Culturally sustaining pedagogy says that students of color should not be expected to adhere to white middle-class norms, but their own cultural ways of being should be explored, honored, and nurtured by educators. Building on strengths and student interests makes students feel capable and empowered. Teachers should help students achieve academic success while still validating their cultural identities. The teacher must be the leader in this. Beyond your classroom library, consider the posters you display on your walls and your bulletin boards, too. We must be reflective and collaborative in our practice, continuing to think deeply about how we choose what is learned, what literature is selected from a variety of cultures and viewpoints, and methods that will be effective for the needs of our students. Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain presents a "serious and powerful tool for accelerating student learning" (Hammond, 2015, p. 3). Django Paris, who coined the term in 2012, and co-author H. Samy Alim once told Education Week that culturally sustaining pedagogy "positions dynamic cultural dexterity as a necessary good, and sees the outcome of learning as additive, rather than subtractive, as remaining whole, rather than framed as broken, as critically enriching strengths rather than replacing deficits. Teachers should understand different communication styles and modify classroom interactions accordingly. Students are not blank slates, Childers-McKee says; they enter the classroom with diverse experiences. Students should be taught to value and affirm their culture of origin while also developing fluency in at least one other culture.
291. make an impassioned plea to the Military Director at the base but he refuses to. As I write about chapter three, I use many of Hammond's exact words and phrases--she has a wonderful ability to clearly outline and relay information. K-12 capacity building series. These key concepts will be unpacked throughout the summary (Hammond, 2015, p. 12-16). Gay's research shows five essential components of culturally responsive teaching: - A strong knowledge base about cultural diversity. Another common misconception is that culturally responsive teaching is a way of addressing student trauma, which is a deficit-based ideology that assumes the universal experience of people of color is one of trauma, Hammond said. Hammond states that feedback is an "essential element in the culturally responsive teacher's arsenal" to support culturally and linguistically diverse learners in being able to change their learning moves, acquire new ones and develop plans for approaching a task. Most teacher-preparation programs have also incorporated culturally responsive teaching into their courses. Traditionally, when a learner is academically progressing at a slower pace, the response is to exchange rigorous activities with low-level basics. You have two brains – one is your reptilian brain and the other is your limbic. Then, observe, check yourself, and breathe. Feedback is an essential element. Hammond posits that educators who are able to reflect on their own triggers will allow them to self-manage their consequential emotions.
They view with cynical reserve the exhortations and instructions of teachers. " Toronto: University of Toronto Press. In other words, learning is cooperative, collective, and collaborative. Encourage students to leverage their cultural capital. As well, Helmer and Eddy (2012) identify five different constructs that may cause misunderstandings: Assertiveness–Compliance, Dominance–Submission, Disclosure–Privacy, Direct–Indirect Communication, and Flexible Time–Time as a Commodity. And some school districts, including New York City and Baltimore City, have adopted a culturally responsive and/or sustaining approach to education. Critical consciousness: teaching students how to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems, especially those that result in societal inequities against marginalized groups. Selective Vulnerability – show your human side. You want to draw from their experiences, " she says. For instance, in his first executive order earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Building on students' background knowledge, and engaging students in meaningful tasks, is critical to learning and retaining information. As a teacher leader, Erin supported the development of school wide curriculums, including a humanities curriculum and social-emotional learning curriculum.
Common Curriculum The two groups differed substantially in the degree to which. Hammond (2015) argues that culture "is the way that every brain makes sense of the world and helps us function in our environment" (p. 23) and contends there are three levels: surface, shallow, and deep. Since then we've started a before-school orientation to help with issues like this--it's critical that we develop this orientation more to be more personal, responsive, and inclusive to welcome students and help us to know what these children and their families need. Non-verbal communication is part of the relationships we build. In earlier chapters, Zaretta Hammond breaks down concepts of neuroplasticity and describes how it is "the brain's ability to grow itself in order to meet the challenges presented to it from the environment" (Hammond, 2015, p. 101). "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, " American Educational Research Journal, Vol. For example, a teacher might think students of color just need to see themselves in order to feel motivated and do the work, so she'll incorporate diverse books into her classroom or syllabus—but not change anything to the content or her way of instruction.
But truth be told, most educators are not really sure what it is or what it looks like. 38. slingunderthekneeaDunlopbBryantcRusselldBuckextensionANSC. It's not about thinking of students in a one-dimensional, stereotypical way. When done the right way, it can be transformative. The pipeline, suggested by Michelle Alexander in New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, is a compounding of innocuous educational structures and instructional decisions that leave learners of color falling academically further and further behind. For ready-to-use clas. Hammond, 2015, p. 101-104). Acknowledgement and validation can support the restoration of hope. In other words, deep culture is the roots of our tree – it is who we are and how we learn.
Teachers should understand different racial and ethnic groups' cultural values, traditions, and contributions to society, and incorporate that knowledge into their instruction. Educating for the Future. Is the LGBTQ community represented? Next, attention drives learning. A warm demander uses a supportive tone of voice, listens to students, appreciates the uniqueness of individual students, makes students feel comfortable, shows a positive attitude, shows a sense of humor, shows interest in students, involves students in making decisions about the class and the curriculum, looks for improvements students have made, expresses warmth through smiling/touch/tone of voice/joking. Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning.