Educational challenges and solutions

Education

Cultural Diversity

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-sustainable-development/cultural-diversity / (UNESCO)

This is information about cultural diversity in education, particularly in education for sustainable development found on UNESCO's website. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and I found the information about education on their website particularly interesting because it addresses education in a global, multicultural environment.

The first important aspect on their website is the institutional framework in which the educational segment operates at UNESCO, which particularly reflects cultural diversity. This is the Johannesburg Declaration, from 2002, which stipulates that "Our rich diversity . . . is our collective strength." Moving from this declaration, it proposes three general principles that link ESD to cultural diversity. These include the fact that the educational process (ESD, as UNESCO refers to it) has to be "locally relevant and culturally appropriate," but also that ESD requires "intercultural understanding."

According to UNESCO, the educational process has to be comprehensive in a manner that respects the local traditions and the local knowledge. With this in mind and with the scope of protecting and encouraging cultural diversity, UNESCO has conceived the program Heritage Education for Sustainable Development, which proposes measures to strengthen the link between culture and education for sustainable development.

This website is particularly useful since the UNESCO is a body of the UN, which is an organization functioning at an international level and one that includes almost all the states in the world. Multiculturalism is thus a notion with which the UN operates quite often and, as a consequence, its approach to educational processes is useful.

Cultural diversity: Suggestions for school staff (https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/families/about-difference/cultural-difference/cultural-differences-suggestions-teaching-staff). Kids Matter

Kids Matter is a "mental health and well-being initiative" proposed in Australia at different incipient educational levels, up to primary school. Among many other things, primarily creating a positive environment for the children for a proper mental development, the framework also proposes different suggestions for dealing with cultural diversity in schools.

The common denominator when it comes to cultural diversity, something emphasized in this resource as well, is that all educational practices need to rely on respect, but also on knowledge and communication. Knowledge also refers to understanding and starts within the community. The website recommends an in-depth knowledge, including the fact that there is cultural diversity even within different cultural groups and that norms and traditions tend to vary from community to community. As mentioned, the approach should be comprehensive, with an overarching understanding.

Communication involves engagement, but also building connections, which can be associated with a proactive form of engagement where one looks for potential relationships in a multicultural environment. All this dialogue and engagement facilitates an easy exchange of ideas, both within the community and outside it. Such an approach ensures that misunderstandings that could arise from cultural diversity are immediately countered in an effective manner.

Differentiated Instruction

Differentiation Teaching, Learning, Instruction and Response to Intervention (RtI ) http://www.differentiatedinstruction.net/

This website actually represents the work and activity of Susan D. Allen, in different educational areas related to differentiated instruction. The website is a comprehensive one, with separate categories referring to resources, events etc. It also makes available several services, such as the organization of workshops on the given theme.

The Home page, selected for a short analysis here, is an excellent opportunity to understand, as the text mentions, what differentiated instruction is and what it is not. First of all, it helps understand the necessity of differentiated instruction. It comes from diversity, from the fact that everybody learns and develops at different rates. It subsequently reflects the need to maximize the educational effect for each of the participant, according to his own pace.

Moving to what it is and what it isn't, the resource clearly mentions that differentiated instruction includes instruments such as multiple assignments that fit the needs of all the students in the classroom, creative learning centers and giving options to students so that they may turn their attention towards those areas of study that are of most interest to them.

It is very important, and this resource emphasizes this, to understand what differentiated instruction is not, among these overburdening high achieving students or focusing on weaknesses.

Classroom space

Instructional goals and classroom space (http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/738?ref=search)

This resource is associated to the Lean NC program, which is a program with the University of North Carolina that aims to identify good educational practices and make them available to teachers and professors throughout North Carolina (since this is a website, one can assume that the goal is to popularize these notions to the greatest degree possible).

This article is particularly interesting because it tells the purpose and role of the classroom space from the very beginning. The role is to arrange the classroom to "meet your pedagogical goals." Based on this overarching concept, the author makes several recommendations about what makes a good educational environment from a space perspective. This includes flexible spaces, giving the students the possibility of moving around the classroom and even of rearranging the space, particularly for different activities.

It is also interesting how the classroom space is intrinsically linked to cultural diversity in the classroom. One recommendation is to group students in the classroom according to different cultural backgrounds. This is a point that works well when referring to cultural diversity too. It encourages students to be open and communicative with people who are different than them and, in the entire educational process, it also increases the value of the individual, as he gains more knowledge about groups different from his own.

So, classroom space should take into consideration a wider spectrum of elements, including the educational aspect, cultural diversity, communication issues/elements or particular deficiencies of the students (students with visual deficiencies, for example, should sit in the front).