Social Foundations of Curriculum

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ideas. Educators must provide students with the idea that people that don’t look like them are, at the core, people just like them. This can be taught by promoting a culture of learning from one another rather than a culture of passing judgement on differences in values and beliefs. Another goal of culturally responsive education is to teach students to respect and be proud of their own culture and heritage. Often time minority students feel pressure to hide their cultural norms, behaviors and traditions in order to fit in with the social order. This creates a significant disconnect between the culture of the student’s school and community and can interfere with emotional growth and social development. This can lead to frequent poor performance in social and academic arenas.

Providing diverse students with examples of diverse contributors to these fields and using culture-specific subject matter when teaching core topics will help them perform better in these highly scrutinized and important domains. Placing ethnically diverse students in a situation that emphasizes the strong points of their culture’s preferred means of learning may help provide them with a greater sense of self-efficacy and achievement. Consistent exposure to positive role models is another excellent way to emphasize respect and admiration for the diverse student’s own culture. All too often, students are exposed to ethnic stereotypes on television and in movies. Providing diverse students with role models who demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities and make social contributions in a non-stereotypical way helps students recognize the limitless ways in which they can have a positive impact on society (Lynch, 2012).

References

Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2013). Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and Issues (6th

ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Lynch, M. (2012, January 8). Promoting Respect for Cultural Diversity in the Classroom. The Huffington Post.