Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Having taught English at universities in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, both ethnically and culturally diverse regions, I have found that my experience as a social worker, rather than my teacher training, has most adequately prepared me for my role in diverse classrooms. Before becoming an educator, I delivered services in a social program in the USA that used the anti-oppressive model approach. By striving to recognize the inherent power disparities that exist between providers and clients, we worked to reduce oppressive practices to ensure a safe, egalitarian, and inclusive environment. As a teacher, I apply the anti-oppressive model to foster a similarly egalitarian environment. Working with diverse students from various socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, it is critical to create a tolerant and inclusive environment in which each participant’s non-academic culture and experience is acknowledged and valued. With this approach, student sharing is encouraged, differences negotiated, and structural hierarchies that distract from the learning experience dispelled. Adopting the role of facilitator creates an anti-authoritative space, wherein students are given choices that influence class organization, topics, and activities. In addition to sharing power, teachers should also work to recognize and mitigate unconscious expectations carried into the classroom. Lastly, by establishing mutual accountability, students may be less likely to develop the negative emotions and behaviors that follow perceived power inequities, empowering student expression and ensuring the cultural, social, and emotional safety of participants. With this presentation, I intend to discuss methods useful in creating a culturally aware and responsive classroom in order to accommodate students of diverse backgrounds, along with how the anti-oppressive model may be applied to teaching practices in order to minimize inherent power imbalances based on differences in culture, class, ethnicity, and gender between teacher and students.