CONTRIBUTORS
The REAL inclusion of ethnic minorities within modern-day education This month, in our ongoing
collaboration with Edge Hill University curated by ALICIA BLANCO-BAYO, Early Years Lecturer and WTEY Programme Leader at the University’s Faculty of Education, we’re delighted to hear from
VERONICA SINGAMPALLI. Veronica completed her BA (Hons) Primary Early Years at EHU and graduated in July 2022, and is currently working as a teacher in Kuwait.
Living in the UK within the twenty-first century, it is undeniable that our society is multi-cultural. Due to the intricate nature of a multicultural society, many people, including myself, believe that cultural intelligence is an important life skill to nurture and acquire.
The 1990s and early 2000s saw a drive towards inclusive practice for all students within UK education. Sally Tomlinson’s (2005) ‘Race, ethnicity and education under New Labour’ document, highlighted the UK’s modern-day identity (the diverse culture) and the roles schools have in supporting and acknowledging Ethnic Minority Children (EMC).
In regard to the role of a practitioner, this responsibility falls in accordance with the DfE’s expectation to nurture children to be ‘good citizens’ and prepare them for future life. It is therefore indisputable that all children should be taught about diversity, and that inclusion of ethnic minorities should be present within educational environments. This should then be facilitated by practitioners through a variety of Ethnic Minority Inclusion Strategies (EMIS).
Using the information collated in my previous research project ‘Exploring the effectiveness of current strategies used in the classroom when promoting the inclusion of ethnic minority children aged 3-7’, the most effective EMIS as recommended by Diversity & Inclusion specialists was bringing in people/agencies (specifically those that belong to an ethnic minority) to assist in promoting cultural awareness. This strategy allows ethnic minority children to see role models who look like them. This corresponds to previous studies which found that cultural inclusion within schools, allows practitioners to foster an environment that values all pupils no matter their background. Furthermore, it encourages children who belong to ethnic majority groups to foster cultural acceptance and understanding as a societal norm as they are exposed to a range of cultures and customs.
As well as experiences that are out of the ordinary school day, research shows that different forms of representation were integral. In fact, practitioners should be using EMIS “as part of everyday life”. This could include visual representations, such as a variety of books and images in the classroom. Exposing children to the range of cultures they may come across in this way, can allow them to embed cultural capital whilst providing a gateway for future questions and discussion of topics about other cultural traditions. Other successful EMIS recommendations from the research project included inviting families in to talk about their cultures, singing cultural songs, having talking tins and holding workshops for both children and families to attend. All in all though, the majority of participants agreed that practitioners should consciously choose to use “a blended holistic approach” when looking at inclusion of ethnic minority children within their classrooms to ensure that ethnic minorities are seen as an integrated part of society and not singled out. Ghosh & Galczynski (2014) state that education can be a ‘feature of excellence’ when inclusion is fostered, and diversity is recognised. And why wouldn’t we want our practice to be a ‘feature of excellence’?
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www.education-today.co.uk More Christmas
STEM ideas! In her regular column this month, STEMtastic! founder KIRSTY BERTENSHAW shares some more great ideas for a little festive (STEM-related) fun.
Modelling Christmas decorations
Junk modelling Christmas decorations such as Christmas trees, snowmen or Santa’s sleighs is a great way of practising fine motor skills. Cutting out shapes and assembling pieces is a fun way to do this. Alternatively, building blocks that click together could be used. For older students, using complex building sets like K’Nex allows for more creativity and problem-solving skills to build a Christmas themed structure.
In the circuits topic, students could cut out a Christmas tree shape from card and build a circuit that will light up the tree. Extra elements could be added to the circuits to increase knowledge, such as variable resistors to dim the lights, switches to turn circuits on and off, or spearhead circuits connected so a choice can be made between some lights or all the lights being in. Students could measure the current and voltage in the circuits and explore the effect of adding extra bulbs or batteries. These circuits could be kept around the classroom for the festive period then disassembled so the circuit components can be reused in other lessons.
3D shapes
Use Christmas themes to practice surface area and volume calculations for 3D shapes. For example, exactly how much wrapping paper would be needed for the surface of a box with a given base, height and width? An inflatable Christmas tree is made of a cone on top of a cylinder. Calculate the surface area of material needed to make the Christmas tree. Calculate how much air is needed to inflate the Christmas tree. Or a reindeer is made using four small corks for the legs with a given radius and height, and two larger corks for the body and head, with a given radius and height. Calculate the total volume of the reindeer.
Data handling with ‘magic snow’
Magic snow is a hydrogel that can absorb water many times its own volume. Commercial uses include hygiene products and wound dressings, but magic snow is the easiest form to use. Conduct an experiment to see just how much water can be absorbed by a given amount of magic snow in a beaker using a measuring cylinder and adding water 5cm3 at a time. Stir it with a glass stirring rod until all water is absorbed and repeat the process until no more water can be absorbed and liquid is visible on top of the hydrogel. Compare different starting masses of magic snow/ hydrogel and graph the results to see if the relationship between mass of hydrogel and water absorbed is linear.
Christmas colour
Salt dough is easy to make using just salt, flour and water, although it should not be consumed. Salt dough can be shaped and baked before being decorated. Use the decorating as an opportunity to explore colour mixing using paint in primary colours. Alternatively, use thick card cut into festive shapes instead for the colour mixing.
An old favourite of mine is chromatography decorations. Cut out festive shapes or Christmas lights shapes from filter paper. Make a pencil line about 1cm from the base of the paper and use water soluble felt tips to colour near the base of the shape. Place the paper in a beaker with water below the pencil line and wait for the ink to run up the paper. Remove from the water before the ink reaches the top of the paper, leave to dry, and then hang on a piece of string, or hang them all together like a string of Christmas lights.
Kirsty is the founder of STEMtastic, an education consultancy with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
www.stemtastic.co.uk
December 2022
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