A Multilingual Classroom

For students to be immersed and almost fascinated with material we teach is for them to see themselves reflecting back. As we know, children feel confined when only Eurocentric lessons are being enforced. So as teachers we need to be asking ourselves what knowledge is being reflected when creating lesson plans and reviewing the curriculum. Is it or is it not marginalizing and oppressing students? To start towards a multilingual classroom would look like to never corner our students into speaking only one language. Rather encourage to share their knowledge of another language which helps students keep their sense of identity. For students to happily and comfortably be themselves without getting picked on for how they sound. I have seen it before when I was young and of course it continues. In order to create students who do not reproduce racist views, ideas and "jokes" that have been natural to us as children (because of the system we were raised in) is to simply encourage our students culture and stand up. Make sure we are making every child feel safe. Encourage different ways of knowing and never shut down a students view if it does not align with ours. It is important to teach our children that thinking and performing in different ways should be always welcomed. We as teachers can promote multilingual practices like having a day where students share a favourite word or phrase in their language, maintain books in your room that duo lingual, and inform ourselves on the culture of our students to stray away from unconscious biases. Establishing an inclusive atmosphere starts with working on anti-racism.