EDUA 5666 Building Cultural Competency
BUILDING CULTURAL COMPETENCY TO IMPROVE INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
The United States was founded upon a diverse population of people from all over the world, and our country is now more diverse than ever before. This diversity poses unique challenges to teachers, as they must contend with different languages, cultural beliefs, and biases inherent in our culture. Each individual’s cultural context is unique, but sometimes conflicting ideologies and the clash between traditionalism and modern society can isolate students leading to disengagement, low student performance, and dropouts.
This course is designed to provide the teacher with the tools necessary to understand how to teach with cultural competence, so that all students are actively supported in the classroom. This course tackles misconceptions about different cultures, provides practical resources for building competency in educators, and the tools necessary to create a classroom culture that supports all students. The teacher will not only spend significant time learning about other cultures, but also learning about his or her own culture and how these understandings impact their own teaching. By the end of the course, the teacher will be prepared to handle culturally sensitive scenarios that can deeply impact student learning.