Assessing Diversity in my Classroom

     I teach in a special classroom for students whose eligibility are identified by the Government of Canada. I am a Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Instructor. This is a federally established English School Program for students who meet the criteria of being a Permanent Resident (PR) or Government Assisted Refugee (GAR) to Canada. On this first premise, my classroom is certainly homogenous as eligibility criteria is immigration status of PR or GAR.

     Additionally, Canada’s immigration policies inform who the newcomers to Canada will be in terms of what part of the world they come from, based on four categories of economic, family, protected persons and refugees and humanitarian. Canada specifically codified immigration as a means of meeting cultural, economic and social objectives (Cheatham, 2020) and it is these immigrants who satisfy the criteria for becoming students at my school.

     I came thinking I was going to be learning about how to improve and enhance cultural diversity in my class. However, the readings I have done this week have broadened my thinking teaching me that inclusivity means just that, include everyone! It means including race, literacy, abilities and any other factors which may put a group in comparative disadvantage (Valtierra and Siegel, 2019). In this respect, I do not believe my classroom is diverse either. I do not have students with disabilities, and in the whole school I have only seen one student with a noticeable limp. Additionally, because we deal with adults, the likelihood of assessing for cognitive or learning disabilities, or any other special education needs is almost non-existent.

     Adams, Harris and Jones (2016) inform their readers that inclusive education benefits for students with special education needs include the fundamental rights of the students regardless of abilities and disabilities, provides avenues of developing social skills, and access to quality education for students with special education needs. I notice many of the families in my school have someone in their home with a disability, but these family members are not students at my school.

     Another characteristic about my classroom is the high number of students whose life is shaped by their faith beliefs. In my classroom of nineteen to twenty-five students, almost half are Muslim, the other half Sikh, with one Christian.  This also makes my classroom quite homogenous.

     Anderson (2018) stated that to create inclusive classrooms, some things that are necessary include the preparation of teachers especially with pronouncing student names correctly, a curriculum that addresses inequality, a respectful school community with staff that reflect the student body and one that makes space for discussing difficult issues. This is one area in which my school excels. In fact, embedded in the curriculum is the requirement for students to be exposed to real-world situations in their learning. Therefore, issues of offensive foods, dress etcetera are quickly addressed as students go on field trips into the community. Issues of males and females being segregated are handled both in and out of the classroom as student seating does not accommodate complete segregation, nor do field trips and mingling in the community.

     My school being a specialized school is therefore not diverse in the sense that students are usually able-bodied and other kinds of cognitive disabilities do not tend to take precedence.

 

References

Adams, D., Harris, A., & Jones, M.S. (2016). Teacher-parent collaboration for an inclusive classroom: Success for every child. Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 4(3), 58-71.

Anderson, A. (2018, January 18). 7 ways to create an inclusive classroom environment. ASCD IN Service. http://inservice.ascd.org/7-ways-to-create-an-inclusive-classroom-environment/

 

Cheatham, A. (2020, August 3). What is canada’s immigration policy? Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved June 21, 2021, from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-canadas-immigration-policy

 

Valtierra, K. M., & Siegel, L. N. (2019, August 25). Dispositions for Inclusive Literacy: Fostering an Equitable and Empowering Education for Academically Diverse Learners [PDF]. Journal of curriculum and teaching. Retrieved June 8, 2021, from https://proxy.lirn.net/MuseProxyID=mp02/MuseSessionID=000o5yi/MuseProtocol=https/MuseHost=files.eric.ed.gov/MusePath/fulltext/EJ1227657.pdf

 

 

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