Mod 7 Discussion: Cross Cultural Awareness

First the resource and the idea. The resource I chose was Critical Multicultural Pavilion: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activityarch.html. I chose this resource because in order to a good job of teaching cultural sensitivity to our students, to help them bridge the gap between cultures, we must first examine our own cultural sensitivity. While the site is primarily for teachers and does not provide specific classroom suggestions as far as what to teach, it does provide a kind of framework for how to approach your students in a classroom setting. It also provides resources to help teachers create more equitable curriculum.

I particularly liked the material presented in “Strategies and Preparation” which included a variety of activities designed to help teachers gain insight into their own cultural sensitivity. Circle of My Multicultural Self requires that teachers (participants) reflect on what are the most important dimensions of their identity. Sharing Ourselves: Who Am I poems gives teachers/participants the opportunity to write a poem reflecting on who they are. This is the first step towards understanding one’s own level of bias. Both of these activities could be easily adapted to the classroom and give students an opportunity to begin understanding their own identity and their own cultural sensitivity.

Finally, there is the application of this understanding as it might be applied to understanding the multicultural interpretations of the curriculum itself. In this context of encouraging students to engage in a deeper exploration of the text (for I teach English), I focus on how an understanding of the cultural perspective of the author shapes the meaning of the work and how an accurate understanding of that cultural perspective is crucial to understanding the work itself. I use a pair of poems to teach this lesson: “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Dunbar, and “Jabari Unmasked” by Nikki Grimes. Paul Dunbar wrote “We Wear the Mask” in 1895. The poem is on the surface a poem about how African-Americans survived racism in the 1890s. African-Americans wear “the mask” to protect themselves from the dominant “white” society. However, the poem is also an example of writing in Code-Speak, so that while white readers would get the surface meaning; African-American readers would also understand the code-speak message that emerges from the poem. A high degree of cultural awareness is needed to get both meanings. The poem “Jabari Unmasked” pays homage to Dunbar’s poem but the message is shaped for modern middle school and high school students. The message is do not hide your selves, but display your true self fiercely. Again, a high degree of cultural sensitivity is needed to understanding the full impact of this poem.