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Lauren Knef English 574 Dr. Cassandra Parente December 8, 2009 Final Draft

Culture in the Classroom

My senior year in high school, I was fortunate enough to participate in a program called teacher academy which is only offered in a select few high schools. This program allows high school students, who think they may be interested in teaching as a career, to go into classrooms to experience what it is like to be a teacher. Through this program I was placed in a Columbus public school, in a kindergarten classroom, and I was placed in a first grade classroom in the Olentangy school district. These two placements were on opposite sides of the spectrum when we are talking about the diversity and linguistic ability. According to Cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood teacher preparation, the population of children in early childhood setting is becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, and these changes in demographics have warranted teachers becoming more culturally responsive and better prepared to work with diverse young children and families (Lim, 64). Therefore, teachers need to be introducing different cultures to the children, and respond instead of repressing the cultures. Many children in the classrooms today, come from homes that are diverse and belong to a certain community, through introducing different cultures into the classroom the childrens household can function with the school institution. We have learned that in contrast to classrooms, households never function alone or in isolation; they are always connected to other households

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and institutions through diverse social networks (Moll, 159). The Columbus public school, where my first placement was, incorporates and introduces new cultures starting in kindergarten. In the Columbus Public Schools, I experienced the most diversity Ive ever experienced in a classroom. The cultures that were represented in the kindergarten classroom that I was positioned in ranged from Chinese, Pakistani, Japanese, African American, to Indian. Teacher Academy had not prepared me on how to deal with different cultures, and how to embrace them to the childrens benefit. The children were wonderful, and very loving, but the education that was given at home was very different than that of the school. Most of the children were taught street smarts, instead of book smarts. For example, one of the children valued deeply the ability to fight, and had been removed from the school setting on more than one occasion for fighting. Whenever his mother was called in for a conference, she referred to how tough the streets are and that his father would have wanted him to have to ability to defend himself. There was definitely a different value for education than in other environments that I had been in. I can say this is the first time that I have felt completely out of my comfort zone. In the school, the children were diverse. They came from different cultures, such as the Pakistani culture, the cultures set each child apart. Unfortunately, the teachers in this school were not as diverse as the student body. The teacher body consisted of mostly white females that had come from the surrounding suburbs, to mold these children, much like I had. These teachers worked hard to find the balance between home and school, trying to involve the parents at home. The Cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood teacher preparation, says the presence of non-White full-time faculty was positively related to more required coursework focused on working with children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds (Lim, 64). From what I saw in the school, the Caucasian teachers tried very hard to require culturally involved

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homework. Since most of the teachers came from the surrounding suburbs, they had limited experience working with diverse cultures, but after being in the schools for awhile the teachers often adjusted and were able to involve the different cultures in their classroom. The research goes on to state that most early childhood teachers, are White, non-Hispanic, may have limited experiences working with those different from themselves and may not even be comfortable discussing race (Liam, 64). The teachers who are hired in diverse schools should be prepared off the bat to discuss race and different cultures, to be able to involve all their students. Although, I am comfortable discussing race, the high school that prepared me to go into this Teacher Academy placement was majority white children, and the diverse students that went to the school, could be counted on your fingers. Race and different cultures were never a part of the lesson plans at the high school I attended because the teachers either did not view it relevant and most of the student body could not relate. One day, I was teaching an English lesson to the kindergarten children in Columbus, and I was told to monitor their progress. The English lesson was primarily using dominant discourse, the same discourse I had been taught. Lisa Delpit argues that with the troubling part of Gees argument too many teachers may conclude that, To teach a dominant discourse to students who are members of a nondominant oppressed group would be to oppress them further (Delpit, 547). I think this is a reason why teachers in situations, like that of the Columbus Public School District, go so far to try to incorporate the cultures of their students, trying not to suppress them but still allowing the teacher to teach some of the dominant discourse. I had to tell a little boy that he needed to follow the lesson with the rest of the class. The response I received was, I dont have to listen to you because youre a woman. This child had arrived in the United States the year before. His parents were from Palestine, where the women are valued very differently

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than they are in American culture. This child had started kindergarten not speaking English, but by the time I was in this classroom he was speaking fluently. When his parents arrived for the parent-teacher conferences, which I was able to sit in on, the teacher went to greet them. The father of the boy put his wife in front of him when a hand was extended towards him to greet him. The wife in turn had to shake the teachers had while the father refused. It was the culture that stood between the teacher and the boy. The teacher had been trained and educated in the different cultures in the classroom, but nothing had prepared her for the treatment of a second class citizen. In actuality, that day I learned a lesson. I needed to know the cultures of the classroom to be a better teacher to these children, and teach them literacy in a way that may relate better to their lives. The teacher in Columbus did not purposely try to separate the child from his own culture, but felt it was important that the child follow along with the literacy lesson. Therefore, the child most certainly felt no motivation to learn what was being taught because it was not relevant to his culture at home. In most schools, the teaching of literacy skills is often divorced from any meaningful context and motivation for the learner (Lindquist, 80). In order for the children to learn, we cannot separate their lives from their literacy skills. A study done by an individual named, Marhiri, analyzed the practices of teachers and coaches. He suggested that teachers, like coaches, should embrace the practice of improvisation within an established set of game rules as a means to develop motivated learning (Lindquist, 81). He goes on to state that, by respecting these language styles, the coaches helped the players to maintain their cultural identities, and so earned the players greater motivation to develop these more mature forms of communication and analysis (Lindquist, 82). As teacher we need to be properly trained to know the different childrens background so every child can excel to their highest potential.

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The concept of highest potential has a different meaning to different people of different cultures and socioeconomic statuses. My second placement for teacher academy, I was placed in a first grade classroom in Olentangy school district located in the town of Powell, Ohio. Olentangy school district is a primarily white school district, with very little diversity, if any in some of the schools. The estimated White population in the Powell community is 5,890, which is 94.3 percent of the total population (The U.S. average is 75.10%) (Powell, Ohio OH). The community of Powell, Ohio is an middle-upper class community, where the average household income is $117,000 (Powell, Ohio OH). The parents in this community are very involved with everything that their children are doing. Instead of the children telling me they were not going to listen to me and not do what I say, it was the parents. The parents in this district had their own ideas as to what their children should and should not be taught. Most of the parents in the class I was involved with had active roles in the school and with the school board. They were constantly researching and comparing other schools to the Olentangy district to make sure their children where receiving the upmost education possible. Middle-class parents with more resources- more inside knowledge of how schools work, more entitlement to challenge institutional decisions-might have been able to advocate on behalf of a child victimized by bureaucracy or bad administrative judgment (Lindquist, 116). Unfortunately, they did not go to school to become a teacher, and on more than one occasion the teacher had to show the parents the curriculum. The parents disagreed with the way the teacher and I were teaching the children to write complete sentences and thought that we should not have simplified it to the extent that we did. The teacher was trained to teacher the children this way because each and every student could understand the lesson in this form. It is important to state that not all the children came from upper-middle class families, so the teacher

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made sure that every child was grasping the lesson. She did not place discrimination against the students who did not come from wealthy, involved families. I do not know if the wealthy parents had such involvement because of the lack of diversity, or since most of the mothers (in the school I was placed in) were stay at home mothers and had time to think of different ways we should be teaching their children. After my second experience, I believe that the Olentangy parents believe that the world that they have created for their children is obviously different than the world that the children in my first placement grew up in. Therefore, the school should reflect the world they have created for their children, meaning the values of the school should mimic those of the middle and upper class families who live in the district. An excerpt from, Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish may give us a deeper look into how the Olentangy district parents were feeling about their childrens education. The article covers a family who is Amish and their views on what literacy consists of in both the home and school. Obviously the Amish community varies from the mainstream culture, providing the community with different outlooks on things. While Eli, Jr., like his siblings, is learning the necessity and the value of literacy, what literacy means to him and the ways in which he learns it may differ in both obvious and subtle ways from what it means and how it's transmitted to many mainstream children, just as Eli's world differs from theirs, both obviously and subtly (Fishman, 2). The parents kept repeating that it was a wealthy district, and the teachers should reflect those beliefs. Those beliefs would be a hard work ethic, and always being ahead of the game. As the teacher in a wealthy district, the parents believed that their children should be learning above what they are expected to know in each grade. Unfortunately, what is right for one child may not be right for another. I felt the way the teacher

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taught the children, was not only appropriate, but also prepared children for later diversity in their classrooms. I felt that the teacher that was teaching these children in the Olentangy school district was applying the things she had learned in college. The way she was instructed to teach children was to teach them as if every child is a diverse student. Teaching every child as a diverse student means teaching the children as fast as the slowest learner learns. This does not simply mean the color of their skin, but the education they may or may not be receiving at home, different backgrounds that they may have come from and their different socioeconomic status. As a future teacher I feel it is the job of the teacher, not only to teach children book smarts, but to also prepare them for their futures. I think too many teachers focus on preparing their students for the real world instead of showing the students their options, and things they can do with the skills that they obtain throughout school. We need to realize that our role may not be to prepare our students to enter mainstream society but, rather, to help them see what mainstream society offers and what it takes away, what they may gain by assimilating and what they may lose in that process (Fishman, 6). This quote was striking to me; it made me realize that through education and literacy skills we gain different abilities and opportunities than individuals who may not have gained the same literacy skills. Allowing students to see this and the harsh reality of it all, may prepare them better than just providing them with the skills. These teachers were not themselves a part of the power elite, not members of dominate discourses. Yet they were able to provide the keys for their students entry into the larger world, never knowing if the doors would ever swing open to allow them in (Delpit, 550). This quote from Delpit gives hope to all teachers, and future teachers like me. It gives us confidence that in order to be successful as a teacher you do not have to be a member of the dominant discourse,

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but you can still provide the students with everything they need as long as you keep their culture in mind too. Children from all cultures and background need to be prepared for the world they are entering. Knowing the hard work will eventually lead you to success is a lesson nobody can take from you. In order to be fully successful as a teacher we must acknowledge and validate students home language without using it to limit students potential. Students home discourses are vital to their perception of self and sense of community connectedness (Delpit, 553). In my classroom, I hope to encourage the students to use whatever their home language is to make their literacy skills stronger. With their home language, I can show them how it relates to Standard English, how the structures are similar and not divorce the lesson from their home culture. I think it is a challenge for every teacher to think of ways to effectively incorporate different cultures, but America refers to itself as the melting pot so why not teach like we are.

Works Cited Delpit, Lisa. The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike Rose. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 545-554. Print.

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Fishman, Andrea. "Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish." The Right to Literacy. Ed. Andrea Lunsford, Helene Moglen, and James Slevin. New York: MLA, 1990. 29-38.

Lim, Chih-Ing, et al. "Cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood teacher preparation." Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2008): 64-76. Print.

Lindquist, Julie, and David Seitz. The Elements of Literacy. New York: Longman, 2007. Print.

Moll, Luis and Norma Gonzalez. Lessons from Research with Language-Minority Children. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike Rose. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 156-171. Print.

Powell, Ohio OH Real Estate, Restaurants, Shopping, Clubs, Schools, Government, Sports, News and everything for Powell, Ohio AmericanTowns.com AmericanTowns.com: Online Local Community Network Connecting The Community Is What We Do Best. Web. 07 Nov. 2009. <http://www.americantowns.com/oh/powell>.