https://www.educationworld.in/why-diversity-in-the-classroom-matters/

Diversity in any country is common at present scenario. Neither one can ignore nor remain untouched of this fact of diversity at any sphere of life in this global world. The cultural grounds of combination, however, may be slightly different for various countries. As far as India is concerned the linguistic, religious, caste, class, gender etc. along with other socioeconomic grounds of diversity are obvious in a classroom. The largest democracy of the world runs on democratic principle of ‘equal opportunity to all’ and thus in a classroom all should find their role to deliver on the basis of equality. In other countries like US, immigrants of various countries and race are the two major grounds to be included and caste to be excluded if we talk explicitly in the list mentioned earlier. As a matter of concern now a day it is the basic feature of many countries to deal the diversity as strength and opportunity rather than a challenge or barrier. Surely a diverse classroom is the ideal laboratory in which to learn the multiple perspectives required by a global society and to put to use information concerning diverse cultural patterns. Students who learn to work and play collaboratively with classmates from various cultures are better prepared for the world they face now—and the world they will face in the future. Teaching and learning strategies that draw on the social history and the everyday lives of students and their cultures can only assist this learning process. The broad range of experiences and perspectives brought to school by culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse students offer a powerful resource for everyone to learn more in different ways, in new environments, and with different types of people. Every single person in this enormously diverse and ever-changing system has the power to serve as an invaluable resource for all others, students, teachers and the community as a whole. Teachers promote critical thinking when they make the rules of the classroom culture explicit and enable students to compare and contrast them with other cultures. Students can develop cross-cultural skills in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. For such learning to take place, however, teachers must have the attitudes, knowledge, and skills to make their classrooms effective learning environments for all students. Given the opportunity, students can participate in learning communities within their schools and neighborhoods and be ready to assume constructive roles as workers, family members, and citizens in a global society. Diverse Classroom “A diverse classroom is a mixture of students either by race, culture, age, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, education, marital status, gender or other characteristics.” Allowing students an opportunity to learn more about someone who is unlike them is better in the long run because it gives students an understanding of others, enabling them to work together in a positive way.

Multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the cultural diversity of communities within a given society and the policies that promote this diversity. As a descriptive term, multiculturalism is the simple fact of cultural diversity and the demographic make-up of a specific place, sometimes at the organizational level, e.g., schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations. As a prescriptive term, multiculturalism encourages ideologies and policies that promote this diversity or its institutionalization. Multiculturalism is the phenomenon of multiple groups of cultures existing within one society, largely due to the arrival of immigrant communities, or the acceptance and advocating of this phenomenon.

As an IB teacher in India, I got to observe multiculturalism in my classes and how a teacher plays a vital role in keeping the class united by encoraging students to follow all the attributes and creating engagements such a way that they respect each others cutures mutually.In one of my experience, when my school organised mother tongue day celebrations, we invited parents who speak different languages. Many of the parents paricipated and explained their culture's importance dressed in their cultural attire. For example a marathi parent explained their important festivals, their dressing etc,similarly parents who belong to other states like punjab, kerala,tamil nadu, karntaka,Andhra pradesh etc expressed about their cultures.

After listening to all of t hem when children were asked to reflect, most of the children similarity in all the cultures.They understood that the same festival is celebrated with a different name etc.

So in conclusion I would say cultural differences among learners can be dissolved with proper guidance and intiations like the above.