Best Practices: School Culture Leadership (May 2007)

by Gretchen Lukas, teacher Little Canada Elementary School, Roseville Area Schools

I will never forget my first day of teaching at Little Canada. Our Title 1 students hurried into my classroom and I was overwhelmed to see so many diverse faces smiling back at me. I did not feel at all prepared to teach students that came from such a variety of cultures. Was I prepared to work with students who were different from me?

I grew up in a town where all my friends and classmates looked like me. I spent my first three years of teaching in a small town where 95 percent of my students were white. It can be frightening to look at ourselves and reflect on how we feel or think about the students in our classrooms who are not like us. This realization led me to the next two questions.

1) How can we shape teachers to create Culturally Responsive classrooms in our schools?

2) How does being Culturally Responsive affect our instruction?

In February 2007, I attended the Minnesota Educators for the Gifted and Talented, conference. One of the keynote speakers was Dr. Donna Ford, on the topic of Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms -- exactly what I had been looking for to answer my questions! Her presentation prompted me to further study this topic that I have become so passionate about.

“Culturally Responsive teaching can be defined as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2000). Teachers need to work toward being Culturally Responsive. We must embrace three ideas to help us grow in this area. First, expand our knowledge of all of the cultures in our schools, being careful not to stereotype or label students too quickly. Ford says, “The less we know about each other, the more we make up.” Next, dig into our own beliefs and values to become self-aware and be able to seek change in their own lives. Finally, participate in discussions focusing on topics around Cultural Diversity that allow us to grow together to become more Culturally Responsive.

One of the successful Culturally Responsive teaching programs is in San Diego called AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination. Staff at AVID found that achievement is much higher when the following principles are in place: personal caring, mutual aid and assistance, use of cultural anchors and mediators in instruction, and creating a sense of community among students and teachers (Mehan, Hubbard, Villanueva, & Lintz, 1996; Swanson, Mehan, & Hubbard, 1995). It seems that teachers already do many of these things and perhaps need only to sharpen their skills in one or two areas.

We must know our students when we are planning our instruction. I never plan a vacation knowing where I am going, but not having a clue how I am going to get there. We must know our students and where they come from! In order for them to be successful down the road, we must understand what help they need along the road to get them there. For us to be able to truly see life from the students’ perspective and experiences, we must allow them to share their stories with us. We should look into the windows of their lives and see them in a whole new way. Only then can we sit down to plan our lessons.

But even then we must use a variety of instructional strategies and provide them with choices that fit their learning styles. I once read that, “The body is the hardware; culture is the software” (Hofstede). We have to know the software to figure out how to run the program and use it effectively. We must start to learn more about our students by having high expectations for all; by planning, establishing classroom communities that are caring and full of culture; by using curriculum and instruction that is rich in its representation of who our students are; and by allowing students to have pride and dignity in who they are (to quote a few ideas from Donna Ford’s presentation).

I strongly believe that as we move toward establishing Culturally Responsive teachers, we will begin to shorten the achievement gap. We all must be willing to look at ourselves, help each other grow culturally, and work to seek change together. In closing, I’d like to share a chant that a school in Seattle uses to start every day in a Culturally Responsive way with their students:

I am a winner of excellence in every way. What I can think, I can write, I can read, and I can say. I will always say “yes” to right. I will say “no” to wrong. With all others, I will try to get along. Respect I’ll give -- respect I’ll earn. I know that I came to school to learn. There are some things no one can take from me: my pride, my self-discipline, my awesome dignity. And so I will do my best to excel in every way, for I am a winner of excellence today…and always!