Since
I was brought up in a small homogeneous, island country, Japan, I did not
really know about different cultures when I was young and different cultures
were something I was longing for because I saw them only on TV. Foreign people I
met were American missionaries and English teachers and they were so nice to
me. Therefore, I had only a positive impression of different cultures. Although
I learned about racial discrimination in history and social studies classes,
the people who lived in the U.S. were all “Americans” to me.
My university in Japan is
proud of its interdisciplinary and international studies and invites
students from all over the world. I became friends with not only Americans and
Europeans, but also students from the other Asian countries. It was a very fun
and exciting experience to me. When I first went to the U.S., racial difference
was not even a problem because I was treated equally, even though I was one of
minority students and did not speak English perfectly. Therefore, I took it for
granted that no racial difference existed around me even in the U.S. and was
thinking other people with different races were treated equally as well. I also
made friends with students from other races.
I think creating a good personal
relationship with people with different cultural or linguistic background is a
key. We tend to make generalizations about different cultures or races but they
do not always hold true of them. If we get to know and like a person, whatever
race or culture he or she may have, he or she will be just someone we like. We,
teachers should look at a student as an individual student and avoid judging
him or her based only on his or her race or culture. Educators need to create
classroom settings in which culture, ethnicity, and race are not only
considered, but in which they are validated and confirmed (Chenowith, 2014, p.39).
If a teacher of dominant
culture think his or her culturally diverse students must follow his or her
cultural norms in the classroom, the teacher will put the students at a
disadvantage. For example, since Japanese people value silence, Japanese
students often remain silent even when a teacher ask their opinions. If one of
such Japanese students starts to learn in a classroom in the U.S., he or she
might be judged incompetent by the teacher. Therefore, I always believe
teachers need to be culturally open-minded, otherwise, they misjudge culturally
diverse students. As cited in Schulz,
Hurt, & Lindo (2014), despite the increasing number of students from
non-dominant ethnic or cultural groups, professional school counselors and
educators in the United States public school system often have difficulty
openly addressing issues of diversity in the classroom context (p. 3). Teachers of dominant culture should
try to know different cultures and when they face any challenging situations due
to cultural difference, they should share the problems with their colleagues or
school leaders so that the school can openly address cultural issues.
References
Chenowith,
N. H. (2014). Culturally responsive pedagogy and cultural scaffolding in
literacy education. Ohio Reading Teacher,
44(1), 35-40.
Schulz,
L., Hurt., & Lindo, N. (2014). My name is not Michael: Strategies for promoting
cultural responsiveness in schools.
Journal of School Counseling,12(2), 1-35.
