Culturally Relevant Approaches to Classroom Management

Students from various cultural backgrounds may experience cultural dissonance when teachers and educational administrators from the mainstream culture misconstrue, misinterpret or simply disregard their cultural patterns of learning, behaviour and communication. Due to changing demographics worldwide, cultural diversity is the norm for many schools today. It is therefore imperative that teachers and educational administrators become aware of the variances and unique qualities and characteristics of the groups, cultures and languages represented in their schools. This article specifically highlights important sociocultural issues in classroom management and presents effective strategies for managing multicultural classes. Implications for Christian teachers are addressed.