Culturally relevant pedagogy

Culturally relevant pedagogy

Introduction

Culture is central to learning. Culture not only plays a crucial role in sending and receiving information but also helps in shaping the thinking processes of an individual or a group. Culturally relevant pedagogies are teaching methods used by teachers to encourage students to relate a course with the cultural practices. Incorporating cultural context is believed to boost academic performances. Also known as responsive teaching, culturally relevant pedagogy is arguably one of the best teaching approaches as it allows teachers to show cultural competence in a multicultural setting and at the same time orient students in the beauty of diversity and respect for racial difference.

Gay (2010) argues that Gloria Ladson-Billing single-handedly made culturally relevant pedagogy famous in the early 1990s. She created a term defined as “one that empowers students to maintain cultural integrity, while succeeding academically,” Ladson – Billing, 1995. Nevertheless, Ladson-billing goes further to explain what a culturally relevant pedagogy should contain. That is, it should create an understanding of the world, be understood, and experienced in day to day life. This has become widely accepted in schools to establish an equitable education for all communities’ students and to excel in education.

Researchers and early theories suggest that there are gaps, and this so because of the teacher-student language barriers or some cultures don’t value education. Hence they believe the education system should the students’ learning they bring from home; this is according to Castagno and Brayboy (2008). One of the key researchers, Geneva Gay, determines that culture influence the way we think, behave, and believe. According to James Scheurich 2012, culturally relevant pedagogy should be significantly critical to the students, and it doesn’t matter their ethnicity or cultural background. The success of the future generation is the way they learn, and hence the teachers must teach them to be successful.

Pillars of culturally relevant pedagogy

Ladson – Billing (2006) proposes three components of a culturally relevant pedagogy.

Academic achievement

Academic achievement involves placing high expectations for students to challenge the existing system, which was set by “skilled teachers,” this principle is to build on student’s strengths. The teachers, on the other hand, know the content, they know their students, and they understand how to deliver the content to the student, and they know the resources they should use. The students can articulate what is taught and why they are taught.

Cultural competence

Cultural competence involves pulling together more than two socio-cultural practices by navigating through their linguistics, cultural practices, beliefs, and identities. Doing so helps the student build a full area of knowledge and be able to access a broader culture. It requires a teacher to learn about their culture and that of their students. The teacher should then use the students’ perception as a basis for learning. In doing so, the student will have the opportunity to learn more through the experiences of others, and more so, feel respected.

Sociopolitical consciousness,

It will help the student to criticize their social position through questioning, reflective work, and literacy on matters of power, injustice, and inequalities. For a curriculum to be a culturally relevant pedagogy, it should reflect the three tenets. It requires the teacher to educate the students on the sociopolitical issues that affect them and the community at large. The student is then empowered to challenge the status quo of the situation among the people, community, and society at large.

Constructivism theory of learning

Most researchers support this theory because it values the viewpoints of multiple cultures. The theory suggests that a learner has prior knowledge and experience, which is determined by their culture and social background. Therefore learners extract their knowledge from their experiences. The theory can be traced in the work of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), where he focused on how humans interact out of their skills and ideas. Piaget’s constructivism theory has had a wide range of impact on other learning theories, teaching systems, and its underlying education reforms. It is so because the approach has influenced several disciplines like psychology, sociology, history of science, and education, Eddy Matthew Daniel 2004. In this theory, students are taught to question, challenge, and critically analyze information than to accept what they are taught blindly.

Dimensions of a multicultural education

According to James Banks in 2004, he articulates five aspects of multicultural education. These dimensions are a foundation of a culturally relevant pedagogy. The first dimension is content integration, where the teachers have to integrate a variety of cultures in their teaching. The second dimension is where learners have to ask and critically question the existing curriculum. The third dimension is where a teaching system has to encourage interactions of cross cultures. The fourth dimension is equitable pedagogy, whose purpose of ensuring all learners from different cultures are successful. The fifth dimension is empowered school culture, wherein this dimension has to check to see any gap in the institution for culturally relevant learning.

Characteristics of a culturally relevant pedagogy

There are seven characteristics of a culturally relevant pedagogy: the first is that a teacher is a facilitator and is not a director or a teacher. Teachers should develop a teaching system that is relevant to the students’ linguistics, social, and cultural experiences. They act as mediators, consultants, guides, and advocates to help the students connect with their cultural backgrounds and knowledge with the learning in class. Ladson – Billing 1995 outlines culturally relevant teaching as one that supports home and school cultures. It is significant to students as it will help them to apply class learned content into real-life situations.

The second characteristic is learning within the context of culture: students from different cultures learn in different ways. Some prefer to study in groups, while others prefer studying independently. In those classes, especially in the urban setup classes, is an integration of different cultures and individual language may not correspond to the one the teacher is using, hence disadvantageous to the one who doesn’t understand the language. Therefore teachers should gather information about the different cultures in a classroom and make them part of the teaching to make it participatory for all in that classroom.

The third characteristic is a positive perspective on parents and families: parents are the first teacher to a child, hence are significantly essential partners with the teacher in teaching the child. To efficiently educate a child, the teacher should take the initiative to involve the parents, to help bring to the table their expectation, their suggestions, and the essential their child needs. The parent should actively be involved in school activities, not only the school functions but also the cultural and religious activities. It is crucial for parents to share their pull of knowledge with the teachers and school community; they depict a better idea of the student’s background and abilities, also they show their expectation, interest, and pride in their child’s education (Nieto, 1996).

The fourth one is the culturally mediated instruction: whereby it includes comprehending, diverse know-how and representing information. Students need to be aware and understand that there are different ways of explaining an idea, action, or event. In relevance to Hollins1996, culturally mediated instructions provide the student with the best learning conditions. It may help the student to decrease the incidences of unacceptable behaviour, which are frustrated by the instruction, not meeting their needs. The teacher should create an environment that allows the student to share cultures, challenge students to question their customs and beliefs.

The fifth characteristic is a communication of high expectation: when a teacher praises over the completion of a simple task, offers sympathy due to failure, and offers help, the teacher sends a message of low expectation. All students should receive a consistent message, and that is to attain high standards in their studies. The teachers should understand and respect the students’ behaviour in line with their norms and cultures and only act as their guides. “Effective and consistent communication of high expectation helps the student develop a healthy self-concept,” Rist 1971. It also fosters an environment for motivation where students can be successful.

The sixth characteristic is student-centred instruction: this is where you have to ensure the child uses his or her full potentials. In student-centred education, learning is community-oriented, cooperative, and collaborative. The students are given projects and assignments which are culturally and socially relevant, and they are encouraged to work together. Students undergo cognitive development when interacting with both adults and peers who are knowledgeable. These interactions help students hypothesize, experiment with new ideas, and receive feedback (Darling-Hammond, 1997).

The seventh characteristic is reshaping the curriculum: the schools review their policies, pedagogy, curriculum, and other teaching practices so that they can create an environment that is fit for those learning and working there. The curriculum should be student-centred, integrated, and interdisciplinary. In its topic, it should incorporate students’ cultures and backgrounds. Integrating several disciplines facilitates students acquiring new knowledge (Hollins, 1996). In class, the teacher should not confine themselves from the book topics. Hence they should do more research on topics covering students’ cultures.

Processes of culturally relevant pedagogy

Two characteristics define bases on research; teachers identified as culturally relevant. Teachers who have previously interacted with all populations can be well known during an interview on their support to the social and cultural practices of the children in his or her care. Also, teachers who commit themselves to create a culturally relevant system are eager to learn from families and children of these cultures. The following is a process used by teachers in an attempt to implement a culturally relevant pedagogy.

Step 1: teachers planned instruction and assessment based on the curriculum and the cultural practices that are incorporating the child’s language in education.

Step 2: is a teacher should be able to implement bilingual education practices in their curriculum.

Step 3: the teacher should highlight difficulties in implementing the child’s culture to culturally relevant teaching.

Outcomes of culturally relevant pedagogy

It is essential to question the issue of cultural pedagogy pertinent to the students. The pedagogy should be measured beyond what is examined, that it should be broad. One outcome of a culturally relevant pedagogy is empowerment; students learning through the system should be empowered to come up with a meaning, gauge the inequalities in school and outside, and also success socially and academically. Another outcome is that the system should incorporate, that is, the student culture should be included in the curriculum and teaching alongside the existing curriculum; the teachers should come up with strategies to maintain it and be able to transcend the adverse effects of the dominant culture. The other outcome is that it should create a classroom context that is innovative and challenging. All these outcomes are based on achieving success in the three pillars of a culturally relevant pedagogy that is academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical realities.

Guidelines to examine a culturally relevant pedagogy

All the school stakeholders need to consider asking some critical questions before implanting the curriculum. The problem that provides a foundation to explore culturally relevant pedagogy is meeting the needs of the vast student population.

How does the reform bridge home-school experienced and discoursed? (Flores et al. 1991)

Does the model allow gives the implementation of culturally responsive teaching like learning in their own stimulating creative arts, cooperative learning targets and in their own language (Ellison et al. 2000)

Do this instruction materials feature “tourist curriculum,” or does it allow diverse perspectives and contributions for all-rounded student population? (Sparks and A.B.C Task Force, 1989)

How does the philosophy of the reform engage an ideology that all students can surpass and\ apply the system which is challenging and rigorous? (Ladson-Billing 1994, 1995)

Barriers in the application of culturally relevant pedagogy

The restrictions were developed by dual language teachers, and they came up with four obstacles in the engagement of culturally relevant pedagogy. Dual teachers are those who teach half content in English instruction and the other half content in a different language. The aim of dual-language classes is to promote biculturalism, bilingualism, and academic achievement (Baker, 2011). These barriers were developed during a collaborative professional development process, where these barriers were developed out of forces, contextual structures, experiences, and beliefs about the culturally relevant pedagogies. They include; lack of culturally appropriate materials, lack of time, feeling that social justice is inappropriate for children, and lack of knowledge in culturally relevant pedagogies.

Lack of culturally relevant materials

The teachers considered it significantly essential to implement culturally relevant teaching into the curriculum, but they lacked the necessary culturally relevant documents. The articles are within the childhood experiences, knowledge, and cultural background. Some factors made the content of appropriate materials unavailable; lack of authentic cultural relevant materials, limited representation of people of colour in documents, lack of available articles in culture, and lack of elements in the school library. One of the constraints that contribute to the lack of culturally relevant documents is the school library, where only general materials are available, and it’s not appropriate to some students of particular communities. The teachers outlined difficulties they encounter to acquire the elements, and sometimes they go to the extent of using their resources to get the materials. If the teachers have to teach culturally relevant pedagogies, the classrooms have to be equipped with the requisite documents that are culturally relevant.

Lack of time

Most of the teachers agreed the time constraints as the main problem for the culturally relevant pedagogy. They said so because of factors such as massive translation that is needed, the structure of the programs, and the instructional planning and implementation it requires. The teachers have a hard time since the program has high demand in terms of time since it’s a new thing, and the teachers themselves have first to investigate, learn, adapt, plan and finally implement. Some teachers even proposed, to make it easy in the process of adaptation, the culturally relevant should first be introduced as an add-on in the curriculum but not in the daily classes.

Beliefs that social justice is inappropriate for children

Despite culturally relevant pedagogies considered appropriate, teachers have said some factors make the topics unsuitable, and they include; the belief that children do not have an understanding of the social justice concepts, emotionally hurting the children with the issues, it was not possible to develop appropriate approaches was not reasonable. The teachers thought that ideas related to sociopolitical consciousness were difficult for young children to understand. The sociopolitical concept could hurt them, and more so, the lessons could negatively affect their daily lives.

Lack of knowledge

The teachers over the years expressed a lack of knowledge on how they could include the culturally relevant pedagogy. There factors that teachers belief contribute to the lack of knowledge on how they could implement the lessons and they include; lack of understanding of how to implement sociopolitical lessons, difficulties to connect culturally relevant experiences with contents such as math and science, lack of knowledge of a culture linguistics, lack of background of a student’s culture, under preparation in their education programs, and unfamiliarity with culturally relevant materials. The lack of knowledge they presented in the collaborative professional content development expressed fear and discouragement to implement the culturally relevant pedagogy.

Conclusion

Culture is an excellent source of information, and it even dictates our way of thinking. Hence it needs to be incorporated in the school’s curriculum. It is done to create an environment of mutual respect between the students and the teachers, and also to empower the student to challenge their status quo and bridge the gap of inequalities that exist. And since it’s a new system, research should be done thoroughly to know all the aspects of a culture and be ample time to assemble the essential resources necessary for its implementation. The stakeholders should be keen only to include only the elements that are relevant to a child and exclude the aspect that hurts the children emotionally and psychologically. The stakeholders should overlook the issue of inequality so that the minority in a class will not feel left out. The teacher’s need to understand that culturally relevant is a system there to bring positive cross-cultural practices, intercultural awareness, and sociopolitical consciousness. Culturally relevant pedagogy is an educational system, and hence, all the stakeholders that are students, families, teachers, school management, and all researchers should work together during the implementation.

References

Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters.

Castagno, A.; Brayboy, B. (2008). “Culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth: A review of the literature.” Review of Educational Research. 78 (4): 941–993. doi:10.3102/0034654308323036.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997).The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Ellison, C., Boykin, W., Towns, D., & Stokes, A. (2000). Classroom cultural ecology: The dynamics of classroom life in schools serving low-income African American children. Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk, Retrieved September 20, 2006, from http://www.csos.jhu.edu

Flores, B., Cousin, P. T., & Diaz, E. (1991). Critiquing and transforming the deficit myths about learning, language, and culture. Language Arts, 68, 369–379.

Gay, Geneva (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN 9780807750780.

Hollins, E. R. (1996). Culture in school learning: Revealing the deep meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). Yes, but how do we do it?: Practising culturally relevant pedagogy. In J. Landsman & C. W. Lewis (Eds.), White teachers/diverse classrooms: A guide to building inclusive schools, promoting high expectations, and eliminating racism (pp. 29–42). New York, NY: Stylus Publishing.

Ladson-Billings, Gloria (1995a). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Research Journal. 32(3) 465-491.

Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Rist, C. (1971). Student social class and teacher expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Challenging the myth: The schools, the Blacks, and the poor (Reprint Series No. 5). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.

Scheurich, James. “Why is culturally relevant pedagogy important?”. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012.

Sparks, L. D., & A. B. C. Task Force. (1989). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children. Washington D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.