CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION:
TOPICAL EXPLORATION
How can a child grow into an adult and never learn anything positive and affirming about anybody that resembles who they are during the course of their K-12 education? How can other children grow into compassionate and well-rounded adults and only learn about the race and culture to which they belong, never being exposed to the impact of other races and cultures that have shaped the world in which they currently live? Children need to be taught how to value themselves and others that they encounter in the world. Teachers play a significant role in cultivating their students’ images of themselves while educating them. If teachers paint a certain race and culture in a negative light, those students who identify with that race and culture will ultimately garner some negative feelings about who they are and will possibly become in the world. Moreover, if teachers convey positive images of various diverse races and cultures, students will incorporate these positive feelings into who they are and desire to be in the world. How can this positive racial identity boost occur in classrooms if teachers teach out of books and lesson plans that solely promote and illustrate the superiority of one dominant race over all others? Those students belonging to that dominant race will feel empowered and those students who do not belong will feel disengaged and inferior. Imagine being a student, graduating from the twelfth grade, who was never taught by any teacher who celebrated and promoted positive images that supported your racial and cultural identity. Imagine being that same student and every textbook you ever read told stories of an unfamiliar race and culture with which you could not identify. Instead, you sat in numerous classrooms being taught by indifferent teachers reading from the same curriculum script where none of the content highlighted the race, ethnicity, or culture with which you identify. Imagine that at best you may have read about people who resemble you and your family during one month of the year only to be retaught the dismal, degrading, and dehumanizing history that further served to empower the dominant race that is glorified the other eleven months of the year in the curriculum. Just imagine that this student is you or a younger person whom you love who is sitting in a K-12 classroom today. Do you feel that any small change to the curriculum to diversify it and create opportunities for you or your loved one to better to connect with the lessons would be beneficial? Surely, adding real-world examples and cultural text that highlight familiar issues that you have already been exposed to could aid in your understanding of more complex academic content.
Culturally Relevant Teaching seeks to change how curriculum is created and taught in order to connect to other cultures; not just a dominant one that has consumed educational standards for centuries. Gloria Ladson-Billings, around 1992, began cultivating this idea of culturally relevant pedagogy and defined it as “an approach that serves to empower students to the point where they will be able to examine critically educational content and process and ask what its role is in creating a truly democratic and multicultural society. It uses the students’ culture to help them create meaning and understand the world. Thus, not only academic success, but also social and cultural success is emphasized.” (pg. 379) Henceforth, the focus of this topical exploration will center on ascertaining current trends in research on the use of culturally relevant pedagogy in K-12 classrooms with a finite focus on its use in science classrooms. I will review six journal articles regarding the subject. All the articles will examine its use or lack of application in recent K-12 science classrooms and three specifically discuss the results acquired from the direct implementation of culturally relevant teaching practices.
The use of culturally relevant pedagogy in the classrooms studied revealed some positive current trends in the research. Students could better understand and retain scientific concepts from text when topics were connected to their familiar neighborhood and home environments. Teachers who used culturally relevant teaching strategies found greater success for retention of scientific topics with their culturally diverse students. Students also reported increased affinity towards the curriculum being taught due to experiencing more cultural congruency with the subject and required reading. Students and teachers, whose cultures were not the primary focus of the culturally relevant pedagogy, also expressed that they gained from deepening their understanding of another culture. This deeper understanding led to personal self-discovery for these teachers and students. Enrichment from experiencing another’s culture is evident in the practitioner resources that will also be explored. The TEDtalk, “Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” Geneva Gay gives great insight to the gains for students when these teaching practices are utilized. Consequently, the HBO documentary, Class Divide, was a great depiction of how ignoring the stark reality of inequality in education and the cultures of others can serve to darken the grandest of educational curriculum upgrades. Amidst the darkness, one student, Yasemin, shines a light on the subject of class division in American education using 115 Steps in a visually poetic attempt to close the cultural divide.
Scholarly Literature Review
Parsons, E., Travis, C., & Smith Simpson, J. (2005). The Black Cultural Ethos, Students’ Instructional Context Preferences, and Student Achievement: An Examination of Culturally Congruent Science Instruction in the Eighth Grade Classes of One African American and One Euro-American Teacher. The Negro Educational Review 56(2&3), 183-204
Black Cultural Ethos, according to Parsons, Travis, & Smith Simpson (2005), is a theory derived from West African traditions, values, and beliefs that seeks to describe how Black people make meaning out of the world around them. This study seeks to highlight the issue regarding the achievement gap with respect to science education and African-American students. The authors analyzed this achievement disparity in a section titled, “Overview of the Achievement Problem.” Statistics from the 2000 United States Census was used by the National Center of Educational Statistics (NCES) along with seven different quantitative studies to clearly paint a picture of the dismal achievement gap that persists for African-American students on all educational levels. A stunning fact about African-American students was revealed by their research that stated that “achievement differences do not vary with respect to economic status: disparities across lower, middle, and upper income levels” (Parsons, et. al., pg. 184). The “Underachievement of African-Americans in Science” was a subsection of this overview and clearly identified another layer to the problem. African-American students lag in being successful with respect to acquiring scientific concepts of national standards. This data directly correlates to African-American students being literate with respect to acquiring scientific concepts, definitions, and key terminology. The authors point out the fact that this disparity in science achievement for African-American students also directly correlates to the lack of African-Americans pursuing science-related degrees and careers. “If successful strategies are not implemented to alleviate the disparities in achievement and to adequately educate African-Americans in science, a significant percentage of the U.S. population will be unable to productively contribute to an increasingly technological workforce.” (Parsons, et. al., pg. 186)
Research was designed to test for the effects that incorporating BCE into the science curriculum would have on a randomly selected group of 8th grade African-American and Euro-American students in one particular school. Two teachers were expressly reviewed, one “Euro-American female teacher” and one “African-American female teacher.” Each teacher was asked to teach a science section either on force or electricity in their normal style of teaching for five days. The teachers were then given an “intervention,” where they were taught a mini-lesson on incorporating BCE into their lesson plans. Each teacher was asked to teach the other lesson, either electricity or force, but to use the BCE-incorporated lesson plans instead of their normal plans. Their students were tested on their comprehension of the concepts as well as surveyed about their preferences for the manner in which they were taught the concepts. In summary, the results showed that BCE congruent instruction not only benefitted African-American students but was preferred by them and the Euro-American students also reported that they preferred the BCE instruction versus their teacher’s normal pedagogy as well.
Stern, M., Powell, R., & Ardoin, N. (2011). Evaluating a Constructivist and Culturally Responsive Approach to Environmental Education for Diverse Audiences. The Journal of Environmental Education 42(2), 109-122
The NorthBay Adventure Center offers a five-day residential environmental education program to urban and non-urban middle schoolers that seeks to build character and build positive attitudes toward school through environmental education and character and leadership development. The authors of this article wanted to present a study where short-term and long-term effects of a culturally responsive approach to teaching environmental education in an environment apart from where the students live and attend school aids in improving student outcomes upon return to school. “NorthBay approaches EE (environmental education) from a perspective that seeks to improve students’ attitudes and behaviors regarding: environmental responsibility; character development and leadership; and attitudes toward school.” (Stern, M., Powell, R., & Ardoin, N., pgs. 111-112) Data was collected over the course of two school years, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. Students were given pre-experience surveys, post-experience surveys, and a three-month follow-up survey conducted at their schools. Data was collected from over 7,000 urban/non-urban students from the Maryland area who attended the NorthBay Adventure Center in groups ranging from 50 to 350 students.
The study produced some positive results. In general, all of the students expressed a “high level of satisfaction” with the NorthBay Adventure program. This was evident from the survey statement, “My time at NorthBay changed the way I look at my life.” The majority of students surveyed post-experience and then three months later agreed with this statement both times. The most relevant piece of data with respect to analyzing the benefits of culturally responsive practices was the fact that urban students appeared to receive a greater benefit than non-urban students. “Urban students exhibited significantly more positive scores on all measures at all points in-time.” After all the data was collected and analyzed, it appears that NorthBay Adventure Center was definitely successful in making positive gains in the short-term and long-run with students in the areas of environmental responsibility and character development and leadership, but less gain with enhancing students’ attitudes toward school in the long-run. This data collected illustrated a preference by students for the literary content of environmental education when taught in a the culturally responsive manner.
Mensah, F. (2011). A Case for Culturally Relevant Teaching in Science Education and Lessons Learned for Teacher Education. The Journal of Negro Education 80(3), 296-309
As the title suggests, Felicia Mensah builds a case that argues that culturally relevant teaching (CRT) practices should be deliberately taught at the teacher education level. Mensah uses a study of how three “pre-service” teachers were able to successfully teach a scientific unit on air pollution to a culturally diverse urban class while utilizing the principles of Gloria Ladson-Billings’ (1995) culturally relevant teaching practices. Mensah expressed that her study “argues for the teaching and learning of CRT principles in science teacher education as a means of preparing all teachers for diverse classrooms.” (Mensah, 296-297) She highlights science education because it has been revealed that science is not a priority subject in most elementary education programs. Teachers of the John David Elementary School in East Harlem, New York accommodated the three pre-service teachers by allowing them to come into their classrooms and teach a micro-unit on air pollution.
The study led to some discoveries that Mensah called “emergent assertions of culturally relevant science teaching.” Assertion #1 states that in order for teachers to teach CRT principles they must collaborate and make connections with other colleagues of diverse backgrounds, learning from them in order to build cultural competence. Assertion #2 addresses how students learn and the language that is used to convey clear meaning to them. The article states that if teachers want to impart scientific knowledge to their students, they should speak to them in the language that scientists use. Teachers should focus on engaging students in the language of scientists, making sure to adequately familiarize students with key terms and concepts often read and spoken in scientific environments. Culturally speaking, teachers should learn how to speak in a manner that is congruent with how their students speak to foster stronger connections with them and to then to empower them to speak like scientists. Assertion #3 speaks to teachers building a social conscience that expresses their core beliefs and values. In teaching the air pollutions unit, the pre-service teachers (PSTs) needed to delve into the topic of environmental racism in order to take a stance and illustrate the social injustices that the students maybe facing in their home environments. “The third assertion promotes CRT that challenges the status quo and places the PSTs in positions to challenge and use their knowledge of science to improve their lives and their communities.” (Mensah, pg. 303)
Mensah’s study found that “collaboration and support, personal empowerment to teach, and personal relevance of the subject matter are important practices for teacher education to adopt in the preparation of teachers for diverse classrooms.” (Mensah, 306) This study appeared to follow the current trend that students of diverse cultural backgrounds gain immensely from being able to identify with the curriculum that is being taught to them. Students are empowered to learn with the content is made relevant to them. The data revealed in this study highlighted the importance that literacy plays in teaching science to students. The PSTs were able to engage students more fully by clearly conveying new words and scientific concepts so that the students were able to fully grasp their literal definitions and translate these new vocabulary words into real-world examples in their neighborhood.
Milner IV, H. (2011). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in a Diverse Urban Classroom. Urban Review 43: 66-89
“We cannot necessarily know what is true or even real outside our own understanding of it, our own worldview, our own meanings that are embedded in who we are” … "as outsiders and insiders.” (Milner IV, pg. 73) H. Richard Milner IV used this quote by S. B. Kerl (2002) to demonstrate the importance of using culturally relevant pedagogy in classrooms today, especially when the teacher is not of the same race as their students. This article explores the classroom dynamic when a White science teacher decides to implement culturally relevant teaching practices in his classroom. Mr. Hall’s case study illustrates the successful gains in student achievement that can be obtained when teachers incorporate the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy into their teaching practices.
Milner expressly studied the unique way that Mr. Hall applied the principles of culturally relevant teaching in order to connect with his students. In the section titled, “Building Cultural Competence,” Milner drew on Gloria Ladson-Billings’ (2006) supposition that teachers must adopt a new “way of being” as opposed to just applying a learned set of practices if they want to be successful using this culturally responsive pedagogy. Milner’s observations and interviews of Mr. Hall uncovered three recurring themes. First, Mr. Hall found success using these culturally responsive practices because he found a way to create and maintain real genuine teacher-student relationships that allowed him to learn from and alongside his students. Second, Mr. Hall built cultural competence by recognizing his students’ diverse identities and challenged sociopolitical race issues if they emerged during classroom discussions. Lastly, Mr. Hall treated teaching as a community effort and sought ways to engage students in the process of teaching the class as a whole. Mr. Hall also sought the knowledge of his colleagues to better aid him in reaching his students and building his own cultural competence.
Mr. Hall’s cultural competence enrichment of himself was an important feature of his new teaching philosophy. Milner wrote a section called “Relationships” which clearly illustrated how Mr. Hall could form a bond with his students that served to empower and validate them. Mr. Hall was not a strict disciplinarian either. He opted to give students multiple chances to redeem themselves if they made mistakes instead of just referring them to the principal’s office for disciplinary action. He also would hold his own in-class detentions and used the time to redirect the student with respect to their classwork and to instill in them a “never quit” attitude. “Maybe that’s bad – [that] I give so many second chances – that I care about them too much, but I think it works for me. And I wouldn’t know how else to do it. And I couldn’t be one of those who say: ‘uh oh Timmy you didn’t get your homework done, well that’s your fifth zero.’ You know I couldn’t be like that." Milner noted that this approach did not result in the students taking Mr. Hall for granted, but instead it built a mutual respect between them because the students knew that he was not going to let them quit or give up on themselves. Mr. Hall fostered a genuine love for his students and sought ways to reach even his most troublesome students by connecting to one of their passions, as in the example of Paul. Mr. Hall was able to help turn Paul’s failing and average performance in his class into A-student work just by finding the time to connect over basketball with him and his teammates after school. Paul was reached through their mutual understanding of the language of basketball.
A key feature to Mr. Hall’s pedagogy of love (Freire) was that he would not hold any grudges against his students after they returned to class after meltdowns and misunderstandings occurred. “The idea is that teachers allow students another chance for success and do not expect the student to ‘makeup’ for their shortcomings and mistakes in the past…Mr. Hall learned that his students actually appreciated the opportunity to start over, and his attempted to honor his philosophy that each day is a new day and opportunity for students in the learning environment.” (Milner IV, 82) The article closed with two final sections. One section discussed the importance of communal collaboration to learn more about the students by seeking cultural knowledge from colleagues, students’ family members, and the general community in which the students live. The final section discussed implications and conclusions of the study.
This study followed suit with current trends in culturally relevant pedagogical studies in that the findings showed that the teaching practices provide culturally diverse students with better opportunities to learn. Milner expressly points out that for teachers to be successful in using these practices they must first build their own cultural competence. Teachers must connect with their students and value their identities much like how Mr. Hall did. In closing the article, Milner points out that it is this connection with students that fosters student validation and plays a critical role in how students perform, engage, and conduct themselves in the classroom. “Students recognize when there is unnecessary distance between themselves and their teachers, and the students’ actions are shaped by such disconnections.” (Milner IV, 88)
Milner, H. (2016). A Black Male Teacher’s Culturally Responsive Practices. The Journal of Negro Education 85(4), 417-432
In a profession that was historically dominated by females, spotting a male teacher is as rare as spotting a zebra in the wild. However, H. Richard Milner might posit that finding a “Black” male teacher may be as rare as spotting a albino zebra in the wild. Milner describes the struggle that the Black male teacher may face when dealing with poor Black students as “unfair and unsolicited pressure placed on these Black male teachers to solve systemic and institutional challenges ingrained in school districts (that) has been identified as problematized.” Milner writes this journal article to add to the literary body of work relating to culturally responsive teaching.
Milner clearly states that the purpose of this article is to study the culturally responsive practices of one Black male science and math teacher, Mr. Jackson. He hopes that other teachers may learn from his practices in order to strengthen their own classroom with respect to using culturally relevant pedagogy. In the section “Black Teachers and Teaching,” Milner gives a brief history of Black teachers and the struggles they face to help their students succeed in a world where their identity is not highly valued. Milner stresses in this section that he wants to clearly convey Geneva Gay’s concept of” culturally responsive pedagogy,”using specifically her tenet on the gains in student self-validation. Students are self-validated when they are empowered to learn. When students are engaged in the language of scientific concepts and are able to grasp their meaning, student learning is able to actually happen.
Milner also offered one of the best practical applications for use of culturally responsive pedagogy in his section dedicated to the topic. Milner states, "as an analytical tool, culturally responsive pedagogy insists that teachers think carefully and deliberately about why are they teaching it in a sociopolitical context.” (Milner, 421) He continues this section by outlining
Gay’s principles of culturally responsive teaching: culturally responsive teaching is validating, comprehensive, multi-dimensional, empowering, and emancipatory. Milner conducted his research at Bridge Middle School. It is an urban school in a large southeastern city in the United States. In this school, we find Mr. Jackson who is a certified teacher who has been teaching full-time the last seven years. Milner clearly examines Jackson’s teaching strategies and stress how he uses culturally responsive teaching to promote Gay’s tenet on validation.
Jackson validated the students in various ways. Jackson would allow the students to correct him if he made a mistake (intentional or by accident) at the board, allowing students to feel validated in helping their teacher. Jackson also would weave into problems and examples the culture of the students and their out-of-school activities to create more validation of his students and their lives. Jackson uses music to reach his students and connect with them. Jackson posits that “you have to immerse yourself in their world in some form or fashion. I am just lucky to come from the world that I teach in. I came from that world. I truly live in that world, so I am immersed already in my natural life. So, if I were in a system [a different school] where the students came from a different world, I would just have to immerse myself in their world.” (Milner, 426) Milner closed this study by illustrating three important takeaways. First, teachers must respect the identity of their students as well as their own. Second, teachers must respect the ethos of their social work, or the “characteristic spirit of a culture,” and how this passion or lack thereof affects how students validate and affirm who they are intrinsically. Lastly, Milner wanted to remind teachers that this business deals with the mind and the heart and learning that is connected to the development of tender young minds.
Brown, J. (2017). A Metasynthesis of the Complementarity of Culturally Responsive and Inquiry-Based Science Education in K-12 Settings: Implications for Advancing Equitable Science Teaching and Learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 54(9), 1143-1173
Julie Brown of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction’s STEM Education Center pens a very informative and in-depth analysis of 52 research articles written on culturally relevant teaching practices inside the science classroom. Brown has coined her analysis as a “metasynthesis” of the data gained from these 52 empirical articles that delved into culturally relevant pedagogy with respect to inquiry-based science teaching practices. Brown focused her metasynthesis first on current “inquiry-based science education” utilizing the Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards (NRC 2012) as a current illustration of what is expected to be taught in science classrooms across the United States. Brown offers three shared viewpoints that call out the Framework for not achieving goals of equity and diversity within the curriculum. “Given that inquiry continues to be heralded as the gold standard for meaningful science learning experiences, but that engaging in it may produce competing discourses for culturally and linguistically diverse students (Moje et al., 2004), it stands that inquiry-based science may marginalize aspects of these students, including their identities as science learners (Carlone et al., 2011)” (Brown, 1146). Brown also states that more must be done in this area of science learning to better accommodate culturally diverse learners; if the science-related achievement gap is to shrink.
Brown cites the work of Gloria Ladson-Billings and her theory of culturally relevant pedagogy as well as Geneva Gay’s development of culturally responsive teaching practices to fully develop the benefits for laying a foundation for culturally responsive science education. In addition, Brown also cites five other articles that speak to the success of culturally responsive pedagogy aiding in validating, transforming, and empowering students by “acknowledging their family – and community-based funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005)” (Brown, 1147). Brown remains focused in this metasynthesis to show the “complementarity” of culturally responsive and inquiry-based science instruction.
In her “Methods” section, Brown attempts to clearly define the term, metasynthesis. Brown states that a metasynthesis seeks to aggregate findings from numerous studies and synthesizes them together in order to shed new light and clarity on the subject. Brown feels that metasynthesis provides a more comprehensive answer to a research question than the findings of a single study. During her metasynthesis, Brown coded the articles and looked for any trends or patterns to emerge. Brown was able to identify areas that needed further scrutiny on how to make them more culturally relevant. However, the implications for the sections on Science Teacher Education, Science Curriculum Materials, Science Practices to Promote Sociopolitical Consciousness, and Culturally Responsive Engineering Education all highlighted the fact that student success rose with respect to implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally responsive texts when instructing culturally diverse students.
PRACTITIONER RESOURCES
Gay, G., Irving, J., Gutierrez, K (2010, June 17) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy [YouTube] https://youtu.be/nGTVjJuRaZ8
This video was a part of a group of introductory lessons created to provide teachers with an introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and how to use it in their classrooms. This video has Geneva Gay of the University of Washington and Jacqueline Jordan Irving of Emory University outlining the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy. When outlining the need for culturally relevant pedagogy, Gay states that teachers are to use the principles in order to ascertain linkages between what the students already know and use this knowledge to come up with comparisons and examples that make “cultural bridges” to link that knowledge to what is being taught. Gay wants teachers to remember that students bring into the classroom these cultural experiences and good culturally responsive teachers build on this prior cultural knowledge to teach new lessons and aid in student comprehension.
Irving’s message to teachers centered on recognizing that students from different ethnic backgrounds possessed different “cultural filters.” Teachers who teach students that have the same cultural filter as they possess are more readily understood by their students. When teachers attempt to teach students with different cultural filters sometimes the “sending mechanism” needs to be modified for the student to receive the message. This sending mechanism can be modified through the literacy presented to the students if presented in culturally related text.
Kris Gutierrez of the University of Colorado closed the video with a discussion on the difference between race and culture. Culture does not just encompass race alone. Culture also contains your class or status in life, as well as where you fit in your community. Culture embodies the community that you identify with and belong. A person’s membership in a specific community leads to the formation of their cultural identity. This video directly connects with the topic of this exploration as well as it adds to the discussion that the documentary, Class Divide, sparks.
Pinkerson, D., & Levin, M. (Producers), & Levin, M. (Director). (2016). Class Divide [Documentary]. United States: HBO
Marc Levin directs an eye-opening portrayal of the stark differences between how the wealthy are educated and how the poor, working class are educated in this country. The documentary centers on the creation of a top of the line, technology-driven, K-12 school in the West Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. West Chelsea is a former poor, working-class neighborhood that over the past decade is undergoing a period of high gentrification. Multi-million-dollar housing complexes are being built rapidly in this once industrial working-class section of the city. The creation of the High Line, a 22 block long refurbished elevated train track system that was reinforced and repurposed as outdoor park space, has revitalized the West Chelsea community ushering in the more affluent willing to pay millions of dollars to live around or near it. Avenues: The World School pops up on a corner in West Chelsea promising one of the best educations and school experiences that the world has ever seen. Bilingual classes are taught in Chinese and Spanish from pre-k until fourth grade. “We focus on preparing children for international life,” according to an Avenues administrator. “China becoming the world's superpower…it may be helpful someday to know Chinese. Instead of pressuring you to read textbooks and study for exams, they push you to make sure that you’re not just memorizing everything that you really understand what you are learning. They kind of encourage you to be the teachers,” was a statement given by Luc, age 16, Avenues student.
Students at the Avenues School learn by the Harkness method based on roundtable discussions where the desks are not facing the board. There is smartboard technology in every class, however when instruction and learning occurs, everyone is facing into the center of the room away from the board. Edgar, age 16, is another Avenues student who when interviewed stated, “I feel anybody who goes to a school like this feels the pressure to succeed in life.” His viewpoint may come from the fact that the majority of the students who attend the Avenues School are products of uber-wealthy parents. This wealthy high technological 21st century school in all its shiny stark glory is positioned directly across the street from one of the poorest housing development “projects” in New York City. Over 4,500 people live in the Elliott-Chelsea public housing apartments, this complex sits directly across the street and has 22 buildings. One Avenue’s student was quoted as saying, “You look over across the street and you see something that almost shouldn’t be there, the housing projects…but it was there…it was there first. I guess that is what gentrification is.”
So, what do the school-aged children of the Elliott-Chelsea Housing Projects see when they look across the street? Juwan, an Elliot-Chelsea resident said, “It’s called ‘The World School.’ That’s an amazing *expletive* title and this is right across the street from the projects!” Hyisheem, another Elliot-Chelsea resident was quoted saying, “You hear all of these good things that the school is so great. The one thing that kinda got me was that it cost over $40,000 to admit your child. In this neighborhood, I don’t think I can name 5 people that makes over $40,000. It’s like a tease almost and it’s a smack in the face.”
The documentary also highlights people like Ken Jockers and Jeffrey Gural who, in essence, provide the much needed culturally responsive education that most students of the Elliott-Chelsea housing projects are denied access to in their varied classroom settings. Ken Jockers is the executive director of the Hudson Guild Community Center and Hudson Guild Theatre. Hyisheem Calier, an Elliot-Chelsea resident stated that he “started attending since 8 years old from basketball, to homework help, to cooking class to SAT prep, it’s been the number one resource in my life.” According to Jockers, “What we are doing is providing that same level of academic and social support to make sure that as many poor children have that leg up that other children’s parents are paying for.”
Jeffrey Gural is the sponsor of the Chelsea-Elliott “I Have a Dream” Program. Gural and others have “adopted” all the 3rd and 4th grade students who live in the housing authority and agreed to provide them with counselling, mentoring and tutoring services. He says, “It helps to level the playing field; for these kids, it’s not that easy.” The star of the documentary was little eight-year-old Rosa who dreamed of being able to attend The Avenues School on scholarship. Her parents work hard to afford her Catholic school education, but she can see daily the difference in the schooling she travels to receive and the stellar one that is right across the street. The fact that her parents work hard but still cannot afford her attendance is not lost on such a young person. Rosa reflected on her inability to attend the school across her street by saying, “I hate, hate, hate money. People fight over money and I hate that they fight over money. Money was made by the devil, I think, because GOD didn’t say you have to pay for this. I never heard a parable or the bible saying that GOD said ‘oh, you have to pay for this!” A Class Divide closed with an ancient quote by Plutarch that echoed her sentiment which said, “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” This was evident by the suicide of one of the Avenues students that was interviewed for this documentary that shed light on the need to bring all people together to teach us how to share the wealth of knowledge with all no matter the race, class or creed. Avenues’ student, Yasemin’s 115 Steps was a project created after the suicide of her fellow classmate in order to create literary and visual discourse between her fellow schoolmates and those students who live just 115 steps away in another world, culturally different from her own.
Conclusion
Children are required by law to attend school. As a society that places this requirement on our youth, we should make sure that while attending school students are never devalued, dehumanized, or destroyed in any way. When children do not see themselves reflected in the curriculum being taught, they are left with feelings of isolation and lack of belonging. As the research revealed in the studies like Parsons, et.al.’s Black Cultural Ethos study and Stern, et.al.’s Constructivist and Culturally Responsive Approach to Environmental Education study, students revealed that they prefer when they can see themselves represented in the curriculum.
Also, current research reveals that teachers obtain more success in teaching their students when these cultural connections are made, as evident in the studies conducted by Mensah and Milner. The documentary, Class Divide, deeply portrays a significant consequence when culture is ignored and classism reigns over humanity’s natural ability to love one another and share resources when you are blessed with an abundance of them. The shocking and sad twist that ended the documentary served to illustrate that sometimes the vast physical schism between the wealthy on one side and the poverty-stricken on the other side of a street can be so unbearable that life just does not seem worth living. Hopefully, this research will shed a brighter light on culturally responsive teaching practices and highlight the amazing gains that utilizing this pedagogy offers all students.
WORKS CITED
Parsons, E., Travis, C., & Smith Simpson, J. (2005). The Black Cultural Ethos, Students’ Instructional Context Preferences, and Student Achievement: An Examination of Culturally Congruent Science Instruction in the Eighth Grade Classes of One African American and One Euro-American Teacher. The Negro Educational Review 56(2&3), 183-204
Stern, M., Powell, R., & Ardoin, N. (2011). Evaluating a Constructivist and Culturally Responsive Approach to Environmental Education for Diverse Audiences. The Journal of Environmental Education 42(2), 109-122
Mensah, F. (2011). A Case for Culturally Relevant Teaching in Science Education and Lessons Learned for Teacher Education. The Journal of Negro Education 80(3), 296-309
Milner IV, H. (2011). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in a Diverse Urban Classroom. Urban Review 43: 66-89 Stern, M., Powell, R., & Ardoin, N. (2011). Evaluating a Constructivist and Culturally Responsive Approach to Environmental Education for Diverse Audiences. The Journal of Environmental Education 42(2), 109-122
Milner, H. (2016). A Black Male Teacher’s Culturally Responsive Practices. The Journal of Negro Education 85(4), 417-432
Brown, J. (2017). A Metasynthesis of the Complementarity of Culturally Responsive and Inquiry-Based Science Education in K-12 Settings: Implications for Advancing Equitable Science Teaching and Learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 54(9), 1143-1173
Gay, G., Irving, J., Gutierrez, K (2010, June 17) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy [YouTube] https://youtu.be/nGTVjJuRaZ8
Pinkerson, D., & Levin, M. (Producers), & Levin, M. (Director). (2016). Class Divide [Documentary]. United States: HBO
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