4 - Cultural responsiveness

Cultural responsiveness

I believe I am cultural responsiveness in my teaching and can resonate with Bucher’s (2008) nine mega skills that contribute to cultural intelligence:

1.    Cultural Identity — I know who I am in terms of my culture and own identity. This foundation helps with understanding others.

2.    Cultural Lenses — I have always been brought up to accept others. Throughout my schooling and now where I am teaching I feel confident to recognize the ways in which cultural backgrounds differ and how they influence thinking, behavior and assumptions.

3.    Global Consciousness — I have done some travelling in the past 5 years and during that time I experienced other cultures and gained a deeper understanding. While visiting a particular place I would abide by their cultural rules while still honoring my values.  

4.    Perspectives — Putting ourselves in others’ shoes and cultures. As an educator this is vital that we teach or students how to understand and accept others. It is also a change to remove cultural stereotypes and create an accepting environment.

5.    Communication — No everyone speaks English and some our students are still beginners. By showing respect and acceptance communication can still take place. Having connections all around the world is a great advantage.

6.    Cross-Cultural Conflict — Dealing with conflict among people from differing cultural backgrounds in an effective and constructive manner. In schools, this can often be difficult particularly when dealing with the parents in response to an issue. I make it clear at the start of the year that everyone is equal and by setting clear expectations everyone is treated the same.

7.    Multicultural Teaming — In my classroom, students are all equal. No one is treated differently from someone else and all students are considered as one. I set expectations at the start of the year and all students are to abide by these.

8.    Bias — Through clear expectations and explicitly teaching my students we are equal, generally I do not hear of cultural bias and stomp down on it very quickly if there was.

9.    Dynamics of Power — Grasping how power and culture interrelate and the effect of power on how we see the world and relate to others. International business is going to continue, we need to prepare our learners for this and equip them with the skills required to understand power, cultural differences and communicate effectively.

Focus 1: vision, mission, and core values

The vision is to provide all students with equal opportunities to promote success. We accept many international students which support and enhance our rich culture while offering an exchange program for our students to experience other cultures aboard. Furthermore, through our vision we promote equality and understand that cultures differ, therefore, allow opportunities for these to be promoted in and outside of the classroom.

Mission Statement

Our vision here is to provide students with a superior all-round education, to prepare them to be responsible global citizens, to think creatively, reason critically, communicate effectively and learn enthusiastically throughout life.

Core Values

Progress with vision, integrity and love

The vision, mission statement and core values incorporate the essence of what it means to be cultural responsive and the school I work for values the importance of understanding, respecting and getting to know where each student, staff member and family in the community are from and who they are.

Focus 2: planning and assessment

There is room for improvement in this area as to how we can adapt our assessments to suit a range of students who due to cultural backgrounds face some challenges. Educating parents about how we teach and the types of learning is also an area which can be focused on.

References

Bucher, R. (2008). Building Cultural Intelligence (CQ): Nine Megaskills. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Te Toi Tupu. (n.d.). Pasifika: Participation, Engagement, Achievement tool. Retrieved from http://www.tetoitupu.org/pasifika-participation-engagement-achievement-tool