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It is well known that the culture of teachers and students affect education processes in the classroom in many ways. Thus, teachers have the added responsibility of knowing the cultural dimensions differences for each group of learners they deal with, this way will assist them in learning how to assess, train, teach, and be motivated to use multicultural teaching. Culture dimensions include everything that makes one group or community within a society distinctive from another in terms of language, values, literature, worldview, food, religion, clothing, holidays, beliefs, and behaviour that construct a specific group’s lifestyle. If we have a look at the students from a refugee background in New Zealand for example, because New Zealand is very high in individualism and masculinity and low in power distance and uncertainty avoidance comparing with Middle-eastern countries such as Syria, Iraq and Lebanon that have a collectivist culture whom people appreciate harmonious relationships and have a high score of power distance, cultural factors such as strong gender roles and religious beliefs, limit the students ability to communicate effectively with the entire society and with teachers in particular. Another example of cultural differences (especially when a teacher tend to ask questions to elicit information from students) is that the Chinese students who culturally unfamiliar with direct questions in the classroom and always afraid of criticism when giving wrong answers in class. In addition to the above cultural problems, we can safely add another example of the East Asian students who (for cultural reasons) are usually reluctant to participate in activities or speaking in the multicultural classroom because they are learning in a new environment that is unfamiliar to them. As a result, teachers and students may have problems in communication, teaching, and learning because students do not adapt to the classroom’s environment. Here come the necessity and importance of building a relationship between culture and education in the classroom. As a teacher for students from different cultural backgrounds in New Zealand, it is extremely important to conduct a research and data collection about different cultures involved in my teaching career in order to develop culturally relevant teaching and learning strategies in the multicultural classroom. It is also worth trying to adapt (if allowed) syllabus and materials to reflect different cultures in the classroom, Moreover, (in the case of students from Latin America and the Middle East), collectivist teaching, which values collaboration in the classroom more than individualism, could promote group work and collaboration. Lastly, believing all students in the multicultural classroom can achieve regardless of race and communication skills is a big step towards building rapport and trust which consequently will enlarge the learning opportunity and help to achieve the teacher’s objectives. In conclusion, the ability to identify the cultural differences in the classroom can provide us with an opportunity to make adjustments to materials and syllabus in an attempt to optimise teaching strategies in order to align them to these cultural dimensions. Also, the equal engagement opportunities for all students in the activities coupled with positive cultural aspects can help in creating an environment of respect and trust between the teacher and students as well as between the students and their colleagues.
