Culturally Responsive Educational Theories
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Most educators with whom we have worked would agree that there is a strong relationship between culture and motivation, and that it only makes sense to understand a student's perspective.
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Why, then, do we have such difficulty acting this way in the classroom? One major reason is that we feel very little social pressure to act otherwise. The popular media and structural systems of education remain locked in a deterministic, mechanistic, and behavioristic orientation toward human motivation. As a result, our national consciousness assumes there are many people who need to be motivated by other people.
Secondary education is influenced a great deal by the practices of higher education, and both levels tend to follow the precepts of extrinsic reinforcement. Teaching and testing practices, competitive assessment procedures, grades, grade point averages, and eligibility for select vocations and colleges form an interrelated system. This system is based on the assumption that human beings will strive to learn when they are externally rewarded for a specific behavior or punished for lack of it.
Schools and colleges successfully educate a disproportionately low number of low-income and ethnic minority students Wlodkowski and Ginsberg Because the importance of grades and grade point averages increases as a student advances in school, it is legitimate to question whether extrinsic motivation systems are effective for significant numbers of students across cultures. We can only conclude that, as long as the educational system continues to relate motivation to learn with external rewards and punishments, culturally different students will, in large part, be excluded from engagement and success in school.
It is part of human nature to be curious, to be active, to initiate thought and behavior, to make meaning from experience, and to be effective at what we value. These primary sources of motivation reside in all of us, across all cultures. When students can see that what they are learning makes sense and is important, their intrinsic motivation emerges.
We can influence the motivation of students by coming to know their perspective, by drawing forth who they naturally and culturally are, and by seeing them as unique and active. Sharing our resources with theirs, working together, we can create greater energy for learning.
The key is helping students relate lesson content to their own backgrounds. The teacher explains that most people are researchers much of the time, and she asks the students what they would like to research among themselves. Ample documentation across a variety of student and regional settings suggests that noncompetitive, informational evaluation processes are more effective than competitive, controlling evaluation procedures Deci et al. An Intrinsic Motivational Framework We propose a model of culturally responsive teaching based on theories of intrinsic motivation. Students then feel more empowered, and autonomous in their own learning. Revealing the deep meaning.
Intrinsic systems of motivation can accommodate cultural differences. Theories of intrinsic motivation have been successfully applied and researched in areas such as cross-cultural studies Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi ; bilingual education Cummins ; and education, work, and sports Deci and Ryan Ample documentation across a variety of student and regional settings suggests that noncompetitive, informational evaluation processes are more effective than competitive, controlling evaluation procedures Deci et al.
A growing number of educational models, including constructivism and multiple intelligences theory, are based on intrinsic motivation. They see student perspective as central to teaching. Unfortunately, educators must often apply these theories within educational systems dominated by extrinsic reinforcement, where grades and class rank are emphasized. And, when extrinsic rewards continue to be the primary motivators, intrinsic motivation is dampened. Those students whose socialization accommodates the extrinsic approach surge ahead, while those students—often the culturally different—whose socialization does not, fall behind.
A holistic, culturally responsive pedagogy based on intrinsic motivation is needed to correct this imbalance. We propose a model of culturally responsive teaching based on theories of intrinsic motivation. This model is respectful of different cultures and is capable of creating a common culture that all students can accept. Within this framework, pedagogical alignment—the coordination of approaches to teaching that ensure maximum consistent effect—is critical.
The more harmonious the elements of teaching are, the more likely they are to evoke, encourage, and sustain intrinsic motivation. The framework names four motivational conditions that the teacher and students continuously create or enhance. Establishing inclusion —creating a learning atmosphere in which students and teachers feel respected by and connected to one another.
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- A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching - Educational Leadership.
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Developing attitude —creating a favorable disposition toward the learning experience through personal relevance and choice. Enhancing meaning —creating challenging, thoughtful learning experiences that include student perspectives and values. Engendering competence —creating an understanding that students are effective in learning something they value. These conditions are essential to developing intrinsic motivation.
They are sensitive to cultural differences. They work in concert as they influence students and teachers, and they happen in a moment as well as over a period of time. Let us look at an actual episode of culturally responsive teaching based on this motivational framework. It occurs in an urban high school social science class with a diverse group of students and an experienced teacher. At the start of a new term, the teacher wants to familiarize students with active research methods. She will use such methods throughout the semester, and she knows from previous experience that many students view research as abstract, irrelevant, and oppressive work.
After reflecting on the framework, her teaching goal, and her repertoire of methods, she randomly assigns students to small groups.
A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
She encourages them to discuss any previous experiences they may have had in doing research as well as their expectations and concerns for the course. Each group then shares its experiences, expectations, and concerns as she records them on the chalkboard. In this manner, she is able to understand her students' perspectives and to increase their connection to one another and herself motivational condition: The teacher explains that most people are researchers much of the time, and she asks the students what they would like to research among themselves.
After a lively discussion, the class decides to investigate and predict the amount of sleep some members of the class had the previous night. This experience engages student choice, increases the relevance of the activity, and contributes to the favorable disposition emerging in the class motivational condition: The students are learning in a way that includes their experiences and perspectives.
Five students volunteer to serve as subjects, and the other students form research teams. Each team must develop a set of observations and questions to ask the volunteers. They cannot ask them how many hours of sleep they had the night before. After they ask their questions, the teams rank the five volunteers from the most to the least amount of sleep.
When the volunteers reveal the amount of time they slept, the students discover that no research team was correct in ranking more than three students. After the discussion, the teacher asks the students to write a series of statements about what this activity has taught them about research. Students then break into small groups to exchange their insights. Self-assessment helps the students to gain, from an authentic experience, an understanding of something they may value motivational condition: This snapshot of culturally responsive teaching illustrates how the four motivational conditions constantly influence and interact with one another.
Without establishing inclusion small groups to discuss experiences and developing attitude students choosing a relevant research , the enhancement of meaning research teams devising hypotheses may not have occurred with equal ease and energy; and the self-assessment to engender competence what students learned from their perspective may have had a dismal outcome. According to this model of teaching, all the motivational conditions contribute to student engagement.
- Culturally relevant teaching?
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Although the above event actually occurred, it may sound like a fairy tale because everything worked smoothly. In reality, teaching situations often become fragmented by the competing needs and interests of a diverse student body. All too often, we use educational norms and procedures that are contradictory. The result is that we confuse students and decrease their intrinsic motivation. For example, consider the teacher who uses cooperative learning yet gives pop quizzes; or who espouses constructivist learning yet grades for participation; or who abhors discrimination yet calls mainly on boys during class discussions.
In an effort to help educators avoid such errors of incoherence, we have compiled educational norms, procedures, and structures that are effective from a motivational as well as multicultural perspective see fig. Together, they provide an integrated system of teaching practices for our model of culturally responsive teaching. They are categorized according to the motivational conditions of the framework:.
Norms are the explicit values espoused by the teacher and students. Procedures are learning processes that carry out the norms. Structures are the rules or binding expectations that support the norms and procedures. Emphasize the human purpose of what is being learned and its relationship to the students' experience. Share the ownership of knowing with all students. The class assumes a hopeful view of people and their capacity to change.
Treat all students equitably. Invite them to point out behaviors or practices that discriminate. Collaborative learning approaches; cooperative learning; writing groups; peer teaching; multi-dimensional sharing; focus groups; and reframing. Relate teaching and learning activities to students' experience or previous knowledge.
Encourage students to make choices in content and assessment methods based on their experiences, values, needs, and strengths.
Clear learning goals; problem solving goals; fair and clear criteria of evaluation; relevant learning models; learning contracts; approaches based on multiple intelligences theory, pedagogical flexibility based on style, and experiential learning. In short, students use social networking and technological connections to connect with social and cultural peers but ultimately engage in interactions with members of a variety of cultural groups.
These interactions can be quite empowering for modern learners. The 21st century learner is what Neil Selwyn refers to as an, "empowered digital native".
In contrast, they are proficient at using technology to tailor their own learning. Within seconds, learners can access a wealth of information and knowledge and no longer must trust solely the limited perspective presented in their textbook.
The 21st century learner is accustomed to using technology to challenge preconceived information. Create a positive learning environment: Know, understand, and work with families that come from different race and ethnicities Gonzalez-Mena and Pulido-Tobiassen, Expose children to role models from their own culture as well as those from other cultures Gonzalez-Mena and Pulido-Tobiassen, Utilize student's cultures to help them learn the subjects and skills taught in school Gollnick and Chinn, Start teaching multi-cultural education to students at an early age Russel, Six Tips for Teaching Diversity.
Retrieved November 15, from www. Use literacy and children's books in the classroom to promote culturally relevant teaching. By using texts that have characters of all different backgrounds, students can easily learn about new cultures Ladson-Billings, Not all educators favor culturally relevant teaching. Indeed, there are many practical challenges to implementing culturally relevant pedagogy including a lack of enforcement of culturally relevant teaching methods, and the tendency to view students as individual units only, rather than seeing them as linked inseparably with their cultural groups.
Therefore, another challenge for educators is to prepare reflective practitioners who can connect with diverse students and their families.
Given these demographics, Kenneth Fasching-Varner and Vanessa Dodo-Seriki have suggested that disconnects in teacher and student identity lead to "Free and Reduced Pedagogy," or a non-student first approach that reduces students to cultural differences, discrediting students based on their identitites and differences in identities between teachers and students. Demographic projections predict that cultural and ethnic diversity will increase.
Students of color will become the majority in the United States by There are many examples of culturally relevant programs: Advancement via Individual Determination AVID is a program from the San Diego California public schools that helps underrepresented students including those from different cultural groups by mixing low-achieving students with high-achieving students in college preparation programs. Another California-based group focused on culturally relevant teaching is the Umoja Community. Umoja works with students, colleges and the community to promote awareness, instill values and provide the foundations needed to achieve success, particularly for African American students, although it is committed to helping all students.
The Russian Mission School in Alaska incorporates Native American culture with the standard curriculum and emphasizes hands-on activities that are relevant to their local lifestyle. In her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children , Gloria Ladson-Billings presents several examples of excellent cultural relevant teaching in African American classrooms. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Culturally Responsive Teaching, 2nd Ed. New York, New York: A primer for educators, Thomson Wadsorth: Successful teachers of African American children. Between traditional aboriginal education and the western system of education".
Canadian Journal of Native Education. New Directions for Continuing Education. Culturally responsive teaching, 2nd Ed. Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. A review of the literature". Review of Educational Research. An examination of culturally relevant pedagogy as an equity practice". Journal of Curriculum Studies. Guidelines for parents" PDF. Archived from the original on Theory, research, and practice 2nd Ed. Becoming culturally responsive educators: Rethinking teacher education pedagogy. Retrieved from "Archived copy".
Culturally relevant teaching - Wikipedia
Historical development, dimensions, and practice. Banks, Handbook of research on multicultural education 2nd Ed.
The curriculum studies reader, 3rd Ed. Page 32 ; Hollins, E. Culture in school learning: Revealing the deep meaning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Bringing out the best in them: The contribution of culturally relevant teachers to education reform. Theory into Practice, 34 3 , Page 34 ; Castagno, A.
Culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth: Page 36 ; Ladson-Billings, Gloria Teaching in Higher Education , 18 3. The heart of a teacher: Identity and integrity in teaching. In, Courage to teach. Fostering awareness of diversity and multiculturism in adult and higher education. Teaching by creating cognitive apprenticeship in classrooms and beyond. In Learning and instruction, pp. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Retrieved 4 March Pearson Education; Ladson-Billings, Gloria Telling Their side of the Story: Telling Their Side of the Story: Changing how and what children learn in school with computer-based technologies.
Children and Computer Technology. Disruptive technologies, pedagogical innovation: Findings from an in-depth study of students use and perception of technology. The digital native - myth and reality. Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. A Place to Begin. Retrieved October 31, from www. A culturally relevant approach to literacy teaching".