Becoming culturally responsible educators

The education field is extremely related to culture and society since the fact that every single knowledge is due to a specific system of toughs and values, for any kind of matter or discipline. As Educators we are always teaching culture implicitly or explicitly and that is the main reason we must bring culture to our classrooms in a conscious way and not accidentally, whether or not we are going to teach culture as a subject itself or as a cross-curricular implication it should be taught mindfully and respectfully.
The first step is to become aware of our own cultural identity and background in order to anticipate how it would interfere in the relationship we establish with students and in the way we understand and transmit the cultural knowledge or the implicated values as well. Otherwise, in the way we are going developing awareness of the cultural implications regarding our function as language educators in that such a way we will be able to acquire a high commitment position in relation to humanity and diversity when teaching.

"As educators, we are committed to ensuring that all children can learn and achieve to the best of their ability. Misunderstandings about the role of culture in behavior, communication, and learning often lead to assumptions about the abilities of children to be successful in school. An awareness and understanding of the role of culture in the classroom, and the different values and behaviors that may accompany culture can remove unintentional barriers to a child’s success." (S. Zion; E. Kozleski, 2005:15).


“Culture understanding” is the master key for teaching responsively and purposefully, but it is also a high demanding ability which should take the leading role when talking about teaching intentions. Culture must be established over language achievement goals and other in the kind, because the reached learning in relation to culture could be the more transcendent part in the education sphere, if we take into consideration that it builds the basis for better human beings formation.

References:

Kozleski E., S. Zion. “Understanding Culture” University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Arizona State University. 2005. Web 3 May.

Mitchell, L. Becoming Culturally Responsive Teachers in Today´s Diverse Classroom. Huston TX. University of Huston. 2009.

Culture in my life...

What is Culture for me?

I might say that I have experienced culture during my life in many different forms, and from my point of view everything that involves people in some way is related to culture.

Culture in my Family...
I come from a big reconstructed family. My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old and we (my three brothers and I) stayed with our father. On the other hand, my biological mother went to another country and she`s still living there.
My step mother brought her daughter from her first marriage and little by little we became the happy family we are nowadays.
It was not easy for us, and not even closer for her(my step mother), she was very young, about 26 years old and suddenly she woke up one morning with 5 children on her shoulders.
Just in case, this is not a sad story for me. I have always thought that it couldn`t be better for us, a mother who was capable to accept this challenge is much better than the one who left.
And I am really proud and satisfied in the way that things gone through.
We had the stereotype of the bad step mother, and we were so concerned about it that we started thinking like that.
I remember once that she cooked for us a chicken feet soup and we couldn`t even think about it. We felt terrified and we began waiting for the attitudes or behaviors that proof our hypothesis, but the witch never showed her self off, and surprisely, she was a great and lovely mother instead.
We perceived our new mother and sister very different from us, the food they used to eat, the behaviors they had, and many different things that we did not share at all. Now, we seem to be more like her than anybody else, because she gave us all she was and we took it.
Ten years ago, my father and my mother (step mother) had theirown baby.

"A mother is not who brought you to this life but is the one who gives her life for you...."

Culture in my marriage...
I got married 6 months ago, after a sentimental relationship of three years with my current husband. In my family we have had the culture of marriage as a religious tradition, but in my husband´s family they seem to prefer the single life, not his parents but his siblings.

We both come from big families about seven or eight members as a nuclear family, with strong family ties. When you are married "strong family ties" mean that you have married with his/her family too, whether you like it or not.

Thanks God! we share a great relationship with our families, and we feel confortable when visiting one of the families. But we cannot deny that sometimes we have our missunderstanding because of our cultural differences, in which our families and backgrounds have a lot to do with that.

If I could compare it with the acculturation process I will probably say that we are still in the honey moon stage, but we have to be aware that we have to experience our "culture shock" and then recover to gain assimilation and adaptation to eah other. Sometimes we have to let old things go by... like the dried leaves flew away from us, so we allow the new things to bloom up in our gardens.

Culture in my class...
I am an educator of preschoolers, and I have to deal with a broad diversity of children and families. Is a big challenge to attend children´s needs and interests while we are covering topics and skills, and they are just so different one to each other, without mentioning that they all deserve special attention.
Some differences could be cultural and some others are probably biological or genetic such as disabilities and learning rhythms among other examples.

The best way to handle with all this stuff, is to be aware of cultural factors involved in their differences. Try to be always ahead, in order to prevent possible situations that could take place in our classroom because of those differences and face the situation before it comes because once they occur could be painful for someone. For example: discrimination, jokes, mocks about people.

I believe that from our field as educators, we can do so much in the matter of cultural uderstanding, just by getting to know our students and once we did it we will be able to shape them according to the main values of an open cultural model.

I will like to share one of the funny experiences I have had with my children related to culture...

I was teching P-k and I was confused about a behavior that I always noticed during the snack time, it came from a little italian girl whose name was Fabiana. I used to ask them to put their table mats on table when eating, but she was the only one who never attended to that instruction I always found her table cloth on her knees, in the floor or sometimes she also used it as a bib but never as I told them to use it.
When I discovered with her parents that table manners are very important for italian people. And they actually teach their children their table protocol in which the napkin is used in their knees or like a bib when necessary, but not even close to the table, of couse I felt very ignorant and embarrassed after this incident.