Culturally Based Teaching: A Model for Student Success
CHSE was joined by an expert panel who discussed culturally based teaching practices as a methodology for closing the achievement gap between students of color and white students in America’s public high schools.
Wednesday, June 25, 20089:30 – 11:00 a.m.
430 Dirksen Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC
Over eighty educators, policymakers, and stakeholders involved in the education of culturally diverse students gathered June 25 on Capitol Hill to discuss culturally based teaching practices as a methodology for closing the achievement gap between students of color and white students in America’s public schools. The event was hosted by the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a coalition of national organizations representing communities of color that believe high schools must have the capacity and motivation to prepare every student for graduation, college, work, and life.
Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), opened the event asserting that education was the key to democracy and that we owe our students the “best possible teaching.” Echoing this statement, Michael Wotorson, CHSE executive director and Alliance for Excellent Education director of community partnerships , explained that CHSE’s mission was not only to promote civil rights through education, but also to “protect the future of this country.”
Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, president of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), defined the concept of culturally based teaching, calling it a form of pedagogy that recognizes and integrates students’ cultural traditions, values, and history, incorporating teaching strategies harmonious with these so as not only to preserve students’ cultural knowledge, but to also foster their successful academic achievement.
Gilbert argues that culturally based teaching is not a one-time project, but an ongoing need, and that teachers can affirm students’ cultural strengths whether they are natives of the culture or not. He also stated that federal policy must hold education agencies accountable for meeting students’ culturally based education needs, as well as support high-quality research on the subject, as dropout rates indicate that “our country is in a national crisis [and] minority students are impacted to a greater degree.”
Sheryl Denbo, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center (MAEC), stated that the value of, and increasing need for, culturally based teaching is a “no-brainer.” This is n ot only because America’s teaching faculty has grown increasingly homogenous, with most teachers being white, middle-class females, whereas the student population has grown increasingly heterogeneous; but that the need for culturally based teaching is demonstrated by the large percent of minority students underachieving and falling ever more behind with each year they stay in school while the economy is demanding increasingly higher-level skills for the American workforce.
Denbo asserted that all teaching and learning takes place in the context of a world view, with its own language, values, learning styles, and cultural frames of reference, and that a teacher must “meet students where they are” in terms of the world view they bring into the classroom. This, Denbo explained, is because it’s impossible to reach students’ cognitive domain without entering through their affective domain – that is, without first attending to the feelings of self-worth students must experience in the classroom before learning can transpire. As such, effective teachers teach students the “hidden curriculum,” including the ability to adapt one’s social behaviors to various social contexts, as well as the ability to advocate for one’s own learning through metacognitive understanding of one’s strengths, needs, and learning style. The existing model of providing underachieving students with supplemental services has not worked, Denbo asserted, because these services have little to do with the teaching that goes on during the school day.
Rushern Baker III, executive director of the Community Teachers Institute (CTI), explained the work that must be done to promote culturally based teaching from CTI’s perspective, that the greatest impact on students’ lives occurs at the classroom level. CTI hosts yearly summer institutes where the objective is to form cohorts of teachers from across the country who will carry the message of culturally based teaching back to their local schools and for them to remain in contact in order to share effective culturally based teaching strategies. CTI also works to increase the representation of communities of color in the teaching workforce. Baker acknowledged that one challenge to promoting culturally based teaching is the debate over whether it is possible to train someone to be culturally competent, or whether people simply do, or do not, come that way.
Luis Vázquez, associate dean of New Mexico State University’s graduate school, commented on what he calls “the heat,” the academic trauma that occurs when culturally diverse communities become alienated by the education system. Vázquez, who has conducted research on the phenomenon among Hispanic communities, explained that “the heat” often passes on from one generation to the next through attitudes about the value of education.
“We need to heal,” he said, especially due to the growing prospect of a “majority-minority” American society. Vázquez went on to describe the successful programmatic application of culturally based teaching strategies through the Engaging Latino Communities in Education (ENLACE) Kellogg project, such as the introduction of parent outreach ambassadors, which significantly increased the program’s retention rate. As principal investigator for the project he learned of the radical mismatch been the sensory learning styles of the program’s students, and the oral and visual teaching styles of their former teachers, leading him to assert that students “have to not feel like they are guests in someone else’s house” when they are in the classroom.
Panelists were asked about the role of research and university teacher preparation programs in culturally based teaching. Baker replied that effective culturally based teaching programs must be studied over the long term, as Denbo offered that accreditation agencies should require universities to teach culturally based education, and that more research on the impact of culturally based teaching on African American students is needed.
“We’re not asking for something for just Latino students, for just African American students, or for just working-class students. [Culturally based teaching] is for everyone,” Denbo concluded.
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AGENDA
I. Welcome and Opening Remarks
Michael Wotorson, Executive Director, Campaign for High School Equity
II. Additional remarks
Arturo Vargas, Executive Director, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
III. Impact of Culturally Based Teaching on Student Academic and Social Development
Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, PhD, President, National Indian Education Association
IV. How Culturally Based Teaching is Implemented in Classrooms
Sheryl Denbo, PhD, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Equity Center
V. Preparing Culturally Competent Teachers
Rushern Baker III, Executive Director, Community Teachers Institute
VI. A Research-based and Programmatic Application to Culturally Based Instruction
Luis A. Vázquez, PhD, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, New Mexico State University
VII. Questions and Answer Session
VIII. Closing Remarks
Michael Wotorson, Executive Director, Campaign for High School Equity
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