Abstract:

The article discusses the main challenges that a modern teacher or lecturer faces while coming into a multicultural classroom. It is based on the experience of schools and higher education institutions in Russian Federation.

We must mention one of the most prominent features that distinguishes modern multicultural classroom from a multicultural classroom of the previous years. Educational institutions in Russia always were multicultural. In the USSR Russian students, the representatives of Soviet republics and their nationalities comprised a multicultural classroom. They had a huge advantage: they spoke common Russian language (a lingua franca for the Soviet Union) and they shared common system of values and beliefs. In modern Russia as well as in many other countries a classroom contains native students, refugees from different regions of the world and foreign students who come to study.

Such a multicultural classroom of new formation places new challenges for a teacher. The first challenge is the absence of a common language or lingua franca in such a classroom. Secondly, being representatives of different cultures, the students have their own systems of values and beliefs as well as norms of behaviour. That leads to conflicts among the students and with the teachers. Thirdly, the task of the teacher is to unite and to organise such a multicultural classroom in order to educate them.

Speaking about the responses to these challenges we are going to touch upon several techniques that were implemented in Russian schools and Universities.

Firstly, it is special training for the teachers working in such classrooms. They need multicultural education, that gives them basic knowledge of cultural background of their students and, what is more important, of their norms of behaviour and style of learning. For example, the Chinese students are more oriented on written discourse. The teacher should take it into consideration while involving them into learning activities.

Secondly, we must redevelop the academic curriculum, which should include some national or ethnic component in the academic programme of each subject. While studying universal facts, some facts concerning a specific nation or ethnic group may be included.

Thirdly, it is the organisation of the learning process in the classroom. Teamwork in small groups of diverse students proves to be efficient. Students of different ethnicity, gender and academic ability may be united into small groups to fulfill some educational tasks. The students may organize such a group independently according to their mutual interest to each other. Otherwise the teacher should facilitate it.

Fourthly, it is out-of-class and out-of-school common activities that should be facilitated by teachers and backed up by parents.

We believe that the implementation of the suggested techniques will help to overcome the challenges of teaching in a multicultural classroom.

Keywords:

Multicultural classroom, curriculum, cultural background, teamwork.