GEMS American Academy of Qatar (GAAQ) is a unique world community existing under one roof. One of the main reasons I wanted to join the GAAQ community was to participate in such world community. Students and staff are from over 80 countries thriving, learning, growing together in one building. This is an amazing concept that is being lived out here at GAAQ. I read All Are Welcome Here by Penfold and Kaufman to most of the classes in the first month of school and I really was reading to the world. The benefits the students and staff experience from this diversity are immense. Our students are exposed to a variety of languages, foods, views of the world, toys, songs, clothing, ways of being and thinking, and more just by coming to school each day. Cultural acceptance is an easy concept to learn and live in a diverse setting such as GAAQ. Students become open-minded just by playing and learning alongside students from other cultures. As the world opens up to us, students here are becoming globally-minded just by attending our school and making friends. The befits of our diversity have powerful outcomes. Educational research has been done in the field of diverse K-12 classrooms and shows benefits ranging from social, emotional and academic.
These are all benefits that we value in society and employers are starting to value more and more. Children need to grow up learning to be able to collaborate and the basis of collaboration is valuing different ideas. At GAAQ, this begins by making friends who have different cultural backgrounds. GAAQ students and staff are prepared to collaborate with the world as global citizens. Resources Ruggs, Enrica & Hebl, Michelle. (2012) Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Awareness for Classroom and Outreach Education. In B. Bogue & E. Cady (Eds.). Apply Research to Practice (ARP) Resources. Retrieved from http://www.engr.psu.edu/AWE/ARPResources.aspx Smith, J. (2017, August 15). How Students Benefit from School Diversity. Great Good Magazine. doi: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_students_benefit_from_school_diversity Wells, A., Fox, L., & CordovaCobo, D. (2016). How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students. How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students. The Century Foundation. Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-and-classrooms-can-benefit-all-students/?session=1 Image is from a beautiful picture book, All Are Welcome Here by Penfold and Kaufman.
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