#  >> K-12 >> K-12 For Parents

Characteristics of a Sociocultural Classroom

Sociocultural ideals dictate incorporating, not sequestering, students' cultural influences into their daily classroom environment. A classroom in a sociocultural environment is built to address the needs of students from multiple cultural heritages by placing a teacher in the room who is informed and aware of the various cultural contributions, prepared to communicate with students in their language, and provide resources for students to meet their individual learning needs.
  1. Language and Dialect

    • Creating a sociocultural classroom begins with the right teacher, someone who is informed of the regional and cultural dialects of your area as well as fluent in the prominent secondary languages of the area. She should be able to communicate with her students, by first communicating with them in their most comfortable, natural language, then slowly working to build their knowledge and understanding of the academic subject.

    Current Events

    • A sociocultural classroom should be prepared to address and respect students' cultural influences, specifically changes in their communities. Teachers must remain informed about changes and changing attitudes in students' communities, being able to respectfully discuss these issues with students during class. These issues might include anything that influences students' cultural views, ideals or perceptions, such as new entertainment in their community, changing economic trends that students can feel, or just a story in a newspaper that students read and would like to understand more completely.

    Cultural Heritage

    • In a sociocultural classroom, teachers should be aware of students' long-term cultural influences, including customs, trends or beliefs that could influence their perception of the material being taught. Responding to this, teachers should select teaching materials that complement those cultural influences to both provide a deeper understanding of cultural ideals and bridge the gap between their previous knowledge and the information you want taught. Additionally, this includes a basic respect given to cultural traditions, such as celebrating local or cultural holidays from multiple cultures in the classroom and even providing opportunities for family members or other people from the community to join in your celebration.

    Unity

    • A sociocultural classroom represents its own goal, to exist as a unifying position for students from diverse cultural and social backgrounds by establishing a system of multicultural respect, fundamental multicultural understanding and an environment where those differences can be discussed and explored without preference. Replacing the former idea of unity through cultural uniformity, a sociocultural classroom suggests unity through acceptance of cultural pluralism.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved