How do you teach students with different cultural backgrounds?

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By Vicki Nishioka | May 11, 2018

In the classroom and elsewhere, we interpret what others say and do through our own experiences, values, and beliefs—as well as our knowledge of the other person or people.

For educators, communicating and having a shared understanding of social and behavioral expectations with students from cultural backgrounds similar to our own is pretty straightforward.

However, if we don’t know students well, cultural differences can contribute to misunderstandings that lead to feelings of disrespect, which ultimately weaken relationships.

I’ve found that building connections with students whose racial, cultural, and/or life experiences differ from ours can challenge us in various ways. For some educators, it can create feelings of uncertainty. Others may need to re-examine their attitudes. For most of us, it requires learning new skills.

Perspective-taking skills can help us understand what students are thinking and feeling in a given situation. If you are working to improve relationships with students from cultural backgrounds different from your own, here are five perspective-taking strategies to consider:

1. Build a relationship with every student. When students feel as if their teacher cares about them, it can make a big difference. The evidence is not just anecdotal; research shows that teachers who build positive relationships with all their students make a significant contribution to their success in and out of school. Teachers can show they care by:

• Demonstrating interest in students’ welfare
• Respecting students’ perspectives
• Telling students they can succeed
• Knowing students’ academic and social needs
• Recognizing students’ academic and social achievements

2. Know your own perspectives. Be aware of how your attitudes, values, and experiences influence your opinions and actions. Self-awareness will help you more accurately interpret what students are communicating verbally or through their behavior.

3. Make an intentional effort to learn about students’ beliefs, attitudes, and personality; how they react in different situations; and their communication style. Let students know that getting to know each of them as an individual is important to you. Show genuine interest in learning about their opinions, interests, and backgrounds. This is a key component of perspective-taking.

4. Remember: Perspective-taking is a two-way street. When teachers share stories about themselves, it helps students learn about their perspectives. It also helps students better understand the similarities and differences in your background and theirs.

5. Use empathy to provide emotional support to students. Empathy is identifying with the point of view and feelings of another person. Compassion is actively reaching out to help. Both require knowing a student’s perspectives and understanding how they are feeling. Anyone who is upset or frustrated—including students—may need support to engage in the classroom routine.

Positive relationships between teachers and students are the bedrock for success in school and beyond. Using perspective-taking skills and related strategies, such as those outlined above, can help educators make them a reality.

For more on this topic, REL Northwest has developed a video that features two high school teachers from Salem, Oregon, who are skilled at using perspective-taking and empathy to develop positive relationships with students.

When teaching a diverse group of students, whether they are English language learners or English speakers but have a different cultural background, it’s important to be mindful of the cultural differences in students’ behaviour. Recognizing and being able to distinguish these cultural differences allows the teacher to form a safe environment for all students. It’s important to recognize and understand these differences to be able to implement culturally responsive teaching and pedagogical practices in the classroom to ensure the success of every student.

Here are some of the cultural differences that you might notice in student behaviour:

Eye contact: Many teachers notice that some of their students, especially English language learners, do not make direct eye contact with the teacher. In Western culture, this may be a sign that the person is not paying attention to the speaker. However, in many cultures, making a direct eye contact with the teacher (or any other person of authority) is a sign of disrespect. Many students are taught by their parents and family to not make such eye contact, as it’s also a sign of someone looking to challenge you.

Asking questions: This can be applied to personality traits, i.e. some shy students do not ask questions. However, in some cultures students learn that asking the teacher questions might imply that the teacher did not teach well, and therefore is impolite. Moreover, in some cultures asking questions can be seen as a way to challenge the teacher, and that is always discouraged and frowned upon.

Student may smile during an intense discussion: Some students may smile during intense discussions or reprimanding. The student may have been taught to react in this way so as not to offend the teacher/person of authority in the discussion.

The student does not display active listening skills or is inattentive: In some cultures students are taught using hands on methods through modelling and observation. Therefore, students might not be familiar with using active listening in the classroom to understand concepts and instructions.

Student refuses to engage in debates/discussions: There may be students who refuse to participate or contribute to a debate and/or lively discussion that occurs in class. In a few cultures, debating or engaging in discussions with different point of views, can be seen to challenge the participants in the discussion. Many cultures teach students that challenging teachers and/or authority figures is disrespectful. In other cultures, students do not recognize discussions/debates to be a different learning strategy, and therefore ignore the activity when it occurs.

Learning how to accommodate these behaviours is probably the teacher’s hardest job. However, providing the safe space for these student behaviours would allow teachers to implement the necessary pedagogical practices to help students excel and succeed in the classroom. When the teacher is able to connect with her student, her student succeeds. Building a relationship with the student is often the first step into being able to know them—to understand their behaviour in the classroom and how it connects to their learning. Being mindful of students’ backgrounds and cultural differences tells students that it’s okay for them to be who they are, while still having the support of their teachers and classmates. What we're really looking for is creating awareness and support by discussing these cultural behaviour differences. What are some cultural differences in behaviour that you've encountered, and most importantly, what are some strategies that you used to accomodate students displaying those behaviours?

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