Jaya Hiranandani

Primary Class Teacher and EdTech Lead

Taipei European School

Jaya Hiranandani is a Primary Educator with more than 16 years of experience in diverse teaching and learning environments. Originally from India, she currently teaches Year 4 (Grade 3 level) at the bilingual French Section of Taipei European School. Jaya is also an EdTech lead at her school and is interested in authentic use of technology in the classroom, community engagement in schools, student and staff well-being, and organizational DEIJ practices. During weekends and weekday evenings, you will find Jaya out hiking, bingeing on books or Netflix, on her yoga mat, or on her phone connecting with friends and family.

Enhancing Cultural Competence Through Classroom Stories and Celebrations

In this workshop, we will look at ways we can build cultural competence through the use of culturally diverse stories and authentic celebrations in our classroom. The idea is to reflect deeply on the hidden curriculum that emerges from our own upbringing and education that might inadvertently cause our children to form culturally biased opinions and ideas of the world around them. I will share my experience of transforming my "Traditional Stories and Fairy Tales" unit for my Kindergarten class and invite you to share your own experiences and practices related to classroom literature as well as cultural celebrations. By the end of the workshop, we will mentally move away from prevalent customary cookie-cutter practices and come up with culturally competent alternatives that honour our students’ diverse cultural backgrounds.