Blog 7 - Creating a Multicultural Curriculum

Creating a Multicultural Curriculum

A key concept I picked up in this week’s reading is multicultural curriculum is not enough to reduce bias.  It is important the multicultural curriculum is specifically, and overtly, anti-bias and anti-racist (Derman-Sparks, 1993/1994; Nieto, 1999).  In “Empowering Children to Create a Caring Culture in a World of Learners,” Louise Derman-Sparks (1993/1994) advocated providing students with the opportunities to take learning and actions into their own hands.  Her suggestion is to include the following goals when creating a multicultural curriculum:

1. Nurture each child’s construction of a knowledgeable, confident self-concept and group identity [, …]
2. Promote each child’s comfortable, empathic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds [, …]
3. Foster each child’s critical thinking about bias [, … and]
4. Cultivate each child’s ability to stand up for her/himself and for others in the face of bias.  (p. 180)

After first learning about themselves, students will be able to recognize the similarities in humanity among people who are different in any way.  Then students will advance to analyzing biases critically, and ultimately, acting on those analyses and advocating for equality.  Granted, this may be a highly idealized goal in an elementary level, but it is important to begin somewhere.  Young children may come into the classroom with some biased ideas that they have learned from their family or community, and I think Derman-Sparks would say it’s important not to say “Your mom is wrong; blind people can contribute to society,” but ask guiding questions that students would use to start analyzing their beliefs.  If I was to tell a student his parents were wrong, that student would tell his parents, who would get angry and call me, or my superior, to complain about me overstepping my boundaries.  However, if a student critiques a bias and reflects on how it might make the other person feel, he can tell his parents “I think blind people can work; they have all sorts of tools available to help them interact with the sighted world.”  The example cited in which Maria informed her grandmother a toy was offensive is an excellent representation of this (Derman-Sparks, 1993/1994).  To me, it is imperative to be sure students are changing biases based on what they learn and feel, rather than replace the beliefs of their parents, churches, communities, etc. with mine.

Derman-Sparks also pointed out how important it is to think of multicultural curriculum in ways other than what she termed “tourist multicultural curriculum” (1993/1994, p. 180).  Her point is simple: when we, as educators, only teach students about how different cultures celebrate their winter holiday, we are not doing our students any justice.  We are focusing on one part of a culture that we have decided is so important and so widely practiced that it is representative of an entire country/religion/ethnicity.  The fact is, just as there are multiple ways of celebrating Christmas in the United States (including not celebrating at all), looking at one aspect of one day in the life of others is not helpful or inclusive.  Derman-Sparks also cautioned against using a tourist multicultural curriculum in fear that it might patronize or trivialize other cultures and lead to further biases.

While reading the articles for this week, it made me feel a little overwhelmed.  “Teach more culture, but make sure you’re teaching it correctly” is a vague and daunting directive.  This class has helped, and I will appreciate having had it when I begin teaching at an urban middle school outside of Nashville, TN, next fall, and I have also found several resources throughout the semester that provide more information and guidance on improving my teaching practice.  I have linked to them throughout my blogging, but a new one is Teaching Tolerance, a magazine dedicated to reducing biases and improving tolerance.  It offers free magazine subscriptions to educators (mailed to their school twice a year) and has several online resources available, including a community for educators to blog and discuss issues, free .pdf versions of prior magazines, classroom activities, and free teacher kits (DVD’s, books, worksheets, etc.) available to teachers.  I found it at www.tolerance.org (they are also affiliated with TDSi, which I mentioned in an earlier post).

I am looking forward to taking all of the knowledge gained during this class into my classroom next year.  I will be in a new state, with new expectations, but I feel I will be able to use these reflections as a starting point for developing my curriculum and supporting all of my students.  The readings from this week, specifically, resonated with me as I am already thinking of building a new class library, and I want to be sure to cover all aspects of culture with my selections.  I apologize for writing yet another book as my blog entry, but I find it so difficult to limit myself to 400 words when a topic seems so relevant to my situation!

References

Derman-Sparks, L.  (1993/1994).  Empowering children to create a caring culture in a world of differences.  In Jana Noel (Ed.), Classic edition sources: Multicultural education (3rd ed.) (pp. 179-182).  New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Nieto, S.  (1999).  Creating multicultural learning communities.  In Jana Noel (Ed.), Classic edition sources: Multicultural education (3rd ed.) (pp. 187-190).  New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Blog 6 - Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences

While reading Chapter 3 in Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths, it occurred to me that I have never been given any information on how to best conduct a conference with a parent in my teacher preparation. I taught for two years without knowing the best way to reach parents, and I was absolutely confronted by angry parents on more than one occasion (French isn’t exactly the most respected subject in deep east Texas). The major recurring theme of my parent-teacher conferences was “this is an elective; you shouldn’t be failing my child when it isn’t even a real subject.” I’m not sure I even had parent-teacher conferences, per se; we had Open House once a semester, where I met mostly with parents of students who were inclined to academic success, and I received phone calls and emails occasionally (read: after report cards were mailed).

To me, the most absurd part of my experience was during my first year teaching when, after not being able to get parents to take me seriously on the phone, I mailed a letter to parents of students who had not returned their textbooks at the end of the semester that my department head took to the library and had standardized for all teachers to use. I was happy to help streamline the process for the campus, but it felt a little strange to be giving advice when I felt clueless. The letters were sent as an act of desperation, which I suppose most teachers felt when trying to get textbooks returned at the end of the semester.

The only way to really remedy this would be to encourage teacher education programs, or possibly even school districts during their first-year teacher programs (and beyond), to focus more on how to host effective parent-teacher conferences. We are absolutely learning the benefits of parental involvement during our pre-service education, but applying it can be tricky. There are several programs that are adapting the medical simulation model to parent-teacher conferences, where they basically simulate a conference and then give the student (future teacher) feedback on how to improve or what to avoid (Dotger, Harris, & Hansel, 2008; Dotger, Dotger, & Tillotson, 2010). This idea would be extremely beneficial to all pre-service teachers.

Our book discussed a novel concept created by one of the Bridging Cultures teachers, who developed a new format for parent-teacher conferences. Focusing specifically on the collectivistic societies of Latino students, Ms. Altchech designed a group conference, where as many families as possible came at the same time and she provided an overview of the class, test scores, report cards, etc., and then allowed parents to approach her individually if they had any additional questions or concerns (Rothstein-Fisch & Trumbull, 2008). This seemed to work well for her class, and I can see it working well across all cultures because it allows parents who just need to know the basic information to receive it and go on with their day, and provides the same opportunity for parents who want to be more involved the one-on-one time traditional, student-led conferences provide. I know that I had several classes where my mother would probably have preferred to just get the information and get on to the next room (I am one of three children). It is a concept that I believe to be very relevant to teaching in this area, so I feel fortunate to have this text.

Further research on the topic led me to an article on parent-teacher communication within the African-American community, which is also relevant to teaching in this area. Regina Brandon (2007), assistant professor of special education at San Diego State University, found several factors that impact parental involvement in schools, and focused specifically on parent isolation in African-American families. Various reasons, including negative opinions of schools/faculty, low levels of their own education, socio-economics, and personal constraints, may lead to this feeling of isolation of African-American parents from schools. Brandon (2007) suggested several ways to increase school-home communication with these families, both from the school’s and from the individual teachers’ perspectives, such as establishing contact early, providing outlines of typical conference meetings, suggesting questions to ask, addressing parents by their formal names (Ms. Miller; Dr. Hoyt) until asked to do otherwise, and surveying parents about their expectations and conceptions from and of the school. These are, again, very transferrable to other cultures because they address a higher emphasis on manners and politeness.

Reading all of this information on various tips and strategies to hold parent-teacher conferences has me feeling much more prepared to potentially re-enter the classroom this Fall. At least now I know where to look for information. In my future classroom, I will most likely experiment with the group model followed by individual conferences with those who prefer them. As for using manners, I grew up in the South, so I don’t foresee a problem with that. I found that these techniques, though focused on Latino or African-American families, should be very helpful with all families represented in my future classroom.

References

Brandon, R. R. (2007). African American parents: Improving connections with their child’s educational environment. Intervention in School and Clinic. 43(2), p. 116-120.

Dotger, B., Harris, S., & Hansel, A. (2008). Emerging authenticity: The crafting of simulated parent-teacher candidate conferences. Teaching Education. 19(4), p. 337-349.

Dotger, S., Dotger, B., & Tillotson, J. (2010). Examining how preservice science teachers navigate simulated parent–teacher conversations on evolution and intelligent design. Science Education. 94(3), p. 552-570.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. & Trumbull, E. (2008). Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Virginia.

Blog 5 - Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

I apologize for seeming belligerent to the ladies who were addressing Topic 5 in class tonight, but the random phrase, transition “from learning styles to principles,” used in their story was confusing to me out of context. I had a question about that phrase before I came to class, so perhaps my confusion may have come off offensive. All of that was to say: this is what led to my research for this week’s blog. : )

When I went back to the text during class, I found a few clues, if you will, to direct my studies. First, this phrase is specifically discussing Ladson-Billings’ 1994 theory of teaching, termed “culturally relevant pedagogy.” It is specifically focused on students who experience alienation and hostility; Ladson-Billings was studying African-American students. When she said to move away from learning styles toward “a particular set of principles about teaching” (Ladson-Billings, 2001, p. 111, emphasis mine), she did not mean we should teach our students principles of tolerance and a united humanity as was discussed in class. She was arguing against previous studies that determined learning styles were the main differences between students of diverse cultures and the majority culture. She goes on to list the three guiding principles of teaching that should be the focus of educating students of diverse cultures:

• focus on academic achievement: whether or not scholars can agree on the significance of standardized achievement tests, they still serve to rank and characterize both schools and individuals,
• help students develop a positive identification with their home culture that supports learning, which will provide a way for students to maintain their cultural integrity while succeeding academically, and
• focus on sociopolitical consciousness: civic and social awareness students must develop to work toward equity and justice beyond their own personal advancement (111).

I don’t know how I missed these clear steps the first time I read this selection, but it does seem very straightforward now. Obviously, Ladson-Billings is a much respected name in the field of culturally relevant pedagogy, as a simple Google search of her name yields endless results of citations in scholarly articles and various foundations who build upon her work. One is the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative (TDSi), which can be found at www.tolerance.org/tdsi. This organization was founded by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and has multiple resources and information for educators. Another is the Education Alliance: Teaching Diverse Learners at Brown University, which can be found at http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml. It has listed out seven principles for culturally responsive teaching, which are each given their own informational section. Each section includes the definition, rationale, and application of each principle. I encourage anyone who, like myself, would like to see how to implement some of the things we are learning in this class to check out either (or both) of these websites. I found them extremely helpful and informative!

References

Education Alliance: Teaching Diverse Learners. http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml

Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). The power of pedagogy: Does teaching matter? In Jana Noel (Ed.), Classic edition sources: Multicultural education (3rd ed.) (pp. 110-114). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Teaching Diverse Students Initiative. www.tolerance.org/tdsi

Blog 4 - Assimilation in Literature

Assimilation in Literature

Reading Schlesinger’s article, followed by Goebel’s rebuttal, I am more confused than ever. Schlesinger (1992) provides a history of views on assimilation and the “melting pot” ideal throughout his article, then he calls “the ethnic upsurge [. . .] a gesture of protest against the Anglocentric culture. It became a cult, and today it threatens to become a counter revolution against the original theory of America” (79). These views are absurd! An ethnic group wanting to maintain a common heritage is a cult?! He makes sure to pander to his audience by making comments like “Law [. . .] has from time to time (and in my view often properly so) acknowledged the claims of groups,” but assures it is the exception, and not the rule (80). Goebel (1992), on the other hand, encourages a more diverse curriculum to open up a dialogue with unfamiliar cultures or situations. His seemingly good advice is to provide a spectrum of perceptions to allow students to discover their own truths and common understandings, which is the overall goal I believe Schlesinger had in mind.

After reading through both of the articles, I became interested in how these views of assimilation are applied in the classroom. I found a research article by Yoon, Simpson, and Haag, titled “Assimilation Ideology: Critically Examining Underlying Messages in Multicultural Literature.” The authors studied twelve multicultural picture books to determine the message multicultural texts were presenting themselves (favoring assimilation or cultural pluralism). The first author, Yoon, is often asked to review literature by his students and colleagues because he is Korean, and he noticed a trend of assimilation being glorified in American literature. This is what led to his investigation into the multicultural literature.

The twelve picture books were chosen by the librarian at random from a rural north Texan middle school’s library. Yoon and his colleagues found the majority of the books (seven) to be neutral or unclear in regards to multicultural ideology. They determined three were assimilationist, and two were pluralistic in nature. Within the assimilationist stories, two themes were identified: the transformation of the main character from resistance to full assimilation and America as the land of opportunity. The authors wish for educators to keep these ideologies in mind when selecting texts, and provide a variety of ideals in their classrooms.

When selecting a text, the authors suggest teachers ask the following questions:

• How does the text ensure that the central character(s) maintain identity in the native culture?
• How does the text support the native culture in the resolution of the story?
• How does the text provide readers from both the dominant and the native cultures with opportunities to see the values of both cultures?
• How does the text challenge the traditions of the dominant culture rather than assimilation into the dominant culture? (116)
  

What I have gleaned from the reading is it is best to choose a variety of differing perspectives in order to open a dialogue in the classroom.

References

Goebel, B. A. (1992). Diversity, conformity, and democracy: A critique of Arthur M. Schlesinger’s The disuniting of America: Reflections on a multicultural society. http://mtprof.msun.edu/Win1992/goebrev.html.

Schlesinger, A. M. (1992). The disuniting of America: Reflections on a multicultural society. In Jana Noel (Ed.), Classic edition sources: Multicultural education (3rd ed.) (pp. 77-80). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Yoon, B., Simpson, A., & Haag, C. (2010). Assimilation ideology: Critically examining underlying messages in multicultural literature. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 54(2), p 109-118.