Characteristics of a Culturally Responsive Classroom

One of a teacher biggest troubles, I believe, is what to teach the children and how to teach them properly.  When I start thinking about the day that I ever get the chance to become a teacher, I think about how do I know what to teach them and how I am supposed to create a curriculum for children I don't even know yet; what are their needs, in what area do they need more development in?  Oran (2009) mentions that the main focus in teaching has actually switch from "What" (content) to "Who" (who is the learner in the classroom).  It is our responsibility to teach and ensure the students pall learn.  She also goes on to mention, 

"It is critical that educators use their knowledge of students' background and incorporate what they know about these learners into quality learning experiences. Culturally responsive teaching involves incorporating into learning experiences components of what is known about students' knowledge of their cultures, their prior experiences both in their countries of origin and their current living situations, as well as the learning styles of diverse students, to make learning more appropriate and effective for them. Culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information, but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals. A pedagogy that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full, equitable access to education for students from all cultures"

As teachers, instead of seeing children as empty shells that needs us to fill them up with all the information, we should instead think of our students as consumers of knowledge.  They should be the ones to make their own meanings and produce their own knowledge.  Our job as the educators is really to create learning experiences and opportunities that allow everyone, all cultural backgrounds to feel as part of the family, a part of the curriculum, instructional practices, and classroom climate.  Having more child-centered activities that appreciates diverse abilities and interest and allowing teaching to allow these differences.

The characteristics that Oran (2009) mentions:

1. Cooperative Learning
   It is said that when a classroom is designed around culturally relevant principles, there is a significant amount amount of interaction between students and student-teacher as well.  It also reinforces to students that they are responsible for their own learning.
2. Classroom Management from a Cultural Perspective
   "Recognize that we are all cultural beings, with our own beliefs, biases, and assumptions about human behavior.  Acknowledge the cultural, racial, ethnic, and class differences that exist among people. Understand the ways that schools reflect and perpetuate discriminatory practices of the larger society.  Culturally responsive classroom managers work to create a sense of community. This means anticipating the cultural conflicts that are likely to arise and promoting positive relationships among students" (Oran, 2009).
3. Cultivating Caring, Respectful Relationships
   "When teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds, planned efforts to cross social borders and develop caring, respectful relationships are essential" (Oran, 2009).  Children are more motivated and learn more when an environment that is based on caring and concern is created.
4. Teacher Reflection as a standard of Effective Teaching
   This pertains to teachers being able to reflect on the students achievements as a critical component in teacher prep and in continuing of professional development.  Teachers who do this, ensure students success in learning.

Reference:
Oran, G. (2009, December 23). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/culturally-relevant-pedagogy/

Preparing Teachers for Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Oran (2009) starts off as defining what is culture, "The system of values, beliefs, and ways of knowing that guide communities of people in their daily lives."  She talks about how effectively preparing and acknowledging the diversity and incorporating the multiple backgrounds and experiences into the learning experiences and classroom environment.  

"Teaching is learning—a process of slowly integrating knowledge into practice.... The most important aspect of teaching is developing the mental habit of reflecting on your instructional practice and of altering your practice according to what you discover about how students learn best. Knowledge of multicultural theory and practice will give you the reflective space, the necessary reservoir of cultural insight, to intelligently address pedagogical issues as they arise in your everyday practice. " Oran (2009)

I have always believed that teaching is learning.  As a tutor, every time I am trying to help someone understand and grasp certain concepts, I too learn more about it get a better understanding.  If the student is understanding it the first time, I reflect on myself, "how can I explain/do things differently?"  This is me reflecting on my instructional practice and then I will alter it to how they learn.  I understand we all learn differently, and in order to understand that, I needed to understand how I learn as well.  Some of my colleagues learn better visually or auditory, but I on the other hand need things to be hands-on.  Just like most children, we learn through hands-on experiences, but sometimes some of us also have to be moving in the process of learning in order for us to process certain information as well.  

Oran (2009) also advises teacher to be multicultural as well before being able to effectively and authentically teach children to be multicultural.  I believe this touches on if we, the educators, too are willing to learn about other's cultures, we need to believe it.  Culturally relevant teaching is to ensure the educators acknowledge and honor the various viewpoints of their students and avoid trying to have the same perspectives and beliefs; we want to teach only the "virtues, principles, and other moral teachings about which there is no disagreement in American society.. we need to show fairness to diverse visions of the good life and not merely replace them with neutered and safe substitutes"  

"No student should have to sacrifice cultural heritage, ethnic identity, and social networks in order to obtain an education "

References:
Oran, G. (2009, December 23). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/culturally-relevant-pedagogy/

Preparing for Culturally Relevant Teaching

Some people may ask what is the difference between culturally relevant curriculum and a tourist curriculum.  I even asked the same question in the beginning and what I have come to find out is that a lot of times, one will find a tourist curriculum in class.  

They want the children to learn about different cultures, but the children don't get the in-depth learning that we want them to have.  The teacher might have some stereotypical clothing and have children dress up in the outfits or do some activities that children will only get to do for a short time.  The children will not be able to go back to it in future and learn more about it.

For example, if you have a child who comes from Japan and the teacher want to teach the class about the Japanese culture, she may bring in some traditional Japanese clothes (kimono) or drums (taiko).

Taiko Drumming

 

Kimono

But the teacher is only giving a fake idea of what someone who is Japanese does or dresses.  Even the people in Japan don't dress like this normally or do drumming.  There are certain times and places that one would see this occurring. Just like in America, we don't all where long formal gowns and tuxedos everyday of our lives.  

Culturally relevant curriculum is very important in today's world with students coming from many different backgrounds, and it is important that teacher include practice in the classroom that will help all students learn to the best of their abilities.  Teachers need to keep in mind that culturally relevant teaching helps students retain cultural integrity.  Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices (2011) mentioned something that got me thinking:

How do we honor what children and families bring to school?

• Observe the different ways children/parents express themselves that reflect their diversity.

• Honor families' home language (cultural language) and diverse experiences.

• Expand on the classroom diversity to build skill and language

Include the family in the learning process of the children.  Culture is not only one's heritage, but also characteristics of a social group.  As a teacher, we can invite families to contribute to the learning environment by bringing materials for class use (use for different centers).  If we have families in the class who speak different languages, have them share a few words that we can use in our every day life.  I have seen in classrooms something as simple as a counting chart that lists numbers in multiple languages (Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Marshallese, etc.)

References:

"Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices - Ideas from the Field." Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices - Ideas from the Field. N.p., 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Culturally Relevant V.S. Multicultural Education

In class one of the question that was asked in an assignment was "What is culturally relevant teaching and how it was different from multicultural education?"  This question got me thinking a lot because when I continued to research the two, they seemed very similar.



Culturally relevant teaching is a pedagogy where the teachers display cultural competence; skill at teaching in a cross-cultural or multicultural setting.  It also maintains cultural integrity. McCormick (n.d.) also mentions it is an "approach to education that puts culture, language, and background of the student at the forefront instead of the unrecognized background of the classroom.  It is an approach that necessitates inclusion and authenticity"  It was made popular my Gloria Ladson-Billings in the 1990s to empower students to maintain cultural integrity while academically succeeding.  

Multicultural education is a set of strategies and materials that were developed to assist teachers to respond to the many issues created by rapidly changing demographics of their students.  Keengwe (2010) mentions in his article that the goals of multicultural education is centered around raising personal awareness about different categories of individual differences and how these differences enhance or hinder the ways students and teachers interact with one another.  Souto-Manning (2013) mentions that there are many definitions for what is multicultural education, but defines it as "a field of study designed to increase educational equity for all students."

"A distinction must be made between culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education. Education that is multicultural can be delivered to a classroom containing students from the same culture; the content presented is represen- tative of various cultural pers- pectives. Culturally responsive pedagogy, on the other hand, must respond to the cultures actually present in the classroom. "

The main difference between multicultural education and culturally responsive pedagogy is that a classroom that has multicultural education is able to teach the children about different cultures even if it is not present in their class.  Culturally responsive will use the different cultures that are present in the classroom to teach the children - the children will be able to teach one another and at the same time learn in-depth other cultures in the process.



References:

Keengwe, J. (2010). Fostering Cross Cultural Competence in Preservice Teachers Through Multicultural Education Experiences. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(3), 197-204. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0401-5

McCormick, E. (n.d.). Culturally Relevant Teaching in Application [Multicultural Education PDF].

Rychly, L., & Graves, E. (2012). Teacher Characteristics for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.Multicultural Perspectives, 14(1), 44-49. doi:10.1080/15210960.2012.646853

Souto-Manning, M. (2013). Multicultural Tools and Strategies for Teaching Young Children. In Multicultural Teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom: Approaches, Strategies, and Tools, Preschool-2nd Grade (pp. 15-24). New York, NY: Teacher College Press.