Bethany Crocker

EPS 512
August 12, 2013
Final Paper

I have hope that I can be a culturally responsive teacher at an AUSL school after
participating in class discussions, reading articles, watching video clips, and hearing
from parents of students an AUSL school. My participation in this course, other courses
at National Louis University and other experiences I have had before I started my
residency, have informed my understanding of what makes a culturally responsive
educator.
I thought I had a great understanding of what it means to be culturally relevant
before I took this class. I took courses to obtain an English language learner certificate
on multicultural education, I lived abroad for three years in Seoul, South Korea, and I
spent all four of my college years volunteering with refugees from around the world.
However, I was reminded this month that being a culturally responsive teacher is not
just something you learn about and therefore, can do. It takes time to get to know
students and their cultural backgrounds. It takes humbling yourself in a way that makes
you vulnerable. Being a culturally responsive teacher will look different every year of my
practice, because every school year I will have a new group of students with their own
identities and cultures.
However, there are key principles I will apply to each classroom. It is important to
know and respect my students cultural heritages, as well as teach them to know and
praise their culture. I cannot be content with a surface level understanding of my
students culture. I need to work to educate myself and work hard to get to know my
students so that I better understand them, and therefore, better teach them. I need to
make a conscious effort to use books and resources from a multitude of cultures, and
make sure the content in my lessons celebrate my students culture as well as inform
them of others. I need to spend time talking with community members and know the
neighborhood so that I can use this knowledge when instructing students.
I found the article One White Teachers Struggle for Culturally Relevant
Pedagogy: The Problem of the Community by Nora E. Hyland to be very memorable
and influential. I was interested in reading this article because as a white teacher who
will teaching in a school with a predominantly black student population, it is important for
me to learn about other teachers attempts to be culturally relevant. After reading this
article, I was discouraged by this teachers lack of passion for actually developing
relationships with her students families, as well as her claim that it was asking too much
of her to go beyond her classroom when becoming a culturally responsive teacher. As
much as she claimed to want to be effective, she did not fully understand what it meant
to go that extra mile and go beyond her comfort zone to develop relationships with
students. This article reminds me of the struggles that I will face when relating to
cultures that are not my own, however, I hope to not make excuses or take easy ways
out when reflecting on my relationships with students and parents, as I feel the teacher
in this article did (Hyland, 2009).
From personal experience, I know that each year in South Korea made me a
better teacher for my students because I had a greater understanding of their culture
and language. It will take time to develop fantastic culturally relevant practices, and as
we have discussed in class, there will never be a time when we stop learning about our
students cultures. We will never be experts on our students experiences and culture.
Only they can be experts of their own experiences. We must because learners and
empower students to take ownership of their own experiences and to be proud of their
families and ethnic heritages.
Vajra Watson, in her book Learning to Liberate: Community-Based Solutions to
the Crisis in Urban Education, explains that Equity starts with autobiography (Watson,
2012, p. 164). She emphasizes the importance of educators to be self aware and to
reflect on ones beliefs and reasons for teaching. As I think about my identity as a white
woman who grew up in a large, Christian family in a working class neighborhood in
Rockford, IL, about my interpersonal intelligence and my leaning toward an abstract
random personality, I think about what challenges I will face relating to my students. I
think about what I need to work on to effectively manage my class and develop personal
relationships with my students. Watson states, Good teaching demands introspection,
personal critique, and vulnerability (Watson, 2012, p. 164). I believe wholeheartedly in
this sentiment.
As I seek to create a classroom environment that celebrates the multiple
intelligences represented in my classroom, as well as emphasizes cultural awareness, I
hope to use a variety of instructional strategies that allow all of my students to engage in
the lessons. I am excited to use music in my classroom, as well as activities that get
students up and moving around. In a kindergarten classroom, this will have to be very
well managed, but I believe it is essential for the academic success of young children.
In the article, Culturally Responsive Instruction: Promoting Literacy in Secondary
Content Areas by Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt, Schmidt names seven characteristics for
culturally responsive teaching. Although this article was geared to secondary educators,
I took a lot away from it as a primary teacher. The seven characteristics are high
expectations; positive relationships with families and community; cultural sensitivity-
reshaped curriculum, mediated for culturally valued knowledge; active teaching
methods; teacher as facilitator; student control of portions of the lesson; and instruction
around groups and pairs (Schmidt, 2005, p. 1). I was encouraged by the specific
examples in this article of teachers changing their curriculum to meet the needs of their
students cultures. I must also reflect upon the fact that being culturally responsive does
not always mean teaching about a culture. It is also evident in practices such as
bottoms up, heads together , think, pair, share and call and response. There are so
many different aspects of culturally responsive teaching to consider. Is is important that
I remember to be aware of the multifaceted and complex nature of culturally relevant
pedagogy.
I am excited to have the chance to grow as a resident teacher in a kindergarten
class at Deneen School of Excellence, in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of
Chicago. I know that I will be critiqued and stretched. I will be required to self reflect on
what is working and what I need to improve upon. I am ecstatic to learn from
experienced teachers and to put myself in a challenging, new situation. I know it will be
hard, but I think that this experience is exactly what I need to jumpstart my career as a
teacher in an urban environment. I have the privilege of working on my teaching craft
and becoming a culturally responsive teacher, with mentors who are assigned to help
me improve. I know this is something not many new teachers get to experience, and I
do not want to take it for granted.

Bibliography
Hyland, N. (2009). One White Teachers Struggle for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: The
Problem of the Community, The New Educator. 5.95-112.
Schmidt, P. (2005). Culturally Responsive Instruction: Promoting Literacy in Secondary
Content Areas. Learning Point Associates. 1-30.
Watson, V. (2012). Learning to Liberate: Community-Based Solutions to the Crisis in
Urban Education. New York, NY.