PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDENT CULTURAL CONFLICTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Modern education values diversity in the classroom making no or few changes in classroom practices to deal with diversity issues. Nevertheless, teachers may facilitate classroom diversity by using pedagogical techniques avoiding, supporting and challenging students' learning ethno-cultural diversity and dealing with overt or covert ethno-cultural conflicts. This paper explores some of the ways to address students' conflict amid and around cultural diversity in the classroom. Interviews with 734 students of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia of different races and ethnicities, genders, religious affiliation led to analyze the dilemmas they experienced in the face of cultural conflicts. Due to this study a range of decisions was proposed for avoiding or minimizing such conflicts by the participants. Examples and analyses of different ways of dealing with classroom ethno-cultural diversity and conflict as well as the need for interventions to improve faculty members' ability to deal with such situations are offered.