Cultural diversity in front of the same board.
Chuse Kambu, ( I want some milk), Ja jaogat ( I want to go home) ,Che varea ( I am hungry) Rojaiju ( te amo) are most of the common phases that teachers have learnt in other languages. Martha Quarin, headmistress at Kindergarten Number 962 in Los Hornos, mentions that in some schools fifty per cent of the enrolment is composed of children from neighboring countries. However this is not problem, this is a source of mutual enrichment ( Martha Quarin diario El Dia , Mayo 22,2011)
The immigration to our country from neighboring countries has never stopped, but today shows another tendency: once they are here they tend to live together in the same neighborhoods, for example: there is the Peruvian community, the Paraguayan , and the Bolivian. This is the main reason why every school deals with the cultural diversity according to the social context where is located.
Another good example is Kindergarten 135, located in 135 street between 37 and 38 that due to the immigration, they have been working for the past years according to the new model stated in the Curriculum Design, where different didactics proposal should be applied with the purpose of integration, and showing respect to others cultures and ethnic groups. This is really important because when the teacher teaches new words, for example, she asks children how they say the same word in their mother tongue.
Enrollment is higher in primary school than in kindergarten, this is because most of the parents do not know that there are schools for children under 6 years old.
Discrimination is another fact that teachers face daily. Teach in diversity is a project that teachers have been working for the past three years. The first thing they have done was to create some bounds between the community and the school. Families were called in order to participate on different cultural activities as food festival and typical customs. After this, they began to change little by little, seeing the school as a place where their cultural heritages were respected. Furthermore, a feeling of self-confidence toward the Institution.
To sum up, Coherence and Inclusion are the mainstays for the new school.
Translated and adapted by Sandra Varsalona from "El Dìa", 22/05/2011
2 comentarios:
I think that this is a very interesting article, because we as teachers have to show students not only our culture but also other cultures, so it is a way of sharing customs. In Politica Institucional with Marily Mendy we talk about these topics. Nowadays there are schools that discriminates children because of their culture. Leticia
I found it great as a vehicle to get different cultures be in contact and specially for kids to feel proud of their roots.
Publicar un comentario en la entrada