Running head: DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS ESSAY

Diversity of Informed Beliefs Essay

Robertson, Haley
Instructor: Dr. Egbert
EDUC 204: Families Communities Culture

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Abstract

Teachers have one of the most important careers in the entire world. They work with the
young minds of our society every day. Teachers have the unique ability to impact the
students that will be running our country in the future. When a teacher is effective,
students learn and the society benefits. As a teacher you create the foundation for your
students that they will continue to build on for the rest of their lives. People should teach
because they want to have a positive influence on the world we live in. They should not
want to teach for money, but for the students. Students need schooling because they need
to be educated for their futures, so that they can be as successful as possible. Because all
students are born into their own unique cultures, families, and communities, it is our
responsibility as teachers, to teach to these different aspects. Teachers should campaign
for equitable education for all students. We should also avoid discrimination, stereotypes,
and prejudice. Every child deserves an opportunity to thrive and learn in a safe
environment, in order to find their true passions. Every child is an individual, they each
deserve an opportunity to be successful.

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Diversity of Informed Beliefs Essay

Teachers in America are blessed with the opportunity to teach to a large diversity
of students. Just as no two students are the same, no classroom is the same. A primary
goal of culturally responsive education is to help all students become respectful of the
multitudes of cultures and people as well as becoming a well-educated involved member
of our society. This is a constant struggle for professional educators and continues to be
a long-term goal we are trying to conquer. Cultural diversity teaches our future leaders of
America many things; I will cover my system of informed beliefs in the next four main
points.
All Students Can Learn
Each and every student learns in their own unique way. Children have learning
styles that are individual to them; just like teachers have their own way of teaching. A
learning style is a consistent pattern of behavior and performance by which an individual
approaches educational experiences. According to Howard Gardner, there are seven
different multiple intelligences, or learning styles in which students learn their best.
Those seven intelligences are, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal,
intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical mathematical. Gardner says that these differences
"challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials
in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning.
Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward
linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward
logical-quantitative modes as well." Learning styles are influenced by the cultural
experiences of home, school, and society (as cited in Berns 2013, p. 205).

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Teachers are there to guide each child in participation and to provide support from
one success to the next. Lev Vygotsky defined the space in between what a learner can do
independently and what he or she can do while participating with more capable others as
the zone of proximal development or ZPD. I want to be a teacher that is sensitive to
each students ZPD and to provide appropriate independent and collaborative lessons that
enhance the learning of each student. I also want to make sure and teach to each child by
using direct instruction curriculum. This means dividing learning into smaller
segments of progression in order to gain mastery of specific subject content. In unique
cases, such as special education students I will devise an Individualized Education
Program with the student, their family, and the school. This is a form of communication
developed for the education of a child with special education needs, this team or group
of people is called a multidisciplinary team. Ultimately, the child is my number one
priority and I will pay close attention to each child and hopefully recognize any deficits
they are experiencing.

I will also hold high standards and expectations for each and every student in my
class. I will both model and support self-efficacy attitudes. Self-efficacy is the belief that
anyone can master a situation with positive results. In turn, this should promote a healthy
value of ones identity, in other words, self-esteem. If I can support these behaviors my
students should have a healthy self-concept of who they are as well. Self-concept is an
individuals perception of his or hers identity as distinct from others. I will not only hold
high standards, but I will promote goal setting and achieving as well. Once students
experience success, they should want to achieve it more each day and continue to
experience it throughout their lives.

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Students Social Ecology

All students are brought into this world in unique families, cultures, and
communities. Because of this, they are affected and influenced by their particular
surroundings. There are several ways that the social ecology of a child affects their
ability to learn. The chronosystem involves temporal changes in ecological systems,
producing new conditions that affect development. An example of a chronosystem is
something that has a significant societal influence, such as guns and weapons on campus.
Because there were so many tragic events, like the Columbine shooting, laws on guns
have become increasingly strict especially on school grounds.
The first basic structure is microsystems which are activities or relationships
during students developmental years, particularly in their family, school, peer group,
community, or media. The second basic structure is mesosystems which are linkages and
interrelationships between two or more of a persons microsystems. For example, home
and school or school and community. Many studies have found that a consistent
relationship between the joint effects of the family and school overtime lead to higher
academic performance (as cited in Berns 2013, p. 20). The third structure is the
exosystem, which refers to settings in which children are not active participants, but that
affect them in one of their microsystems. For example, their parents job or the school
board. The fourth structure, macrosystem consists of the society and subculture to which
the developing person belongs. With particular reference to the belief systems, lifestyles,
patterns of social interaction and life changes.
A person who lives in the United States is subscribed to the basic belief of
democracy, and ultimately influenced by that macrosystem. They may also be influenced

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by his or her ethnic group or culture. Ethnicity is an ascribed attribute of membership in

a group which members identify themselves by national origin, culture, race, or religion.
Culture is the learned or acquired behavior, including knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, customs, and traditions, that is the characteristic of the social environment in which
an individual group grows up. Overall, family, community, and culture all affect us as
individuals and in turn have consequences on our children.
Discrimination and Learning
Cultural diversity in the classroom is an issue that every teacher and students will
face. I will hold a strong belief in cultural pluralism, the natural appreciation and
understanding of various cultures. Students with an ethnic background will be treated
with the same upmost respect, and be held to the same high standards as each student in
my class. I will use their cultural backgrounds as a learning system in which they can
enlighten both me and my class on certain values, traditions, or practices of their culture.
Not only will I respect students of ethnic backgrounds, but I will teach them about the
culture of the majority. Segregation, discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice will be
unacceptable and I will hold a zero-tolerance policy for them not only in my class but in
my school.
Knowing which type of culture the student is raised in, will help the teacher adapt
their lessons to foster a learning environment that the student will excel naturally in
(Berns, 2013). I will make it my own personal goal to be as informed as possible about
different cultures and ethnicities. Individualist culture is one that emphasizes achieved
status, competition, and independence. It is found in high-context cultures such as
Western Europeans and middle class Americans. Collectivistic culture is cultures that

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teach group wellness, cooperation, and ascribed status, found in low-context cultures
such as Native Americans and Japanese. Cultural diversity is a great opportunity to teach
all students and open their minds to a culture beyond their small present world.
Equitable Education for All Students
Every student is entitled to an equitable and free education no matter their
socioeconomic status, ethnic background or family life. FAPE or Free Appropriate
Public Education is a law that public education is no extra cost to the parents. There are
many external forces that directly affect a childs education, such as divorce, poverty,
dual income families, and even homelessness. Children may even come from low SES
families, which can often require even more support because their needs are not met at
home. I will make the effort to reach out to each child and show them not only how much
I care for them, but how important it is for them to be in school, and that they deserve it.
I want to provide a safe environment for my students when they walk into my
classroom. Every child deserves an opportunity to learn and find their true passion in life.
As a teacher, it is my goal to keep all students engaged and excited to learn. I will do this
with different assessment strategies. Authentic assessments are evaluations based on
real performance; they will help relieve the tension that a regular pen and pencil test
create. I also want to use extravagant attention getters at the beginning of lessons. This
will help to absorb their imaginations and get them thinking about something they want
to learn.
I want to not only engage some of my students, but every last one of them. I will
find specific ways to engage students who are gifted and talented as well as students who
have special needs. For gifted and talented students, I will realize they need to sometimes

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be taken away from their peer groups in order to work to their best ability. I will create an
IEP when needed and try to keep special needs children with their peers when possible. It
is my goal to accommodate all of the children in my class to the best of my abilities.
In conclusion, all students are unique individuals that need to be treated this way
in order to strive in their environments. In order to give students the best chance of
success, I will hold to the belief that all students can learn, although it may be different
for each. I will be aware of each and every students social ecology, and I will also avoid
discrimination. Instead, I will use different cultures and ethnic backgrounds as learning
experiences for both me and my students. I will also support equitable education for all
students. By using these strategies, I hope to engage each and every student and teach
them to value and love education; for it is something that cannot be taken away from
them.

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References
Berns, R.M. (2013). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support (7th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.