Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 Introduction 2
To avoid stereotyping
Challenges
4 Conclusion 6
5 References 7
1.0 Introduction
In this modern day, people has been discussing about culture thoroughly and as a
result, there are many definitions of culture. Furthermore, according to Woolfolk (2013), culture
is defined as the knowledge, values, attitudes, and traditions that guide the behaviour of a
group of people and allow them to solve the problems of living in their environment. Moreover,
according to Damen (1987), culture means learned and shared human patterns or models for
living; day- to-day living patterns. Therefore, cultural diversity in education can be concluded
as the makeup of various aspects of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs that other cultures use to
adapt to life situations during the process of teaching and learning. Thus, in this essay I would
like to deliberate more about the importance of managing cultural diversity in the teaching of
As we all know, it is obvious that Malaysia is renowned by its multiracial citizen and as
a result, Malaysia is rich with different festivals, various foods, beliefs, norms and also religions
too. There are several races in Malaysia which are Malay, Iban, kadazan, Chinese, Indian and
many more. Likewise, the three dominant ethnic groups in Malaysia are Malay, Chinese and
Indian. According to Najeemah (n.d.), these three dominant ethnic groups have their own
beliefs, culture, values and norms that will affects their behaviors and actions. Thus, the
process of teaching and learning in Malaysia will be very interesting because there will be
differences in culture, learning styles and beliefs. In order to tackle a multiracial or multicultural
classroom, a teacher should practices and applies different strategies and methods as it will
ensure that all the students get the knowledge from the teacher as Multicultural education is
a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students (Woolfolk,
of managing cultural diversity which I will highlight later. First, according to Najeemah Mohd
Yusof, she said that when we can manage cultural diversity in classroom, it will avoid
stereotyping among the teacher and the students. Before that, what is meant by stereotype?
According to David J. Schneider (2004) in his book which entitled The Psychology of
religion. Based on the article, while teachers who assume that Malay students are rude and
Indian students are dumb will close communication in the classroom in the classroom and any
in Malaysian classroom. Evidently stereotyping will bring more negative effects rather than
bring positive effects. For instance, it will disrupt the teacher-student relationship and thus will
teacher and the student must avoid stereotyping between each other.
Next, Najeemah Mohd Yusof also highlighted that if we able to manage multicultural
classroom successfully, it will produce students which have sense of respect towards other
cultures although they have different culture and beliefs. According to Najeemah (n.d.), Its a
goal of Malaysian education and schooling practice to enhance social integration among these
various ethnic groups beyond mere physical integration, and intends to eliminate social
prejudices and discrimination. Thus it is evidently clear that the teacher has to play their role
to ensure that the students are able to respect each other cultures and beliefs. For example,
the teacher should teach the students to respect other students beliefs and religions such as
the Muslims must be thought that they cannot make fun about cow in front of the Hindus
students as cow is a sacred animal for the Hindus. It is essential to maintain respect towards
each other as it will circumvent the students to have prejudices among themselves and as a
achieved.
Furthermore, Najeemah Mohd Yusof also emphasized that the teacher also should
important thing to remember about all classrooms is the premise that every child is unique. All
children are different and beautiful in their own way, no one student should feel excluded from
the class especially if the reason they feel they are exclude is based on race, ethnicity and
color. This means that every teacher should try to seek the differences in the students and
try to understand them as they are unique and one of a kind. The teacher should give equal
treatment to the students and no one is allowed to have special treatment as it will interrupt
the harmony of the classroom. For example, the teacher cannot give more attention to one
specific student as the student is quite proficient in speaking English while the less proficient
in speaking English get less attention from the teacher. Based on the argument above, it is
clear that there are three importance of managing cultural diversity in the teaching of English
in the Malaysian classroom which are to avoid stereotyping, to produce students which have
In contrast with the first article which discuss more on Malaysian context, this article
highlights more on the preparation of pre-service teacher when managing culturally diverse
school. From the article, the author tried to convey that the teacher should be well prepared
when teaching culturally diverse classroom because studies have found that Education in
many communities of color, as well as many poor White communities, is in a state of crisis
(Sleeter, 2001). As a result, Students are learning far too little, becoming disengaged, and
dropping out at high rates (Sleeter, 2001). To avoid the stated problems, the teacher should
be really prepared and one of the solution is by improving the communication skills. Ornstein
involve communication. So, the teacher can overcome the problems stated by improving his
or her communication skills. For example, it is important for a lecturer to generate different
volumes, tones and inflections while delivering his lectures. (Nurzali and Khairul Najmi,
2009).
Apart from that, the second article also highlighted the importance of experience in
teaching culturally diverse schools. Sleeter (2001) stated that only those who bring
experiences, knowledge, and dispositions that will enable them to teach well in culturally
diverse urban schools. This means that experience might be a key role in managing a
culturally diverse classroom. This is supported by Bosch (2006) as cited in Unal and Unal
(2012) Classroom management is not a gift bestowed upon some teachers and though it is
true that some teachers adapt to classroom management techniques easily, classroom
management is a skill that can be gained through training and many years of experience in
the field. Thus it is clear that experience is a key role for a teacher in managing culturally
diverse classroom.
In Malaysia, the government always emphasized the spirit of unity among the citizen
especially among the pupils and students nonetheless of the races, skin colours, beliefs and
religions. As Najeemah (n.d.) indicated that In Malaysia, the objective of nation building and
forging national unity amongst the various ethnic groups ranks very high in her educational
and political agendas. Plus, Najeemah (n.d.) also stated that One way to achieve these goals
is to provide an opportunity for students of different ethnic groups to interact with each other.
So, as an educator, the teacher can achieve this goal by providing more communication
produce more activities that require the pupils to talk among each other. For example, role-
play, debate session, dialogue and many others. Besides promoting unity among students,
communication also can enhance students interpersonal skills and this will help them to
Apart from communication, the teacher also should always emphasizes the importance
of unity and respect towards each other to the students. This is because the students should
be instilled with these moral values during their early age so that they will implement it since
they are young and hopefully it will continue as long as they lived. Unity and respect are very
essential in order to build a successful and peaceful nation as It was stated as our major
4.0 Conclusion
All in all, based on the two articles that I have reviewed, I have learnt that there is many
classroom. Hence, once again I want to emphasize that to avoid stereotyping, produce
students that have sense of respect, acknowledging differences in children, to prepare the
teacher with the upcoming challenges and experience is the key in managing classroom are
all examples of importance of managing cultural diversity in the teaching of English in the
Malaysian classroom which should be worth to be taken into account. As a teacher, I will try
my level best to equip and prepare myself with knowledge and various skills in order to give
full attention to my future students so that they will successful in their life.
Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom.
Reading. Addison-Wesley.
Nurzali Ismail and Khairul Najmi Idris, (2009). The effects of classroom communication on
http://www.academia.edu/3194236/The_Effects_of_Classroom_Communication_on
Students_Academic_Performance_at_the_International_Islamic_University_Malaysi
_IIUM_ .
Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: research and the
Unal, Z., & Unal, A. (2012, July 1). The impact of years of teaching experience on the
Inc.