Cultural Differences in Wisconsin
So, I've taught at schools in California and Wisconsin. I have had a lot more cultural issues in Wisconsin. By this I mean, difficulty dealing with people who are a different sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. 99% of my students are white students who grew up in white areas with little to no experience dealing with someone who is different from them. I'm unsure how to help my students become more comfortable with people who are different from the "norm" they have experienced. In California it was a totally different story!
Don't worry about differences. Concentrate on the similarities the group has and build on that. You will never find a group that has no common character factor. They may be limited is some groups, but they are there.
This is a great topic. Thanks much, Nicole, for raising this issue. Like the others who have posted here, I also teach in Wisconsin.
While there may not be significant racial or ethnic diversity in some classrooms, there is often considerable socioeconomic diversity and this can be quite illuminating.
Students bring certain assumptions to the classroom based upon their socioeconomic background, and they can be startled to find that students from other backgrounds do not share their assumptions. This can lead to lively debate, so long as civility and respect are maintained.
I am also teaching in Wisconsin for only the last six months. However, my professional experience provided numerous opportunities to work with those of different nationalities. This was in healthcare, and an interpreter was often needed, especially for medical terms and asking clients about pain (for Hmongs and Hispanics).
I think Nicole brought up a very interesting point on how different our student populations are across the nation. Mark pointed out that the instructor is always the one leading by example-I agree to be accepting. I think Melissa had a fantastic idea to randomly put folks in groups to share different cultural factors. I even had difficulty trying to mix up groups of students in different programs for playing games (from a primarily Caucausian population and some adult learners who had been in the workforce a number of years).
Hi Melissa,
One of the challenges of being successful in the workplace is having the ability to get along with others. Your strategies are helping your students to learn how this can be done. Coping with different dynamics and diversity is something all of us must do if we are going to have enjoyable careers.
Gary
I also teach in Wisconsin and I agree with Mark, unless your are in the very metropolitan areas we do not see much cultural diversity. What I like to do is randomly select partners for a couple of quizzes and review games so I don't have students "sticking with their own kind." I also have part of one lecture on cultural differences and I encourage everyone to share some cultural/heredity characteristics with their peers. I always learn a lot during that class session. I also try to tell my students on multiple occasions that the classroom is a safe environment and that we all may have experiences that if shared can help everyone learn and that none of the information a classmate shares should be taken outside of our classroom and used against them. This strategy has been very successful for me and I have not had any repercussions.
I also teach in Wisconsin. It depends upon where you are in the state, but once you get outside of Madison and the southeastern corner (Milwaukee, Racine, et al.), you are absolutely correct (though, as you get further north you see a greater population of indigenous peoples). Students who have had little to no exposure to other "groups" actually seem to do better than those who've had negative experiences with those groups. What is the solution? Time and positive (or, at least, neutral) experience. What can the instructor do? I don't believe in preaching about tolerance, including it on my syllabus, or anything like that. The key is to act as a role model, to demonstrate matter-of-fact tolerance, and demonstrate intolerance for intolerance. One specific thing you might do is to be sure to spread the minorities around when assigning group projects. While there may be a tendancy for people to stick with "their own kind" (whites with whites, Hmong with Hmong, GLBT with GLBT, etc.), this isn't how the economic world works. Learning to associate professionally with people in a variety of social and ethnic groups is an important part of the education provided by a career college.
