CULTURAL INTEGRATION
Culturally relevant or responsive teaching is a pedagogy grounded in teachers' displaying cultural competence:
skill at teaching in a cross-cultural or multicultural setting. Teachers
using this method encourage each student to relate course content to his or her
cultural context.
While the term often deals specifically with instruction
of African American students in the United States, it has been proven to
be an effective form of pedagogy for students of all racial and ethnic
backgrounds. For instance, in Canada, research reflects the need to bridge the
gap between traditional Aboriginal education and Western education systems by
including spirituality in Aboriginal educational practices. By making education
culturally relevant, it is thought to improve academic
achievement. Although the majority of this practice is undertaken in a
primary or secondary school setting, Baumgartner and Johnson-Bailey (2008),
have experienced the implementation and discussions of culturally relevant
teaching within a higher education environment.
CHARACTERISTICS
·
Validating and Affirming: Culturally responsive teaching is validating and affirming
because it acknowledges the strengths of students’ diverse heritages
·
Comprehensive: Culturally responsive teaching is comprehensive because it
uses "cultural resources to teach knowledge, skills, values, and
attitudes.
·
Multidimensional: Culturally responsive teaching encompasses many areas and
applies multicultural theory to the classroom environment, teaching methods,
and evaluation.
·
Liberating: Culturally responsive teachers liberate students.
·
Empowering: Culturally responsive teaching empower students, giving them
opportunities to excel in the classroom and beyond. "Empowerment
translates into academic competence, personal confidence, courage, and the will
to act."
·
Transformative: Culturally responsive teaching is transformative because
educators and their students must often defy educational traditions and the
status quo.
PRINCIPLES
·
Identity Development: Good teaching comes from those who are true to their identity
(including genetic, socioeconomic, educational and cultural influences) and
integrity (self-acceptance). Teachers who are comfortable with themselves and
teach within their identity and integrity are able to make student connections
and bring subjects alive. It is critical for the student-teacher
connection when implementing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.
·
Equity and Excellence: Within this principle the following concepts are addressed:
"dispositions, incorporation of multicultural curriculum content, equal
access, and high expectations." The integration of excellence and equity
in CRP is predicated upon establishing a curriculum that is inclusive of
students cultural experiences, and setting high expectations for the students
to reach.
·
Developmental Appropriateness: Several concepts collectively define Developmental
Appropriateness within the context of CRP. These concepts include,
"...learning styles, teaching styles, and cultural variation in
psychological needs (motivation, morale, engagement, collaboration)." The
goal is to assess students cognitive development progress and incorporate
learning activities within the lesson plan that are challenging and culturally
relevant.
·
Teaching the Whole Child: Similar to 'Developmental Appropriateness', 'Teaching the
Whole Child' is a theme that includes the concepts of "skill development
in a cultural context, home-school-community collaboration, learning outcomes,
supportive learning community and empowerment. When teaching a child
wholly, educators must be cognizant of the socio-cultural influences that have
attributed to the learning progress of that child even before they enter the
classroom. These outside influences must naturally be accounted for when
designing a culturally relevant curriculum.
·
Student Teacher Relationships: The theme of Student-Teacher Relationship within the context
of CRP aligns itself closely with the concepts of "caring, relationships,
interaction, and classroom atmosphere." Educators must combine the
willingness to bond with their students with the desire to grow that
relationship into one vested in personal care and professional vigilance.
Students must feel that the teacher has their best interest at heart to succeed
in implementing CRP.
·
Manage Student Emotions: When teaching adult learners it is also important to exhibit
Culturally Relevant Pedagogies. Educators must be prepared to manage students
that may have strong emotional experiences to culturally diverse
readings Positive emotions may enhance the learning experience, whereas
negative emotions may cause discourse and prevent students from
engaging Educators should explore strong emotions, particularly in adult
learners, and use it as a cultural teachable moment.
CHALLENGES
Not all educators favor culturally relevant teaching.
Indeed, there are many practical challenges to implementing culturally relevant
pedagogy including a lack of enforcement of culturally relevant teaching
methods, and the tendency to view students as individual units only, rather
than seeing them as linked inseparably with their cultural groups. In
culturally relevant pedagogy, new teachers must be taught how to adapt their
curriculum, methodology, teaching methods, and instructional materials to
connect with students’ values and cultural norms. Therefore, another challenge
for educators is to prepare reflective practitioners who can connect with
diverse students and their families. Even though some schools of education
acknowledge credibility in training culturally relevant educators, many wrestle
with how fit such training into their program and "grudgingly add a
diversity course to their curriculum."One contributor to this reluctance
comes from the education professors’ discomfort with or fear of addressing
issues such as racism in their courses."The student population of
America's classrooms has changed. Currently, 43% of students in our nation's
schools come from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Latinos account
for 20% of the school population and Blacks 17%. Nationally, white students now
represent 57% of public school enrollment, down from 61% in the 1993-94 school years.
Given these demographics, Kenneth
Fasching-Varner and
Vanessa Dodo-Seriki have suggested that disconnects in teacher and student
identity lead to "Free and Reduced Pedagogy," or a non-student first
approach that reduces students to cultural differences, discrediting students
based on their identities and differences in identities between teachers and
students.] In the largest school districts, half or more of the
students are non-white. Demographic projections predict that cultural and
ethnic diversity will increase. Students of color will become the majority in
the United States by 2023.
CONCLUSION
The modern science, engineering and technology are
based on Information and Communication Technology. ICT is a developmental tool
and this technology can be helpful in meeting the governance, employment,
education, health and commercial needs of the nation. To integrate ICT into the
curriculum, institutions should provide suitable support to the teachers in
terms of finance, infrastructure and e-resources. The success of ICT in rural
areas will require many changes to the current landscapes, for example
increased availability of education, training, infrastructure, and affordable
ICT capital.
REFERENCE
International Journal of Computer
& Mathematical Sciences IJCMS ISSN 2347 – 8527 ,
Priyanka Patel, Nehal Patel., Volume 6, Issue 5 May 2017
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http://www.ksbe.edu/_assets/spi/pdfs/21_century_skills_full.pdf
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