I am from a culturally diverse background, having been born and brought up in Mexico until I was 18. This experience speaking the languages of two different cultures and embodying both perspectives has given me the insight to help connect with students and parents in my school who have had similar experiences. However, insight alone isn't enough to create change. Students and parents encounter a lot of obstacles trying to fit in, while maintaining their own cultural values.
After reading Ladson Billings and Lisa Delpit for my principalship course, and then the readings for class this week, I am becoming more aware of the multiple layers that cultural understanding actually involves. As a future leader, creating a culturally responsive culture is important to me, and while I know that there is no “recipe” to follow to create this, I think a deeper understanding of other cultures will help students become more aware as citizens and will broaden their perspectives on life, regardless of what their ethnic background is. Some of the fundamental parts that I believe are needed to create an authentically inclusive school culture are:
a) Opening the dialogue about diversity within the school; reaching beyond discrimination laws and data on the unfavorable academic and personal outcomes of minority students. I would form teams of teachers to collaborate on the best ways to teach ethnically diverse students the skills needed to be successful in the power culture within the context of creative and critical thinking (Delpit, 2006).
b) Exploring the human resources within the community. I would involve teachers in projects to spend time inside the social and cultural networks where the children live. This would include arranging conversations between the parents, teachers and myself, about possible solutions addressing the needs the children have to honor their inherited culture and the knowledge emanating from it.
c) Empowering staff . In order to carry out this vision of a culturally responsive school, staff does need to be diversified, but above all, the school should include teachers that share an enthusiasm for working with minority students, regardless of their cultural background. I would use the statistics about ethnically diverse students and the disadvantages they face in the school system to motivate teachers to foster growth and change in all the students and to brainstorm ideas to tailor the instructional choices of the school to meet the needs of all students.
d) Focus on success stories. A focus on the success stories of teachers and leaders that have worked with minority groups, both known to only the community and in world-renown spokesmen.
e) Listening to the students: I would also emphasize the importance of listening to the student’s voices, letting them tell us who they are to a greater extent. The students that are not ethnically diverse will be enriched by this experience, continue to value and be proud of their own culture, but also feel comfortable probing into other students’ experiences as a way of knowing their world. Students would be encouraged to transition smoothly from the culture at school to the culture at home and vice-versa, without the agony or belief that they have to choose one or the other. For ethnically diverse students, this knowledge will empower them to stay true to the values of their culture while also becoming knowledgeable about the power structure of the majority in pursuit of academic excellence.
My ultimate goal for a culturally responsive school culture is one where all students celebrate that the connection to their own culture makes them a valuable part of the community, as well as qualified agents questioning their own realities.
After reading Ladson Billings and Lisa Delpit for my principalship course, and then the readings for class this week, I am becoming more aware of the multiple layers that cultural understanding actually involves. As a future leader, creating a culturally responsive culture is important to me, and while I know that there is no “recipe” to follow to create this, I think a deeper understanding of other cultures will help students become more aware as citizens and will broaden their perspectives on life, regardless of what their ethnic background is. Some of the fundamental parts that I believe are needed to create an authentically inclusive school culture are:
a) Opening the dialogue about diversity within the school; reaching beyond discrimination laws and data on the unfavorable academic and personal outcomes of minority students. I would form teams of teachers to collaborate on the best ways to teach ethnically diverse students the skills needed to be successful in the power culture within the context of creative and critical thinking (Delpit, 2006).
b) Exploring the human resources within the community. I would involve teachers in projects to spend time inside the social and cultural networks where the children live. This would include arranging conversations between the parents, teachers and myself, about possible solutions addressing the needs the children have to honor their inherited culture and the knowledge emanating from it.
c) Empowering staff . In order to carry out this vision of a culturally responsive school, staff does need to be diversified, but above all, the school should include teachers that share an enthusiasm for working with minority students, regardless of their cultural background. I would use the statistics about ethnically diverse students and the disadvantages they face in the school system to motivate teachers to foster growth and change in all the students and to brainstorm ideas to tailor the instructional choices of the school to meet the needs of all students.
d) Focus on success stories. A focus on the success stories of teachers and leaders that have worked with minority groups, both known to only the community and in world-renown spokesmen.
e) Listening to the students: I would also emphasize the importance of listening to the student’s voices, letting them tell us who they are to a greater extent. The students that are not ethnically diverse will be enriched by this experience, continue to value and be proud of their own culture, but also feel comfortable probing into other students’ experiences as a way of knowing their world. Students would be encouraged to transition smoothly from the culture at school to the culture at home and vice-versa, without the agony or belief that they have to choose one or the other. For ethnically diverse students, this knowledge will empower them to stay true to the values of their culture while also becoming knowledgeable about the power structure of the majority in pursuit of academic excellence.
My ultimate goal for a culturally responsive school culture is one where all students celebrate that the connection to their own culture makes them a valuable part of the community, as well as qualified agents questioning their own realities.
I like the ingredients to your “recipe” and specifically want to call particular attention to your fifth and last ingredient, “listening to students.” As part of my leadership project in my principal internship practicum, I have been conducting stakeholder focus groups to obtain feedback on a school program, and my student groups have been the most fruitful. Our students are our constituents. And what better way to understand their needs and whether or not we are meeting them than to ask? And then to listen—to really listen to their answers?
ReplyDeleteBefore we as leaders can make any determination as to cultural responsiveness or relevance in the curriculum and how best to achieve that, true respect for cultural needs and differences begs understanding first. I am convinced that the way to incorporate relevant content and to enlist families in providing it, we must first ask and learn for ourselves what they—the students and families at large—need in their school and in their school’s leadership.
To learn the ways in which the program I am studying is and is not working—so long an illusive enigma to the leadership—all I had to do was ask. Teachers, parents, and kids were all too happy to answer thoughtfully and articulately and all too happy and shocked (unfortunately) to have been asked at all.
Excellent Blog this week. Very well thoughtout and executed. I liked the recipe anti-metaphor. I would like to ask your opinion on the melting pot vs. stew debate. It seems more and more when discussing minority students and different cultural we talk about respecting and celebrating those culturals and not assimilation (melting pot). We are blending into one new American cultural that borrows a little for each but are becoming a stew of very diversely spread cultural elements all living next to each other but vastly different. It sounded in your blog that you describe the parents and students in your school working towards the melting pot while you are working to create a stew. Do you see them as different? If so which is preferable and why?
ReplyDeleteThis multi-layered approach to developing a more culturally responsive school, provides great opportunity for growth. While many of these parts may appear small in change individually, collectively they challenge a learning community to implement a greater support and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAs a leader we must focus on the organizational structure of the learning community and support members' learning and growth through discourse and training (a, c, d). We also need to focus on truly knowing WHO our community is (b, d, e)! As we learn our community we develop a point of reference which is where our teaching and learning together begins!
I think coming to the realization that there is not straight cut way to go about this is very important to recognize and admit. It is not going to be the same for each school and what needs to happen is that like in so many areas of education, you tweak it to fit in with the makeup of your school. No one size fits all, but jumpstarts that can then grow into sustainable practices.
ReplyDeleteI think your approach sounds great for a number of reasons:
ReplyDelete1. You are personally connected and want others to share out their own personal connections
2. it involves creating teaming structures that value diversity
3. Values both the staff and students to take ownership of the school community and share their own personal stories
4. your approach is not surface but shows that you really have reflectively thought about this and your ideas definitely reflect diversity and culturally responsive schooling as one of your values.