Teaching your own culture

I have often wondered if it would be better to have educators teach students of their own culture.
By Jennifer Pitt

We as teachers need to prepare ourselves to be culturally responsive. Some people will argue that it would be better to have teachers teach their own culture. Yet in a world with so many cultures, the possibility of having this actually happen is slim. This is because in some areas of the United States there are not enough teachers to teach the amount of students of a particular culture. Furthermore, while there may be benefits of teaching to one’s own culture there is also deficits. For example, there is no ability to learn from and about other cultures, there is no way to learn how to interact and work with other cultures. It is what we learn from each other, and how we learn to get along with others that is extremely important in America because once our education is done we will be out working in the real world with other cultures. It is important that as educators we encourage a learning of multiple cultures so that as a society we can move forward.
One such way to effectively teach to the many cultures in our classroom is called Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT). CRT “is an approach to instruction that responds to the sociocultural context and seeks to integrate cultural content of the learning in shaping an effective learning environment” (Ooka Pang, 2001). Aspects to include within a curriculum can be, but are not limited to experiences, events, values, perspectives and issues of a community. This style of teaching can also be used to affirm student’s identity and act as a lens to study from.
Ana Villegas (2002) has outlined a list to help teachers accomplish CRT. First she suggests that we expand our sociocultural consciousness. Second, we as teachers should have an affirming attitude towards students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Also, we should make a commitment to act as agents of change and ground ourselves in constructivist views of learning. Villegas(2002) states that we must also take the time to get to know our students, “if teaching involves assisting students to build bridges between their preexisting knowledge and experiences and the new material they are expected to learn, then teachers must know not only the subject matter they teach but also their students”. And finally we as educators must take what we know about our students to give them access to learning.
In order to make the curriculum culturally relevant to the students, the teacher must first be able to take apart the “official knowledge” and expose it for the weaknesses it has (Landsman, Lewis, 2006). I heard a student once say that history is written by white men, so how can I (a black female) relate to it. Finding ways to rebuild the curriculum so that it relates to that student and others is how a teacher can coop with this question (Landsman, Lewis, 2006). For example, when talking about a revolution I can ask the students to start their own revolution. They would name their revolution, decided who would be in their revolution and figure out the best ways to get their points across. Looking at a revolution through their own eyes, for their own reasons, would give them an inside look on why other people a long time ago would start a revolution.
A white teacher can teach Asian students, an Asian teacher can teach black students and so on and so forth. We just need to put in the effort to make teaching culturally relevant. It will benefit ever single student in our classes and it will also benefit ourselves. We need to teach our students how to learn from and get along with other cultures. It is the only way we can produce a society that will have the ability to work together to solve future problems.


References:
Landsman, J., & Lewis, C.W. (2008). White teachers/diverse classrooms: A guide to building inclusive schools, promoting high expectations, and eliminating racism. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishers.

Ooka Pang, V. (2001). What is Culturally Relevant Teaching? From Author, Multicultural education: A caring-centered, reflective approach.

Villegas, A.M. & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Rethinking the Curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (1), 20-32.