VCSU

Human Relations and Diversity

Human relations and cultural diversity: North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board licensure requires  a minimum of two semester hours in multicultural education. The coursework must address Native American studies and various types of diversities (i.e., cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, gender, sexual orientation, religion). Coursework includes planning and developing strategies for creating inclusive learning environments that contribute to positive human relationships and strategies for teaching and assessing diverse learners, such as Universal Design for Learning, Response to Intervention, early intervention, and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. North Dakota graduates applying for licensure meet these requirements through completion of Education Standards and Practices Board‐approved programs that include coursework addressing the multicultural education and Native American studies standard. Teacher preparation programs may meet these requirements through general education, specific content major, professional education requirements, or a combination thereof.

The Education Preparation Provider (EPP) requires the study of multicultural education, including Native American studies and strategies for teaching and assessing diverse learners. The program uses a variety of performance assessments, surveys, and reflective writing to learn about candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The data tagged to diversity assessments are gathered and analyzed from exit surveys, disposition data, student teacher final evaluations, completer surveys, and employer surveys (Evidence 1 Diversity Data).

An InTASC definition for diversity includes, "(1) Individual differences (e.g., personality, interests, learning modalities, and life experiences), and (2) group differences (e.g., race, ethnicity, ability, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, nationality, language, religion, political affiliation, and socio-economic background) (InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards, p. 21)."

Teacher candidates develop a Disability Handbook in EDUC 240 Educating Exceptional Students to demonstrate their understanding of individual differences that each child brings to the learning context and to describe how these differences might be leveraged to maximize a student's learning. To develop the Disability Handbook, candidates must be able to recognize and assess the unique characteristics of exceptional children and understand how these differences may manifest in the learning environment. Teacher candidates must also address differing rates of learning, motivation, attention, preferred learning modalities, the complexity of reasoning, persistence, and response modes. Furthermore, candidates must identify instructional strategies and adaptations to meet the needs of students with various exceptionalities that will provide them access to a more inclusive school and community (Evidence 2 Disability Handbook Sample).

Teacher candidates also plan a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) project in EDUC 240 that requires them to design a community or educational event that incorporates universal design principles of representation, engagement, and expression. To develop the UDL project, candidates must demonstrate thought and understanding related to diverse needs within a community, as well as incorporate and apply technological resources to enable children of diverse abilities to participate and engage in inclusive learning experiences (Evidence 3 UDL project).

Among the teacher candidates' field experiences is EDUC 352 Culturally Diverse Practicum. The role of the course in the curriculum is to ensure that teacher candidates experience diverse cultural environments and individual learner differences in their preparation. The field experience enables teacher candidates to develop a greater understanding of how to work with learners from various backgrounds and socioeconomic levels and be better prepared to build on children's strengths and address their individual needs.

Teacher candidates include an example of their favorite projects or learning experiences related to diversity. The teacher candidate work sample provided displays an example of a candidate's EDUC 240 Disability Handbook and EDUC 352 reflective paper (Evidence 4 Disability Handbook Sample and Diversity Practicum Reflective Paper Sample). In addition to the reflective paper, teacher candidates complete a pre-trip and post-trip survey related to their learning experience (Evidence 5 Diversity Practicum Pre/Post-Trip Data and Reflections).

The awareness of diversity and learner differences is featured in EDUC 283 Understanding Cultural Diversity in Education, EDUC 352 Culturally Diverse Practicum, and EDUC 240 Educating Exceptional Students. The courses are focused on multicultural education and designed to enable teacher candidates to fully understand the concepts of cultural competency, social empowerment, and the intersection of cultures in the classroom. The courses also provide multiple perspectives and strategies for teaching a culturally diverse population. The EPP knows that concepts related to diversity and learner differences are important parts of the professional education sequence and the teaching strategies learned in methods courses.

During the August 2016 Annual Data Sharing Session, stakeholders discussed the EPP's low scores in the area of Differentiate instruction for English language learners. As a plan of action, the EPP organized a work group led by Dr. Joan Aus, an EDUC 283 instructor and the chair for ELL at the time. Grant funds were used to pay stipends to K-12 ELL instructors who participated with Dr. Aus to create a handbook titled Instructional Strategies for Classroom Teachers to use with English Language Learners (Evidence 6 ELL Handbook).The handbook was posted in the Teaching for Learning Capstone (TLC) Organization as a resource for student teachers. Teacher candidates in EDUC 283 learn basic strategies for working with limited English proficient (LEP) candidates in regular classroom settings and how to apply appropriate strategies for assisting students with an English language learner (ELL) background or challenged socio-economic backgrounds. The EPP believes that ELL strategies need to be taught in more places than EDUC 283, so the handbook was also shared with methods teachers to provide access to teacher candidates (Evidence 7 ELL resources for methods instructors and teacher candidates). 

EDUC 283 Understanding Cultural Diversity in Education was designed to meet the state expectations for preparing teacher candidates in diversity. Teacher candidates are required to study the indigenous peoples of North America, including tribal perspectives on current events and issues that impact Native Americans in regard to education, social issues, leadership, natural resources and economics. Teacher candidates are asked to describe historical perspectives from Native Americans' and other cultural groups' point of view. The candidates are required to complete and then present a timeline project that chronicles the history of the subjugation of the five ND Native American tribes from that culture's perspective: Lakota/ Dakota, Chippewa, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara to present day. The rubric that is used to assess the timelines is based on five criteria: completeness of information, method of organization, relevance of information, citation of sources, and overall presentation of cultural perspectives (Evidence 8 Native American Lesson Plan). Awareness of the ND Native American Essential Understandings (Evidence 9 Essential Understandings) is included during this section of EDUC 283.

Teacher candidates analyze and plan lessons that address multicultural and diversity themes and learn how to screen educational materials for bias (Evidence 10 Philosophy). Candidates analyze and identify historical and current issues that may impact the education of students from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, teacher candidates read, analyze, and discuss the cultures and traditions of various ethnic groups including the African, Asian, Hispanic, European, and Native Americans (Evidence 11 Lesson Plan Analysis).

Teacher candidates self-reflect, research, analyze, and understand their own culture and its importance in the cross-cultural learning process to develop a baseline for making effective comparisons about cultural differences, understand why people respond in different situations, and increase global awareness. Teacher candidates engage in a gender role interview where they demonstrate their understanding of family and family issues and their relation to student learning and of culture as a collage of factors beyond race or national origin. The criterion for the interview is that the teacher candidate must interview someone of the opposite gender and ask questions about his/her family values, educational values and expectations, and the role of religion that shaped the interviewee's belief system. Teacher candidates explore family issues and their relation to student learning by conducting an interview to examine the influences of family on learning and cultural patterns. Candidates use the information gathered from the interview to create a chart that demonstrates how family influences the learning of another person from a different background compared and in contrast to that of their own (Evidence 12 Family Influences Chart).

Students learn best when they see themselves reflected in both the learning environment and the academic curriculum. With effects on both motivation and academic development, multicultural education benefits all classroom learners and the communities in which they reside. The EPP addresses diversity education practices to increase candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions to respectfully work with the diverse needs of their learners and communities.