Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

    Culturally relevant pedagogy seems to be synonymous with culturally competent teaching, which we discussed in our first course in this MAT program. Being a culturally competent teacher involves effectively meeting the needs of all your students in a diverse classroom. A culturally competent teacher must therefore be unbiased, fair, caring, and flexible. Such a teacher must diffuse stereotype threat, view all students as capable learners, and have high expectations for all learners, irrespective of their race, religion, or gender. Culturally relevant pedagogy thus must incorporate multicultural curricular content, provide all students with equal opportunity for success, and be sensitive to students with differing perspectives.

   

    It’s hard to say if I’ve experienced culturally relevant pedagogy in my school system. The county in which I teach is one of the least diverse counties in the state, but I think it does a good job of making education accessible for the minority students in the district. Regardless, there are many ways to incorporate culturally relevant pedagogy into my lessons. For one, my teaching should appeal to various learning styles and my lessons should be flexible. If students of different cultures are comfortable with different approaches to learning, then incorporating various approaches and styles will help those students find one that works for them, while simultaneously making all learners more well-rounded. Peer tutoring and cooperative learning are other techniques I can use in my lessons to promote cultural competence. Pairing students with others gives them the opportunity to work with someone who may be from a different cultural background, allowing the students to compare their personal views and hopefully reduce stereotypical feelings. Finally, the promotion of a growth mindset is a component of culturally relevant pedagogy. Minority students may be turned off by STEM courses due to common stereotypes that suggest that these students will struggle in those courses. Deliberately teaching and promoting a growth mindset can show students that traits such that intelligence are not fixed; rather, they are malleable traits that can be modified through effort.

    I don’t think a teacher can be completely effective if he or she is not culturally competent. If a teacher does not use culturally relevant pedagogy, they may accidentally marginalize a particular group of students or fail to understand a student’s struggles. One of the challenges of teaching is finding one or more ways to help each student in a diverse classroom of students succeed. This can be done by appealing to various learning styles, incorporating cooperative learning activities, and promoting a growth mindset, for example. Having students conduct research projects about scientists of diverse backgrounds is another interesting way to reduce stereotypical mindsets and provide minority students with positive role models. Regardless of the specific techniques one chooses, the importance of emphasizing culturally relevant pedagogy in education is undeniable.