The knowledge about multicultural perspective plays an important role in the teaching arena both to the learners and instructors. In the current world, teachers are ought to be well informed about the contemporary issues that occurs as a result of the diverse culture that exist. Teachers should teach with a cultural perspective in order to enhance students’ perceptive and admiration of the diverse cultures that exists.
Similarly, teachers are supposed to be well aware on how to handle students with various disabilities so that to meet individual needs for their diverse learners. Thus, leaning about multicultural perspective and student disabilities helps the teacher become more effective while teaching so that to better address the diverse special needs and uniqueness of their learners.
The class on multicultural perspective was very instrumental to me as a learner and also on my teaching carrier. It helped me to understand and appreciate my culture and that of others. Before then, I used to perceive my culture as being more superior to others and I looked down to other cultures as being inferior and outdated.
More often I could run into logger heads with some of my classmates whom cultures were different whenever I could comment negatively about their culture. My attitude towards other cultures acted as a big obstacle to my good association with some of my classmates that belonged to different cultures. My negative perspective about other cultures developed since I was a kid.
My caregivers instilled me with very negative attitudes about other cultures and especially the African and Asian cultures. They considered African as being very primitive, while they perceived the Asian as being violent. It was after attending the class on cultural perspective, that I realized that it was my childhood upbringing that influenced me to develop that negative perception on other cultures.
I was brought up in United Kingdom in a place where almost everyone that I interacted with was white. Thus, all my neighbors, classmate and teachers belonged to a common culture that they all perceived as being very superior.
The knowledge about cultural perspective enlightened me that children perception about their culture and that of others starts to develop during their early days. Children are considered as being prone to attitudes, opinion and cultures of those they spend most of their time with.
Caregivers’ views about ethnic and racial groups sway children perceptions about the marginalized cultures. Thus, teachers and mostly early childhood educators should instill the children they teach with positive perceptions about the diverse cultures that exist in their classes (Rey, 1991).
Teaching about Multicultural perspective should entail instructors instilling their learners with a positive self-concept. This will be realized by concentrating on those activities that highlight the diversities and similarities of all children. For instance, children’s play and particularly those on role play can be a very effective strategy for influencing learners with positive perspectives and lifestyles.
In addition, teachers should be able to learn the background of their learners so that to be in better position to assist learners appreciate their culture and that of others. Moreover, the teacher should share his/her heritage so that to reinforce students acceptance of the similarities and differences of others (Vavrus, 2002).
Student disability varies from physical impairment, learning disabilities, psychological disabilities, to severe health problems. All these students need special attention. The class on student with disabilities helped me to learn on how to understand these learning disabilities.
The class on disability was very important to me as a learner because it enabled me understands and appreciates the special talents that were present in some of my disabled classmates. It helped me learn to stop pitting them, but instead appreciate their special talents and assist them accordingly.
As a teacher, the knowledge about disability enlightens me to learn on the strategies that I should employ while teaching such learners to make the learning more effective. Furthermore it helped me also learn on how to manage the classroom so that they are not discriminated by the others.
In conclusion, the classes on multicultural perspective and disability were very effective on my life as a learner and a teacher since they impacted me with the required skills to manage such cases.
Reference List
Rey, G. (1991). Teaching with a Multicultural Perspective. Web.
Vavrus, M. (2002). Transforming the multicultural education of teachers. New York: Teachers College Press.