Running head: EVALUATING CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS

Cultural Responsiveness How Are We Doing?

Virginia Reidy
2-20-16
Culture and Inclusion, Reflection #4
Alderson

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Taking all the readings and post discussions with my classmates, at present I would give my
classroom and school a grade B- for having a culturally responsive environment. There are
areas that I think we excel in and areas in need of improvement. Even without the benefit of
taking this class and having an awareness raised about best practices for promoting cultural
inclusiveness, I think our educators work to promote an inclusive learning environment. The
framework is already built, and with some adjustments, I think we would move closer to the goal.
In looking at my own classroom, I feel I have addressed students social and emotional needs by
having built a cohesive and trusting community among my students based on understanding and
acceptance of each individual. Most children are able to work successfully in teams, take
responsibility for the needs of the classroom as in being responsible for and careful with
materials, and discuss and solve problems openly. An area where I can improve and help the
children improve is in extending what we know about each individual to include their culture and
in curriculum content, what Garca refers to as cultural validation (p. 329). There is a general
lack of focus on the childrens backgrounds and lack of cultural sensitivity or awareness in the
materials. The readings have raised my awareness to these facts, and I can see more clearly what
needs to be done to move towards a more culturally sensitive classroom environment. In her
book, Other Peoples Children, Delpit explains that, If we are to successfully educate all of our
children, we must work to remove the blinders built of stereotypes monocultural instructional
methodologies, ignorance, social distance, biased research and racism (p. 182). My final project
for this class involving researching and buying books with multicultural qualities for my
classroom helps move me in the right direction.

School-wide, parent involvement is high. Parents volunteer in many capacities, and are
encouraged to participate in the governance of our school. In this regard, we are have done a
stellar job in bringing parents into the school. However, we have tried many communication

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routes with the parents including websites, e-mail and conferences to keep them abreast of their
childs learning progress. They always seem to crave more information and we (the staff) often
bemoan that it never seems to satisfy. The readings made me wonder if it isnt the amount or
methods of communication that are lacking, but the content of our communications. Perhaps it
isnt personal enough or closely linked enough to a parents own child. Delpit encourages
teachers to hear more from parents about their child to learn how to better work with them.
Maybe we are doing too much of the talking and not enough listening. An idea struck me from
the Garca book that I would like to propose to my colleagues. I imagine each child, K-8;
keeping a journal and making weekly entries about something they learned or tried throughout
the week. The journal entry would be in the form of a note to their parent(s), and the journal
would travel home on Fridays. The entry could be as simple as showing them a new math
strategy or telling about a book read or listened to. The idea is that it would connect the parents
to the child in a personal way and be a great way to start richer conversations. It would replace
the How was school today? question that so often gets a rather bland response, such as Fine.
If the journal writing process began in kindergarten, it would hopefully become a habitual and
revered practice. I wondered if it would be taking the idea too far to ask the parents to write
back?

Our schools framework is built to accommodate open discussions among staff and parents
regarding curriculum, assessment, and social and emotional components. We have a clear vision
and mission and enthusiastic teachers who continually reflect on their practice. There is a general
belief that we will strive to meet the needs of all children and that all children will learn and
progress. There are bright spots that indicate to me a focus on acceptance of all children, such as

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our Mosaic Project work, our work around gender issues, and our focus on children with learning
disabilities. For example, very other year the K-1 children attend a disability seminar in which
they are temporarily disabled in some way in order to experience the challenges that come with
the disability. This type of awareness-raising is the kind we should and must do regarding the
various cultures that exist in our school. We often invite families in to share a holiday tradition or
tell about their culture, but from what I have learned, that although this is a good idea, it is what
James Banks, in his article, Educating for Diversity - Transforming the Mainstream Curriculum,
calls additive in nature instead of transformative. We must go deeper.

I think our school believes we are more culturally inclusive than we are. Cris Cullinans article,
Vision, Privilege, and the Limits of Tolerance, opened my eyes to the fact that we must try harder
to understand the struggles of minority cultures, especially if we are operating from the
privileged vantage point, and to work to dispel the negative assumptions about minority people.
We definitely have children and families from various cultures who would benefit from an
acknowledgement and deeper understanding of their backgrounds and customs and broader view
of how education can be responsive and effective. We dont want our teachers to become
victims of their own naive and culture-bound conceptions, as Barbara Bowman warns in her
article, Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement.

In addition, our curriculum needs to be more reflective of the multi-cultural nation we live in and
reflective of our actual history. We need to examine our curriculum for diversity. In her article,
The Importance of Multicultural Education, Geneva Gay explains that, The lack of genuine
community of diversity is particularly evident in school curriculums that still do not regularly

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and systematically include important information and deep study curriculums that still do not
include important information and deep study about a wide range of diverse ethnic groups (Gay,
2003). In his article, Banks speaks to the revision of our history through multiple perspectives,
hearing from people who have not traditionally been included in the retelling of events. He
suggests the transformation approach (Banks, 1994), which changes the structure,
assumptions, and perspectives of the curriculum so that subject matter is viewed from the
perspectives and experiences of a range of groups (Banks, 1994).

We have a generally open and inclusive mindset at our school. We need to examine our attitudes,
assessments and curriculum when it comes to multiculturalism to ensure they reflect the student
body and the changing face of our nation. As California continues to diversify, shifts in these
areas will become imperative to meeting the needs of all students.

Sources:

Banks, J. A. (1994). Educating for Diversity, Transforming the Mainstream Curriculum,

Educational Leadership

Cullinan, C. (1999). Vision, privilege, and the limits of tolerance.

http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme

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Delpit, L. D. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New
Press.

Garca, E. E., & Garca, E. E. (1999). Student cultural diversity: Understanding and meeting the
challenge. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Gay, G. (2003). The importance of multicultural education. Educational Leadership

Historical Timeline of Public Education in the US. (2006). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from
https://www.raceforward.org/research/reports/historical-timeline-public-education-us