Critical Topic #4

Critical Topic # 4
Understanding Your Student as well as
Incorporating Student’s Awareness into the Curriculum
By Kathleen Hagerty
As an educator, it is important to recognize that there are many different factors involved in being an effective facilitator of learning. Various elements involve being an educator that works with instructing in the multicultural setting. It is important as an educator to fully understand all students and where they come from. As a student, a child is able to identify the difference between the different ethnicities within their class. Gollnick and Chinn (2009) stated that between the ages of 4 and 5, a significant number of children are able to make ethnic identifications (p. 343). This is important to notice as an educator because that means that children are able to recognize that children are different within the classroom. It is important to be able to relate to their student’s self identification as well as their ethnical awareness.
As a child grows within the classroom, an educator sees how the ethical awareness could either develop into a positive awareness or into a negative influence of prejudice within the classroom. Gollnick and Chinn (2009) discussed how prejudice begins at a younger age than many assume. “Some children of color demonstrate an early preference for whites, and some white children indicate a preference for their minority group peers” (Aboud, 1988). These cultural preferences are not developed by the children individual or introduced by themselves. Unfortunately, the idea of race differentiation occurs through the ideas and concepts affiliated with their parents and adults around them.
Even though it is assumed that children do not develop the prejudice on their own it is not just parent’s statements that influence their choice and decisions on whether or not a child will become prejudice towards other races or groups or have a desire to learn towards a certain ethnic group. Besides being influenced by parents, Gollnick and Chinn (2009) stated that one proposed theory of prejudice in children is the social reflection theory (p. 343). This social reflection theory relates to how children are influenced by society. Another theory that is mentioned by Gollnick and Chinn (2009) is that children are influenced heavily by the media as well. The media encourages stereotyping as well as incorporating displaying prejudice viewpoints to openly see via television, newspapers, and the news. Gollnick and Chinn (2009) showed how both of the influences of parents and the media encourage students to have negative viewpoints of different ethnical groups (p. 344).
Through understanding both of these influences of children in regards to children, an educator needs to make a connection with children in regards to educating them on prejudice. It is important that an educator begins this instruction within the early childhood setting. This is important because at this time in a child’s life an educator will be able to focus on encouraging students to work on being less prejudice. “Because prejudice appears to be somewhat prevalent among young children (ages 4 to 7) and because children are cognitively capable of becoming less prejudiced, it would appear to be very appropriate to develop activities that have been shown to reduce prejudice during the early years of elementary school” (Gollnick and Chinn, 2009, p. 345). An educator developing different activities and instruction relating to the prejudices will encourage an adequate understanding between educator and student in regards to understanding their views and opinions of others within the world. It will allow the student to make connections and identify the prejudices in the world before it has developed into a negative aspect and view within the classroom setting and society.
References
Gollnick, D. M. & Chinn, P. C. (2009). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society (8th Edition) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.