Social & Emotional Intelligence and Intercultural Diversity

Buzz words, re-introduced ideas, and new discussions continue to permeate the world of education on a consistent basis.  Social and Emotional Intelligence (#SEL) is something that has risen to the forefront in the District that I work in.  It is important that students learn to recognize and exhibit appropriate behaviors in the appropriate settings.  Actions that were seen as socially acceptable in one era may have not been passed down or perpetuated in subsequent years.  With the bombardment of images of violence, sexism, poverty, hunger, racism, economic inequality, and environmental eradication, students are coming to school with less skills to self regulate.   Playgrounds and social learning environments of the past are no longer rites of passages for students of the future as they are learning difficult lessons on a more grand and public stage: Social Media.  Where you may have learned a life lesson at the mall, or local community recreational center, many students are learning these lessons publicly on the internet and with a bigger audience who can comment, ridicule, and shame the person learning the lesson.  

Now, even though Canada prides itself as being multicultural and tolerant there has been a shift to covert or closet racism that has taken place.  Educational stakeholders and community leaders may argue that it is not as bad as the U.S. and that we are a lot better than before.  Nonetheless, the truth is that within many of our schools in the lower mainland, segregation exists!  Whether it is overtly or covertly implemented, many children in our diverse classrooms choose to be with people of their own socio-cultural ethnic background.  At the elementary school level, it may not be as prominent, but in my high-school experience, many of my friends who were inclusive during their elementary years became more prescriptive with who they considered to be their friends when they entered high-school.  The same situation exists in my current school where kids are segregating themselves based on race.

Donald Sterling made headlines for his rant about black people coming to basketball games! With the internet, more and more younger societal members are sharing their beliefs and stereotypes about race. Student athletes of all socio-cultural ethnic backgrounds are losing scholarships for using racist language in their tweets and posts on Social Media.  The other day in the hallway, two kids who define themselves as "Best Friends" were pulled aside by myself and another teacher for their choice of nicknames for each other which were "Nigger" and "Terrorist".  Many students listen to hip hop music and follow the culture and believe because their favorite artists use these terms on a consistent basis, that they are allowed to as well.  Many hardcore rappers use the N-Word in their lyrics, but Justin Bieber was busted a couple days ago for using derogatory terms to describe black people.  Rapper Joe Budden had to apologize on Twitter for calling an elderly Sikh man a terrorist and posting a picture on twitter.  Now on a brilliant side note, people are holding young members of society responsible for their inappropriate actions, but it still does not address the big picture that Intercultural Diversity needs to be a mainstay in discussing social and emotional intelligence.

As more and more people from diverse cultural backgrounds enter our communities and our schools, we must be able to share their culture in our classrooms with our students.  This will allow two things to happen: a) It will lead to a feeling of inclusion for students in the class which will lead a larger sense of the community, and b) It will allow students to learn about each others socio-cultural ethnic backgrounds leading to a better understanding of the student.  I remember sitting in an elementary school class just after the Holidays (as a student teacher) and observing a teacher asking the students what they got for Christmas, and many of the students answering that they did not celebrate Christmas, much to the dismay and embarrassment of the teacher.  What a humbling time for that teacher, but also an amazing paradoxical teaching moment to challenge their assumptions in their classroom interactions and practice.

If more and more students are seeing racist, sexist, and other societal inequalities in the media and from their supposed role models, then it is up to parents and teachers to challenge their ideas and to help develop their Social and Emotional intelligence on how to learn about different cultures and peoples without offending those people.  Hopefully, as students get to learn more about each others socio-cultural backgrounds then maybe they will become truly more understanding of these differences and in retrospect more accepting than some of  our current societal members in the present Canadian climate.

Digital Citizenship and Racism

There are a lot of articles that discuss integrating technology in the classroom and digital citizenship, and though many of these articles look at utilizing technology in a positive way in the classroom, many do not discuss issues such as racism in social media.  For the most part, my students have been taught about digital citizenship by other teachers, including myself.  Nonetheless, the amount of students being disciplined for cyber-bullying and inappropriate use of technology is growing.  Beyond this, many of my students drop racial slurs in the hallway with their friends on a consistent basis.  I talk to them about the derogatory terms they use and try to enlighten them about the historical viciousness of these words, but on Twitter and Facebook, there are a lot of young individuals using those same terms to describe situations. 

Over the last couple of years we have seen star athletes and scholarship recipients losing their scholarships for the negative, derogatory, and racist comments they have said.  Even living in a diverse city like Surrey, cultural sensitivity at times can be lost in the community, in our homes, but even worse, in our schools. The problem with technology is that if these students feel the need to use this vernacular in their discourse, they will also use it online as well. The beauty of social media is that it connects users together and we can share information instantly.  There are positives to this process, but also negatives.  I hear a lot of teachers asking other educators to show students how to positively use the internet, social media, and other technological tools, but understand for our students we are a very small and limited fraction of the audience they want to interact with.  Students will always digital citizenship rules when interacting with their teacher. So students, if having to use twitter to hand in assignments or schoolwork rarely use their personal profile. They will create new profiles to share their classwork, which is great, but this a un-authentic portion of their online identity because they are interacting with their teacher. What they do with their personal account is where the true issues arise. 

If you were to search #nigger #nigga #spic #terrorist or any other derogatory terms, you will see a multitude of people using that vernacular on their online discussions.  About a month ago, rapper Joe Budden took a picture of a Sikh man at the airport and put it on instagram with the caption "not on my watch, homeboy". And though the beauty of the lesson is that Joe Budden apologized after being called out by some followers and even being taught about the difference between someone who follows the Islamic Faith, and some who follow the Sikh Faith. He had already did the damage as many of his initial followers thought it was quite humorous.  It is that type of ignorance that continues to fuel segregation and hate amongst each other instead of bringing us closer together.  To show you another example, around the holiday season there was a discussion about whether schools should or should not have Christmas concerts?  The responses from students and parents alike was shocking.  Parents crying reverse racism, questioning why their children have to be exposed to other cultural holidays but cannot celebrate their own.  People stating that this only happens in "Curry, or I mean Surrey". 

Lesson plans, and cool online projects are awesome ways to keep students engaged in the classroom with using technology.  But at times I personally feel that educators forget a couple of things:

• Many of our students come from different backgrounds and different socio-economic lifestyles and so we must be cognizant of that when we are teaching and using these technological tools, because there is still a bit of a digital divide.
• When teaching digital citizenship (especially to highschool students) remember that racism is an important topic to discuss.  Students are using that type of language in their schools and are probably using them online as well.
• Remind students that even racist quotes from popular music and online pictures that perpetuate derogatory ideologies are viewed as part of their online social identity and they can be held responsible for their online actions.