prompt 4

The culturally competent teacher must be aware of the diverse cultural groups in the classroom, investigate the sociocultural factors that influence learning and integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching methods.
There is no doubt about it, the students in the classroom came from different backgrounds and different lifestyles. One thing that brought them all together was their age. At this stage of their life they all were going through puberty and worried about socializing and popularity and having fun. This common thread that tied them all together relates to what the theorist Dewey had said. Dewey talks about members or a group are tied together by common interests and it is very apparent that these students were all tied together by their current stage of life. The teacher had a firm understanding of this concept and respected the needs of the students. By designing activities where they could interact socially and work together they were able to have that social need satisfied. When approaching the students also, despite being from different backgrounds and cultures the most important thing to realize is they are intelligent young students. If you talk to them with respect like they are adults then you can gain their respect. They were not disadvantaged by their sociocultural backgrounds or prevented from learning because of diversity or cultural barriers. They were young students that want to be respected and talked to like adults and have fun. The teacher understood this very well and that is why I believe the student-teacher relationship was so strong. One of the most obvious things I noticed was that the students enjoyed this teacher and I believe it was due to the fact that this teacher respected the students as smart, capable young adults.