Posted by:
Joyce Taylor-Gibson
University
Lowell, MA

Topic:
Comments from Joyce-Taylor Gibson

Message:

In our multicultural society, culturally responsive teaching reflects democracy at its highest level. Ensuring the opportunity to achieve for each child requires an acknowledgement and a connection to the child from a personal, familial, and community perspective. For teachers to bring out the best in each individual can only mean learning enough about the background and current circumstances of each child to build a relationship for learning.

How can teachers build confidence for learning, if children do not relate to the culture, pedagogy or language s/he presents? How can children excel without recognition of who they are? How can families and communities contribute to the formal education their children deserve, when school personnel continue to devalue them and their communities?

Unfortunately, the democratic values we espouse are not yet well represented in many of our school systems. Culturally relevant teaching is critical to the optimal intellectual and social development of all our children. This means that we must do a better job of educating teachers who are responsible for our children's learning. Teachers must model and teach in culturally relevant ways to empower children and families to join the teaching/learning process for high achievement. Teachers responsible for teaching in culturally relevant ways must be able to:

• Respect and value cultures other than their own.
  
  
• Recognize their own biases and actively work on reducing these behaviors, while building a greater sensitivity to differences in others.
  
  
• Visit and work with their children's families to accelerate learning in their classes.
  
  
• Experiment with the curriculum to make it relevant to children.
  
  
• Review and learn the research on culturally relevant pedagogy.
  
  
• Seek mentor teachers who are successful with culturally diverse children.
  
  
• Speak and understand a second language and culture to enhance work with diverse school populations.
  

Finally, culturally relevant teaching means doing whatever it takes to ensure that every child is achieving and ever moving toward realizing her or his potential. This necessarily means teachers must take more risks, collaborate with others who have common goals, and continuously engage themselves in professional events to enrich teaching for themselves and those they serve.

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