Karla Lopez

Professor Flowers

EDU 280

18 February 2017

Diversity in the Classroom: Teacher Interview

I met Ms. Diaz early in the morning and after our brief greetings I began my interview

with one single question that I thought might help me during my observation. The first question I

asked was, What kind of experiences have you had in relating with people whose backgrounds

are different than your own? Ms. Diaz mentioned that she use to work at a school were people

were not very welcoming towards her due to her own cultural background. She said, I always

felt out of place but, that experience helped me become more understanding and welcoming

towards others even if they are different from me. Her answer did help me during my

observation as I was able to see how much she cares about integrating diversity as I found it

reflected in her class.

Even before entering Ms. Diazs class I was able to learn about the diversity in her

classroom. On the outside wall next to her classroom door, Ms. Diaz has a beautifully decorated

bulletin board with the tittle No Flowers Bloom in the Same Way. The entire bulletin board is

dedicated to her students; it has each students picture and an All about Me worksheet. Mrs.

Diaz mentioned that the All about Me worksheet was created in collaboration with the

students families. Some of the items included in the worksheet are: hobbies, favorite food,

favorite holiday, family picture, flag of their country of origin and a brief description of their

families background. Once entering Ms. Diazs classroom one can find the customary classroom

dcor such as numbers, letters, words, book quotes and students work displayed. I found a few
interesting things around the classroom however, the dramatic play area instantly caught my eye.

Ms. Diaz had two Caucasian dolls which is common to see in other classrooms but, she also has

an African American doll, an Asian doll and a cloth Mexican boy doll which is very uncommon

to see in other classrooms. During my observation I learned that one of Ms. Diazs students has

difficulty understanding English. Since as Ms. Diaz would give instructions to the entire class,

one of her aids would give the same instructions to the boy in Spanish. Ms. Diaz later mentioned

that they have been able to meet the childs need without difficulties which is not always the

case. She said that the boy understands about 75% of English but, having someone translate after

her has given the boy that extra help he needed to fully participate in class. I noticed that he

participated equally to the rest of his peers and it surprised me when he without any words turned

to one of the aids and she immediately sat next to him to explain a few things Ms. Diaz had said.

I also learned through observation and my interview that Ms. Diaz has eight students (3 girls, 5

boys) all of which have Autism. Her students range from ages 3-5 and all come from low-income

families. Ms. Diaz has 1 Caucasian student, 1 African-American/Asian student, while the rest are

Hispanic from various different places such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and Peru. Ms. Diaz

mentioned that this was the first year were she has students from various different cultural

backgrounds.

After my observation I continued my interview by asking Ms. Diaz, What kind of

teaching strategies do you use to integrate cultural diversity into your classroom? She said that

just like in all her lessons she uses repetition to insure children understand the topic and that she

incorporates a lot of hands on activities, visuals, students interactions and limits the amount of

lecture time. When asked if diversity has played a role in shaping her teaching style. Ms. Diaz

said that it was hard for her to distinguish if it had or not since for her diversity has always been
part of how some topics are presented but, that recently she does try harder to take advantage of

some moments where she can incorporate multicultural education without turning it into a whole

lesson plan. Ms. Diaz was extremely excited when I asked, what kind of cultural activities does

she integrates into her lesson plans. She said, This is a fun and diverse classroom and depending

on the subject we are working on we make crafts, sing songs, watch videos and read cultural

books. Also we might just be the only classroom that celebrates all holidays (e.g. Chinese New

Year, 5 de mayo, Ground Hog Day, Mardi Grass, Easter, September 15, Thanksgiving,

Halloween, Day of the Dead). We celebrate this holidays just a little differently since we talk

about the where, when and who celebrates the holiday and we also incorporate foods and do

certain activities related to the holiday. I found her integration of holiday celebrations to be a

very unique way of teaching students about diversity. Towards the end of my interview I asked

how her school benefits from integrating multicultural education into the classroom. To which

Ms. Diaz simply answered that integrating multicultural education benefits not only the school

but, the entire community since it promotes understanding and respect among all people. I found

her response to be a great way to view multicultural education.

To be honest, as I was preparing to conduct my observation and interview I had a few

thoughts of what I might experience. The first one was that since the school is located in a

neighborhood predominated by Hispanics the school would have almost no diversity. Which also

made me believe that the amount of cultural diversity education would be non-existent or bias.

However, to my surprise both of my initial thoughts were incorrect. Yes, the school holds a

higher percentage of Hispanics but, they still have a diversity of ethnicities and cultures

intermixing with one another. As far as cultural diversity education I was very surprised when

Ms. Diaz mentioned that the school has a multicultural committee. The schools multicultural
committee comes up with activities to promote diversity and cultural awareness. Ms. Diaz

mentioned that the committee has done a great job in collaborating with parents to educate others

and promote tolerance for others who are different from us.

The final question I asked Ms. Diaz was, What is the most important thing to integrate

diversity in the classroom? To which she answered, To be able to fully integrate diversity one

must understand and meet the students needs based on age, gender, background, language, class,

disabilities, learning style, values, beliefs and special need. I know it seems like a lot but, when

we talk about diversity we cannot only look at culture. I have to confess that whenever I heard

the word diversity I always thought about ethnicity. However, this course and my recent

experience turned out to be very educational. I am extremely glad I had the opportunity to

observe Ms. Diazs classroom and am thankful that she took the time so I could learn from her as

I conducted my interview.

5 Additional Questions

1. Have you experience any discrimination among your students?

Ms. Diaz: Until now I have not experience any, thankfully.

2. Do you believe it is harder to integrate diversity in a special education classroom?

Ms. Diaz: No, I find it to be the same. The only thing that might be different is that I

have to modify the length and complexity lessons I am introducing. However, that is

something all teachers must to meet their students needs and learning styles.

3. I notice that aside from the common Caucasian dolls you also have several other ethnic

dolls, did you bring those into class as part of incorporating cultural diversity?

Ms. Diaz: I should take credit and say that was my intent but, in reality I only bought the

African American doll. The other two have been gifts from the parents of previous
 students. I kept them in class because my students seemed to really enjoy playing with

them.

4. You mentioned that you incorporate multicultural education by celebrating various

holidays. Have you encountered any problems with parents in that aspect? Since certain

holidays go hand in hand with religious beliefs?

Ms. Diaz: That is actually a very good question that I had not really thought much of.

See when the school year starts I make sure to learn as much as possible from my

students and their families. See some of this students stay with me for two years it use to

be three years but, that recently changed. Anyways, I like to do home visits twice a year

and part of the reason why I do it is to learn from my students families about their own

culture. I also maintain constant communication with parents about what is going on in

the classroom. When it comes to religion, well that is a very delicate subject that has not

been an issue for me. Simply because when I introduce my students to the various

holidays I teach them about how it got start it, where it is celebrated, who celebrates it

and so on. I like to celebrate and learn with my students about those aspects leaving aside

any religious acts. For example, when we celebrate Thanksgiving I know many people

pray as they are about to eat. However, when we celebrate it in the classroom we learn all

the historical parts and then take part in sharing a meal but, we leave aside any religious

customs like praying.

5. Does the school have any activities to promote multicultural education?

Ms. Diaz: We have a multicultural committee. They come up with activities to promote

diversity and cultural awareness and they also have a bulletin board with updated

information about cultural events happening in our community.