Understanding our students

1)Do you think educators hold different expectations for minority children?

2)How should we honor students’ personality, family, culture, and religion in the learning environment?

3)To what extent do you recognize students’ background and emotional baggage?

We can find much evidence that demonstrates that educators hold lower expectations for minority children, as Nieto (1996) states. Teachers usually have a lack of faith in students from socially subordinated groups. In my opinion, students can easily perceive this fact through common events that take place in the classroom. For instance, minority children are usually less likely to be called in class and they are required activities that demand the use of lower-order thinking skills. As a consequence, they can believe that they are less able than other students.

To prevent this from happening, teachers ought to be socioculturally conscious. This means, they are aware that every student learns in a different way depending on his or her previous experiences of the world. Therefore, teachers have to adapt the strategies they use in the classroom to their students and their background. However, it is important that those children still receive meaningful input and they have an active role in the classroom.

Personally, I haven´t been still working as a teacher in a school. However, I can recognize some concrete ways of being socioculturally conscious, such as: getting to know children´s families and environments or taking into account student´s background and emotional baggage.