Diversity plays a significant role in encouraging students to appreciate their cultural backgrounds and embrace those of others. As a teacher, I believe that although students come from different cultural backgrounds, they can perform better in a class by interacting with others from different ethnic backgrounds. Through diversity, students can learn the benefits and problems of belonging to their culture (Davis, 2019). Students are enhanced to maximize their ethnic advantages while finding solutions to their problems. My educational philosophy is teaching to promote cultural diversity for the students’ benefit. I believe that classroom management should be interactive, involving students from all cultures and ethnic groups. Therefore, my instructional beliefs will discourage social issues such as racism and ethnic profiling.
My concept of learning is that it is an interactive activity involving learning from personal mistakes and the strength of others. A successful learning situation is when the students can interact with others without prejudicing against cultural backgrounds (Davis, 2019). My teaching concept integrates values of understanding and tolerance. Consequently, to me, a perfect teaching situation is where all the stakeholders see ethnicity as a strength and not a weakness. Goals for my students include critical thinking, problem-solving, and being culturally tolerant. I will encourage teamwork among my students to help them achieve the set goals. Visiting areas of cultural diversity will help in enhancing teamwork and goal attainment among my students.
The teacher-student relationship is important for problem identification and solution-finding. My interactions with students will involve the use of language that is culturally and ethnically sensitive. Working and interacting with students will help me understand their problems and help them solve them. I will take advantage of extra-curricular activities to mentor and advise my students. For instance, taking them through my journey as a student and an educator can help them understand their essence and potential. My goal is to become an accomplished teacher who promotes diversity. Joining professional bodies and taking advanced education courses will help me accomplish my goals. Therefore, the conviction to promote diversity in educational settings motivates me to become an educator.
Reference
Davis, J.L. (2019). Reframing professional learning to meet the needs of teachers working with Culturally Diverse Gifted Learners. In Best Practices in Professional Learning and Teacher Preparation. Routledge.