Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Russian Culture, Multicultural Education, Omniculturalism, Matryoshka, Gzhel Porcelain, Maslenitsa

Journal/Book/Conference Title Title

Creative Education

Volume

6

Issue

3

First Page

283

Last Page

294

Abstract

The global diverse society necessitates that teachers develop cultural competency and use authentic resources for teaching. This article presents classroom-tested materials for teaching elementary students about aspects of Russian culture, developed by a native Russian and two education professors. Multiage, multi-racial American Midwestern students from a homeschooling cooperative learned vocabulary and concepts with statistically significant increases from pretest to posttest and a large effect size. The lessons began with recognition of human commonalities between Russian people and Americans, in accordance with omniculturalism theory. Lessons then highlighted and celebrated cultural differences through an exploration of Russian literature and culture. Culminating creative craft-making activities included simulating a Gzhel porcelain statue in white air-dry clay with blue markings, making a pop-up version of a matryoshka nesting doll set, constructing a papier-maché building with onion-domed towers and a Maslenitsa holiday scene, and decorating a paper-covered plastic egg with gems to make a Faberge-style jewelry box. The lessons, greeted with enthusiasm from students, included classification tasks, observation activities, and a Bingo-type game. Students evidenced deeper learning by continuing to connect their lives to Russian cultural content after the lesson unit had concluded.

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Comments

First published in Creative Education, v. 6 n. 3 (2015), pp. 283-294, 10.4236/ce.2015.63027, published by Scientific Research Publishing.

Original Publication Date

3-2015

DOI of published version

10.4236/ce.2015.63027

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library

Copyright

© 2015 Ksenia S. Zhbanova, Audrey C. Rule, and Michelle L. Tichy. The copyright holder has granted permission for posting.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Date Digital

2015

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

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