Effective Teachers of English: Multicultural Education and Self-Concept

 

 

Chuzaimah Dahlan Diem

 

In this worldwide communication, Indonesia is acknowledged as a culturally diverse society. Variations of belief, behavior, and native language according to ethnicity, geographical region, and social class have existed in this society. Based on this fact, educators are increasingly conscious of the great potential for enrichment as well as for conflict that these variations make possible because all aspects of teaching and learning are influenced by culture, in and out of school environment. It is through the cultural background and experiences that a teacher perceives self, peer, students, and what education has in offer. This present study shows that teacher effectiveness has close relationship with teacher’s knowledge of multicultural education and how they perceive themselves and their students. This applies that there should be development of teacher training program, that is to prepare teachers for implementing a multicultural curriculum in addition to having positive self-concept as one of the requirements in becoming autonomous and effective teachers of English since one of the major goals of English education at all levels is to help students from various backgrounds develop their potential for academic and social success. 

 

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Diem, C. D. (2002, March). Effective teachers of English: Multicultural education and self-concept. Paper presented at the national conference on Autonomy, Bandung, Indonesia.

 
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