Cultural Perspectives in Education Essay

The word ‘Culture’ refers to civilization or human activity. It can also refer to universal human capability to categorize skills, and to train and convey them characteristically. Therefore, one can say that Culture evolves over a period of time in response to adaptive challenges. What activities are carried out, who should participate, why they are valued and the rules of interaction are coded into the cultural models. There are different ways to educate, express or reveal knowledge to a student. The student’s education very much depends upon the teacher’s philosophy of education. This philosophical point of view appears to be true that could bring a negative influence in the classroom, no matter what syllabus is designed for the student. The students possess different qualities and beliefs that teachers should realize and learn to adapt to in the classroom. If teachers are not able to go beyond the boundaries of social class, religion, race, creed, gender, sex, disability or cultural background, then the focus of the students will also turn heavily upon differences and the classification of students as special needs or underachiever, thus building insensitive pre-expectations toward students in the classroom. â€Å"The primary goal of education is to show students different points of view and encourage them to evaluate their own beliefs. The teacher should help the students to appreciate how one’s observations and interpretations are influenced by social identity and background†. Chang, H. (1993). Students should be allowed to feel free to voice an opinion and empowered to defend it. A student is able to focus on and enjoy learning more when the school and classroom make him feel safe-comfortable with himself and with his surrounding. The learning situation should be made culturally neutral by keeping in mind the potential barriers and obstacles that each student may have. Taking this into account Marda Steffey (2001) suggests a four point motivational framework for culturally open teaching: 1. Establishing inclusion—norms, procedures, and structures woven together to form a learning context in which all learners and teachers feel respected by and connected to one another. 2. Developing attitude—â€Å"norms, procedures and structures that create through relevance and choice a favorable disposition among learners and teachers toward the learning experience or learning goal. 3. Enhancing meaning—norms, procedures, and structures that expand, refine, or increase the complexity of what is learned in a way that matters to learners, includes their values and purposes, and contributes to a critical consciousness. 4. Engendering competence—norms, procedures, and structures that create an understanding for learners of how they are or can be effective in learning something of personal value†. (Nawang, 1999) The main idea of the four points is that when student and teachers find themselves submerged in a unique world of the classroom, the interaction of culture is invaluable for the success of the learning process. Solomon, B. B. (1991). Teacher should recognize any biases or stereotypes in the class room, â€Å"by treating each student as an individual, and respect each student for whom he or she is. Amend any language practices or examples that exclude or degrade any group, should be aware of how students feel about the cultural climate in the classroom†. (Woolbright, 1989) A productive education must start with an awareness of these issues and some basic schemes for overcoming them. Although a variety of teachings can be fruitful, it seems especially cooperative to offer an atmosphere where students can easily hold an open discussion rather than class session in which a correct answer is required. True open discussion will send a message of authority between equal students who have something substantial to add to a common endeavor. Sharing the facts and principles of one’s discipline with students is very important as that helps to prepare an environment of comfort, trust and joint respect. Therefore, such an environment makes it possible for people to exchange ideas and thoughts on complex and often terrifying issues. It opens a way for students to carry out a common ground of joint practices and respect which can bind students together and at the same time make it easier for them to understand and observe many differences. The teacher should not only establish a content of diversity but a procedure that creates and demonstrate appreciation of diversity. It is important to keep in mind that students always observe and learn their teachers’ behavior as well as their expressions. The classroom environment not only represent the fundamental value of appreciation of diversity of cultures nevertheless it also capitulate great rewards in terms of vital thinking skills, especially the aptitude to value sophisticated multiple point of views on complex rational and ethical issues. The school or college should recognize all of the various types of diversities, whether it is cultural or not. Students should understand when they go their classroom that they will be interacting with many different types of students from all walks all of life. Levinson, B. A. , and Holland, D. (1996). They should understand that they are all in this facility for a reason and that it doesn’t matter what they look like or what language they speak, they need to cooperate to make their class environment more conducive to learning. It is very unfortunate to say that not much improvement in this has been made around the world except few countries, while in rest there is still school and colleges where cultural factors are given preferences. Every discipline is influenced by the inequity of power that exists across racial and cultural groups, between genders, and among other socially created classes of difference. In spite of advances in race and cultural relations, gender equality, and religious tolerance, significant documented differences continues to exist around the world. In order to gain a true moderate education, school administration should honor diversity of cultures. It should recognize holidays of other ethnicities and always study new and interesting ways of life. The students of the respective schools and colleges should â€Å"love learning about other cultures and how they interact with one another†. (Harold, 2006) The students should be allowed to do arts and projects that are representatives of other cultures and take great pride in the fact that they now have knowledge of their brothers and sisters around the world. Educators have a responsibility to assist the people who are privileged enough to be students in becoming aware of the inequalities around them. Therefore, each educator should work to infuse each class with the diverse voices that contributed to the knowledge base of the discipline. References Chang, H. (1993) Affirming Children’s Roots: Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Early Care and Education: California Tomorrow. Hodgkinson, Harold L. (2006) Education in Social and Cultural Perspectives: Prentice-Hall Levinson, B. A. , and Holland, D. (1996). The cultural production of the educated person: An introduction. In B. A. Levinson, D. Foley, and D. Holland (Eds. ), Albany: SUNY Press. Phuntsog, Nawang. Magic of culturally responsive pedagogy: In search of the Genie’s lamp in multicultural education. Teacher Education Quarterly, Summer 1999 Solomon, B. B. (1991) Impediments to Teaching a Culturally Diverse Undergraduate Population: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. Woolbright, C. (Ed. ). (1989) Valuing Diversity on Campus: A Multicultural Approach. Bloomington, Ind. : Association of College Unions-International.

Diseases essays

Diseases essays There are many different kinds communicable diseases. Small pox happens to be one of them. The cause of it is contact with the person who has it. It is also caused by a virus. This means just being around the person who has it. No direct contact is needed. The symptoms of it are a fever and a pimple like rash that grows. The bumps are full of pus which look very gross. Treatments for it are to get a vaccination before you get it or before you start to get a rash. Influenza also known as the flu is also a communicable disease. The cause of it is direct contact with people such as touching other peoples hands. Airborne droplets from infected people is also another way of getting the flu. Symptoms of the flu are, a fever, aches, coughing, tiredness, and weakness of breath. Treatments for it are getting a lot of bed rest, having good nutrition, and drinking plenty of fluids. You can also get a vaccination before you are infected with the virus which protects you from it. Chronic bronchitis is not a communicable disease. It is caused by bacteria, various viruses of the common cold, and smoking. Symptoms if it are a persistent cough, wheezing, respiration, and heaviness in the chest. Treatments for it are trying to reduce the cough which means taking certain kind of cough suppressants. Cerebral palsy is also a non-communicable disease. The cause of it is toxic substances in the mothers body at the time of giving birth and during the pregnancy. A symptom which can lead to the disease is lack of oxygen at birth. Treatments for it are steroids and methotrexate and folic acids. ...

Annual and Anniversary

Annual and Anniversary Annual and Anniversary Annual and Anniversary By Maeve Maddox A non-native English speaker wonders about this use of the word anniversary in a business communication: The prices and products below are based on a 36-month contract, free unit and free installation. Tracker experiences an across-the-board anniversary increase (inflation based) every October. The reader comments, I cannot remember ever seeing â€Å"anniversary† used in this context. I would have expected a word such as â€Å"annual.† The usage sounds odd to a native speaker as well. Both words, annual and anniversary, derive from the Latin annus, â€Å"returning yearly.† Anniversary entered the language as a noun in the early 13th century with the meaning â€Å"day of a person’s death.† In church use, anniversary came to be used attributively in the phrase â€Å"anniversary days,† dates on which saints or martyrs were celebrated. Annual came along as an adjective about 150 years later in the context of paying an â€Å"annual wage.† Although both words can function as either noun or adjective, in modern usage, anniversary is used primarily as a noun and annual as an adjective: The Queen to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE Day at a Westminster Abbey service with veterans   Penguin Celebrates 80th Anniversary Annual price increases are common in B2B [business-to-business] subscriptions. The  Annual Picnic  is usually a purely social event, and everyone is encouraged to attend. Although both words refer to a yearly event, anniversary carries connotations of celebration and remembrance, whereas annual is a workaday word meaning â€Å"occurring once a year.† In observing an anniversary, one might speak of â€Å"an anniversary celebration† or â€Å"an anniversary dinner,† but in a business context, it’s more idiomatic to speak of â€Å"annual meetings† and â€Å"annual price increases.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Types of Narrative ConflictCapitalization Rules for the Names of GamesHow to Punctuate Introductory Phrases

Cloud-based information services Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cloud-based information services - Coursework Example The cloud has changed this by allowing the same employees to work without the inconvenience and cost of additional hardware. This has the effect of increasing productivity which drives revenue up while pushing the cost down. Second is that allows many users to work with many applications and softwares without having the need to purchase individual apps and softwares in each workstation because it is already in the cloud where they can readily work without the added software. This empowers the employees because they are given access to data and information which would not have been possible before again allowing greater productivity in the organization. Cloud also facilitates sharing of information which is critical among teams working in big projects. It cuts the time of sending and sharing it through the traditional methods of emails and is more secure than using file sharing

Executive Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Executive Summary - Assignment Example This is because some of the companies opted for hiring many receptionists to handle the high job demands, but they could not manage to professionally assist guests. Organizations should hire our services because we will implement technological approaches in our operations that comprise of surveillance cameras and ipads. The cameras shall help in monitoring the performance and interaction of our staffs with the prospective customers at the work stations. The cameras will also guarantee customer safety and reduce the risk prevalence in the offices. One of the advantages of working with GCS is that it boasts of professional personnel who are competent in their duties. The company also offers other fringe services such as telephone operators, messengers and personal assistance to clients. As a result, it would be essential to hire the services of GCS in order to save time and enable the office workers concentrate on other productive tasks. Although GCS is a new establishment in the regio n, it shall ensure that clients receive professionalized concierge services that save time and

Surviving Infidelity in a Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Surviving Infidelity in a Marriage - Essay Example This essay will focus on critical review of two professional journal articles related to child abuse and the way counseling helps them. In the article, â€Å"Rape, statutory rape, and child abuse: legal distinctions and counselor duties† Mitchell and Rogers (2003) tries to find out the responsibility of a counselor in case of rape and child abuse. Child sexual abuse is a common phenomenon which the counselors have to face very often as they deal with school children. Child Sexual Abuse is defined as when the care taker of the child participates in or assists in forceful molestation of the child for gratification of the self. It may be seen if the legal duties are taken into consideration of the counselor there will be a lot of contradictions between the legal duties and between what the counselors ethically thinks is correct. There are a lot of differences existing in the laws regarding child sexual abuse, rape and statutory rape and it becomes difficult for the counselors to understand which cases they should report as cases of child sexual abuse. They get confused. So it is advised that the counselors are w ell aware of the laws of their particular state and should also be aware of the situations when they should report the cases to the adequate authority. It is also advised that when the counselors are confused they should take the advice of the legal authorities regarding their duties. In case the school counselors are confused about the age differences and are not very sure whether to report it as child sexual abuse or rape then they should seek the help of a concerned attorney or the child services department and accordingly should report the case formally. Child sexual abuse and child rape involves a lot of feelings like guilt, shame, depression, anger and insecurity, therefore it is must that the counselors are well equipped to deal with these issues and try to relieve the victims of all these feelings

The Investigation Of Police Corruption

The Investigation Of Police Corruption One cannot separate police corruption from police abuse of force. Whenever an officer uses force, that officer needs to be able to justify the use of force. Law enforcement ethics go far beyond an officer choice to accept a cup of coffee, or a free car wash. The fact remains that whenever an officer lowers the ethical, and morals standards it affects every area of police operations and adversely affects the ability of law enforcement agencies to perform the mission that the community has entrusted them to do. When police misuse their power, and authority it lowers the departments professional competence; and at worse it spreads corruption through the department. Tract: The job of a law enforcement officer can be tough. Law enforcement officer are sometimes plagued with situation that test their ability to enforce the law and maintain order. Law enforcement officers today face a constant battle to establish and maintain higher ethical standards for police personnel. This mission becomes tougher each day when one considers the importance of fighting terrorism, drugs, human trafficking, and many other major issues. In the last few years, ethical issues in law enforcement have been affected by three critical factors-the growing level of temptation stemming from the illicit drug trade, the challenges posed by decentralization, and the potentially compromising nature of the police organizational culture. These factors make managing for ethics today far more different and demanding than it was in the past. How can law enforcement fight the war on crime and maintain personal liberties? One can examine the social stigmas and stereotypes that either further or reduce police corruption to help develop a better understanding of police corruption. Finally what is the solution to effectively control police corruption, enforce proper ethics, and ensure law and order? Terrorism is a new issue for law enforcement personnel today. Terrorism has had a great impact on the police mission here in the United States. Experts now are debating the proper way to address terrorism in America without creating ethical dilemmas. Can federal law enforcement hold all suspected terrorist within the United States in jail until they are cleared? Not legally. Would it be ethically okay to arrested terrorist, and allow them to be tried within the United States without legal counsel? No. Can the federal Government issue wire tapes on citizens phones without creditable evidence. No. What is the correct way to handle the issues on terrorism? The Police Executive Research Forum has outlined key ways to handle the war on terrorism. First, in order to prevent terrorist acts on U.S. soil the public must understand that Federal Law enforcement cannot do it alone. State, and Local law enforcement along with the general public must work together to gather intelligence on suspect ed terrorist. Local Law enforcement can use the community policing method to establish citizen engagement, partnership, trust, information sharing, and collaborative problem solving. With a relationship developed with the community, police can better identify potential suspects, and become proactive in the war on terrorism. Law enforcement can ethically address the war on terrorism. The problem is that social stigmas can play a key role in either furthering police corruption or reducing it. Social stigmas impact the way police perform because police sometimes use social stigmas to be proactive rather than being reactive to crime. For example, an officer may approach a young man walking around a suburban community with his hat turned to one side, and his pants below his knees. The office may see the social stigma of a thug, someone who is considered to be up to no good. When police use social stigmas in this way, the community will view it as good police work. However the use of social stigmas can also bring on police corruption. Some officer may violate human rights, with racial profiling, or just mistreating someone because of their outer characteristic. For example, whenever an officer sees someone with big rims and loud music he assumes they sell drugs. So the officer pulls the young man over and treats him like he is a criminal. First the officer ask for identification, then removes the young man from the car and performs an illegal search of the car and finds drugs . Now the officer will be forced to falsify reports, which is a form of police corruption. Social stigmas are no better than stereotypes; one person may fit the stereotype or social stigma, but one should never conclude that a stereotype or social stigma applies to everyone. When officer begin to apply a social stigma to everyone, they can easily fall into police corruption. With that being said, citizens should not apply social stigmas to all police officer. One can conclude that some police officers are involved in police corruption but not all. The ethical issues seen in police corruption can also be seen in police abuse of force. One cannot separate police corruption from police abuse of force. Whenever an officer uses force, that officer needs to be able to justify the use of force. Law enforcement ethics go far beyond an officer choice to accept a cup of coffee, or a free car wash. The fact remains that whenever an officer lowers the ethical, and morals standards it affects every area of police operations and adversely affects the ability of law enforcement agencies to perform the mission that the community has entrusted them to do. When police misuse their power, and authority it lowers the departments professional competence; and at worse it spreads corruption through the department. Although only a few officers may be involved in an act or corruption or abuse of force; the community will perceive all members of that department as incompetent, corrupt, or brutal. It is important to know that a few incidents of corrupt or brutal police behavior can overshadow or even negate years of efficient and honest po lice service, and cause long-term damage to an agencys reputation. Illegal and unethical acts by police officers, create community increased antagonism toward what appears to be an unappreciative or even hostile public, less citizen cooperation, more friction in police-citizen interactions, more invitations to corruption, and more confrontations that may lead to the use of excessive force. It is a classic vicious cycle, with worsening community relations, an increase in hostility between police and citizenry, and a concomitant growth of public contempt for the police all generating a downward spiral that far too often ends in tragedy. Many ethical factors that are behind police corruption can be found in police abuse of powers, and excessive force. Police corruption is sometimes motivated by an officers desires for money, respect, and power. Likewise, the use of excessive force can be used to ensure and officer receives money, maintains power, and respect from the community. Many officers who are involved in corrupt activities will often use force to maintain and protect their corrupt activities from reaching the public or media. In addition to that, officers who are under a lot of stress can fall into corruption, and are more likely to use excessive force. When police use excessive force, or fall into police corruptions it only hinders the overall mission or law enforcement. The only way to prevent corruption and police abuse is to train officer in ethical standards to strengthen the foundation of police ethics. To strengthen ethical standards officers need to be trained in the correct ways to change moral standards of contemporary society. The world today has lowered the moral and ethical standards of citizens, and police alike. The lack of moral standards, has allowed the community, and law enforcement to take justice in their own hands. Secondly, police need to know and respect the organizational expectations of the police. Society has certain perceptions, images, and expectations of the police. Some of the expectations that the community have of police may not be accurate or realistic. Misinformed or conflicting perceptions of the proper role of the police and conflicting expectations about what is or should be expected from the police often contribute to an environment of confusing built on mixed or even conflicting goals and objectives. As a result , the working environment of police, their morals, and their susceptibility to corruption and brutality are closely watched by the public and the media. With this in mind, police can better handle situation that propose ethical dilemmas. For example, officer now know that the community expects police to be corrupt, and to abuse their powers, so if a officer does the complete opposite, he or she can help raise the standard, and avoid some of those ethical factors that are behind police corruption, and police abuse of powers, and excessive force . Formal training programs can help to ensure that officers understand their departments code of ethics and related expectations Elevate the importance of ethics throughout an agency Underscore top managements support, and Provide specific assistance in areas directly related to ethical behavior (e.g., stress management, use of force, violence reduction, and behavioral science classes). Although more study is need- ed in this area, some empirical evidence supports the contention that formal ethics training fosters improved ethical behavior. One recent study found that officers specifically trained in anger management had fewer incidents of excessive force in making arrests. A distinct but related topic is whether higher education promotes ethical behavior. Clearly, advanced formal education enhances the maturity and professionalism of police officers. The question is whether those positive attributes spill over into the ethical arena.Some research suggests a positive relationship. Adva nced formal education appears to reinforce previously established ethical values in individuals. At the organizational level, one study identified a commitment to learning as one of the three most prominent characteristics common to highly ethical organizations. In conclusion, police corruption anywhere, hurts police everywhere. Police are held to a higher standard by the citizens, and the media. Police officers need to be aware of the social stigmas working against them. Law enforcement Officer need to be trained, and educated on how to hand ethical situation. If the law enforcement community seeks to change the image of police in American they must first become aware the ethical problems and avoid them. Secondly, Police with the help of education one maybe able to avoid the use of excessive force, and corruption. Lastly, law enforcement must correct, their attitude toward those who may fit a certain social stigma. Resource Page