Cultural Sensitivity Reflection - Essay Example

Cultural sensitivity reflection: There exists no doubt in the fact that cultural competency and sensitivity presently relate profoundly to the work of a classroom teacher as in this age of intense cultural diversity, there is always a greater chance for a teacher to work with students coming from diverse backgrounds. It definitely remains an essential job of the teachers to understand cultural sensitivity when teaching a multilingual class. The basic purpose of this reflection paper is to discuss how cultural sensitivity relates to a teacher’s job when working with the students, parents, staff, and community members.

A culturally competent teacher knows perfectly well how to relate the skill of cultural awareness with his/her work which includes dealings with the students, parents, staff, and community members almost on daily basis. Acting in a culturally competent manner becomes especially important in a classroom as that is the place where a teacher has to deal with the students in a very direct manner. “Culturally responsive teaching does not incorporate traditional educational practices with respect to students of color” (Gay, 2000).

Parents often have a hard time adjusting to the reality of teaching their children in a culturally sensitive environment. This is why teachers should take care to acknowledge cultural sensitivity when dealing with the parents of their students and they can do so by effectively bridging the communication gap in order to win the trust of the parents. When dealing with parents, a teacher should help them understand how he/she intends to use cultural referents to groom the students academically, emotionally, and intellectually in a culturally sensitive environment.

A teacher can also relate cultural competency with his/her work when dealing with students in a classroom by deeply acknowledging the cultural heritages of various ethnic groups and regarding them. He/she should also stimulate the entire class to respect each other’s cultural heritages. There also exists a difference in the extent to which each student adapts to the learning process which is why a culturally competent and sensitive teacher should employ a variety of instructional strategies addressing different learning styles.

Cultural sensitivity should be practiced whether a teacher teaches a multilingual or a monolingual class (Stubbs, 2011). Moreover, cultural sensitivity requires a teacher to instill the same sense and skill into other staff members as the learning process can never be controlled by a single teacher alone. It is the job of the teachers to stimulate the students, parents, staff, and community members to act flexibly and sensitively in a culturally sensitive environment as research suggests that “flexibility and adaptability are central to culturally sensitive instruction” (Chisholm, 1994).

Summing up, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that a teacher should see cultural sensitivity as an important purpose and should try fulfilling the requirements of this purpose in addition to developing the cultural awareness skill in the students through working with them responsibly in the classroom. It is very important for the teachers to understand and acknowledge the need to act sensitively and responsibly when they work in a culturally diverse community.ReferencesChisholm, I.M. (1994).

PREPARING TEACHERS FOR MULITICULTURAL CLASSROOMS.The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 14, 43-68.Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, & Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.Stubbs, J. (2011, April 4). Cultural Sensitivity in the ESL Classroom. Retrieved from http://suite101.com/article/cultural-sensitivity-in-the-esl-classroom-a363885