Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EDUCATION 1
Transforming Education
Making Change Through Discourse, Critical Thinking and
Multicultural Inclusion
Lukas P. Stanley
Western Michigan University
TRANSFORMING
EDUCATION
2
In Mary Cowheys book, Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and
Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades, she writes anecdotally about her
experiences teaching first and second grade in Massachusetts. Throughout the book, she
provides examples of how she facilitates some extremely insightful and meaningful
environmental concerns to local politics (Cowhey); topics that most early elementary
teachers would never dare tackle head on in the classroom. These ideas point towards a
larger shift in educational mindset, beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the
present. This shift is concerned with multiculturalism in the classroom, and the various
pedagogical strategies by which teachers can create a truly multicultural environment for
their students. To define the phrase multicultural with regards to the classroom, let me
begin by splitting the word into its components: multi and culture. Multi refers to
more than one and culture refers to a group of people with a homogeneous set of
customs, beliefs, and social structures. Language, and subsets of language are another
particularly important part of culture, as they are, a shared way of speaking and thinking
about the world can lead to a sense of belonging to a particular group. In culturally
diverse classrooms it is important to consider how we often use language in ways that
don't make sense unless you are an 'insider' (Budd). When there are multiple cultures
knowledge about the other set of customs, beliefs and social structures, or else there is an
unwillingness to recognize the value of a culture other than ones own. However, in an
increasingly globalized world, and especially within a country as diverse as the United
country. It is of particular, utmost importance that students learn from the very beginning
of their educations to value and understand cultures other than their own for the sake of
unity, collaboration, and peace. With this in mind, I will explore how teachers, at any
consider this passage by Milner (2011): Culturally relevant pedagogy allows students
to see their culture in the curriculum and instruction. Historically, teaching has been a
one-way street, in which the teacher has knowledge, imparts it unto the students, and
assesses them on their retention. In this model of education, the culture of the students is
irrelevant, because the mode of learning is passive and non-participatory only the
teachers cultural background or training factors into the classroom environment. Milner
proposes that a shift in this paradigm begins when students develop a critical
consciousness and that they move beyond spaces where they simply or solely consume
knowledge without critically examining it. The idea is for teachers to create learning
environments where students develop a voice and perspective and are allowed to
participate (more fully) in the multiple discourses available in a learning context by not
only consuming information but also through helping to deconstruct and to construct it.
What Milner is proposing here corroborates the suggested model for culturally relevant
teaching that Cowhey also employs. This model is one in which the students and their
cultures and ethnicities are present and validated (Milner). Previous decades have seen
some movement in the right direction, with the acknowledgement of the importance of
conflict-ridden history. Society began trying to right past injustices with things like
Martin Luther King Junior Day, and Black History Month, but in many ways, this is just
a Band-Aid (Miller). All that tolerance does is say, Ill acknowledge the existence of
your culture for one day, or one month out of the year. This is a Band-Aid in the sense
that a day or a month is certainly better than nothing, but it isnt an equalizer. It might
even simply cover injuries when what they really need is further attention or a
metaphorical skin graft that will seamlessly repair a wound that is too large to cover with
a few Band-Aids. This is the goal of multicultural classrooms. Without teaching in a way
that truly represents all of the students in a classroom, cultural equity cannot progress.
writing that diversity within a classroom is not just necessary for teaching cultural
necessary for the highest level of learning to occur. These three authors were writing
from the perspective of three foreign teaching assistants in a United States university.
They likened the diversity of the classrooms they taught in to the Italian Renaissance, a
time of flourishing ideas that resulted from the discussions born of cultural intersection. It
was during such cultural collision that some of the best art in history was made, and that
some of the best ideas were thought of because in the absence of cultural uniformity, new
discuss now the means by which this can be accomplished. Not to be immediately
relevant pedagogy (Milner). Teachers must be mindful of their students and cater to their
needs, both academically and socially (Milner). Reading the sorts of anecdotes that
authors like Mary Cowhey write should inspire effective teaching, but cannot necessarily
be copied and pasted into any classroom for maximum success. For example, she relays a
time when she simply prompts a student to write about how they really feel about
anything. The short story this prompt elicited was about how the student was excited and
nervous to begin Little League, and hoped that she was not the only African American
girl on the team. This story prompted a whole class discussion on the intersections of
multiple identities: race, ethnicity, and religion, about melanin, confidence, and differing
abilities (Cowhey). There would be no way to plan exactly for that moment, but what a
teacher can do is facilitate their classroom with a mindset that permits and encourages
these moments to happen. This all hints at a much greater contributing factor that many
discussion. Honest discourse about difficult subjects, like those described by Cowhey.
The way that topics regarding culture are approached or not approached by a
teacher can have the biggest impact on the effectiveness of equally reaching all the
students is a culturally diverse classroom. This kind of discourse can occur at any age
level, but will look different across varying age groups. For example, starting at a young
age, through carefully selected picture books, children's social conscience and empathy
for others can be gradually awakened or developed by narratives that explore social
issues and human relationships (Budd). One study, carried out in New Zealand, used
identities, as they underwent a process of sharing personal stories and reflecting and
journaling about the stories of their classmates. Story telling proved to be very effective
at drawing connections across ethnic divides students realized how much they had in
common and could relate to one another (Baskerville). It is equally important, according
to this study, that the students feel a personal connection to their teacher. Baskerville
teachers have a significant role when creating a safe, culturally inclusive learning
environment. In this instance, that also included the teachers humanizing themselves to
the students by vulnerably sharing about their own lives. This in turn helped the students
to open up more about the cultures that they existed within, and generated a larger
ways as possible should be found to integrate elements of the students culture into the
curriculum. As mentioned before, students will feel culturally invalidated if they dont
see themselves represented there. Milner says, educators who create culturally relevant
learning contexts are those who see students culture as an asset, not a detriment to their
success. Teachers actually use student culture in their curriculum planning and
implementation This sounds simple enough, but in practice there is a lot standing
between actual teaching practice and ideal teaching practice. In my opinion, this is likely
because when student culture is divorced from either the teachers current culture, or their
own conceptions of what education should look like, there is a conflict between how the
teacher perceives they should deliver content and the most effective and meaningful way
TRANSFORMING
EDUCATION
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to do so. Another possibility is that it is inconvenient for the teacher to reimagine old
multicultural elements, and therefore they choose not to. These are barriers that can be
overcome through diligence on the part of teachers who, like Mary Cowhey, have the
best interest of the students in mind and continually advocate for them.
Despite somewhat slow historical trends towards cultural equity and acceptance in
landscape of not just our country, but of the global community, can be transformed into
Resources
10.1016/j.tate.2010.07.007
Budd, Y. (2016). Using culturally diverse picture books in the classroom: Exploring
http://go.galegroup.com.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u
=lom_wmichu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA458564972&asid=df3edd73f386a4
06a9bc4ed22bae7671
Cowhey, M. (2006). Black ants and Buddhists: Thinking critically and teaching
Miller, H. M. (1997). Teaching and learning about cultural diversity. The Reading
library.wmich.edu/stable/20201896
Schwieger, F., Gros, E. & Barberan, L. (2010) Lessons from the culturally diverse
doi: 10.1080/87567555.2010.484033