EDL 7030

It seems that educators are very much for celebrating diversity and as shown in Chan what begins as a good intentioned activity or event to do just that often has unanticipated results. As I read the articles I made notes in the margin and occasionally highlighted what I felt was an interesting or important passage. One of my notes was as follows: "We (educators) decide what & how cultural diversity is celebrated. What if we let students decide?" One of the Chan articles noted how disinterested and at times reluctant the students seemed to be in sharing their culture. Perhaps students should be given opportuntities to design an assignment or activity around their culture. This would allow students to work at a comfort level which is acceptable to them and maybe build their confidence so that future assignements/activities occur at a higher confidence level. This would result in sharing of cultural knowledge- which is sometimes a sensitive subject as we see in Chan- only sharing would occur on the student's terms rather than the instructor. So I ask the question- as the teacher, does it have to be my decision about how and when diversity is celebrated and cultures shared? Does the sharing have to occur on my terms?

Christy