INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
TEACHING IN MULTICULTURAL SETTING GROUP ASSIGNMENT
MAXIMUM WEIGHT (25%)

ID NO NAME SECTION SIGN REMARK

Tes/1022/08 MELAKU ADMAS A Group leader
YOHANNES MEBRATU A participated
ZELALEM A participated
ADERAW MEKONNEN A participated
YIRBEBU A participated
ZEWUDIE CHALACHEW A participated
ABRHAM CHEKOL A participated
JENSU A participated
A participated

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1. Discuss in detail the importance of multicultural education today’s society (3 pts).
Answer:
The importance of multicultural education is:
 Multicultural education seeks to give diverse students an equal change in school, life
and contributing to build a healthy community.
 One of its important goals is to help all students to acquire the knowledge, attitude
and skills to function in this new pluralistic and changing society.
 There is an interconnection between Culturally Relevant Methods, Anti-Bias
Curriculum, Diverse Family Structures, and Multicultural education that constructs
cultural competence.
 Multicultural education can be taught to the students by developing a culturally
relevant methods, Anti-Bias Curriculum, and Diverse Family Structures.
Teacher’s priority is to develop culturally relevant methods, where they will have the
opportunity to learn about the student’s family’s background, culture, religion,
priorities etc.
 Educators can build a strong relationship with the student, and their families; while
promoting parent involvement in the classroom; in order for the parents to witness
their children’s academic progress in a multicultural classroom.
2. Discuss in detail the importance of cultural diversity and how to support cultural
diversity in school? (4pts).
Answer:
The importance of cultural diversity:
 Promoting equality and diversity in education is essential for both teachers and
students.
 The aim is to create a classroom environment where all students can thrive together
and understand that individual characteristics make people unique and not 'different'
in a negative way.
 In addition, cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of being” that are
not necessarily our own, so that as we interact with others we can build bridges to
trust, respect, and understanding across cultures.

 Students Become More Empathetic. ...

 Students Gain a Better Understanding of Lessons and People. ...
 Students Become More Open-Minded. ...
 Students Feel More Confident and Safe. ...
 Students Are Better Prepared for a Diverse Workplace.

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 To support cultural diversity in schools.
1. Get to Know Your Students
Ensuring that cultural awareness is promoted in the classroom starts with the teacher
understanding each individual student. Take the time to learn about each student’s cultural
background, hobbies, learning styles, and what makes them unique.
2. Maintain Consistent Communication
Aside from getting to know our students, we should also continue to maintain ongoing
communication throughout the semester or school year. Scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with
students to “check in” every so often will allow we to consistently improve how accessible the
classroom is to everyone.
3. Acknowledge and Respect Every Student
It’s also important for students to celebrate and respect their own diverse backgrounds, as well
as each other’s. When appropriate, we should encourage students to research and learn about
their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This allows them to better understand their own
culture as well as the differences and nuances with their peers.
4. Practice Cultural Sensitivity
While it’s important to keep an open dialogue amongst students, it’s equally as important to
make sure we’re being sensitive to everyone’s culture, beliefs, and language concerns. Take
the time to understand each student’s cultural nuances – from learning styles to the language
they use – and use these insights to design your lesson plans.
5. Incorporate Diversity in the Lesson Plan
The classroom environment is important for fostering cultural awareness, but we also should
ensure diversity is represented in our actual lesson plan Or, use references and analogies to
other cultures in our lessons and assignments to help students with diverse backgrounds
personally connect
6. Give Students Freedom and Flexibility
I often feel like they need to take on a strict, authoritative approach when it comes to
managing their classroom. The most valuable lessons are often learned through a student’s
own experiences, so giving them some freedom in the course encourages more connection to
the curriculum.
3. In your professional experience and observation, what kind of difference do
you observe in your school among your students? (4pts).
Answer:
In our experience we observe the following differences amon our students:
Students have different levels of motivation, attitudes, and responses to specific
classroom environments and socioeconomic status.
The more thoroughly we understand these difference among the students that they
are teaching, the better the chance students have in learning what is being taught
Some of the most common differences in our schools are academic ability (or
intelligence), achievement level, gender, learning style, and religious and
culture.

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4. Discuss in detail on what looks like the nature of multicultural education
curriculum concerning the following points (2 pts each)
1. Content
2. Delivery(Teaching and learning strategies)
3. Teaching learning material
4. Assessment and evaluation strategies
Answer:

1. Content
Content must be complete and accurate, acknowledging the contributions and
perspectives of all groups.
Ensure that the content is as complete and accurate as possible.
Avoid tokenism—weave content about under-represented groups (People of
Color, Women, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People, People with Disabilities, etc.)
seamlessly with that about traditionally over-represented groups.
Study the history of discrimination in curriculum and ensure that you are not
replicating it.
 Are supporting stereotypes)?
 Are you supporting or challenging the assumption that our society is
inherently Eurocentric, male-centric, Christian-centric, heterosexual-
centric, and upper-middle-class centric?
2. Teaching and Learning Materials
Teaching and learning materials must be diverse and critically examined for bias.
Vary instructional materials.
 Texts
 Newspapers
 Videos/Movies
 Games
 Workbooks
Examine all materials for bias and oppressive content.
 Does your history book show stereotypical or inaccurate images of people
from certain groups or eras (ex. railroad workers)?
 Do your science materials use male-centric language?
 Do your reading or literature materials have racist language or
stereotypical images (ex. the Huck Finn debate)?
Diversify images and content in bulletin boards, posters, and other constantly-
visible materials.
 Do you ALWAYS diversify, or only during special months or
celebrations?

3. Assessment
Curriculum must be constantly assessed for completeness, accuracy and bias.
Work with a cohort of teachers to examine and critique each other's curricular
units, lesson plans, and entire frameworks.

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 Request and openly accept feedback from your students.
Return to this model from time to time to make sure you haven't reverted to
former practices.
4. Delivery
Delivery must acknowledge and address a diversity of learning styles while challenging
dynamics of power and privilege in the classroom.
Vary instructional techniques.
 Lecture
 Cooperative Learning
 Dialogue
 Individual Work
 Student Teaching
Understand the dynamics of power in the room so you do not perpetuate privilege
and oppression.
 Who do you call on?
 Who do you encourage to work through a problem and to whom do you
provide the answer?
Challenge the notion of Teaching as Mastery.
 Ask students what they already know about a topic.
 Ask students what they want to learn about a topic.
 Ask students to participate in the teaching of a topic.
5. What challenges teachers faced in addressing students’ diversity in
Ethiopian school? Suggest possible solution to minimize these challenges
(6pts).
Answer:
 In Ethiopia addressing student’s diversity is so difficult because there is
different culture, religious, languages, and ethnicity and there is the
matter of curriculum construct.
 In addition to this we mentioned the following challenges:

A- ETHNOCENTRISM:

We all have a natural tendency to look at other cultures through our own lenses. Ethnocentrism
happens when we implicitly believe our way of doing things and seeing things is the right and
only way. As a result, we negatively judge behaviors that don’t conform to our world vision. We
perceive other’s behaviors as odd and improper.

B- STEREOTYPING:
It’s also common to rely on oversimplified clichés about people from different cultures. In fact,
there are quite a few cross-cultural trainings in the market that are focused on memorizing
cultural differences and can reinforce stereotyping. Learning about differences can be useful as a

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starting point. But individuals are unique; you can never predict a person’s behavior based on his
or her nationality.
C- PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS:
To manage cross-cultural teams successfully, you need to flex your own style. It’s not easy to go
against your natural preferences. People can feel unauthentic and incompetent.
D- LANGUAGE BARRIERS:
There are many languages are used to communicate in our country, but when some people are
more fluent than others, it creates social distance between members. In national teams, people
who are less fluent in Amharic tend to withdraw from communication, which means the team
may not get all the input it needs. Understanding what’s said can be challenging if people speak
too fast or use too much slang. This also might have an influence on how people’s competence
and performance are perceived.
E- GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE:
People don’t get the chance to interact and build relationships with each other as in a traditional
office environment. And the less you know about people, the less you share information with
them. Differences in time zones also can be challenging. Often if you’re not in the headquarters,
you are expected to cope with meeting timings that are less convenient.
F- CONFLICTING VALUES:
Culture is like an iceberg: what you see are the behaviors, and those are influenced by the
invisible values under the water line.  Cultural clashes happen when other people’s behavior
compromises our own values. Often, when you don’t understand or don’t agree with a behavior,
it means that there are conflicting values under the water line. There is no right or wrong way of
doing things; it’s just a matter of cultural norms.
Suggest possible solution to minimize the above challenges:
 There are many ways to create possible solution to minimize the above challenges in
your classroom:
 Teaching other students about traditions, explaining the history and geography of
countries and regions, and sharing cultural experiences are some ways to let these
students know they are valued and welcome.\

1. Encourage open discussions. A multicultural atmosphere will encourage students

to recognize differences and similarities among all people. First, take the time to
educate yourself on the backgrounds of your students, as well as the populations
represented in your area. Encourage the students to share their traditions, including
holidays they celebrate, their favorite foods, and family traditions. It's important to
impart that while we are all equal, we are also unique.
2.  Remain aware of current events. Keep informed on anti-bias education issues
and incorporate them into your teaching. Post age-appropriate articles from
newspapers and magazines in the classroom so students understand that it is an
ongoing learning process.

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3.  Teach, don't preach. While it may be your instinct to "preach" to your students,
exhortation has been found to be ineffective when attempting to change prejudice
attitudes and may also produce the opposite result. Instead, provide opportunities
for students to resolve conflict and work in diverse teams.
4.  It starts at home. Involve parents, family members, and community members in
the learning process. These figures provide the context in which students are
motivated to learn and should feel interconnected with the classroom experience.
5. Challenging negative attitudes amongst students.
6. Avoiding stereotypes in curricular resources and examples.
7. Setting clear rules regarding how people treat each other.
8. Treating all students and staff equally and fairly.
9. Creating an all-inclusive environment for students and staff.
10. Actively using resources that have multicultural themes.
11. Working to promote multiculturalism in lessons.
12. Creating lessons that reflect and promote diversity in the classroom.
13. Making sure that all students have equal access to participation and opportunities.
14. Using a variety of assessment methods.
15. Using a range of teaching methods.
16. Ensuring that all procedures and policies are non-discriminatory.
17. Making sure that classroom materials never discriminate against anyone and are
accessible to all even if this means.