|
qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm |
Defining the Role of Culture in Classroom Learning
“The context is the one which results when the culture of the students—all the students—interacts with the teacher’s culture…it is neither assimilation nor acculturation but accommodation…a common ground is created”. O.D. Harris
How has your cultural background affected your educational experience? Has the effect been for your benefit, your detriment, or both? Students educated in America regardless of their ethnic or cultural backgrounds have been subject to learning through the lens of dominant cultural traditions[1] and theories of learning (Delpit, 1995, 2002; Hilliard, 1978; Lewis, 1978; Nasaw, 1979). Though there have been exceptions, the majority of students from non-dominant backgrounds have consistently been unsuccessful in keeping pace with their dominant culture peers (National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1999). For the past few decades, researchers have been struggling to determine how culture affects learning. This is due in part because of the constant increase of students from diverse backgrounds in American classrooms[2]. This essay defines the role culture plays in the process of learning. Students’ culture reflected in curricula facilitates learning by doing three general things: Building confidence, building on previous knowledge, and creating harmony between the culture of the school and the culture(s) of its students.
Before defining the role that culture plays in the process of learning, we shall determine and define what we mean by culture. This is necessary because of the ambiguity surrounding its definition. Malloy[3] (1997) states that “culture is the shared meaning—but not necessarily consensus—the taken for granted values and beliefs that are seen in what people do, what they know, and the tools they use”. Also included in the definition of culture is a shared or similar experience and shared interpretations of those experiences so that there is a commonality of thought and practice. Therefore, everyone has culture and culture is inherent in every curriculum world-wide regardless of whether it was put there intentionally or not.
When students’ cultures are reflected in curricula, culture facilitates the process of learning by building confidence. There is an immediate connection when a student experiences their culture in the classroom (Ernst-Slavit & Slavit, 2007; Pransky, 2003). Students who have this identification are given the opportunity to feel as though the curriculum relates to them on a personal level. Many students at this point see this connection as reinforcement that the subject at hand is applicable to them (Anderson, 1990). For instance, African-American students who were taught mathematics curriculum that included facts and language[4] that represented their culture in a positive light were seen to have “felt good about going to math class” and saw math as “something they can do” (Malloy, 1998). This was a complete switch from their previous attitudes where they were quoted as “hating math” (Malloy, 1998). If curriculum doesn’t highlight the students being taught, the students may deduce “that only other people invent mathematics” (Barta & Schelling, 1998) or any other subject for that matter. Reflection of ones culture in curricula builds confidence which enhances the opportunity for learning; to put it another way, culture facilitates the learning process by building a students’ sense of confidence in specific subject areas. This is opposed to traditional American curriculums which are often culturally biased (Delpit, 2002; Freire, 1970; Gutstein, 2006; Hilliard, 1978).
Here’s a great example from Malloy (1997) of a culturally biased test question (part of a traditional curriculum) that didn’t build confidence: “It costs $1.50 each way to ride the bus between home and work. A weekly bus pass is $16. Which is the better deal, paying the daily fare or buying the weekly pass?” From their previous cultural experience, many students of color saw buying the weekly pass as the better deal but the teacher marked them all wrong. Students of color saw that in some families three or four people may use a bus pass during different times of the day or on weekends or that one person may happen to have more than one job. The test designer assumed that only one person would be using the bus pass, they had only one job, and they had weekends off. Differences of culture pose obstacles that many students fail to overcome (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006). Why do students have to overcome these obstacles? What’s really being measured here? Teachers need to understand the role of culture in order to assess students’ conceptual understanding versus their level of assimilation. Curriculum architects who think or claim they are equitable need to aid in the process to meet students where they are.
Students’ culture reflected in curricula also facilitates the learning process by building on previous knowledge. Students learn and grow by building on the knowledge they have acquired from the past. For example, Michael Jordan didn’t all in one day realize that he was a great basketball player; rather, he practiced and learned how to play the game and grew by building on the knowledge that he’d previously acquired. Great politicians, writers, doctors, educators and so on, evolve into being polished at their discipline through toiling and building on previous knowledge. Students who have a personal connection[5] (their culture) to their classroom curriculum are thus provided with the building blocks to grow in whatever field they’re studying (Moses, 2001; Steinberg, 2005; Sternberg, 1998). Reflected culture facilitates the learning process by building confidence, but it also produces something that’s static, a platform or launching pad to expand into whatever one may want to become.
Students who lack a cultural connection to school curriculum are then subject to seeing school as boring, non-engaging, not for them, pointless, and non-rewarding (Anderson, 1990; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Malloy, 1997; Wheelock, 1992). This sense of meaninglessness leads to the perpetuation of the achievement gaps that persist in the educational system on all levels. Incorporating students’ culture in the classroom isn’t a panacea for all educational inequalities or the achievement gaps, but it is a means of achieving equity and will quell much of the disproportionate representation of students of color as underachievers. Culturally responsive curricula are predicated on the teacher’s interpreting, understanding, and recognizing the students’ culture and integrating it into the learning process (Malloy, 1997). Many students from diverse backgrounds are often times disinterested in school because their culture is seldom, if ever, displayed in a positive manner (Anderson, 1990).
Another positive benefit of students’ culture facilitating the learning process by building on previous knowledge is that it lends itself to different learning styles. Culture doesn’t produce learning styles (Hilliard, 1978). If cultures produced learning styles we would find that entire groups, such as European-Americans, all have the same learning style, such as kinesthetic[6]. Clearly not all European-Americans are kinesthetic learners. However, incorporating various cultures does enhance the opportunity for different learning styles to thrive. Case in point, though it isn’t uniform, in Native American culture, people traditionally learn through a variety of oratory narration (Lambe, 2003). Including their culture in curricula would not only do them a fair service, it would also assist the learners who have that style preference from other cultures.
The popular myth has been that students of color are either lazy or unable to cognitively keep up with their white peers (Freire, 1970; Moses, 2001; Schwartz, 1981). The fact stands that European-American students are at an advantage in that the curriculum is typically written for and by people who are from their culture (Anderson, 1990; Delpit, 1995, 2002; Hilliard, 1978; Ernst-Slavit & Slavit, 2007). Students of color are expected to make an assimilation[7] or acculturation[8] adjustment upon arriving at school which necessitates leaving their culture at the door. Up to this point, schools and teachers have made few efforts to meet these students where they are in order to accommodate a harmonious cultural relationship (Delpit, 1995; Hilliard, 1978). This leads to the last example of how students’ culture reflected in school curricula facilitates learning.
Infusing all students’ culture in their curriculum facilitates the learning process by creating harmony between the culture of the school and the culture(s) of its students. Students should not have the full burden of assimilating or acculturating. The students and the school should meet half way. Not only does this meeting show the students that their heritage is respected by the school, it also encourages the student to feel at ease and participate in the friendly environment that they’ve been shown. Most, if not all of the students that comprise the American educational system, come from cultures that have contributed to many of the subjects that Americans study (Barta & Schelling, 1998). Why aren’t these contributions ingrained in curriculums throughout the U.S.? This isn’t a reference to a month or week of studying customs and it isn’t a reference to a few boxed paragraphs at the end of a chapter of a text-book. This is a reference to substantial contributions like the Babylonians who actually were using the “Pythagorean Theorem” years before Pythagoras was born but never received their due credit (Anderson, 1990).
In conclusion, having culture in classrooms is nothing new—there has always been culture in classrooms; however, the question is who’s culture is in American classrooms, who’s culture isn’t, and why? An ending thought from Gisela Ernst-Slavit:
“The incorporation of language and culture into teaching is a complex process, requiring among other things, a self-examination of pedagogical beliefs, a desire to utilize students’ backgrounds in instructional planning and process, and insight into a variety of knowledge sets and dispositions related to specific aspects of language and culture”. (Ernst-Slavit & Slavit, 2007)
No special pedagogy needs to be developed for students of color. Culture exists in the classroom and curriculum but it is selective and exclusive—curriculum needs to be designed to include all students’ culture. Teachers of all students need to be culturally responsive teachers who contextualize teaching by giving attention to the immediate needs and cultural experiences of their students. We’ve demonstrated the role that culture plays in the learning process as the facilitator. Students’ culture reflected in the classroom facilitates learning by building confidence, building on previous knowledge, and making the culture of the school and that of its students’ harmonious. The unfair, unequal, educational experience students of color receive can only be rectified when the role that culture plays in the process of learning is realized and amalgamated into classrooms.
Bibliography
Anderson, B. (1990). Minorities and Mathematics: The new frontier and a challenge of the nineties. The Journal of Negro Education , 260-271.
Barta, J., & Schelling, D. (1998). Games We Play: Connecting mathematics and culture in the classroom. Teaching Children Mathematics , 388-393.
Chunn, E. W. (1990). Sorting Black Students for Failure: The Inequity of Ability Grouping and Tracking. The Journal of Educational Research , 94-106.
Delpit, L. (1995). Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: The New Press.
Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. K. (2002). The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts On Language and Culture in the Classroom. New York: The New Press.
Ernst-Slavit, G., & Slavit, D. (Summer 2007). Educational Reform, Mathematics, & Diverse Learners: Meeting the Needs of All Students. Multicultural Education , 20-27.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.
Gutstein, E., & Peterson, B. (2006). Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Hilliard III, A. G. (1978, Summer). Equal Educational Opportunity and Quality Education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2, New Perspectives on Black Education , 110-126.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Theory into Practice, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 159-165.
Lambe, J. (2003). Indigenous Education, Mainstream Education, and Native Studies. American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 27, Nos., 1 & 2, pp. 308-326.
Malloy, C. E. (1997). Including African-Americans in the Mathematics Community. Yearbook (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) , pp. 23-33.
Malloy, C. E. (1998). Issues of Culture in Mathematics Teaching and Learning. The Urban Review , pp. 245-257.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2000). Intercultural Communication in Contexts 2nd Edition. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Moses, R., & Cobb Jr., C. (2001). radical equations. Boston: Beacon Press.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (1999). Trends in Academic Achievement Among Student Subgroups. National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Pransky, K. (December 2002/January 2003). To meet your students where they are, first you have to find them: Working with culturally and linguistically diverse at-risk students. The Reading Teacher , 370-383.
Schwartz, F. (1981, Summer). Supporting or Subverting Learning: Peer Group Patterns in Four Tracked Schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol.12, No.2. , pp. 99-121.
Steinberg, L. (2005). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Ability Testing, Instruction, and Assessment of Achievement: Breaking Out of the Vicious Circle. New Haven: The Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Wheelock, A. (1992). Crossing The Tracks: How Untracking Can Save Americas Schools. New York: W. W. Norton.
[1] Dominant Culture: Whereas traditional societies can be characterized by a high consistency of cultural traits and customs, modern societies are often a conglomeration of different, often competing, cultures and subcultures. In such a situation of diversity, a dominant culture is one that is able, through economic or political power, to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures. This may be achieved through legal or political suppression of other sets of values and patterns of behavior, or by monopolizing the media communication. A few American dominant cultural traditions are: democracy, heterosexism, racism, “standard” English, capitalism, white privilege, individualism, classism, and patriarchy.
[2] In 2005 the percentage of non-white students in the U.S was 38%; it’s predicted in the year 2020 the number will increase to 44%; and by the year 2050 non-white students are expected to exceed 54% (C.f. footnote 2).
[3] Carol E. Malloy, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also a Board of Directors member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). She was a member of the NCTM Standards 2000 writing team. She taught mathematics for 20 years in public schools across the U.S.
[4] Additional examples can be seen in Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers; they include exercises Historical, Cultural, and Social Implications of Mathematics, “Home Buying While Brown or Black”, Sweatshop Accounting, and Chicanos Have Math in Their Blood.
[5] Ken Pransky (ESL elementary school teacher), in the article, To meet your students where they are, first you have to find them: Working with culturally and linguistically diverse at-risk students, found for his Cambodian and Latino ESL students that incorporating students home culture into the classroom curriculum boosted their confidence, participation, and test scores dramatically. Also see Robert Moses’ the Algebra Project in the book, Radical Equations. Moses documents his success with African-American students after reframing mathematics around the culture that these students are familiar with. Moses has been so successful that the Federal Government has funded his project to be implemented in over 15 cities across the U.S.
[6] Kinesthetic learning occurs through doing, touching, and interacting. Other popular learning styles are visual and auditory.
[7] Assimilation is a type of cultural adaptation in which an individual gives up his or her cultural heritage and adopts the dominant cultural identity.
[8] Acculturation is the cultural modification of an individual or group by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture; a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact. Acculturation typically happens as minority groups adopt habits and language patterns of a dominant group.
