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1.

0 Introduction
According to Mikhail Gorbachev (1990), Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in
diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences. I agree with this saying
because the unity of different ethnics that found in Malaysia remains our country in
peace. Malaysia is often described as a prime example of societies that are severely
divided along ethnic lines because this country is rich with cultural heritage where three
main races of Malays, Chinese and Indians living side by side including the various
indigenous tribes. The beauty of our country lies in the diversity of culture among people
fulfilled in many fields especially in our Malaysian school context as well as in the
curriculum. 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. In fact national unity and integration is the cornerstone of the education policy.
It was stated as our major goals of the national education policy as the following: To
inculcate and nurture national consciousness through fostering common ideals, values,
aspiration and loyalties in order to mould national unity and national identity in a multiethnic society. There is the reason for this goal because school is the best platform that
a teacher able to promote culture understanding among students and eventually are
able to live in a peaceful and harmonious situation in the multicultural community.

2.0 Implications of cultural diversity among pupils in the process of teaching and
learning in classroom
A teacher need to be able to promote cultural understanding in various ways to enable
students to become sensitive to other students from other cultures and eventually are
able to live harmoniously in the multicultural community. For that,

the teachers

themselves need to first be multi-culturally aware of differences among her/his students


and also the positive and negative implications of cultural diversity among students in
classroom. So, let us explore and look deeply the implication of cultural diversity among
pupils in the process of teaching and learning in classroom.

2.1 Positive implication


2.1.1 Act as a platform for a social integration
Most could agree that the richness in the country's ethnic and cultural identities is
actually a great asset that must be properly handled with wisdom especially in schools
that are act as the platform for a social integration for the upcoming young generation.
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. This goal can achievable because when
pupils from different ethnics study under the same roof would become a field for them to
interact without feeling timorous and intimidated. Although it might be a challengeable
process but when as they get along together from some time it can be possible.
Moreover, a classroom with students from different backgrounds is very beneficial as it
helps learners understand and appreciate cultural differences, as they develop
responsiveness of their cultural beliefs. When the students study in a classroom with
culture diversity can also help them to compare and share experiences of their culture
with other students. For example, if teacher wanted to teach about festivals in Malaysia,
teacher can divide the students into a mix of different ethnic students to share their
experiences. When come to present their task, the students need to tell about other
ethnic festivals such as a Chinese student need to describe about Deepavali which is
an Indian festival. This kind of scenario gives students an opportunity to understand the
importance of diversity and plants the feeling of brotherhood among different ethnic
students.
Apart from that, once students learn the importance of diversity, they are able to fight
racism through their unprejudiced appreciation of the different races and cultures.
Students who appreciate diverse cultures and have positive self image can avoid
judging other folks by the prejudices and stereotypes that they often come across.
When students learn about different cultures, they not only learn about them, but it also
helps them to compare it with their own culture and they learn to appreciate the good in
their culture. They also learn about different cultures, their habits and other things which

are unique to that culture. This promotes education not only in the manner of books, but
also in facing different cultural issues in the classroom and overcoming them.
2.1.2 Language diversity in a classroom
Language is a vital means of transmitting culture and a common source of confusion,
even among members of the same culture (Stavenhagen, 1990). Every language is part
of a culture, and it serves and reflects cultural needs. Even so there are areas in the
world where societies share a very similar cultural orientation and yet speak languages
that are not only mutually unintelligible but completely unrelated and structurally
different. This is especially true when we have a class of students all from varied cultural
background speak English or our national language Bahasa Melayu. When a student
studied in the classroom of cultural diversity need to understand others culture and have
to learn to use one language that can be understandable by their friends who from
different ethnics. Seemingly, the students learn a new language other than their mother
tongue to their daily interaction in the classroom.
In another way, learning other ethnics language is profitable in a way that it improves
the pupils communication in their daily life. For example, if an Indian student put up with
a group of Malays in classroom, he/she would have the high tendency to learn

Malay

language because he/ she used to listen to the language more often and they need to
learn the language to express their thoughts and ideas. In this sense, he /she might
learn new language besides her mother tongue which would be the tool for her daily
communication. In this kind of situation , the tendency of learning new languages in a
multicultural classroom is high. For an example, different ethnic students other than
Indian would learn to say Vanakkam to greed others is one of the tradition of Indians.
Here there are not only learned a language but their tradition too.
2.2 Negative implication
2.2.1 Conflict / Misunderstanding
Intercultural communication is about interacting with others from cultures different from
ours. Because of our differences, misunderstandings may occur in the process of

communication and this may have a negative effect on the people around us. We can
see this scenario in our classroom of cultural diversity which leads to cultural
misunderstanding.
Cultural misunderstanding occurs when something--a word, gesture, object, social
context, almost anything you can think of--has different meanings in two cultures.
Sometimes the misunderstandings get resolved; sometimes they can escalate to
anything from love to war. When a student started to has different perception towards
other culture can lead to arise the conflict between classroom members to prove which
culture is the best or to condemn that others culture is the worst. This case will be
worst when the number of people of an ethnic is more than other ethnic people. Here
the issue of majority and minority will arises. The opportunity of taking any decision will
be fall in the hands of majority people and the different ethnic students in a classroom
hinder them from involving in classroom activities. So this environment can cause the
inequality in the decision making and also in the classroom management.

2.2.2 Culture shock


Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar signs and
symbols of social intercourse. When an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of
these familiar cues are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how
broad-minded or full of good will he may be, a series of props have been knocked from
under him. This shock also might be experienced by some students who are not familiar
and less exposure about other culture in their life. For example, for the first day, a Malay
student enters the classroom of Indian and Chinese students. When she saw that
Indian and Chinese boys are giving shake hands to the girls can lead the Malay student
to feel culture shock because its a Malay tradition not to shake hands with opposite
sex. In this case, the implication would be two. First, the student might look down on
others and thinks that their culture is more pure than others. Second , the students may
feel down that their culture restrict their freedom and he/she might follow other ethnic
people like shake hand with opposite sex and betrayal their own uniqueness of their

culture. When a student have these kind of perceptions on their mind, they cannot
mingled up with other ethnic people and work and separate them self from the
classroom community and they also cannot be the true followers of their own culture.
2.2.3 Communication challenges among the students
According to Dlomo (2003) "language varieties can cause communication problems
when people who use these varieties have to interact. These problems can be further
complicated by the fact that these varieties are linked to culture". Language influences
thought and thought influences language, and each is influenced by culture. One may
find that people from different cultures may speak the language on different levels of
fluency. These varieties also influence the ones perception of the messages one
receives from others. Students in a multicultural environment speak somewhat
differently from each other. All of these differences relate to their different language
styles and different behaviors which are related to their different cultural backgrounds,
beliefs and other factors.

3.0 Steps to address the cultural and linguistic diversity among students in
classroom.
Teaching diversity is often considered a difficult task among teachers because of the
sensitivity of the topic. The main difficulty in teaching about differences, however, is the
fear and anticipation behind the effort. There are several steps will be useful to address
the cultural and linguistic diversity among students in the classroom.

3. 1 Changes in teaching and learning process


Teaching a cultural and linguistic diversity classroom could be very challengeable task
for the teachers because the teachers have the responsibility in ensuring that their
teaching and learning process give a hole to any sensitive culture issues. Teacher need
to work hard and smart to create awareness among the students about the cultural and
linguistic diversity and students should also be made aware of the differences between

the different ethnic groups and religions. A teacher should teach the students to give
mutual respect not only to their own ethnic but towards other students from different
ethnics too.

Furthermore, teachers have to be selective in choosing materials by

ensure that the content of the material does not invade any cultural, linguistic or
religious norms of any group. In my point of view, literature and social studies are great
subjects to teach diversity because they deal with real life issues and people. For an
example, a teacher may choose poems about the specialty of each ethnic such as
festival. While teaching the poem, the teacher may deliver the specialty of the ethnics
around Malaysia. This make the class environment will soon feel more like a family
because everyone will relate to each other. Let children realize how special they are to
be in the multicultural classroom and offer ways to overcome their vulnerabilities further
allowing them to become confident.

3.2 Cultural program in schools


Cultural programs such as exhibition, motivation talk, Cultural day and more events give
real examples for the students to understand other races culture, tradition, beliefs, and
so on. Through this kind of cultural programs, students get known well about other
religion. When they already have the knowledge about other religion sure they will
understand that all religion teach a human to be good. So, they will respect other
students culture and never criticize them again. According to Piaget (1954), Children in
the concrete operational stage (aged 7 to 11), gain the abilities of conservation and
reversibility. The child is now mature enough to use logical thought or operations but
can only apply logic to physical objects. So when the teacher displays the real food and
dresses of certain ethnic, students get more interest and it triggers their cognitive skills.
Apart from that , A teacher also can take a field trip can work miracles, because they
invigorate students. Explore ethnic art and culture on your adventures. Local museums
usually have exhibits highlighting cultural and ethnic influences of the local community.
A change of scenery can do wonders for the brain. Students will welcome the break
from the classroom environment and open their minds to receive a great wealth of
knowledge.

3.3 Encourage collaborative learning


Collaborative learning promotes the ability to develop, maintain and appropriately
modify interdependent relationships with others to succeed in achieving goals (Kreijns
2004). It promotes the development of positive attitudes towards other group members
and learning material and builds social relationships and group cohesion. Coelho (1994)
argues that collaborative learning is especially appropriate for multicultural classrooms.
In her study she shows that students from different cultural backgrounds learn better
with this methodology. Collaborative learning promotes students cooperation skills,
which implicitly requires language competence. In collaborative classrooms where
students are engaged in a thinking curriculum, everyone learns from everyone else, and
no student is deprived of this opportunity for making contributions and appreciating the
contributions of others.

4.0 Conclusion
According to Ty Howard (1998), harmonious diversity is the act of learning how to
positively understand, accept and support both multiculturalism and individual
differences working together. I am totally agreed with the saying because our country
is a harmonious country because of the togetherness of the citizens. The same ways
goes to the multicultural classroom environment. Thus, the challenge for educators is to
present an effective multicultural education foundation by means of which all children
can learn to accept others and attach positive feelings to multicultural experiences so
that each child will feel included and valued, and will feel friendly and respectful toward
people from other ethnic and cultural groups. This is a colorful world let us, the future
teachers, make sure that we paint our classrooms with these colors every single day. In
conclusion, we all have to remember to be one, to be united is a great thing but to
respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

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