Learning Multiculturalism

       One of the key aspects to this class that we have talked repeatedly on is being aware of the students in our classes, both that we are teaching and taking. Colleges are becoming more culturally diverse than they ever have before; students are travelling from other countries to attend undergraduate and graduate classes at our university. We are almost guaranteed to have at least one student in our classes that is from another country. This places further emphasis on keeping my students and I culturally aware to make sure we are not making fun of another culture. This insensitivity should not stand whether students are around or not but that does not mean that a lapse in judgement can happen.
      We have talked extensively in class about contact zones and these were not something that I had previously thought about. These almost require multiple cultures coming together to form a contact zone, like Pratt mentions. And these do not always have to require leaving the country to find a culture change large enough for a contact zone. The gun control laws right now are vastly different when looking from state to state, for instance. The students in class who are from other countries would also likely have a vastly different viewpoint of the situation that my students from America and myself might not have thought of. Taking other people's view into account is something that we all should do when attempting to make informed decisions.
     With the drastic increase of technology and the sudden availability to connect around the world immediately, what is known as the classroom is rapidly changing. Students in France could take a class electronically without ever having to step foot in America. This allows us to interact easier than we ever could before. But, this also drastically influences the way we have to think about teaching our classes. Students that are born in France, Nigeria, etc are taught in a different environment and a different setting which changes the way they learn and expect to be taught. In a way, we almost have to learn about the other countries and the way they are taught. Some of them will not be expecting the ability to talk in class while others may think that they can talk over other students or make fun of the opinions of others. We have to be aware of these differences and try to ensure that they know how to learn and participate in an American college classroom. There is no reason these students should be made to feel isolated from the rest of the class or the university as a whole.
      The world is rapidly shrinking and there are no signs that this shrinking is slowing down. We should therefore embrace it and attempt to encourage students to go abroad to learn. We should also work to incorporate students from other cultures to make sure they feel welcomed into our classrooms without overloading them with the new culture. These students want to be here and we should be embracing that and trying to learn how we can teach differently.