Diversity

Through the past couple of sessions, my knowledge and understanding of Diversity has grown. We can see Diversity all around us, whether that be biodiversity, cultural diversity or diversity in science.  We were able to recognise biodiversity by conducting different tasks, we went outside and took tree rubbings, dissected a flower and observed how a snail reacts when given different materials to move on. Through doing tree rubbings we were able to understand how plants can differ in so many ways including shape, size, texture, patterns and many more aspects. This task is something I would definitely use when teaching, as it bring teaching outside and closer to nature, where we can closely see how diverse it is. Dissecting flowers provided a similar outlook on biodiversity, we could clearly see all the components that make up one flower, these can differ between plants, meaning we have many different flowers in nature.

(Picture of us letting the snail move on a leaf)

(Picture of dissected flower illustrated in a diagram)

(picture of a rubbing of a leaf)

In this session we also had the opportunity to interact with snails and trail different texture and materials for them to move on, some materials we noticeably preferred to others as our snail would move faster compared to others. I enjoyed having such an interactive session and I think that carrying out tasks similar to these in a classroom would have a positive response.

In reflection upon our sessions on biodiversity and diversity in science, I feel like I have become more knowledgeable on these topics, I was research-minded and I used creativity when carrying out these tasks. I believe that these skills are key for teaching, and having these skills would enrich the teaching of this topic.

Diversity can have either a positive or negative effect on any given situation in which diversity is present. Diversity can bring many positives to situations, for example having a diverse culture can enrich a country by introducing new ways of doing things and providing understanding of what is going on around the world. However, cultural diversity could negatively have an impact, there could be a chance of possible belief and religious conflict or it could lead to cultural traditions dying out eg Languages.

 

I watched a Ted talk video called ‘Why Cultural diversity matters’ with Michael Gavin as the speaker, he tells a story about a man who passes away in a highly diverse island, and this old man was one of three people who could still speak a certain language. Due to cultural diversity, the need for using this language has faded out. Gavin tells us that this is a global picture and that in 25 years the number of languages spoken in the world will have halved. He goes on to talk about how everyone experiences and sees things differently, cultural diversity means there are “thousands of different ways of seeing the world and our place in it”.

 

“These thousands of world views, they are the foundation of thousands of unique sets of knowledge” Michael Gavin

 

From Gavin’s talk, I came to the realisation that we can use our diverse culture to better ourselves. Having so many views and cultures can be the basis of changing our world for the better and coming together to realise how we can make the world a better place. The UN have come together and formed a plan to do just that, the ‘Global goals’ were set out by the UN in 2015 with the hope of them to be met by 2030. These goals contain human rights eg. Zero hunger and No poverty to better our global living standards with goals like peace, justice and strong institutions. I believe these goals are reachable and are so essential to making sure countries work together to allow for the world to be a better place for all.

Beforehand, I was not aware of the goals but not that I understand their importance I think they should be given great focus in our schools so that children are aware that as United nations, we can work together to ensure these 17 goals are achieved. I feel more socially responsible after learning more about cultural diversity, as teachers we can play our part in promoting the benefits and positive outcomes of having a diverse culture.

Cultural diversity is of great teaching importance, especially with schools becoming more diverse themselves, so there should be an emphasis upon educating how it can impact us. I believe that Cultural diversity provides enrichment to society in many ways and think that we can use our differing cultures and views to work together to better the world we live in together.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48RoRi0ddRU

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/what-are-the-global-goals