Development of Multicultural Setting at School - Essay Example

School Plan Multicultural setting refers to diverse things that have differences and are merged together under similar beliefs and values to give the scope, focus where goals are set towards which a school is expected to meet and respect the boundaries of that institution (Wang & Olson, 2009). Many settings need to be put into consideration in order for a school to come up in a multicultural way. Among them are, The environment should be adequate and conducive; resources should be allocated equally after needs assessment is done and utilized efficiently to enhance good performance of students; policies within the school need to be upheld and in case of violation, disciplinary measures should be taken; school beliefs and goals are expected to be in line with the community that is the goals set must be the expectation in the community, what kind of students they want to bring up. Every activity initiated by the school should have room for evaluation in order to identify gaps of discrimination, poor performance or any incompetence and how they can be evaluated to help solve the problem. Coming up with a committee comprising of parents, community leaders, the community members shows some aspect of collaboration, that will help one design a plan for the school, depending on different ideas that will be raised. Examples, what type of a school would be set up, could be private, boarding, mixed and what the society expects how the school will set norms to be adhered by everybody. The committee will also help to decide the location of the school an area that will attract more customers depending on the quality of education that will be provided. Among the key strategies, the management should set a school within the community, since people to study are gotten from homes, villages that make up a given community. This will help attract more students and in turn create employment for some to become teachers, parents, subordinate staffs, cooks, security guards among others. Collaboration with the community will help in the growth of the school and enhance security from distracters, and discourage any form of discrimination. The environment, a school should be built in a conducive area that is free any form of pollution like noise brought from vehicles in the main road, industries will affect the chain of communication that is, in the learning of students when the message is given to them by the teachers or when teachers are receiving feedback. Smoke from industries will tend to interfere with the health of teachers, students and the subordinates and predispose them to chest problems like asthma, silicosis. The environment should also cater for the students’ population. It should not appear overcrowded to an extent of affecting the hygiene of the school and predisposing people to diseases like typhoid, diarrhea, and urinary tract infections among others. The spacing of the environment should be in a way to accommodate each structure or building and minimize congestion an example where toilets and classes should be well spaced and leave room for expansion in case the toilets get filled someday. A playing field for students to do physical exercises and help them excel in their studies by keeping fit when they relax their mind. The drainage system from the toilets and kitchen should be put in a way not to interfere with future expansion of the school, not to leak and cause some pollution or affect the health of students in any way through spread of diseases or try to limit the playing field for students. The set committee should be able to contribute to the school building both financially and socially. Hygiene of the environment will ensure a healthy school and enhance growth of students, avoid litters and rubbish within the compound, ensure classes and toilets are cleaned with fluid soap or antiseptic solution and rinsed with clean water to help reduce the growth of bacteria. Encourage students on dump dusting some areas in cases where water is not adequate or available, the use of hand hygiene after visiting the toilets, before and after eating will help the school grow healthy. Resource allocation is one vital thing a school should consider in terms of manpower which focuses on the human personnel and machines, time, money, material which are to be distributed depending on the need that has presented (Bursztym & korn, 2002). For a school to be established, teachers and students are supposed to be there, therefore the administration should strive hard to consider the ratio of each teacher to students and this will prevent overworking of the team when it comes to assignments or duties allocated by teachers to their students. Resources should be allocated according to needs of both the students and teachers, by considering the most urgent ones like desks, both text and exercise books, mark pen, black or white board with this available, learning takes place and in unison, because it help to manipulate and maximize the use of resources both effectively and efficiently to the benefit of each student without discrimination. School policies of rules and regulations help harmonize different students since each comes from a different background, ethnicity, with different beliefs, cultures and language. The school may encourage the use of national language so as to help end tribalism or racism within the premises. In cases of offence or violated policies, discipline to both the staff and students should be checked into. For students, the school rules and regulations set should be adhered to and in case of any failure, punishment in terms of expulsion or suspensions from the school are given to the respective students. The staffs are also expected to work within the code of ethics of professionalism if one violates, they are subject to discipline. This helps to uphold the standards set by a school and enhance performance of the students. Every activity done in school should have a rationale where one is expected to do the right thing at the right time and with the right person, this explains that, with each time, goals set should be put into practice and evaluated for their effectiveness either through examinations, assignments or practical. If it is class time, all students are supposed to attend all lessons unless otherwise if one is sick and with permission from the subject or class teacher, if not, they are answerable, this helps to bring up the students in a responsible manner and with discipline. Teachers’ roles should be distinct from other workers, and are expected to be in class with students teaching or answering questions, if in the field should be time to do physical exercises but not herding the school cattle or in the kitchen serving food for students. This will help in providing quality management, effective output to students and promote academic excellence. Teachers are to fill appraisals in order to see if they have achieved the set standards for an institution. Marks are awarded and promotions in terms of job groups, job titles or salary increment are given so as to motivate them for their work well done. At times they are granted job security where they end up getting permanent employment. On the other hand, best performing students are also awarded at the end of semesters or terms not to outshine others but make them work harder and motivate the rest of the colleagues. This helps improve the performance of the school, attract more customers and meet the set goals because everyone is striving for success thus preventing multicultural diversity. The administration should borrow some ideas from the mentioned culture since it is clear that learning is a collaborative process where liaising with others helps an institution achieve its objectives and outdo any emerging competition that may arise from competitors, under the guidance of policies. The idea of a clean, conducive environment that holds a good population to balance the student-teacher ratio will promote good performance and market the school (sleeter, 1991). On the other hand, teachers are employed by the administration, work under the set goals and should strive to develop the student in all fields, they should encourage them to try hard in everything they do and to their level best minus any tribalism, racism or nepotism, which will help promote multicultural setting in the school. The school is also supposed to select a suitable language where everyone be it the students, teachers, administration or community should be able to communicate and understand each other. This helps prevent any form of language barriers and promote the chain of communication from the sender to receiver or receiver to sender without any interrupted feedback (Howe, 2014). Racism refers to both prejudice and discrimination based on the perception of one being superior in terms of the skin color and starts looking down upon others depending on cultural differences set (Au, 2009). The three can be overcome when the school is set up within the community and it is expected that it will attract students from various houses, homes, villages despite of the tribe, country, age, sex in as much as they meet the standard criteria for admission. This helps prevent any form of discrimination. Also, after students get admitted, they are subjected to similar rules and regulations and are asked to work towards achieving a common goal failure to which, they are subjected to punishments. This does not only apply to students but also a staff in cases where appraisals are filled and one does not meet the set standards, they are subject to either lose their job, demotion or denied promotions. This helps each stakeholder to play their part and reduce cases of prejudice or discrimination that may fail the school if the administration is not keen on the point of doing a timely evaluation, to any member within the institution. It is evident that residents in a community will tend to have a majority of a given tribe speaking a similar language and will get admitted to the same school, which can influence others and nature a particular language in school. One of the cultures is language where the administration aided by the community sits down in the committee and decides a common language to be spoken by all. This will help reduce chances of discrimination from the few that may have become part of the community through migration, or intermarriage and may not be able to speak the local language known by the majority but will strive to learn the one language decided for all. It will also reduce some barriers in the chain of communication and promote understanding everyone working to achieve the set objectives. The issue of prejudice in terms of resource allocation is also outdated because the plan focuses on allocating based on the needs identified within the school. Priority is given to the most urgent things then the rest, follow. Like in a school, the issue of desks and the capacity of students should be exact; this will prevent wastage of resources since some may be broken as the student is usually playful. Text and exercise books should be available and adequate for each student to prevent stealing which can bring racism because one will tend to steal from the opposite race because they take them to be inferior and defenseless. When it comes to the teachers’ side, the mark pen, black or white board should be in place together with resources for the outlined syllabus guided by the curriculum to give a guide of how the semester or term will be taught and the evaluation process. What the students are expected to have achieved by the end of the coursework, and when examinations will be issued to assess their progress of understanding what is taught. This helps the teachers not to be lazy or biased in a way and on the other hand, it makes the students active and attains the set standards in the institution, hence promote the plan of multicultural setting. In conclusion, both teachers and the administration are urged to pick a few tips from here if not all because the plan gives a multicultural strategy that reduce cases of discrimination of any form and encourage everyone to be active in decisions made to work towards achieving the set standards. References Au, W. (2009). Rethinking multicultural education: Teaching for racial and cultural justice Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. G. (2010). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Bursztyn, A., & Korn, C. (2002). Rethinking multicultural education: Case studies in cultural transition. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey. Howe, W. A. (2014). Becoming a multicultural educator: Developing awareness, gaining skills, and taking action. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2009). Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS : Executive Summary. Paris: OECD. Sleeter, C. E. (1991). Empowerment through multicultural education. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press. Wang, H., & Olson, N. (2009). A journey to unlearn and learn in multicultural education. New York: Peter Lang. Read More