Recognizing Power and Privilege

It is the case that most teachers are white and predominantly female. With this being the case, many teachers encounter difficulty when teaching young, African American male students. However, many white female teachers do not recognize that white students and white people are privileged. Often times, since this can be the case, many white female teachers unintentionally undermine multicultural education by doing a flash card misrepresentation of different cultures. How can this be avoided? Do you believe teachers need to stay abreast of multicultural issues in addition to his/her roles as a teacher? Can a teacher teach effectively without considering the background of his/her students?

Dialectal differences and considerations

It is no debate that an average classroom in the United States will be highly diversified. We also know that certain standards and curricular goals are set in place and are to be accomplished. It is the teachers job to ensure that those goals are being met, but some debate that it is not within the teacher's job description to meet the unique cultural needs of those highly diverse students. Why should we make allocations and considerations for our highly diversified students if the system in which we teach makes no regards for those individuals?