RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 1

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Within the Classroom

L. Noelle Murphy

Chesapeake College

PSC-220

March 2019
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 2

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Within the Classroom

The world is constantly changing. People from other countries are constantly coming to

America or Americans are constantly going to other countries for many different reasons. This

movement and change demands for the education systems to work on the improvement of

diversity. More importantly to improve the education that is provided to students on how

important it is to be culturally and linguistically diverse inside and outside of the classroom.

Being culturally and linguistically competent as teachers is very important because teachers need

to build a framework for their students. Students need to learn from their teachers on how to be

culturally diverse to succeed in the future. Teaching students how to communicate with others

from different cultures, languages and races from a young age is very important so they can

thrive even when the world around them is evolving. Teachers need to be culturally and

linguistically competent to create the optimum experience in their classroom, in a way that all

students will succeed.

“Diversity is a fundamental aspect of our society and therefore of our communities,

workplaces, schools, and early learning services. Culture is one significant contributor to

diversity” (Education Review, 2016, para. 3). Embracing the culture of others is the door to be

opened to a whole new world for individuals and for classrooms to be culturally and

linguistically diverse. How do teachers teach their students to be a cultural and linguistic learner

and is it beneficial?

Although there are many advantages to diversity in the classroom, some research shows

that there are also disadvantages. Gorski (2017), who believes there are also negative aspects to

having diversity in the classroom explains the following:

RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 3

“Schools cannot discriminate against students on the basis of race, gender, sexuality,

religion or culture. Classrooms are therefore more diverse, which has often been

perceived as benefiting all students. However, classroom diversity can also raise several

challenging issues within the classroom and create barriers or learning disadvantages”

(para. 1).

Gorski believes that it can be very difficult for a teacher to plan accordingly for a class that is

largely diverse (para. 7). Gorski even states, “a teacher may find it difficult to plan a lesson that

relates to different cultures, different learning abilities or different religions” (para, 7). Different

cultures may be faced with language barriers. Although some teachers may find a way to include

all students’ cultures and religions, the teacher may still have a hard time communicating with a

particular student which may cause an even greater language barrier. This may cause the teacher

to assume those students are less academically able because they cannot speak as fluently as

others. Other negative aspects of having diversity in the classroom are losing their sense of

cultural identity and social alienation (para. 5 & 6). Students may lose their sense of cultural

identity because they are taught in another language and are forced to learn that language

fluently (para. 5). The schools are essentially ripping these students from their “rich cultural

background” (para. 5). This may lead the student to feel isolated from the teacher and their peers

(social alienation) (para. 5). Although teachers can try as hard as they can to incorporate

diversity in the classroom, students tend to group themselves off the foundation of similarities.

This can be extremely prevalent in a classroom with very small variety of diversity. If there is a

minority present in the classroom, then they are most likely to be isolated. “When social groups

are formed tensions arise in the classroom, discouraging awareness and tolerance towards

others” (para. 6). This can pose a problem because a student may feel left out due to differences
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 4

from the other students, leading to the student distancing themselves from others. This distance

may cause a halt in their learning capabilities, causing the child to fall behind. Even though there

is research pointing out the negative aspects of diversity, there is also research detailing the

positive advantages of diversity in the classroom.

Gorski continues to explain the many advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the

classroom. A few advantages that Gorski includes are: having cultural awareness, being tolerant

and accepting of other cultures, and being knowledgeably competent of other languages and

cultures (Gorski, 2017). Teaching Tolerance agrees with these advantages of diversity in the

classroom as well. “Educators today hear a lot about gaps in education – achievement gaps,

school-readiness gaps. Still, there’s another gap that often goes unexamined: the cultural gap

between students and teachers” (Teaching Tolerance, para. 1). It is seen all of the time in

education, administrators and school boards are constantly trying to bridge the gap of

achievement on tests but not much effort is put on closing the cultural gap between students and

educators.

“Students in the United States and its territories come from a large and increasing number

of racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse families: diverse students

make up 48 percent of the population in 2011, up from 39 percent in 2001. Teachers and

school leaders, for the most part, do not reflect that diversity” (Region X Equity

Assistance Center, 2016, Pg. 1).

It is true, most of the education profession is predominately white and typically only English

speaking, while the students in the classrooms are much more culturally, racially and

linguistically diverse (Teaching Tolerance, para. 2). It is not enough for educators to make rules

like, “treat others how you want to be treated” or to embrace colorblindness (Teaching
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 5

Tolerance, para. 2). This is not fair to the students. Each individual student needs to be seen as

they are and need to be understood by their educators and peers. Color, culture, race, religion,

and language matter and that is what educators need to embrace. “The truth is: culture matters”

(Teaching Tolerance, para. 3). Which is why educators need to be aware of what exactly a

culturally and linguistically diverse learner is and how more importantly, how to grow such

learners within their classrooms.

Not only is it important for teachers to be culturally diverse, but they need to be

competently linguistically diverse as well. The most important thing between a teacher and a

student is to have the ability to communicate effectively. If there is no communication, the child

with not feel safe enough to learn from their teacher. “In particular, within the critique of teacher

education programs, US research literature has highlighted the lack of multilingual awareness

built into learning units (Faez, 2012; de Jong, 2014). Garcia (2008) argued that the pedagogy of

multilingual awareness should be a central focus of all teacher education programs” (Moloney,

2016). Research shows that multilingual awareness needs to be implemented into teacher

education programs in order for teachers to be fully ready to teach culturally and linguistically

diverse classes. Moloney (2016), also states, “When pre-service teachers enter linguistically

diverse school classrooms, the first challenge for them may be adapting their prepared lesson for

children who are learning English as an additional language.” It is so important for teachers to

become in sync with their students, and this will lead to easier preparation of planning. If a

teacher is comfortable with different cultures than the lessons will obviously be a lot more

diverse. Which will lead to the feeling of safety and respect between the students and teachers.

“Their findings suggest that the amount of diversity preparation, purposeful experiences with
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 6

English Language Learners, and some degree of bilingualism in pre-service teachers, may result

in more positive attitudinal beliefs about language-minority students” (Molony, 2016, Pg. 83).

“A culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learner is typically used to identify a

learner who differs from the mainstream culture in terms of ethnicity, social class, and or

language” (Education Review, para. 4). There are so many benefits as stated before of diversity

within the classroom. Education Review, states that there may be social and economic benefits

from diversity due to the exposure to new values, practices, foods, languages and world views

(Education Review, para. 5). Students are more inclined to learn more within a classroom when

there are students of other cultures surrounding them. So, the most important task for educators

is to learn how to teach children to communicate effectively with others. “To make sure social

mobility and inclusion are achieved for all, an education system must be successful in teaching

every child to communicate and interact with people from different backgrounds and with

different abilities” (Education Review, para. 6). How do educators become aware and prepared

for such social mobility and inclusion? Research shows what teachers can look for and how to

apply diversity in the classroom.

In general, to teach a diverse group of student’s teachers need to understand that people

everywhere learn differently and that as an educator they need to be fully competent of every

learning style. Being diverse is more than just teaching a child of another race to speak English

but to also bring their home language into the classroom as well in order to enrich each other’s

lives (Education Review, para. 7). It is so important for individuals to have the ability to work

with a diversity of people because the global world is constantly requiring us to engage with

people from other backgrounds (Education Review, para. 8). In school and in a future career an

individual may be required to work on a project with another individual or a team of individuals
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 7

who have different cultural and religious beliefs and that individual will need to know how to

communicate effectively with these other workers in order to get the assignment done without

offending anyone. This will be very hard to do if this individual has not been taught how

important it is to be culturally diverse. Sharma (2007), explains that another helpful mechanism

to effectively running a culturally diverse classroom is to fully understand the cultures of the

students as well as their own cultural perspectives. “Preservice teachers need to develop

awareness of their own cultural perspectives, beliefs, and behaviors, and to realize that their own

cultural perspective is not universal, nor the only ‘right’ one” (Sharma, 2007, Pg. 3). In order for

students to realize that their views and beliefs of a specific culture isn’t always the only right

perspective, educators need to model this. Individuals, whether it is a student or teacher, need to

understand that education systems are not trying to pry the individual of their beliefs but are

trying to teach a model of open-mindedness. Where an individual can have their own thoughts

and beliefs on a topic but understands that it may not be the same as others, and that it is okay.

Sharma continues to explain her research on how specifically a teacher can become

prepared to teach a student that is not a proficient English speaker.

“It has become imperative to stress diversity through multicultural education. To

accomplish this, some significant changes in the curricula of teacher education are

needed” Blackwell, Futrell, & Imig. (2003). (As cited in (Sharma, 2007, Pg. 3).

From this came three major components to prepare teachers to instruct culturally diverse and

limited English proficient students: theoretical base, linguistic and cultural diversity base, and

experimental base (Sharma, 2007, Pg. 3). What these bases do for teacher training, is builds a

foundation for future teachers to go off of in the classroom. Each base of learning teaches the

training teacher about the knowledge of issues that may arise and also the relationship between
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 8

culture and language, competencies in development, variety of racial and ethnic groups, and etc.

(Sharma, 2007, Pg. 3). It is so important for teachers to know all of this information and to be

fully competent and aware of how to handle any situation that may appear in the classroom. The

next thing for schools to be aware of is, how teachers feel about teaching students of other

cultures.

“This study intends to examine and analyze teachers’ characteristics, attitudes and beliefs

about language minority students in academic setting and how these impact teaching

dispositions” (Vázquez-Montilla, 2014, Pg. 578). It is just as important for individuals to know

the views of teachers that are teaching in a culturally diverse classroom. It is important to see the

issues that they may run into and how it benefits them as a teacher, as well as the students.

“Young and Youngs [23] reported that teachers identify both advantages and disadvantages of

teaching ESL students in mainstream classes. However, several studies reveal that mainstream

teachers often tend to consider teaching CLD students as more onerous and challenging than

teaching English-speaking students” (Vázquez-Montilla, 2014, Pg. 578). Of course, it is going to

be more difficult as a teacher teaching multicultural students. There will obviously be more

effort to be put in, as well as a lot more trust and safety to be built between the students and the

teacher. Another study showed that most teachers believed, and actually put the blame of CLD

student failure on the parents rather than the school itself. “Flores and Smith [9] identify this

deficit belief as falling into the category of a “Responsibility/Culpability” construct, meaning

that some teachers hold the antagonistic belief that CLD student failure or success is entirely

determinant upon family and student effort in spite of systematic problems at school level”

(Vázquez-Montilla, 2014, Pg. 578). The fact that research shows that teachers assume that they

have to put in little to no effort for their culturally diverse students, and that the family and
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 9

student are the only ones responsible for academic success is a shame. Teachers, administrators,

and additional faculty members need to each and individually be culturally and linguistically

competent in order to communicate with the student and with the parent in order for the student

to grow and succeed.

With great research and by all measures, it has been concluded that diversity in the

classroom has substantial benefits for schools, teachers and students. Although there may be

opposing arguments to this research, culture matters and needs to be embraced. By implementing

diversity in the classroom comes trust, safety, respect and growth between teachers and their

students. There are so many ways that educators can learn to be culturally and linguistically

diverse, and many ways that teachers can be trained in this diversity. Because of how important

being diverse is, all future teachers need be properly trained and prepared to handle any cultural

situations that come their way. Teachers need to be culturally and linguistically competent to

create the optimum experience in their classroom, in a way that all students will succeed.
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 10

References

Education Review Office. (2016). Addressing cultural and linguistic diversity. Retrieved

February 18, 2019, from https://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/responding-to-language-

diversity-in-auckland/addressing-cultural-and-linguistic-diversity/ Although this source

mainly focuses on cultural and linguistic diversity in New Zealand, it gave me good

definitions and information on diversity as a whole, challenges of diversity along with

giving me great ideas of how to create and enforce an environment of cultural and

linguistically diverse learners. Within this source also comes graphs on the migration in

New Zealand and how achievement varies across different ethnic groups. Although the

data is from a different country it really helped me see the importance of diversity.

Gorski, Victoria. (2017). Positive & Negative Aspects of Diversity in the Classroom. Synonym.

Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/positive-negative-aspects-diversity-

classroom-7978159.html This resource goes into detail, explaining how diversity in the

classroom can both enrich and obstruct a student’s learning experience. I used this

resource as my opposing view to why I think it is an absolute advantage for cultural and

linguistic diversity to be displayed and implemented within the classroom.

Moloney, R., & Saltmarsh, D. (2016). 'Knowing Your Students' in the Culturally and

Linguistically Diverse Classroom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education,41(4), 79-93.

Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1098117.pdf. This journal primarily

explains how teachers need to have a greater understanding of their students along with

their students’ cultural backgrounds. It also goes on to explain ways the teacher education

programs can creatively introduce such information to former educators. Included is a

RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 11

study within a university monitoring how teachers interact towards their culturally and

linguistically diverse students.

Region X Equity Assistance Center (EAC). (2016). Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Guide to

Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching All Students Equitably. Retrieved from

https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/resources/culturally-responsive-

teaching.pdf In the section, titled ‘Considering Cultural Diversity When Designing

Instruction’ talks about how as teachers we not only need to have cultural knowledge but

how we also need to use our students cultural background and experiences to make their

learning experiences more personable and interesting. It also explains that on top of

knowledge we need to have respect for everyone’s cultural background in order to have a

safe and comfortable environment, not only for the students but for you as well. Studies

show that the teachers that are culturally responsive have a much more involved

classroom and the outcomes of the students are much higher.

Sharma, Sunita (2007). The Education of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Journal

of College Teaching and Learning,4(11), 19-30. Sharma identifies in study that every

teacher studied were not prepared to teach children who are culturally diverse. This study

in Florida and Missouri took a sample from general education, special education teachers,

therapists and even guidance counselors. Throughout the journal it talks about educators’

feelings on multicultural education, along with how to prepare teachers for this

environment in the classroom.

Teaching Tolerance. (n.d.). Culture in the Classroom. Retrieved February 18, 2019, from

https://www.tolerance.org/culture-classroom Within this source, it explains how we as

teachers need to overcome the stereotypes of students. We also need to understand that
RESEARCH PAPER – CULTURAL AND LINGUISITC DIVERSITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM 12

culture matters, and how it is much more than things like holidays, religions and

practices. It is more of the way an individual lives their life. Because of this, we need to

fully understand each student and how exactly they live their life.

Vásquez-Montilla, E. (2014). Teachers Dispositions and Beliefs about Cultural and Linguistic

Diversity. Universal Journal of Educational Research,2(8), 577-587.

doi:10.13189/ujer.2014.020806 The title, Teachers’ Dispositions and Beliefs about

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, is pretty self-explanatory, the journal goes into great

detail on the attitudes and beliefs of teachers towards the cultural backgrounds of their

students. We as teachers need to have a broader understanding of and a more open

attitude of such cultural differences. This journal includes data from a study in Florida on

factors that might influence things like beliefs, attitudes, practices of teachers who may

come in contact with a culturally and linguistically diverse student.