Beverly Smith, professor of education at the State University of New York at Potsdam, describes how her teacher education students work with diverse populations and become comfortable with other cultures. Excerpted from a videotaped interview (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997).
"So now they're in classes at Salmon river, which are maybe fifty percent Mohawk, and in many cases, they're learning some things about the history of the Mohawk culture, but these students are primarily teaching math and science, and I think what they're finding is the kids may dress Mohawk and have Mohawk haircuts, but in fact they're just like the kids they grew up with when they went to school, and they learn to value each other's culture and talk about it, but that the kinds of things that kids need really will pervade through the cross-culture and we need to have teachers that are comfortable going into classrooms, working with diverse populations and not to bring any preconceived notions about what's going to happen."
This Critical Issue was researched and written by Carla Cooper Shaw, associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois.
Date posted: 1997