my blogs
Culturally responsive teaching is a profound pedagogical shift in education that educators are continuously working on to gain more connections to its depth. Culturally responsive teaching has many dimensions with a foundational focus on providing each and every student from any cultural background a responsible, rigorous, relevant, and in-depth education connected to their lives, backgrounds and experiences. It capitalizes on the assets all students bring to the classroom and the belief that all students, despite their backgrounds and experiences, can achieve at high levels. In order to be masters of culturally responsive teaching, we need to constantly reflect on and re-define our teaching values and the components that relate to culturally responsive teaching.
Culture, Introspection and Awareness Wikipedia defines culture as “an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.” Therefore, whether you have a class full of students from different races and ethnic groups or whether you have a class full of students from the same race and ethnic group, you still have different cultures within your classroom and you still need to be a culturally responsive educator. In order to be culturally responsive educators, we first need to understand ourselves, our values, beliefs, and behaviors based on how we were socialized. To understand ourselves, we need to engage in ongoing transparent introspection in the way we view others, especially our students. Two questions to help guide introspections are: "Am I allowing my cultural experiences and socialization to cloud the way I see others and their abilities?" and "Am I truly accepting of other cultures and their valued place in this world or is this just something I project and make myself believe I do?” Genuine self-reflection allows us to be transparent and brutally honest with ourselves. You do not have to share these thoughts with anyone; all you have to do is reflect, acknowledge and be honestly aware of your beliefs, values, and outlook. Awareness is the first step to actively working on shifting your mindset and redefining culture in order to focus on being a more culturally responsive educator. |
Cherry-Anne GildharryOn this page, you will find blogs on educational connections and my life's experiences. Ideas, thoughts and views are my own and are not representative of my employers. References/sources used are public articles found on the internet to support my blogs. Archives
April 2024
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