Potter, G. (2007) Sociocultural Diversity

Potter, G. (2007) Sociocultural diversity and literacy teaching in complex times: the challenges for early childhood educators. Childhood Education 84(2), p. 64-70.

As the world becomes more diverse, what special challenges will teachers face? In this article, Potter particularly details the different perceptions children have on reading, writing and school in general based on their cultural background and social raising. From the beginning of formal education, schools have had a specific expectation (agenda) for students, which the children have had no choice but to meet regardless of interest, desire or ability. As noted, "The marginal impact of instruction in reading and writing reflects the wide gap between their social world without print and that assumed by the school. (Purcell-Gates, 1995, p. 65).

Some children come to school from a culture that is not oriented toward written language. Suddenly they are faced with an entirely new paradigm where print and its permutations are critical to learning. Other children already have a leg up on these others; they come from an environment that has stressed literature and writing since they were born. They feel very comfortable about the school's expectations. The way that teachers perceive these two very different students will impact them significantly, especially the children from the different culture. Teachers can be "very powerful in affirming some children and diminishing others." These teachers have the power to they create a child's view of school from the first day in the classroom. From the very beginning, some students will feel in control and powerful; others will immediately feel loss of control and powerless.

This is where the challenge lies for literacy teachers who are instructing socioculturally diverse children -- how do they accommodate literacy diversity and other meanings and values in the classroom at the same as creating a foundation for lifelong literacy for children of all backgrounds? In other words, how can teaching be developed one-on-one for each child as well as oriented for the entire class? It is important for students to "know the rules of the game," for future expectations, but at the same time, they cannot be diminished because they have never played the game.

Potter concludes that teachers must resist the temptation to stereotype children. They need to be cultural mediators and help children feel comfortable in the school context. They should not believe they must choose between their own success and cultural identity. Teachers who practise culturally relevant "see their teaching as an art rather than as a technical skill." They put a stress on success rather than failure. They help students make connections among local, national, racial, cultural and global identities.

It is interesting that this article is being written in 2007 because of cultural diversity. It could just as easily been written in the 20th century when schools had the same expectations for students, and children came to the school with the same cultural background but with different learning styles. There have always been children, regardless of how they have been raised -- in a literary-centered family or not -- who have varying ability for reading and writing. Some children read when they are three; some children read when they are in second grade. They all have the same ability to read, it just develops at different times. Some children are very visual; others are very musically inclined. The school's expectation makes these artistically or musically inclined children secondary to those who are more literary inclined. It is not they are any less able or proficient.

Over the past decade, the schools have become even more driven in this respect. Children at younger and younger ages are expected to read. In the U.S., there are children who go to summer school between kindergarten and first grade because they are unable to read at the necessary level. The fact that these same children show other wonderful traits does not matter.

What Potter is calling for, therefore, is nothing new. It is just a new twist (ethnocentrism) on an old theme -- looking at each child separately in a public school system that functions by group rather than individual. Imagine what happens to a child who comes to school all enthused and then within one year sees him/herself not being able to meet an adult's (teacher's) expectations? What happens to that child? Of course these children begin to act out; they are frustrated, they have low self-image. They are floundering.

This is why the suggestions of such educators as Howard Gardner and Mel Levine are more important than ever in culturally diverse school populations. It does not take long for a teacher to recognize that students in a class learn in different ways and have varying areas of interest and expertise. One child does well in math and music, but struggles with language and writing one descriptive sentence. Another student greatly enjoys reading and writing poetry and cannot "get" science. There is a boy who requires a very quiet environment when studying and a girl who learns best when listening to music. It was once incorrectly believed by psychologists that intelligence was a single unit that was inherited: Human beings had a blank slate and could learn anything, as long as it is taught in the right manner. Instead, says Gardner, there are multiple intelligences.