See Dick. See Dick run. See Jane. See Jane run. I can remember reading these lines as a first-grader at the Transfiguration of Our Lord Catholic School, turning the pages, beaming with pride to be reading each line, and desperately waiting to see a girl like me take her turn to be seen and to run. I still carry with me strong memories of this first-grade classroom and these beginning learning experiences. I can remember this long reading table that also doubled as the table students had to bend over and take a paddling in front of the entire class if their behavior warranted it. I can remember expressing my frustration of finishing book after book after disappointing book and not being exposed to a single little Black boy or girl. I can remember my teacher who was a White Catholic nun reacted towards me as if my inquiry served only a disruptive purpose. I can remember that whatever I said got me the closest ever to being paddled. Luckily, I expressed my frustrations to my mother and maternal grandmother who intervened on my behalf and the flogging was prevented. My tiny coup ultimately did some good as my teacher searched out a rare Dick and Jane book series that contained a Black family. She was so proud of herself; and I can recall this was one of the only times I can remember this nun smiling. Reflecting back on this situation, this was a very emotional time for me and my development as a learner. I felt eager to begin my journey to learn how to read on my own. I felt disappointed when I soon discovered that I would not be afforded the opportunity to learn how to read AND see happy children in the stories, who looked like me. I felt fear when my voiced concerns initially fell on indifferent ears and was misconstrued as disrespectful disruption with physical punishment being threatened. I felt relief when my mother forbade physical punishment against me for just inquiring about my natural observations. I finally felt vindicated when my continued hard work and reading efforts were rewarded with a book of Dick and Jane stories with that family that represented me in my education. Leaving first-grade, I was made to feel that my educational journey was valued by everyone involved: my family, my teachers, my principal and Father Dooley (who had to give the final approval to order the “new” books). This validation that came in the late Spring when the school-year was almost over was enough to provide me with the boost I needed to buy-in to my own education. This early experience made me realize that I needed to take ownership of my learning experience. This experience helped me value my education because the price of these new culturally diverse reading books was a hot topic openly debated between my teacher, the principal, as well as the priest who possessed the final say on the matter. So, when the first book was placed in my hand, my teacher took me aside and said that it was just for me to read before it was shared with the class. I am remembering now fondly the joy I felt when I saw the first Black face on the page with Dick and Jane. This simple act made me feel valued and equal and it did shape my life, molding me into a straight-A student who learned a valuable lesson early about taking ownership of my educational experience.
All children need to feel valued as our students and learn to take ownership of their educational experiences. Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) methods add more value to the individual student experience and allow each student to take ownership of their own personal educational journey. 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.” 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 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. “No matter what our background, nearly all of us are ethnocentric, so immersed in our own cultural ways, that it is difficult for us to imagine any other way of thinking and acting. Each culture views its own ways as being "right" and "the best way to do things." This statement plucked from an article titled “Are Behaviorist Interventions for Culturally Different Youngsters with Learning and Behavior Disorders?” written by Tom Mcintyre, Ph.D of Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) highlights an important consideration when educating culturally diverse students. As educators I feel that we must be mindful to first “do no harm” to our students.
Upon the conclusion of an academic year, teachers should return their students to their parents and families having benefited from their educational experience with us. In an article titled, “ A Black Male Teacher’s Culturally Responsive Practices,” H. Richard Milner offers one of the best practical applications for use of culturally responsive pedagogy in today's diverse classroom. 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) Current research reveals that teachers obtain more success in teaching their students when cultural connections are made to the subject matter, as evident in the studies conducted by Mensah and Milner, as well as my own personal learning experience. Thus, the purpose of my culminating masters project is to educate the scholarly educational masses on the benefits of adding multicultural diversity to the global body of STEM curriculum resources and aid in expanding the principles of the Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS) to the elementary school curriculum as well as advancing the STEM abilities of future middle years to high school STEM students (grades 7th-12th).
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