needs in dissimilar ways.

5. A person can be a part of an
ethnic group from their own self-
determination.

6. The Tourist Approach is the
highest level of multicultural
infusion in the classroom.

7. PL 94-142 (1975) clarified the rights parents
had for educating their special needs
children.

8. Biological and environmental
forces merge to bring about
gender identity.

9. Developmental sexism occurs
at puberty.

10. Teachers have a tendency to
ask male students more
questions.

11. Multicultural education is an approach to
classroom methodology and content
selection that recognizes and values the
complex dimensions of American cultures
and society.

12. Multicultural Education Terms
• More than 100 ethnic groups are
represented in America
– melting pot: losing one’s cultural identity and
becoming fused into a new product; the
amalgamated American citizen
– cultural pluralism: a society of multiple
cultures retaining their unique characteristics
that are identifiable within the larger design;
philosophy that now describes American
society

13. Multicultural Education Terms
–multicultural education: an approach
to classroom methodology that
recognizes and values the complex
dimensions of American cultures and
society
–culture: system of behaviors, beliefs,
customs, and attitudes (reflected in the
groups’ artwork, literature, language,
clothing, inventions, and traditions)

14. Multicultural Education Terms
– ethnic group: community of people within
a larger society that is socially
distinguished or set apart by others or self
on the basis of racial and/or cultural
characteristics, such as religion, language,
and tradition (German, Native American,
etc.)
– ethnicity: deep feeling of personal
attachment to an ethnic group
– ethnocentrism: tendency to view one’s
culture as absolute best

15. Culture
A person’s culture can be multi-dimensional.
A person could be not only an African
American Protestant but also southern,
hearing impaired, a farmer, male, and middle
class.
Think about your own cultural identity. What
various cultures do you feel shape who you
are?

16. Multicultural Education
Early in the twentieth century our country experienced the arrival
of about 18 million immigrants. Most of those people came
from the countries of Ireland, France, Italy, England, Germany
and other Eastern European areas.
Beliefs that all immigrants could, upon arrival, lose their ethnicity
and become a single group, would fade as it became evident
that the strengths and cultural traditions came along with the
people-and stayed.
What are those two beliefs called?

17. Culture and Ethnicity
• All individuals belonging to a group-whether an
ethnic group, religion, peer group, or family-have a
culture, or a system of behaviors, beliefs, customs
and attitudes.
• Culture is reflected in the group’s artwork, beliefs,
customs, style of clothing and traditions.
• Cultures have similar needs but often choose
to satisfy those needs in dissimilar ways.
What are some examples?

18. How Are Multicultural Perspectives Incorporated into the
Social Studies Curriculum?
Tourist Approach-Most widely used-offers special
activities or projects only when a significant cultural
holiday or special observance comes around.
Although it is carried out with the best of intentions
it rarely broadens the children’s understandings of
people and cultures that are different from their
own.
(Also known as the Contributions Approach.)

19. Banks (2009) suggests reform best takes place when the
following 4 approaches are blended into actual teaching
situations:
1. The Contributions Approach-(another label for the tourist
approach) allows teachers the opportunity to add ethnic
content to the curriculum without investing time, effort and
training needed to rethink and restructure the entire program of
study. Often tacked on rather than developed or explored.
Holidays: How can they be a blessing and a curse for authentic
multicultural education?
2. The Additive Approach-method of including alternative ethnic
perspectives and viewpoints into the traditional curriculum,
without major revision of program. Example: a cross-cultural
study of folk-tales.

20. Incorporating Multicultural Perspectives into the Social
Studies Curriculum
3. The Transformative Approach-employs strategies that
enable students to view concepts and issues from multiple
points of view. Requires a total make-over of the curriculum
to allow for the use of sophisticated problem solving and
decision making skills to be used to examine historical and
social events from different points of view.
4. The Social Action Approach -takes in all elements of the
transformative approach, but adds a component that requires
students to take social actionstudents to take social action related to the concept or issue
being studied. (“To know and to not do is to not know.”-
Chinese proverb)

21. Goals of Multicultural Education: a delicate balance of
diversity and unity.
We, as educators, should keep the following goals in mind:
1. Recognize and respect ethnic and cultural diversity
2. Promote societal cohesiveness based on the shared participation of
ethnically and culturally diverse peoples
3. Maximize equality of opportunity for all individuals and groups
4. Facilitate constructive societal change that enhances human dignity
and democratic ideals.
www.socialstudies.org/positions/multicultural
The NCSS advises multiculturalism should promote
neither ethnocentricism nor nationalism. Rather, personal
ethnic identity and knowledge of diverse ethnic identities
is considered indispensible for promoting understanding
and respect.
It should NOT be reserved only for special occasions or events!!

22. Characteristics of Culturally Responsive
Teaching
Acknowledges the legitimacy of the cultural heritages of different
ethnic groups as worthy content to be taught in the formal curriculum.
Builds bridges of meaningfulness between home and school
experiences as well as between academic abstractions and lived
socio cultural realities.
Uses a wide variety of instructional strategies that are connected to
different learning styles.
Teaches students to know and praise their own and each others’
cultural heritages.
Incorporates multicultural information, resources, and materials in all
the subjects and skills routinely taught in schools.
(Gay,2013)
Culturally relevant pedagogy-
Teaching with students’ various cultures
in mind.

23. What Does a Culturally Responsible
Social Studies Classroom look like???
Establish a democratic classroom-
students must feel respected and respect others.
Begin with the ‘Here and Now’ of students’ lives-
focus on the cultural and ethnic groups
represented by the school population.
Use numerous and varied instructional resources-musi
Use assorted instructional strategies-see
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Understand and recognize language diversity.

24. Educating children with special needs.
Public Law 101-476, the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990, defines children with
disabilities as those:
A.With mental retardation, hearing impairments
including blindness, serious emotional
disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism,
traumatic brain injury, other health
impairments, or specific learning disabilities
B. And, who, by reason thereof, need special
education and related services.

25. The Concept of Inclusion
According to our textbook, Inclusive classrooms
operate with a conviction that it is discriminatory
not to include all students in a regular classroom
regardless of handicapping condition.
• Public Law 94-142 --signed into law in 1975 and
implemented in the fall of 1978.
• In 1990 amended to clarify what parents could
demand for their children with disabilities
• Most recent revision- IDEA-Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act passed by Congress in
2004 and published in 2006. Original intent
remains the same: to educate as many children
with disabilities as possible in the regular
classroom while still meeting their individual
needs.

26. Reality: this can be a daunting challenge for
teachers!
An important consideration in meeting this
challenge is to acquire a positive
attitude toward inclusion for the
individual needs of all students.

27. Consider the following suggestions…
o Learn about each specific disability-get to know the
child and child’s family. Make a home visit. Research the
disability, remember, ‘knowledge is powerful’. Talk with
former teachers or other specialists who have had
previous contact with the child.
o Maximize interactions between children with
special needs and nondisabled children-encourage
children with disabilities to share about their handicap with
the other students. (Children are naturally curious and are
often more open to ‘inclusiveness’ than adults.)
o Individualize your program-start where the child is
and proceed from there. Plan a sequential program to
encourage him or her to build one skill on another.

28. Consider the following suggestions…
o Assess your classroom environment-the
classroom should offer a safe environment where all
children feel accepted, with or without special needs.
o Choose books that help children learn about
and appreciate diversity-literature can be one very
important path to understanding and acceptance.
See page 338 for several good books to use for a
variety of special needs.

29. Gender
Does biology alone determine gender-
specific behavior?

30. Gender and Classroom Instruction…
Gender identity emerges from dynamic
interactions of biological && environmental forces.
Through environmental manipulation,
children unwittingly acquire a gender
frame of reference that explains what it
means to be a boy or a girl. This happens
early, around the age of 2, and by 5 or 6
years of age a child has a firm grasp of
the stereotypical behavior of their gender.

31. What do you notice about this picture?

32. Developmental Sexism
Despite attempts to raise children in bias-free
environments, a phenomenon referred to as
developmental sexism seems to develop.
This means that young children grow to be
enormously sexist in their perception of
gender roles and choice of play activities.

33. Gender Constancy
Gender Constancy:
Children learn early in life they
permanently belong to a category called
‘boy’ or ‘girl’. Once this is realized, they
organize the world into ‘girl’ or ‘boy’
categories and become powerfully
attached to their gender (Kohlberg, 1912).

34. Gender Role Stereotype….
Elementary School Teachers:
• Ask boys more questions
• Give boys more precise
feedback
• Criticize boys more
frequently
• Give boys more time to
respond
In general, it appears boys
get more attention from
teachers than girls.
Do you agree?
American Assoc. of
University Women
(AAUW) reports “there is
clear evidence the
educational system is not
meeting girls needs”.
• Girls fine motor skills tend
to be stronger than boys
• Girls fall behind boys in
higher level mathematics
& self esteem

35. Guidelines to avoid Sexism in Teaching….
Avoid Stereotyping Masculine and Feminine Roles:
 Examine ways you limit options open to boys and girls.
 Remain open minded in discussions of male and female roles
Use Gender-Free Language Whenever Possible:
 Be sensitive to using masculine terms to refer to all people. Example-
Police Officer replaces Policeman , “you guys”, etc.
 Find ways for children to learn to interpret gender roles less rigidly.
Make Sure Your Classroom Materials Present an Honest View of Males
and Females:
 The activities and materials you choose for your classroom should resist
gender stereotyping.
 Use books that show children and adults engaged in a variety of
activities, regardless of gender.

36. Guidelines to avoid Sexism in Teaching….
 Balance the Contributions of Men and Women in the Social
Studies Program: According to Banks (1992) the suggestion is
made that women can be virtually ignored in History Books.
Using the textbook accounts of the Civil Rights Movements he
maintains the work of men in the movement were recorded
while those of influential women were not included with the
same attention.
 Schools that foster positive gender roles will help children
value the likenesses and differences in themselves, thereby
taking an important step toward alleviating the damage
resulting from long-ingrained patterns of sexism in our society.

37. Additional Thoughts
• Adapt the social studies classroom to meet every
child’s ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and special needs.
• Provide the child with the time, opportunities,
resources, understanding, and affection to achieve
the important goals of social studies education.
• Affirm individual differences by eliminating bias from
the elementary school environment.
• Make sure every child feels appreciated and
respected
• Provide experiences that reflect an understanding
and appreciation for individual and cultural
differences.

38. Final Thoughts …….
Teachers continue to plan and implement activities that
meet the needs of “the average” learner, while
assuming those who do not learn have no one to
blame but themselves.
THE best behavior management strategy (IMHO) is to
empower all students to experience belonging,
autonomy, and competence.
“Children thrive under good teachers who delight in
children being who they are”, (Maxim, p.343).

39. DReferences:
Banks, J.A. (2013). Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies. Boston:
Pearson
Bennett, C.I. (2007) Comprehensive Multicultural Education: Theory
and Practice. Boston: Pearson.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: multiple Intelligences for
the 21st
Century.
New York: Basic Books
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research and
Practice.
New York: Teacher’s College Press.
Gilbert, B. (2002, September). New Horizons for Learning. Retrieved
from www.newhorizons.org
Kohlberg,L(1912) In G. R. Lafrancois, Of Children. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Class Textbook
Staubs, M. (2015). Teaching Social Studies. Pearson Custom
Education, Pearson Publishing. New York: Pearson Custom
Publishing.
Addisyn & Jackson: Photo used with parental permission