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Case: Your Dad Looks Like Osama.
Cultural awareness is important because we live in such a diverse country. As a teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to promote as much cultural awareness as possible in my 5th graders. As part my efforts, I invite people from diverse backgrounds to my classroom as guest speakers. I start with parents of my current students from various cultural backgrounds. Two weeks ago, I sent an invitation to the parents of my Arab-American student Mahmoud. Mahmoud's parents moved from Saudi Arabia to the US before he was born. His father works as an engineer in a large company and his mother is a nurse. I received an answer to my invitation the next day. Mahmoud's father agreed to come and talk to my class about his cultural and religious background. His guest talk was very informative and interesting. My students seemed to enjoy the session also. However, the next day I started hearing some of my students tease Mahmoud about his father's beard. They called Mahmoud's father "Osama." They asked him if his father was a "terrorist." I was shocked that despite my efforts to raise cultural awareness, my students gave into stereotypes so easily. Where did I go wrong? How should I respond to this situation?
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
Get to Mahmoud first and ask him what he thinks of the situation and what his thoughts are on the kids saying these things. Let him know that you are going to discuss something with the class about stereotypes and try to turn their minds around. Then with the class pick someone that has Justin Beiber haircut and start picking on him (playfully, just to prove the point you might even talk to this person before hand that you are going to use him for a prop.) and see what the kids do. Find some other students that resemble other people they know maybe the principal or some local celebrity good or bad. Have a talk about stereotypes again and let them know that what you have been hearing is hurtful to Mahmoud and his family and that they should open their minds and not always be followers sometimes they need to be leaders. |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: |
| Rated On: February 19, 2013 12:55 am |
| Rated By: maWyZu |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
No
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
No
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
No
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
No
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| The suggested solution is original |
No
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| Comments: never use teasing even if playful to tell people not to tease or bully others it defeats the point |
| Rated On: October 21, 2014 5:02 am |
| Rated By: Thomas Anderson |
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