06/05/19 week 7 response to: cross-cultural students in the classroom

One of the most debated topics when it comes to culture in the classroom, is how to deal with students of different cultures. Or in other words, how should the teacher approach a cross-cultural classroom. Differences in culture can cause some misunderstandings both from the part of the teacher as well as from the student's perspective, and sensitivity on the subject is expected in order to mitigate conflicts that might arise.

Expressiveness is one of those cultural differences that can cause some misunderstandings in the classroom. Just as professor Ivers mentioned in his class, an African American student who is very expressive, may be considered disrespectful by a teacher who is from a less expressive culture. But it might just be that in the student's mind, he or she is acting in accordance to their societal rules.

there could be many examples that could be mentioned with regards to differences in culture that can cause some sort of conflict. But the bottom line is, in a cross-cultural classroom, the teacher's role as mediator becomes more and more prominent in order to maintain the peace.

Comments

Jeanine said…
Good post Henry!