Allow me to give you a simple answer to a most complex question. I have the pleasure of teaching classes with very diverse groups of students. Currently, I have a class with students from the Philippines, Mongolia, Russia, China, Japan, Bangladesh and Senegal. This is a business class and most of them have stated they will return to their home country after graduation. For me to claim to be an expert or try to be an expert on all of these cultures and races would be futile. The steps I took for this class include the following:
- A pre-assessment on learning styles, previous GPAs, types of student and career goals. Please refer to the assessment recommendations of this book.
- I created assignments that turned the students into professors which included:
a. Presentations about their country, culture and ethnicity.
b. Presentations about how to sell a specific product which is popular in their home country.
c. Presentations on how their culture is misunderstood in the United States.
We do other things in the class as well, but the above suggestions allow your students to express for themselves their own viewpoints and experiences about their culture and race. What has been fascinating is that students from the same country will sometimes disagree with each other on various aspects of their culture. This is healthy. It allows other students to understand that not everyone from the same place is the same. It also allows students to get know each other and learn about other cultures and valuable information on how to sell products in other countries.
However, you might be asking: how do I grade such presentations not knowing as much as my students about their races and home countries? I create a rubric which includes: - A minimum of three peer-reviewed articles to back up their opinions. For instance, one Filipino student stated that Filipino women like to have lighter skin. I required her to show me surveys to back this up. Another student stated that celebrities endorsing products is the best advertising strategy in his country. He showed me peer-reviewed articles to give proof.
- The presentation must allow for some kind of interaction which could include: group assignments, Q & A, debate or learning games.
- The presentation must include goals for the student to reach in the future with timelines. One student stated that she wishes to have an export/import business of health products online in her home country within two years. I asked her to investigate the best domain names, website designs and history of profits and sales of such products from her country.
My point is that even if you are not as familiar with the Chinese culture as much as a Chinese student, you can still use a rubric to grade a presentation that is concrete and fair. Your students will learn how to critically think and present, and you and your students will learn more about the different countries, races and cultures.